Sinkhole: H-Bomb explosion equivalent in Bayou Corne possible

examiner | A possible breach of a butane-filled well 1500 feet from Bayou Corne's sinkhole, the size of three football fields, is so "very serious," it has Assumption Parish sheriff and local residents ordered to evacuate worried about a catastrophic explosion, one according to scientists in an Examiner investigation, would be in the range of one and a half B83 thermonuclear (hydrogen) bombs, the most powerful United States weapons in active service.

“The disaster is made all the more worrisome because the hole is believed to be close to a well containing 1.5 million barrels of liquid butane, a highly volatile liquid that turns into a highly flammable vapor upon release,” CNN reported Friday about Louisiana's declared State of Emergency.

Earlier it was reported the butane-filled well is only 1500 feet from the sinkhole and it will not be emptied.

A breach of that well, Assumption Parish Sheriff Mike Waguespack said, could be "catastrophic,” CNN reports.

If ignited, the butane well would release as much explosive energy as 100 Hiroshima bombs, Deborah Dupré's scientist sources told her Sunday.

Friday, officials went door-to-door in the Bayou Corn area to complete questionnaires, including next of kin contact details of locals at home after the mandatory evacuation orders, as Fox News reported, while ABC reported, “If any of the dangers seem to become more imminent,” the present mandatory order will be “escalated to a forced evacuation.”

Some residents of Louisiana's cultural gumbo of Assumption Parish think dangers are more imminent now, despite state Department of Health & Hospitals Office of Public Health officials' letter to parish officials about air and water testing data.

“Based on their testing, it doesn’t appear that chemical exposure of site-related contaminants pose a public health risk in the immediate area of Bayou Corne,” parish officials said.

Since Saturday, disaster workers are required to wear respirators, although the public within the disaster area is not.

Government cover up continues angering residents and elected leaders

"You can give us a straight answer because that's all we want," a woman said at the community meeting Tuesday. "We want to know when we can come home and be safe. Because you all go home after a days work. You're safe, but we're not," she said, expressing sentiments of other locals with whom Dupré has spoken.