Afterword

Pillars of Salt is a fictional account of an actual disaster occurring on November 20, 1980, at Lake Peigneur and Jefferson Island, a mile north of Delcambre and nine miles west of New Iberia, Louisiana. Exploratory drilling by an oil rig in the lake accidentally punctured a salt mine at the 1300-foot level. The lake water simply melted the salt dome, creating a massive whirlpool and a vast cavern that swallowed the rig, a tugboat, eleven barges, several flatbed trucks, and 65 acres of Jefferson Island, including houses and trees. The onrush of water caused the Delcambre Canal to reverse, pulling water from the Gulf of Mexico, filling the lake with saltwater, and leaving shrimp boats stranded in the canal on dry land. For several days, the rush of water created the highest waterfall ever in Louisiana, 164 feet.

Miraculously, no people were killed in the actual disaster, though three dogs were lost. The late Léonce Viator, Jr. (d. 2014) and his nephew were fishing in the lake and narrowly escaped to shore. He mentioned in a video that he wouldn’t be fishing in that lake anymore.

Any evidence to identify the cause of the disaster was lost in the lake or destroyed. An interesting eight-minute video of the disaster, including a few words by Mr. Viator, can be found at: https://wccourt.com/2017/11/20/in-re-louisianas-disappearing-lake/

My book begins with the disaster and leads to an entirely fictional account of what could have happened.