LIVING ON TOP of a vast underground honeycomb of hydrocarbon storage caverns washed from massive salt deposits has become an accepted -- and seemingly inconsequential -- fact of life for most residents of south Texas and south Louisiana. However, that is not true for the small Chambers county town of Mont Belvieu, whose awareness of the destructive potential of sub-surface gas storage was dramatically heightened by a major explosion that resulted in a months-long evacuation of its business centre nearly 20 years ago.