The 1980 Lake Peigneur incident is one of history’s most dramatic man-made engineering disasters. What began as a routine exploratory oil drilling operation turned into a giant, swirling vortex that swallowed a lake and permanently altered the region’s geography.
A drilling rig was searching for oil in the shallow, 10-foot-deep freshwater lake. Due to a mapping miscalculation—likely using the wrong coordinate system—the 14-inch drill bit accidentally pierced the salt mine located 1,300 feet below the lake bed.
As lake water rushed into the mine, it dissolved the salt, rapidly enlarging the hole. This created a massive whirlpool that acted like a drain in a bathtub, sucking in the drilling rig, 11 barges, a tugboat, and 65 acres of surrounding land, including a house and botanical gardens.
The suction was so powerful that the Delcambre Canal, which usually drained the lake into the Gulf of Mexico, reversed its flow. This created a temporary 164-foot waterfall—the tallest in Louisiana—as saltwater rushed back into the basin.
All 55 miners and the 7-man drilling crew escaped safely. Miners were evacuated via a slow elevator as water poured into the caverns, while drilling crews and local fishermen fled the tilting platforms just before they were swallowed.
Once the water pressure equalized, the lake was unrecognizable. It had transformed from a 10-foot-deep freshwater lake into a 200-foot-deep saltwater basin. To this day, it remains the deepest lake in Louisiana.
There is a lot that can be learned from this incident, but there is one thing I would like to focus on. Everyone escaped. While it was miraculous in one sense there was something else at play. All of these men followed their training to escape. I’m sure they didn’t always enjoy their training. They didn’t enjoy the drills. But when things went wrong they knew what to do and did it with precision.
Well how does this apply to us today, at least in a spiritual sense? If we train ourselves in the Word. If we train ourselves in prayer. If we train continuously we will be able to survive when troubles arise. Actually some troubles are training as we see in Romans.
Romans 5:3-5 TLB
3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us—they help us learn to be patient. 4 And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady. 5 Then, when that happens, we are able to hold our heads high no matter what happens and know that all is well, for we know how dearly God loves us, and we feel this warm love everywhere within us because God has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
I can’t say it any better than that. We must let trials train us, we must continually study, train, pray and then when we encounter things we are prepared to face them.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
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