TalkBaja.com » Baja Mexico Forums » Baja News Wire

AFP - BP has resumed full siphoning operations from the ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well, but Floridahas been forced to close down popular tourist beaches at the height of the summer season as more crude washed ashore.

The vast slick has already soiled the coastlines of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, but could spell disaster for Florida, one of the world's top tourist destinations with more than 80 million visitors a year.

Ominous news came from the National Hurricane Center, which forecast rising seas and winds in the Gulf of Mexico due to "a wind surge associated with a tropical wave" moving into the Gulf later in the day.

"Low pressure along the wave in the Caribbean is moving NW and could possibly develop into a tropical cyclone," the Miami, Florida-based center said.

"This will be the first time and there is no playbook," Coast Guard commandant Thad Allen told CNN commenting on the weather.

"I will tell you there has been an extraordinary amount of planning being done between the folks of the national incident command and incident commanders on the ground," he said.

"It all amounts to our ability to communicate and have them break off in time to seek shelter, get to the right side of the storm," said Allen.

Allen later told reporters that Vice President Joe Biden was heading to the Gulf region on Tuesday to "assess efforts to counter the oil spill."

He said Biden is expected to visit the New Orleans-based National Incident Command Center, as well as travel to the Florida panhandle.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Carol Browner, who heads the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, will also visit. "I will be down there and participate in meetings with them," Allen said.

Oil began oozing onto beaches in northwestern Florida on Thursday, prompting a swimming ban from far western Florida to the east side of Pensacola Beach through Santa Rosa Island, one of the region's most popular tourist attractions.

The state's 1,260 miles (2,000 kilometers) of western coastline is home to scores of popular beaches as well as pristine coral reefs and an important fishing industry.

State officials have mounted an aggressive beach and coastline cleanup effort to stop the oil from reaching Florida beaches.

At a time of high unemployment in other sectors, tourism in Florida generates more than a million jobs, bringing the state 65 billion dollars in revenue in 2008.

Meanwhile, BP shares plummeted to a 13-year low in London after the group ramped up the costs of the spill so far to 2.35 billion dollars (1.9 billion euros).

The company's share values have been cut by more than half since the April 20 explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and unleashed the worst oil spill in US history.

The company's stock collapsed by almost nine percent in mid-morning trading to plumb a low of 296 pence on the London Stock Exchange, hitting a level last seen in August 1996 amid investor alarm over spiraling costs.

On Saturday, activists and southeast Louisiana residents are scheduled to gather at area beaches to hold hands and show their support clean energy and oppose offshore drilling.

The "Hands Across the Sand" event will take place in all US states and some 30 countries, organizers said.

"We don't need to destroy any more of America's precious coasts and marine life," said Aaron Viles, Campaign Director of the Gulf Restoration Network. "It's time to stand up to the oil industry. It's time to move America beyond oil and into a clean energy future."

Oil siphoning operations resumed around 7:00 pm Wednesday (0000 GMT Thursday), some 11 hours after BP removed the containment cap over the gushing well after a remotely-operated submarine robots bumped into the device.

The accident shut down a vent, forcing gas up into part of the system. The device traps spewing crude and siphons it up to two surface vessels, the Discovery Enterprise and the Q4000.

The overall amount of crude gushing from the damaged well is still unclear, with the latest government estimates ranging from 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day.



More...

ruptured, leak, spill, ..... hope they get the terminology down ..... as how many words can one come up with to deal with just one event...

still prefer the term release... but, I'm old school ...