IBERIA PARISH — Forty-five years after the Jefferson Island Mine Disaster, one of the survivors shared what she remembers from the day Lake Peigneur unexpectedly roared into the Diamond Crystal salt mine, forcing dozens of workers to fight for their lives.
Myrna Romero was a surveyor for the company on Nov. 20, 1980. She arrived for her shift like it was any other Thursday, which she noted was “safety day” for the mine.
“Looking back, the irony isn’t lost on me,” she said.
Romero had already made her rounds underground when warning lights suddenly flashed on the lowest level of the mine — a signal that usually meant a meeting or safety briefing. But this time, she said, something was different.
“We didn’t know. Until we got to the 1,200-foot level, we thought it was just a meeting,” Romero said. “Oh my goodness — no, it wasn’t.”
An oil drilling operation above the mine had punctured the salt dome beneath Lake Peigneur. When the stuck drill bit was freed, lake water began pouring directly into the tunnels where Romero and her coworkers were working.
“When we got to the top of the thing, you could hear it,” she said. “There were waves — big waves. It sounded like you were in an ocean.”
With water rushing into the shaft and the mine quickly flooding, Romero and the rest of the crew had no choice but to climb to safety on foot. The team had experience — they had won the National Mine Rescue Championships three years in a row — but Romero said even that training couldn’t erase the fear.
“You never think that you’re gonna make it out, especially when it’s water,” she said.
Workers abandoned their equipment and left the lights behind as they raced upward. Romero took the final cage to the surface, praying and reciting the Act of Contrition as she rose toward daylight.
Against all odds, every miner survived.
The Jefferson Island Mine Disaster remains one of the most dramatic industrial accidents in Louisiana history — a reminder, Romero said, of “a total loss… to everything,” but also of a rare miracle.
