Have we really ever dealt with anything like this before?

So far 150 homes have been evacuated and fumes fill the air. Can a spark ignite those fumes?

Oh, here is a link to a local paper that has been covering the mess:
http://theadvocate.com/ a paper in nearby Baton Rogue

So get in line. And there is a lot more where this is coming from.

is run by morons?

... but the place is one of the most productive areas of the US when it comes to oil and gas. And salt.

Salt? Yep. Deep underground are vast domes of solid salt. Man figured out a way to get into those domes and hollow them out, leaving caverns. Otherwise known as 'big holes underground', these holes have been put to use storing all kinds of stuff. Butane, oil, fracking waste, even nuclear waste. Heard they even blew up a nuke in one many years back.

Some folks think one of the caverns collapsed. But what gets me is that if it collapsed, why did water come to the surface? Why didn't all this just fill the cavern and be done?

Jindal is an idiot hell-bent on destroying public education.

But my senator, Mary Landrieu, and her brother Mitch, the current mayor of New Orleans, are Democrats and pretty decent people.

Of course, we still have David Vitter of the Vitter hooker scandal . . . (sigh)

Rather it is virgin oil. There are some wells nearby that have tapped the resource, and are pumping some out. That is how they were able to trace where the oil is coming from.

Could be that water has leaked into the cavern and has gotten under the oil making it float to the surface?

Again, the experts really don't know just what is causing this to happen. But they are working on it. Two months now. This started back in August.

Well, that and brine, as I recall . . .

Thanks for tracking this - important story.

Found out this all started many months ago. In June there were a few earthquakes - 2.5 to maybe 4.0 - and bubbles in numerous places have caught the attention of many residents. Some of those bubbles were swamp gas, but a slew were found to be natural gas.

Below is a link to the local government's page with offical links, photos and more info:

http://assumptionla.wordpress.com/

Finally found the link.

http://theadvocate.com/news/4121479-123/expert-links-gas-sinkhole

Went looking on the site and no front page.

Do a search on that site using "sinkhole" for 10 pages of story links from June onward.