Eufaula officials spend Tuesday trying to figure out what went ‘boom’

Something in Eufaula, Ala., went boom in the night Monday and after a day of trying to figure it out, city officials are still scratching their collective heads.

Between 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. CST, a loud boom was heard throughout the East Alabama city and into neighboring Georgetown, Ga.

Eufaula Mayor Jack Tibbs, who lives south of town on the Country Club of Alabama golf course, said it sounded like a “clap of thunder” at his home. Others reported it was much more intense and even shook some structures, Tibbs said.

“We’ve checked everything, the chicken plant, the fertilizer plant, all the industries,” Tibbs said. “It clearly sounded like an explosion.”

There were no military planes in the area and the nearest storm was 150 miles away, Tibbs said.

There was a small earthquake in Alaska within 2 minutes of the noise, but that is certainly not it, Tibbs said.

“It really is a mystery,” Tibbs said.

All out of ideas, the mayor did offer a tongue-in-cheek theory.

“You know, maybe it was three or four red necks drinking beer out in the country with a few sticks of dynamite trying to take out a beaver dam,” Tibbs joked.

This story was originally published November 29, 2016 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Eufaula officials spend Tuesday trying to figure out what went ‘boom’."