(Original Report)- Northwest Louisiana authorities are investigating the source of whatever shook people’s residences and businesses about 11:40 p.m. Monday.The Webster sheriff’s office now is entertaining the possibility that it may have been a meteorite, possibly in the Dixie Inn area.
There have been a large number of reports stating that they saw something come down instead of something blow up, a spokesman said. And a woman reported hearing what sounded like debris hit a shop on Bellevue Road in the Dixie Inn area.
If it was a meteorite, that would fall to NASA and the Air Force to investigate. A spokeswoman for Barksdale Air Force Base public affairs said that the installation is investigating and that whatever the source, it didn’t originate at the base.
Webster authorities still don’t know what it was or where it hit, Sheriff Gary Sexton just said. Thermal-imaging cameras showed nothing off Elmo Burton Loop near Dixie Inn, but helicopters are expected to be in the air this morning to survey the area along U.S. 80 and Interstate 20 for the cause of what caused the ground to shake.
Reports of the shaking came in from Lake Bistineau, Springhill, Sibley and Barksdale Air Force Base. Sexton earlier said he was driving in the Springhill-Cullen area when he saw two flashes from the south. One report says it shook the Webster Courthouse in Minden.
A resident of the Lake Bistineau area reports that it almost shook their house off its foundation.
A number of reports of a loud boom, shaking, rattling and possible damage — including broken windows — in the area west and northwest of Minden have been coming into the National Weather Service office in Shreveport. “I don’t have any idea what it was,” Mark Murphy said. “A lot of calls have mentioned all kinds of scenarios, but I don’t know for sure anything.”
No earthquake is being reported in this area, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s real-time earthquake map. And a Calumet spokesman says windows shook in the Cypress Lake area, north Bossier Parish and western Webster Parish and that the source is not the company’s facility in Cotton Valley nor is it the Princeton location.
Loud boom in Webster was bunker at Camp Minden
(Updated Article Explaining Boom?)- Webster Parish authorities are confirming that Monday night’s loud boom was a bunker at a Camp Minden business called Explo that exploded. Chief Deputy Bobby Igo says the bunker did exactly what it was designed to do in such an event. KTBS 3 News has learned that the explosion was self-contained. Nobody was injured.
Right now, Bossier firefighters are on scene putting out a few “hot spots.” Webster Parish Sheriff Gary Sexton says Explo has had some explosions in the past. KTBS 3 News has learned that residents are expected to be compensated for damages. People with structural damage, minor and major, will be provided with a contact person from Explo.
Sheriff Gary Sexton says you will be able to make a damage and personal claim report. The investigation is ongoing, the sheriff’s office is turning the situation over to Louisiana State Police Troop G. A press conference with full details was scheduled for 9 a.m. but was later postponed and then cancelled. Explo was not immediately available for comment.