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Hundreds gathered for a second line honoring the victim's of last Sunday's Mother's Day shooting. Participants say last weekend's violence won't keep them from doing what they love. more>> Hundreds gathered for a second line honoring the victim's of last Sunday's Mother's Day shooting. Participants say last weekend's violence won't keep them from doing what they love. more>> In just a matter of weeks uptown residents who live near the Arabella Fire Station will lose a special piece of firefighting equipment.more>> In just a matter of weeks uptown residents who live near the Arabella Fire Station will lose a special piece of firefighting equipment.more>> One of several tornadoes that touched down Sunday in Oklahoma turned homes in a trailer park near Oklahoma City into splinters and rubble and sent frightened residents along a 100-mile corridor scurrying for shelter.more>> One of several tornadoes that touched down Sunday in Oklahoma turned homes in a trailer park near Oklahoma City into splinters and rubble and sent frightened residents along a 100-mile corridor scurrying for shelter.more>> Amtrak officials say a train departing from New Orleans derailed not far from Chicago's Union Station.more>> Amtrak officials say a train departing from New Orleans derailed not far from Chicago's Union Station.more>> A government report says construction of a new Veterans Affairs hospital in New Orleans is $370 million over budget and 14 months behind schedule.more>> A government report says construction of a new Veterans Affairs hospital in New Orleans is $370 million over budget and 14 months behind schedule.more>> The State Fire Marshal's Office is asking for assistance in the investigation of a series of fires in St. Charles Parish.more>> The State Fire Marshal's Office is asking for assistance in the investigation of a series of fires in St. Charles Parish.more>> Authorities say a 12-year-old boy accidentally shot his 8-year-old brother with a gun he found in a closet at his grandparents' Baton Rouge home.more>> Authorities say a 12-year-old boy accidentally shot his 8-year-old brother with a gun he found in a closet at his grandparents' Baton Rouge home.more>> The Tangipahoa Parish School Board will use rededicated sales tax revenue, cuts to transportation services, elimination of a perfect-attendance salary bonus and a one-time reduction in the board-mandated minimum fund balance.more>> The Tangipahoa Parish School Board will use rededicated sales tax revenue, cuts to transportation services, elimination of a perfect-attendance salary bonus and a one-time reduction in the board-mandated minimum fund balance.more>> Police are investigating a fatal accident Sunday morning that left an unidentified man dead.more>> Police are investigating a fatal accident Sunday morning that left an unidentified man dead.more>> The National Flood Insurance Program has set up a hotline to provide information to Louisiana residents.more>> The National Flood Insurance Program has set up a hotline to provide information to Louisiana residents.more>>
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The collapse of an abandoned underground cavern in a salt dome where a Texas company was extracting brine is being blamed for a sinkhole spawned this summer and contamination of an aquifer in a sparsely populated area of swampland west of New Orleans.
The Louisiana Office of Conservation said new data shows that a series of problems - natural gas bubbling up in local bayous and a growing sinkhole that's swallowed about 4 acres of swamp forest - are linked to the collapse of an underground cavern that Houston-based Texas Brine Co. LLC operated.
Late Thursday, Conservation Commissioner James H. Welsh ordered Texas Brine to make sure the collapsed cavern does not worsen and to do more testing, monitoring and analysis to understand what is happening underground.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
