http://enenews.com/emergency-official-we-have-no-clue-sinkhole-has-expanded-50-feet-we-urge-residents-to-leave-to-protect-themselves-we-have-no-idea-how-far-it-will-expand-or-in-what-direction
http://enenews.com/officials-sinkhole-could-grow-to-1400-feet-across-unusual-its-on-edge-of-giant-salt-dome-normally-right-on-top
http://enenews.com/louisiana-sinkhole-grows-another-20-feet-cleanup-activities-remain-suspended-new-footage-inside-ground-level-map-video
Louisiana Boat Disappears Into Sinkhole, Workers Rescued
A 400-foot deep sinkhole in Louisiana is expanding and today swallowed the boat of two cleanup workers who had to be rescued from the hole. Officials are still fearful of the possibility of explosions from nearby gas-filled caverns.
"It has expanded 50 feet and during that expansion there were workers that were working on the cleanup of the diesel," Kim Torres, spokeswoman for the Office of Emergency Preparedness, told ABCNews.com today.
The two workers were in a boat tied to a tree when the area where the tree grew fell into the sinkhole.
The workers were rescued by airboat. They were uninjured but their boat disappeared into the sinkhole. The cleanup process has been halted.
The gaping hole measures about 526 feet from northeast to southwest and 640 feet from northwest to southeast. It is in Assumption Parish, La., about 50 miles south of Baton Rouge.
The sinkhole sits in the middle of a heavily wooded space where it has consumed all of the soaring cypress trees that had been there. Flyover photos show some of the treetops still visible through the mud.
Authorities enacted a mandatory evacuation for residents of about 150 homes in the area. Last week, Torres said that most residents chose to stay in their homes. But as of today, 60 percent of those homes have been evacuated even though the mandatory evacuation order was not escalated to a forced evacuation, when authorities remove residents.
"I think everyone realized it was serious even though they felt it was contained [before]," Torres said. "When you put human lives in...it just becomes more serious and maybe people are heeding the warning a little bit more."
Torres said she expects that the 60 percent will increase after the incident with the cleanup workers.
While officials are not certain what caused the massive sinkhole, they believe it may be have been related to a nearby salt cavern owned by the Texas Brine Company.
After being used for nearly 30 years, the cavern was plugged in 2011 and officials believe the integrity of the cavern may have somehow been compromised, leading to the sinkhole.
Louisiana's Department of Natural Resources required that Texas Brine drill a well to investigate the salt cavern as soon as possible, obtain samples from the cavern and provide daily reports on the findings.
The sinkhole is on the outside edge of the salt dome where this particular brine well is located.
"There are some indications that it very well may have been connected, but there's just indications," Texas Brine Company spokesman Sonny Cranch told ABCNews.com. "There's nothing concrete that has connected the sinkhole to the cavern."
The exploratory rig is being assembled but parts of it are still being shipped. It could take 40 days for the actual drilling to begin, even with an expedited process, Torres said.
In the meantime, officials and residents are left to worry about the possibility of an explosion.
All of the neighboring natural gas pipelines that were of concern last week have been depressurized and emptied, but the nearby caverns are still causing concern.
One cavern that contains 940,000 gallons of butane is of particular concern, Torres said. It's about 2,000 feet from the sinkhole.
Authorities are concerned about the massive explosion that could result from the butane's release to the surface if the sinkhole were to expand far enough to reach it.
There was bubbling in the water and the sinkhole is near areas where there has been exploration for oil and gas in the past. This would make the presence of low levels of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) possible.
The state's Department of Environmental Quality said water samples from the sinkhole showed oil and diesel fuel on its surface, but readings have not detected any dangerous levels of radiation.
"It's not going to get fixed tomorrow," Torres said. "We urge the residents to leave to protect themselves. We have no idea how far this sinkhole will expand or in what direction. We have no clue."
and......
