Weekend Loud Boom Still a Mystery But Not GRP Explosion

Thousands of people across several northeast Georgia counties reported hearing a large boom over the weekend Saturday night that many said shook their homes.

At one point on social media, it was rumored that there had been an explosion at the GRP biomass plant in Carnesville. WLHR News has now confirmed that was not the case.

GRP plant manager for the Carnesville and Comer plants David Groves, confirmed late Monday afternoon that there was no explosion of any kind at the Carnesville plant over the weekend.

“We had nothing like that at the plant,” Groves said. “The plant, operationally, is fine. We’re offline right now but not doing anything that would cause a loud boom. I’ve spoken to employees who were working that night and didn’t hear anything.”

We have also spoken to people living close to the plant who were home all weekend.

One couple living down the road from the plant on Highway 198 said they heard nothing Saturday or Saturday night. Another person, Jeff Powers, a former GRP employee who lives across from the plant, said they heard the loud boom but it did not come from the GRP plant and there was no explosion there.

“The GRP doesn’t have any kind of equipment there that would cause a big explosion,” he said.

Additionally, Sheriff Steve Thomas said Sunday that he had deputies patrolling the area around the GRP plant and along Hwy 198 all weekend. Thomas said they neither saw nor heard anything in the area of the GRP plant to indicate any sort of incident at the plant.

One possible explanation is that it may have been a sonic boom from F-16s being tested by the Lockheed Martin plant in Greenwood, South Carolina south of Anderson County.

Earlier this month, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin told FOX Carolina News they were testing F-16s before selling them. The spokesperson indicated that F-16s have the capability of traveling faster than the speed of sound, which would cause a sonic boom.

At the time, thousands of people in the Upstate  had also reported hearing a loud boom that shook the ground and their homes.

WLHR News will continue to look into the cause of the loud boom heard Saturday and bring you any more information if and when we get it.