Gale force winds could leave Gulf oil gushing for 2 weeks

[OhioChick]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

06/25/2010 07:32:09 PM PDT


MIAMI — Gale force winds days away from the Gulf of Mexico spill site could force at-sea workers to abandon their oil-collection efforts for two weeks, the head of the national response effort said Friday.

That timetable would conservatively unleash another half-million barrels of oil back in the sea — twice the Exxon Valdez spill. Using upper-end federal estimates of the leak, 840,000 barrels would gush out. That's 35 million gallons.

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen described the cut-and-run plan in a conference call to reporters Friday morning in which he said, "Realistically, out of an abundance of caution," the Deepwater Horizon well would remain uncapped for "14 days."

There's a tropical wave in the west-central Caribbean kicking up thunderstorms from the eastern coasts of Honduras and Nicaragua to Mexico's northeastern Yucatan Peninsula. The depression is likely to become the first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season —Tropical Storm Alex — and is forecast to reach the southwestern Gulf of Mexico by early Monday.

Crews will need five days before a storm hits - 120 hours - to disconnect vessels and shut down, Allen said. Late Friday, however, operations were continuing, pushing the timetable for completing a shutdown at least to the middle of next week.



Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_15380899?source=rss

[babylonsister]

1. This is life. Nelson suggested everyone run into a hurricane,

and that sounds even more insane to me. I have no answers. Geeze, what a mess.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8635284#8635312

Edit to add: and it might not happen. The term 'borrowing trouble' applies. Maybe this time it won't, but there's a long, hot summer out there. :(

[OhioChick]

2. It is a mess.....

I can't even fathom if hurricanes hit the area this Summer. :(

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. well they can still work underneath the water trying to plug it

[Lorien]

4. They would rather "collect" it than stop the gusher

they seem o have given up on plugging it after just a couple of half assed attempts. :grr:

[Owl]

9. Are they even doing that (collecting)? Or just burning it?

What was the last "percentage" they claimed to be collecting? What happens to the bulk of the collected oil?

[time_has_come]

5. Well gee fucking whiz, we didn't expect it to be gushing for another two weeks! What big fucking new

s this is.

That fucker is going to keep gushing for two more weeks due to wind? Is wind the problem now?

Damn fucking wind. Always suspected. An ill wind and all that.

[Xipe Totec]

6. That would be the least of our problems

A hurricane in the gulf would pick up the oil on the surface waters and spread it tens to hundreds of miles inland.

[Yuugal]

7. What happened?

"In the coming days and weeks, these efforts should capture up to 90% of the oil leaking out of the well. This is until the company finishes drilling a relief well later in the summer that is expected to stop the leak completely."

[CanonRay]

8. "No one could have predicted a hurricane...."

BP, soon after it hits.