Gulf town vents anger at BP as oil nears

[IScreamSundays]

Source: LA Times

Reporting from Grand Isle, La. —
Leoda Bladsacker's voice shook with emotion as she recalled the 40 families who fled Grand Isle after Hurricane Katrina, never to return. It can't happen again, even if oil begins oozing down the narrow lanes of this popular fishing and tourist town. Everyone knows that once people leave, they never come back, the City Council member told a BP official.

Leoda Bladsacker's voice shook with emotion as she recalled the 40 families who fled Grand Isle after Hurricane Katrina, never to return. It can't happen again, even if oil begins oozing down the narrow lanes of this popular fishing and tourist town. Everyone knows that once people leave, they never come back, the City Council member told a BP official.

"Why can't we just go out there with a supertanker and suck it up?" Bladsacker said of the oil soiling Grand Isle's beaches and smothering its pelicans, as scores of locals at a community meeting erupted in applause.

The gathering Thursday night, on the eve of President Obama's visit to the enclave, put a spotlight on the deepening anger, fear, suspicion and rumors coursing through this region as surely as the oil that now stains the waters and shorelines of four states. Will townspeople be forced to evacuate? Will oil poison the air and drinking water? Isn't the dispersant being used against the oil bound to have long-term health effects?

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Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-grand-isle-20100605,0,6614513.story