Gas Explodes in Underground Cavern in East of Houston

Dozens Evacuated

August 19, 2004

Photo: An explosion early Thursday at an underground gas storage facility near Houston has forced dozens of residents to evacuate from the area, say authorities who also closed nearby roads.

MOSS BLUFF, Texas — An explosion early Thursday at an underground gas storage facility near Houston has forced dozens of residents to evacuate from the area, say authorities who also closed nearby roads.

Houses within a one-mile radius around the Moss Bluff gas storage facility were ordered evacuated after natural gas exploded at about 4 a.m., authorities said.

"We've got dozens of evacuations," said Cathy Jones, a dispatcher for the Liberty County Sheriff's Department.

She said no injuries had been reported.

Highways near the facility along Farm-to-Market Road 563 at the Liberty-Chambers counties' border were shut down following the explosion. Residents beyond a one-mile radius of the plant were asked to stay in their homes.
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Witnesses said in broadcast reports that they saw a ball of fire from a bridge over the Trinity River.

One person inside the facility at the time of the blast was able to escape, authorities said. But rescue crews were searching for any other people who may have been inside.

Emergency crews remained on the scene three hours after the blast. A cause of the explosion has not been determined.

According to the Duke Energy Web site, the Moss Bluff facility has a storage capacity of 16 billion cubic feet of natural gas and is linked to 5 major pipelines stretching from New York to far South Texas.

Moss Bluff is about 40 miles northeast of Houston.

The area is dotted with manmade caverns inside salt domes, which are the world's largest storage site for explosive hydrocarbons. One underground gas leak in 1980 forced 72 families from their homes in nearby Mont Belvieu for almost five months.

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