La. Sinkhole: Army Answers Cries For Help

The retired United States Army General who brought hope to hundreds of thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuess has answered cries for help from Louisiana’s latest energy evacuees and resisters, those suffering for over a year due to a collapsing salt dome crisis that has manifested the 15-acre, potentially explosive, chemical lake “Bayou Corne sinkhole.” 

Ret. Lt. Gen. Russell Honore visited the sinkhole residents Wednesday after some of them invited him there to help them in their struggle amid the disaster that resulted in a state of emergency and a mandatory evacuation, still in place after officially declared over a year ago on August 3, 2012.

Ret. Lt. Gen. Russell Honore said the federal government should help Louisiana sinkhole disaster evacuees.

Gen. Honore told 20 sinkhole residents told them that he is keeping a close eye on and is disappointed in Texas Brine, LLC, the company taking the blame for the giant sinkhole in Assumption Parish. 

“One of the offers they gave one of the residents last night was $38.00 a square foot for their home,” Honore said. “These people see this as their home. Texas Brine sees this as a building with so many square feet and they are trying to appraise this at current value versus the replacement value.” 

Homes shaken by thousands of man-made earthquakes, methane gas bubbling in the yard or nearby the sinking part of the parish, in a sacrifice zone, are not worth much.

Texas Brine spokesperson Sonny Cranch said 28 residents have accepted buyout offers. None, however, have received checks. Cranch told WAFB that will happen after paperwork is completed.

“We have a geo-probe in the front yard. We have a geo-probe in the backyard, very active,” said Carla Alleman, whose house is 2,000 feet from the ever-expanding collpasing area, now falling into Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou.

The Allemans also have three vent wells on their property. They were among those who evacuated in August 2012 when the Gov. Bobby Jindal issued a mandatory evacuation. Carla and her neighbor, Candy Blanchard, said they never expected what came next.

“When we left on August 3, we thought we would be back in two or three weeks at the most. The first estimate was 40 days. So when we left here we just went and stayed with a family member, then got a rent house. We’ve moved three times,” Alleman said.

“I had no idea. I thought days, maybe weeks, Blanchard said. “Then it just turned into months, then the unknown.”

For almost a year, the officials involved in the disaster have said that the crisis is unprecedented and no known way to repair or stop the damage exists. 

 ”There’s not even any decent case studies people how to proceed when you’ve had a cavern collapse 5,00 feet below ground, you’ve had to frack out to the surface in the form of a sinkhole, and you have natural gas and crude oil coming in and bubbling up all over,” geologist and a technical advisor for the state and Assumption Parish Gary Hecox explained in October.  ”We’ve talked to people all over the world. This is a unique situation.”

The “sinkhole” is gradually encompassing the entire 1-mile by 3-mile Napoleonville Salt Dome, joining Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou, and forming a lake filled with dangerous chemicals.

The threat of a methane explosion looms every hour of every day throughout the area. In August, a few bubbling sites were reported by locals, along with earthquakes.

Today, there are over 60 methane bubbling sites in the bayous and in some residents’ yards. Methane and hydrogen sulfide have been found at houses there, four more this week.

Code 3 Alerts are issued after increased earthquake activity occurs in the area. The spike in quakes results in the sinkhole monster swallowing more of the unique environment, including trees over 100 years old, new boom positioned in attempt to hold back some of the chemicals it spews miles into the swampland, and diminishing hopes by die-hard Cajuns who once lived in a Spanish moss-draped peaceful paradise.

The growing petro-chemical swamp monster has gulped down a boat that on-site workers were using and a ramp of vital importance to the operation.

The beloved Gen. Honore, sometimes known as “The Ragin’ Cajun,” is of Louisiana Creole heritage.

He visited Bayou Corne after receiving letters from seemingly voiceless homeowners asking him for help.

“While at this point he has only listened to their concerns, residents believe his presence will speak volumes.”

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Human Rights news reporter Deborah Dupré is author of the book, Vampire of Macondo, Life, crimes and curses in south Louisiana that Powerful Forces Don’t want you to know, packed with censored stories about the BP-wrecked Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, continuing to result in hidden catastrophic human and environmental devastation.