LA PORTE, Texas — For only the second time in nearly 35 years, the San Jacinto Day Festival and Battle Reenactment is cancelled, this time because of the chemical fire and spill at Intercontinental Terminals Co. in Deer Park.
The San Jacinto Museum director Larry Spasic said the situation is improving, but "we do not know when conditions will allow for the public to return to this hallowed ground."
Access to the site, which is the San Jacinto battleground, is restricted to emergency personnel involved in the ITC cleanup.
“Our overriding concern is, of course, the safety of our guests, and the participants involved, and the animals used in the re-enactment and our educational venues," Spasic said. "Because of the ongoing efforts of the cleanup and pollution of the waterways and grasslands in and around the San Jacinto Site and continuing uncertainties, we feel it is better to act proactively than reactively to these circumstances.”
The 2019 San Jacinto Festival and Battle Reenactment had been scheduled for April 13, but it was cancelled out of "an abundance of caution," museum officials said.
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