It happened at shift change, so there were no people in the mine when it got flooded. Two people that worked for me a few years later.....had been working in the mine on the day shift.
I think max depth was more like 1100 or 1200 feet. It gets hotter the deep the shafts are dug. I have been down to ~ 900 feet in a salt mine, and it was fairly hot.
Texaco was drilling a well. Either the rig was in the wrong place or the mine shaft was not where they thought it was located. When the well drilled into the mine shaft......all hell broke loose.
Yes, the canal flow backwards for many hours. Several barges were sucked down into the mind. When the mine finally filled up.....some of the barges "floated" back up. I think 2 barges never came back up.
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