Storm system may slam Gulf, BP cleanup sites within the next 48 hours

[1776Forever]

Source: MSNBC

Officials get ready for tropical storm that could threaten oil cleanup efforts

msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated less than 1 minute ago

NEW ORLEANS - Beleaguered officials in New Orleans are now bracing for the possibility that a tropical storm that could descend on the Gulf of Mexico within the next 48 hours and delay oil spill recovery efforts in the area.

The National Hurricane Center said Friday that there is an 80 percent chance that a low-pressure system now developing over the western Caribbean Sea may pick up steam and head toward the Gulf, where oil facilities are clustered and BP continues to fight back the oil spill.

Coast Guard officials told NBC News that they will likely need to remove people from rigs if the storm develops and moves toward south Louisiana. The shutdown process would begin 120 hours before winds of 40 mph or more strike.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37921094/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/

[JuniperLea]

1. On my favorites bar...

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gtwo_atl.shtml#contents

It's only a matter of time. It is the season, after all. My imagination is running wild... I hope I'm very very wrong, but I keep feeling like this season's storms are going to further spread the oil and ensuing death and destruction as far inland as the storms can carry it...

[felinetta]

3. Gee, you think? No, you are not wrong in your analysis. But not to worry, BP is

going to restore it to it's pre-epic catastrophe.  You know,
BP those heartless demons.

[HockeyMom]

2. Not just cleanup

where will the storm spread the oil TO?

[pattmarty]

4. We are so fucked.

[time_has_come]

5. 120 hours before? So, they mean, like, five days? Naw, seems wrong.

They need five days to shut down a rig? And they can predict 40 mph winds five days out?

[1776Forever]

6. Here is another article on it and there is one more behind this one......

Gulf Begins Storm Watch as System Grows in Caribbean
June 25, 2010, 3:27 PM EDT
(Adds possibility storm may dissipate, in fourth and 19th paragraphs.)
By Brian K. Sullivan

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-25/gulf-begins-storm-watch-as-system-grows-in-caribbean.html

June 25 (Bloomberg) -- Residents and business owners along the Gulf of Mexico face a weekend of watching and planning as a weather system that may become the year’s first tropical storm or hurricane lingers on their doorstep.

A low-pressure system between the coast of Honduras and Grand Cayman island has a 80 percent chance of becoming Alex, the first storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, on a track toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

“Upper-level winds are becoming more conducive for development and a tropical depression will likely form at any time later today or Saturday,” according to a statement posted on the center’s website at 2 p.m. The system could become a cyclonic storm in the next 48 hours....

Trailing the storm system now edging toward the Gulf is another area of disturbed weather east of the Lesser Antilles islands that the hurricane center gives a 10 percent chance of becoming a storm in the next two days.

Bastardi said that storm, if it develops, will probably take a more northerly track away from the Gulf. However, he said he believes yet another system may develop to become a threat to the Gulf within the next 10 days.

[time_has_come]

16. yeah looks like five days is the shutdown time. No wonder they're

unprepared for catastrophes.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. No, they simply cannot!

BP needs five days.
Look, tell the storm to wait a bit, would you? There's a good chap.

[missheidi]

8. I've heard of acid rain...

but are we the in south going to now have oily rain? Great.

[CJvR]

11. No.

...but you might get an oily storm surge which is considerably worse if you live along the coast.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

14. with the added bonus of chemical dispersants

[wordpix]

9. here's hoping if any oil washes into homes, it's into Barbour's, Jindal's & anti-moratorium buddies

Maybe then the "see no evidence" of need for moratorium will see the evidence.

[Autumn Colors]

10. Anyone else notice this.....

a tropical storm that could descend on the Gulf of Mexico within the next 48 hours and delay oil spill recovery efforts in the area.

delay oil spill recovery efforts

delay oil recovery

Because oil recovery is really all BP cares about, right? (as in to sell .... not to prevent it from harming the environment, living creatures, etc)

[hayu_lol]

12. 120 hours notice is barely enough time...

to safely get all ships and boats to port or out to sea in the gulf.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

13. YES! nothing about clean up, saving wildlife, repairing the damage

Greedy heartless SOB's should be left in the Gulf during this storm

[Zorra]

15. Bad Moon Risin'. nt