Title: Louisiana sinkhole: Giant sinkhole expands to 526-feet and swallows a BOAT
Source: Daily Mail
Date: August 16, 2012
Source: Daily Mail
Date: August 16, 2012
[...]The gaping hole now measures about 526-feet from northeast to southwest and 640-feet from northwest to southeast.Governor’s Office of Emergency Preparedness spokesman Christina Stevens said scientists who looked at the site had anticipated the sinkhole to grow and believe its maximum size would get to 1400-ft across.‘We haven’t got there yet but even at that size it would not be a threat to any homes,’ she said.[...]Dr. Madhurendu Kumar, director of the state Department of Natural Resources’ oil and gas division, said the sinkhole could have been caused by structural problems within the salt dome that sits underneath it.The wall of salt between the brine cavern and the salt dome might be thinner than experts were led to believe, he said.He said this sinkhole was unusual because it sits on the edge of the dome, when sinkholes normally sit right on top.[...]and....
http://theadvocate.com/home/3651200-125/workers-rescued-in-sinkhole-incident
Texas Brine offers residents checks; workers rescued
BAYOU CORNE — A Texas Brine Co. LLC contractor will be begin distributing weekly housing assistance checks worth $875 at 10:30 a.m. Friday to households affected by an evacuation order stemming from the emergence of a large sinkhole in northern Assumption Parish, company officials said Thursday.
Texas Brine of Houston hired Worley Catastrophe Response to coordinate and manage the assistance fund. The company will operate from the Sheriff’s Office substation in Pierre Part, company officials said in a news release.
Checks from the “Bayou Corne Incident Evacuee Fund” will be issued to the representative of each household affected by the evacuation order.
The representative will have to display a Louisiana driver’s license or “other reasonably acceptable photo identification confirming residence in the evacuation zone,” company officials said.
In a related development, two contractors involved in the cleanup of the sinkhole had to be rescued Thursday morning from their boat after a portion of the slurry-filled hole’s edge collapsed, parish officials said.
The sinkhole was found the morning of Aug. 3 and a mandatory evacuation order has remained in place since Friday evening for the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou areas. Parish officials said the order affected about 150 residences.
Louisiana Department of Natural Resources officials have said they suspect a plugged and abandoned Texas Brine salt cavern may be the cause of the sinkhole and has ordered Texas Brine to drill a relief well to get a better understanding of what is happening with the cavern.
The original permit for the cavern, which had been used in the production of brine until a few years ago, requires the operator to provide assistance to residents in areas deemed to be at immediate potential risk, officials with the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness have said.
The permit requirement arises in the event of a sinkhole and evacuation, state officials said.
Parish officials have said they expected the evacuation order to remain in place until drilling is finished and officials have a better idea of what is happening with the sinkhole.
Texas Brine officials have said an estimate of 40 days to finish drilling is an optimistic timetable.
DNR has not determined Texas Brine as the legally responsible party, but in the news release announcing the distribution of checks, Texas Brine officials said they have “taken the lead in providing aid to residents” because of the company’s proximity to the sinkhole.
The sinkhole is on Texas Brine property.
Earlier Thursday, the boat that the cleanup workers had been riding in was tied to a tree in the 50-foot section of the edge that fell into the sinkhole, parish emergency officials said in a news release.
The section of land was on the southwest side of the sinkhole, which is between the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou areas south of La. 70 South.
The workers’ boat sunk into the sinkhole shortly after they were rescued, parish officials said.
All workers have been accounted for and no injuries were reported, parish officials said, but cleanup operations have been suspended.
The hole has diesel floating on the surface and floating vegetation left from the swamps that the sinkhole swallowed up earlier this month.
Workers have been trying this week to remove the floating debris with airboats to ease the use of vacuums to suck up the diesel, Texas Brine officials have said.
During a news conference last week in Gonzales, Texas Brine officials said they expected that the hole would continue to expand as the edges gradually “slough off,” or fall in over time, eventually making the hole shallower.
In an updated estimate of the hole’s size Wednesday evening, state officials helping respond to the sinkhole said in the statement the sinkhole was continuing to expand at the edges but was still much smaller than the maximum size estimated by DNR scientists.
The statement said the sinkhole then was 476 feet across from the northeast to the southwest and 640 feet across from the northwest to the southeast.
“This natural growth of the sinkhole was expected and could continue,” the statement said.
The sinkhole’s emergence followed more than two months of mysterious natural gas releases in Bayou Corne, Grand Bayou and area water wells as well as earth tremors. The gas bubbling up from the bayous has continued since the sinkhole emerged. The tremors ceased the day before the sinkhole was found, a University of Memphis researcher studying the issue has said.
The Texas Brine salt cavern was carved out by the 1- by 3-mile Napoleonville Dome, a large underground salt deposit. The cavern, which was used to produce brine for industry and never used to store natural gas, was plugged and abandoned in June 2011 after company officials ran into troubles trying to expand the cavern.
and....
[...]It has been noted that an additional 20’ of property on the east side sloughed into the sinkhole. No workers were in the vicinity and cleanup activities remain suspended.
h/t Cataclysmic
August 15 Map:
Ground Level Video from August 15:
