During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, one of the terminal’s storage tanks was severely damaged on top, possibly after being hit by something extremely large carried by the storm waters.

Lit with propane torches, the fire on the first day was dramatic, generating dense black smoke and burning for three hours, the result of burning the part of the marsh closest to the terminal, where the oil was thickest.

The burn, conducted to remedy oil spilled during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita into a marsh behind the oil pipeline facility, left a large blackened area in the marsh.

Soon after the burn was conducted to remove spilled oil in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricanes, signs of regrowth appeared.

An alligator that lived in the marsh where an in situ burn was conducted in October of 2005 to remove oil spilled after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

A sign warning boaters of a buried pipeline in the marsh. Inset is a photo of a sign damaged by the 2005 hurricanes at the same place almost ten years earlier.

When Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused oil to spill into this marsh in 2005, it was determined that the best way to remove the oil was to burn it. The marsh recovered quickly and ten years later, it is home to animals such as grazing cattle, feral pigs, alligators, fiddler crabs, as well as insects, snakes and birds.