Boom!
About an hour ago, something went boom, vibrating Beaumont Enterprise newsroom chairs, rattling windows and raising curiosity. Then it went boom again ... and again.
It reminded me of the sound made at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, where I worked as a reporter back in the early 1990s, when pressmen unloaded paper rolls from trucks. We were on the second or third floor, and those rolls really rumbled when they hit the ground down in the pressroom.
I've been here almost seven years and have never heard such a thing. These booms were louder, more like artillery practice that goes on almost day and night at Fort Hood in Central Texas.
We soon learned that this morning's booms, which are still going, are from seismic testing, used in the hunt to find oil. With oil prices kissing $100 a barrel, the frenzy is on to find more Southeast Texas Tea.
Seismic testing has raised controversy in the region, with residents, particularly in Orange County, complaining about the noise and alleged damage to properties. The companies conducting the testing have assured that while the noise might be annoying, the testing is doing no damage.
Now, like fire ants spreading out from a freshly kicked mound, oil hunters apparently have arrived in Beaumont.
A reporter is in hot pursuit of the source. For all we know, the testing could be 10 to 20 miles away.
Having lived for four years around Killeen, home to one of the world's largest military installations, I'm used to this kind of boom. The Fort Hood booms sometimes were strong enough to make wall hangings go cockeyed.
If you live and work in a military town, you have to get used to this kind of thing. Living in Southeast Texas, an oil patch poised on the brink of an industrial boom not seen since the mighty Spindletop, seismic testing just comes with the territory.
In my mind, every boom might as well be the sound of a cash register.
Ka-ching!
It reminded me of the sound made at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, where I worked as a reporter back in the early 1990s, when pressmen unloaded paper rolls from trucks. We were on the second or third floor, and those rolls really rumbled when they hit the ground down in the pressroom.
I've been here almost seven years and have never heard such a thing. These booms were louder, more like artillery practice that goes on almost day and night at Fort Hood in Central Texas.
We soon learned that this morning's booms, which are still going, are from seismic testing, used in the hunt to find oil. With oil prices kissing $100 a barrel, the frenzy is on to find more Southeast Texas Tea.
Seismic testing has raised controversy in the region, with residents, particularly in Orange County, complaining about the noise and alleged damage to properties. The companies conducting the testing have assured that while the noise might be annoying, the testing is doing no damage.
Now, like fire ants spreading out from a freshly kicked mound, oil hunters apparently have arrived in Beaumont.
A reporter is in hot pursuit of the source. For all we know, the testing could be 10 to 20 miles away.
Having lived for four years around Killeen, home to one of the world's largest military installations, I'm used to this kind of boom. The Fort Hood booms sometimes were strong enough to make wall hangings go cockeyed.
If you live and work in a military town, you have to get used to this kind of thing. Living in Southeast Texas, an oil patch poised on the brink of an industrial boom not seen since the mighty Spindletop, seismic testing just comes with the territory.
In my mind, every boom might as well be the sound of a cash register.
Ka-ching!
posted by Brian Pearson at 9:21 AM
1 Comments:
Every boom might be the sound of the cash register, but the headache they're causing is a real pain!
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