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South Lafourche natives took to social media in droves on Friday night after hearing a loud boom – a sound some locals said was so loud that it shook the walls of their homes.
On Friday after 10 p.m., several locals posted on social media saying that they heard an explosion. The Times has reached out to several of the authors of those posts. They explained that the noise sounded like an explosion, and it shook the ground around it. In one instance, a man went outside to see what had happened and everyone else in his neighborhood was outside, too, wondering the same thing.
“It sounded like something fell or ran into my house,” a source told The Times. “I walked outside and my whole neighborhood was outside. We looked around and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.”
Then the social media craze began.
The posts generated hundreds of likes and shares, and started somewhat of a late-night social media frenzy of folks looking for answers.
The reported sound mostly centered in Golden Meadow, but some claimed to hear a boom in Galliano and Cut Off, as well.
Law enforcement was alerted – both the Golden Meadow Police Department and Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Neither said that there was any sign of an explosion or harm done to anyone in the area.
“Officers patrolled, but could not locate a source or anyone in distress,” said Lt. Brennan Matherne, LPSO’s Public Information Officer.
Both LPSO and Golden Meadow Police said they have no lead into what could have caused the sound, but they confirmed that there were no reported injury or harm to the public in the incident, nor damage to property.
Golden Meadow Police Chief Reggie Pitre said on a social media post that he, too, is perplexed, but added that his officers were on full alert as soon as calls came in.
“When the mystery boom occurred, the first thing I did was call LPSO Dispatch and notified them to advise all law enforcement in the south area. Then I spoke with the fire department,” Pitre said. “Long story short, multiple calls were reported but nothing was found nor was there any indication of any injuries or damage. It is still unknown where the mysterious boom originated.”
So what could have caused a large, unexplained sound?
Sonic booms are the sounds associated with the shock waves created whenever an object traveling through the air travels faster than the speed of sound.
With an airport in southern Galliano, it’s possible that the noise was due to aircraft.
But most sonic booms are associated with airplanes and a lot of the traffic at the airport is helicopters flying out to the Gulf of Mexico, so it’s not known if that was exactly the cause.
What’s perhaps most interesting about the Friday night scare in Lafourche is just how common instances like this occur.
“Skyquakes” are a phenomenon reported across the country from folks who report hearing a similar sound as that in Lafourche – a loud, cannon-like explosion that authorities investigate and can’t find a cause of.
The origin of these reported “skyquakes” are highly debated.
Scientists say they can be from meteor travel, which causes a Sonic Boom or also from gas escaping the earth.
Other theories for “skyquakes” center around military aircraft flying overhead, or seismic activity.
Did any of these happen in Lafourche?
We may never know, though authorities stress that there is no imminent danger and no one was harmed, despite all of the social media buzz.
