The nightmare in Bayou Corne -- the besieged small town in southeastern Louisiana coping with the effects of a massive sinkhole, compounded by the incompetence of state bureaucrats -- keeps getting worse by the day. UPDATE: Breaking news this afternoon: The sinkhole is expanding:
NAPOLEONVILLE (AP) — As experts predicted, a sinkhole filled with slurry water and vegetation has been slowing expanding.
Assumption Parish Police Jury spokeswoman Kim Torres says the sinkhole near Bayou Corne grew by 50 feet Thursday morning as the surrounding environment sloughs into it. Two cleanup workers in a boat near the site almost fell in and had to be rescued by airboat.
Their boat, which was tied to a tree, was eventually swallowed by the muck.
There were no injuries reported and cleanup operations have been suspended.
Before that, state regulators are preparing for a worst case scenario involving a nearby underground storage site for large quantities of highly explosive butane, which could be compromised by the sinkhole, creating a massive explosion.
How massive? The best of the worst-case scenarios comes from company and state officials, who've consistently underestimated the potential for damage from the failed brine cavern so far; they insist that ...