Monster sinkhole still growing: Assumption Parish video shows sinkhole swallowing trees in seconds

August 22, 2013 – LOUISIANA – Assumption Parish officials on Wednesday released a video showing the sinkhole swallowing several trees in a matter of seconds. The video, posted on the city’s blog, is described a “slough in” that happened around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday. The collapse comes a little more than a year after an area around Bayou Corne dissolved into liquefied muck. The sinkhole, discovered Aug. 3, 2012, has grown to 24 acres, and 350 residents in the tiny community have no end in sight to their evacuation order because the hole continues to widen. The state of Louisiana earlier this month said it is suing Texas Brine LLC  for the environmental damage and massive sinkhole that officials say was caused by the collapse of a salt dome cavern operated by the company. The sinkhole is in a swampy area of Assumption Parish about 40 miles south of Baton Rouge. –NOLA

On Thursday, the sinkhole swallowed another tree. The Bayou Corne sinkhole, discovered Aug. 3, 2012, has grown to 24 acres, and 350 residents in the tiny community have no end in sight to their evacuation order because the hole continues to widen. “The sinkhole has continued to grow over time as we’ve expected,” said DNR Secretary Stephen Chustz in a statement Thursday. “This growth is due to surface water, soil and broken rock that has moved down to fill the space created by the Texas Brine cavern operation that failed in August 2012. This movement is something we expect as the sinkhole shifts out into the predicted area. “The failed cavern operation also created a pathway for underground oil and natural gas to rise to the surface,” he said. “We have seen similar sloughing events several times in the past, often  covering areas much larger than that which we saw Wednesday. … We have the best experts in the world working to get this community back to normal as quickly and safely as possible.” Chustz also said seismic monitoring systems are continuously checking for subsurface developments. These systems, he said, detected seismic signals indicative of fluid and gas movement several hours before the slough-in, allowing Assumption Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness officials to stop all work within the containment berms constructed around the sinkhole. –NOLA