"Following the death of a grandfather, Crimson Oak Grove Resources has left a community afraid for their homes and lives. An expert warns one resident may need to evacuate her home while she still can."

"OAK GROVE, Ala. — Clara Riley and her family had a lot of questions. But on Monday, as they gathered around the 90-year-old’s small kitchen table, they weren’t getting many answers.

Kristie Baggett, a representative of Crimson Oak Grove Resources LLC, a mining company, had come to the home after the Rileys expressed concern about a water well located in Clara’s storage room.

They knew there’d been a water well at the home of their neighbor, W.M. Griffice, who died several weeks after his home above a longwall coal mine the company owned exploded on March 8. His grandson was critically injured in what was a devastating blast that left little in its wake but the scorched Alabama clay."

Lee Hedgepeth and James Bruggers report for Inside Climate News April 25, 2024. [2]