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PLAQUEMINE (AP) — An explosion at a Dow chemical plant in Louisiana rattled windows in nearby homes but caused no injuries, the company said Sunday.
Dow Louisiana Operations said in a statement posted online that a “vessel” had ruptured Sunday morning at its facility near Plaquemine.
“There are no injuries on site, and we are currently conducting air monitoring,” Dow Louisiana Operations said in a statement on Facebook.
The statement said it had shut down the affected production unit, but the rest of the complex was continuing to run safely and there appeared to be no impact outside of the complex.
Other details were not immediately released.
Officials of the Iberville Parish Council said via Facebook that they were in “constant contact” with Dow and added there was no immediate danger to the public.
Dow Louisiana Operations describes itself as a 1,500-acre (600-hectare) manufacturing facility.
The site, together with brine operations in Grand Bayou, comprises one of Louisiana’s largest petrochemical facilities.
Local news outlets reported that residents several miles (kilometers) from the plant reported hearing a loud boom just after 8 a.m. Sunday.
“It sounded like someone dropped a bowling ball in our house,” Thomas Argust told WAFB .
Trudy Jackson who lives about five miles (eight kilometers) away from the plant, told the station that she’s used to the occasional noises coming from the site, but the boom still caused her to pause.
“It was like a crash,” Jackson said.

PINEVILLE – Col. William T. Rachal relinquished command of the Louisiana National Guard’s 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team to Lt. Col. Scott Desor-meaux during an official ceremony Saturday at Comeaux High School in Lafayette.
Additionally, four battalions in the Tiger Brigade changed command teams, to include: 2nd and 3rd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regi-ment; 2nd Squadron, 108th Cavalry Regiment; and the 199th Brigade Support Battalion. The brigade, which consists of over 4,000 Louisiana Guardsman, has units headquartered in towns across the state, including Lafayette, Thib-odaux, New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport.
“I’d like to thank Colonel Rachal and Command Sergeant Major [Patrick] Sandel for the wonderful job that they’ve done over the past few years,” said Maj. Gen. Glenn H. Curtis, adjutant general of the LANG. “I know Lieutenant Colonel Desormeaux will continue to lead the brigade in an exemplary manner through Pacific Path-ways and our upcoming deployment. I am confident that the 256th will continue on the path of success in his capable hands.”
Rachal, a native of Merryville and McNeese University graduate, has commanded the brigade for nearly three years. During that time, the 256th completed both the eXportable Combat Training Capability exercise at Camp Shelby, Missi-ssippi, and a rotation through the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk. In addition, his Soldiers have stood up in support of multiple state emergencies, including Hurri-canes Harvey and Barry.
“I’d like to thank you for the opportunity to lead such fine Soldiers. Throughout my time in command, I’ve been continuously assured that our nation is in good hands with the Soldiers we have before us today,” said Rachal. “Over the last three years of being in command of the Tiger Brigade, I’ve been amazed at the flexibility that I’ve seen in our Soldiers. Lieutenant Colonel Desormeaux, I know that the brigade is in good hands. I know that you will continue to hone our warfighting skills during Pacific Pathways and other training events in preparation for our upcoming deployment.”
Desormeaux, a resident of Abbeville and graduate of Northeast Louisiana University (now University of Louisiana Monroe), enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1989 and commissioned into the LANG through the Reserve Officer Training Corps upon graduating from NLU in 1994.
Before assuming command of the 256th, he commanded 2nd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment.
Desormeaux has deployed to Kuwait in support of Desert Storm, to Iraq in 2004 and 2010, and to Japan, Belize, and Haiti in support of National Guard operations.
“Thank you for the tremendous opportunity to lead the brigade,” said Desormeaux. “We have a couple of challenging years ahead of us, and I know we can do this as a family.”
In addition to deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Tiger Brigade has been activated to support emergency operations to include Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike, Gustav, Harvey and Barry, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the multiple major flood events that ravaged Louisiana in 2016.

