ASSUMPTION PARISH, LA (WAFB) -
Relief is a word frequently heard
around the Assumption Parish sinkhole, but as Bayou Corne residents will tell
you, it's not a word they use to describe their attitudes. But now the now
8-and-a half acre sinkhole has caught the attention of California based
environmentalist Erin Brockovich.
On Saturday, hundreds of Bayou
Corne residents packed into a community meeting to hear what Brockovich and
California based attorney Tom Girardi plan to do to help them out.
"Kind of curious to see what was
going to be said. And everything they saying right now today, I've been saying
since this started," said Ernest Boudreaux, a Bayou Corne resident.
Since last August, 350 people in
the Bayou Corne community have been displaced from their homes---- ordered out
under an evacuation order.
"It's not as easy as people say.
Just because they giving you $875 to jump up and run and go live another life
and forget about that," said Boudreaux. "That's what we worked for what we've
got over there."
A group of those residents
contacted Girardi and Brockovich to get help and answers.
"They want to know the truth.
They care about their families. They don't want to be placed in danger. They
wait around in hopes that their community can work with the company, and that
company will do something right by them," said Brockovich.
Girardi has offered his legal
services to any resident who decides to take further action against Texas Brine
and all parties responsible for their troubles over the past seven months.
Brockovich says litigation, if things come to that, could take months or even
years to resolve. She says her role, as it has been for nearly two decades in
dozens of cases like this one, would be to keep the community united.
"We as states all over America,
need to be paying more attention to what the corporations are doing...old
records, what we need to do to come in and see that disaster before it
happens...and not wait until after it happens and then go and argue on the
legislative floor for the, what, next two or three years," said Brockovich.
Ernest Boudreaux, did not say
what his plans are. But he hopes Texas Brine will act before he decides.
"What needs to happen...they need
to buy that out. Then after that, if they want to sink it and make it Lake
Verret go ahead," said Boudreaux. "Everybody's gone out of there...nobody to
worry about. That's what they should've done."
Brockovich said before Saturday's
meeting, they were representing 50 residents in the Bayou Corne area. After the
meeting dozens more stayed behind to decide if they would join the lawsuit.
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