By MELINDA DESLATTE Associated Press
BATON ROUGE — The partisan frontline of Louisiana’s legislative runoff elections centers on the state House of Representatives, where Republicans are within striking distance of gaining a veto-proof, two-thirds supermajority.
The GOP already has reached that benchmark in the Senate for the new term that begins in January, after capturing two Senate seats in the October primary election that had been held by Democrats. With those gains, Republicans are assured 26 of the Senate’s 39 seats.
Seven contested House seats in the Nov. 16 runoff will determine whether Republicans in the lower chamber also will reach a supermajority, 70 of 105 seats.
Securing two-thirds of the members of the House and Senate means if the GOP votes as a bloc, its members could override a gubernatorial veto and could make certain budget and tax decisions without working with Democrats.
The Louisiana Committee for a Conservative Majority — led by Attorney General Jeff Landry and U.S. Sen. John Kennedy — helped flip the two state Senate seats to the GOP and is now working toward that veto-proof majority in the House.
Landry said the Senate elections will lead to “one of the most conservative legislatures in the country.” He had criticized the current GOP-led Senate as packed with too many moderates willing to work with Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who is running for a second term on the November ballot.
“This election gave us the first opportunity to go in and put in place true Republicans, conservatives,” Landry said.
The PAC won most of the seats it targeted in the primary, including four House seats held by white Democrats who were term-limited.
In the runoff, the organization is backing eight GOP contenders for the House, including four in competitions that will help decide whether Republicans reach the two-thirds benchmark. For example, the PAC is supporting Republican incumbent Chris Leopold of Plaquemines Parish against a Democratic challenger and trying to replace independent Roy Daryl Adams of East Feliciana Parish with a Republican.
Landry said the PAC’s initial focus was to build a new Senate configuration that’s less moderate. After winning many of those races without a runoff, “that gave us the ability to reposition ourselves and look at other (House) races that were equally important to us and we just didn’t have the bandwidth to address in the first go-round,” he said.
The Louisiana Democratic Party is working to keep Republicans from reaching their goal, offering Democratic legislative candidates assistance with voter data, fundraising emails and texting platforms, said Stephen Handwerk, party executive director.
Though the party already has lost two Senate seats and four House seats, Handwerk said Democrats see possible opportunities to flip a New Orleans-based House seat held by Republican Stephanie Hilferty and a vacant Baton Rouge-based House seat, among others.
“I’m of course incredibly disappointed that we lost the seats. I’m disappointed with candidate recruitment. We all should have done better,” Handwerk said. “But we still have some strong candidates, and we have some very good opportunities to pick up seats.”
Twenty-four House seats are on the November ballot. But 16 of those competitions are between candidates of the same party. Of the remaining eight seats, Republicans are competing in seven — and need to win each one to reach the 70-member supermajority.
The partisan makeup of the Senate was largely settled in the primary.
While five Senate seats are on the runoff ballot, all but one of the competitions is between members of the same party. The tossup Senate contest is the Baton Rouge-based race between Beverly Brooks Thompson, a Democrat, and Franklin Foil, a Republican.
The Louisiana Committee for a Conservative Majority also is working to oust GOP incumbent Sen. Ryan Gatti of Bossier Parish, arguing he isn’t conservative enough.
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Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte

The closing of Charlie’s Lanes in Morgan City seemed to end the long history bowling has had in Morgan City. It turns out, it was just the end of another chapter in its story and not the finale.
A new chapter is beginning as the sport has been given life again in Morgan City.
John Broussard, owner of Elite Graphics in Morgan City, has purchased the business from Charlie Bergeron. Broussard plans on reopening the bowling alley.
While The Daily Review made multiple attempts to contact Broussard over the weekend, the attempts were unsuccessful.
However, Broussard did make a public announcement on his personal Facebook page where he stated “Great things are happening at a great pace to get everyone back to enjoying the great game of bowling.”
Broussard continued by saying the bowling alley was undergoing “rebranding, new look, and a great for all ages family atmosphere soon to be enjoyed.”
The remodeling has been noted by many in the community as the presence of vehicles and signs of construction have been seen around the building.
“A reopening date, due to remodeling, will be announced very soon,” Broussard said in his post. “We will not wait until the completion of the remodeling to reopen.”
The post was met with great enthusiasm as many referred to the lanes as being their “home” to bowl.