As oil spill prepares to hit land, Obama heads to Gulf - Polidicks

[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/01/AR2010050102496.html[/url] [release]Efforts to plug the uncapped oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico remained unsuccessful Saturday even as high winds and rough seas hampered attempts to contain the spreading slick at the surface. President Obama is preparing to visit the Gulf on Sunday amid signs that the calamity that destroyed the BP rig Deepwater Horizon and killed 11 workers has now evolved into a major environmental crisis that threatens the Gulf fishing industry and fragile marshlands teeming with wildlife. The oil has yet to reach land, but winds from the south could drive it ashore in Mississippi and Alabama in the next three or four days, said Adm. Thad Allen, the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. "The inevitability of contact with the shoreline is really depending on the weather. I've been telling people, Mother Nature gets a vote in this thing," said Allen, a veteran of the Katrina disaster who was named Saturday as the "national incident commander" of the federal response to the spill. "There's enough oil out there, I think it's logical to assume that it will impact the shoreline. The question is when and where." The top priority is capping the well, drilled in mile-deep water and reachable only with robotic vehicles. Officials have said that the well is spilling 5,000 barrels of oil a day, though Allen said that making a precise estimate is impossible because of the depth of the water. His bigger concern, he said, is the possibility that it could take weeks to stop the leakage. "Quite frankly the continued leakage of anything for that period of time is going to cause an extraordinary amount of problems for us," he said. "It's so important for us to stop this at the wellhead." Two other oil rigs have shut down production and another has been evacuated for safety reasons, the Minerals Management Service of the Department of Interior announced Saturday. The Pentagon is airlifting oil containment booms to Mobile, Ala., to supplement 275,000 feet of barriers already in place, the agency said. The heavy surf has tangled the booms in some locations. The crisis began April 20, when Deepwater Horizon, a drilling rig owned by Transocean and leased by BP, caught fire and sank, killing 11 people. Ten days later, coastal residents, state officials and environmental groups are questioning whether the oil industry and Interior Department regulators had done enough to prepare for such a catastrophe. BP's own exploration plan, submitted to federal regulators in February 2009, minimized the danger of a spill. The company said "it is unlikely that an accidental oil spill release would occur from the proposed activities." While it acknowledged that a spill could "cause impacts to wetlands" and to beaches, it added that "due to the distance to shore (48 miles) and the response capabilities that would be implemented, no significant adverse impacts are expected." It said any effects on fish or shellfish would be "sub-lethal." Allen said in an interview Friday that the company's plans for responding to oil spills did not address the complete failure of equipment on the seafloor designed to prevent a blowout of the sort that took place on the massive drilling rig. "We're breaking new ground here. It's hard to write a plan for a catastrophic event that has no precedent, which is what this was," he said, defending the company against not writing a response for "what could never be in a plan, what you couldn't anticipate." Hammond Eve, who did environmental impact studies of offshore drilling for the Minerals Management Service, said the federal agency never planned for response to an oil spill of this size. "We never imagined that it would happen because the safety measures were supposed to work and prevent it from happening," he said. He added that the MMS began from the "premise that if something like this happened, that it would be shut down fairly soon and a discrete amount of oil would be released and these cleanup measures would begin and you would never end up with a situation like this." Eve, who lives on the water 20 miles east of New Orleans, said strong oil fumes were engulfing his neighborhood. "You can't breathe the air comfortably," he said. "It bites you right in the back of the throat and your eyeballs burn." Obama administration officials fanned out across the Gulf states pledging attention and assistance. In an already troubled economy, the oil slick threatened to damage the region's fishing and tourism industries as well as disrupt shipping along the Mississippi River. On Friday, Louisiana's departments of Health and Hospitals and Wildlife and Fisheries announced severe restrictions on fishing and oyster harvesting east of the Mississippi River.[/release] Slick move there by Obama.

Looks like Obama's going to tell the oil to go away.

[QUOTE=Meatmuppet;21678797]Looks like Obama's going to tell the oil to go away.[/QUOTE] He'll change the the way the oil will move by using super Obama powers. [B] Yes, he can![/B]

He doesn't visit soldiers for a month who got shot by their comrade but jumps on an oil spill. Classy.

[img]http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/images/br/brita-atlantis-water-filter.jpg[/img] Get to work boys!

[QUOTE=evilweazel;21678861]He doesn't visit soldiers for a month who got shot in a [B]heartbeat [/B]by their comrade but jumps on an oil spill. Classy.[/QUOTE] Getting shot in the heartbeat is a serious thing, kids.

[QUOTE=evilweazel;21678861]He doesn't visit soldiers for a month who got shot in a heartbeat by their comrade but jumps on an oil spill. Classy.[/QUOTE] He made it there 5 days after it happened. [url]http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/forthood.asp[/url]

[QUOTE=Flitchaye;21678910]Getting shot in the heartbeat is a serious thing, kids.[/QUOTE] I'm an idiot and admit defeat. [editline]06:51PM[/editline] [QUOTE=PrismatexV8;21678977]He made it there 5 days after it happened. [url]http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/forthood.asp[/url][/QUOTE] x2

What would happen if the oil spill set on fire? Would that be better or worse?

[QUOTE=playelite;21679082]What would happen if the oil spill set on fire? Would that be better or worse?[/QUOTE] Bit of both, it would burn it off of the ocean top but air pollution would happen too.

I'll bet you his visit will end up like this. [img]http://missharleyquinn.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/moses-parting-red-sea.jpg[/img]

[QUOTE=PrismatexV8;21678779][b]Slick[/b] move there by Obama.[/QUOTE] I see what you did there. :v:

[QUOTE=Faunz;21678898][img]http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/images/br/brita-atlantis-water-filter.jpg[/img] Get to work boys![/QUOTE] [IMG]http://www.m-scene.de/lighter/lighter.gif[/IMG] Get to work boys!

That's a sexy-lookin GIF

They need to build Big Shell

oh fuck lousiana's water is screwed

[QUOTE=killa747;21683974]oh fuck lousiana's water is screwed[/QUOTE] Oh no, my supply of Craw dads is disrupted.

[QUOTE=Second-gear-of-mgear;21687148]Oh no, my supply of Craw dads is disrupted.[/QUOTE] The Louisiana delta has a lot more to offer than just crayfish, It's probably one of the more important ecological habitats of the Gulf.

[QUOTE=OvB;21687193]The Louisiana delta has a lot more to offer than just crayfish, It's probably one of the more important ecological habitats of the Gulf.[/QUOTE] Who cares about that, I just want the crayfish.

I would love just to "accidently" drop a match

I live in Florida. Come here oil so I can burn you. I'll sell you too.

[QUOTE=The mouse;21697044]I would love just to "accidently" drop a match[/QUOTE] They've set the spill on fire several times attempting to burn some off before it hits the shore.

I guess he cracked under the pressure.

[QUOTE=Deathbyfire;21699236]I guess he cracked under the pressure.[/QUOTE] Very creative, but somehow not funny.

we are in a slippery situation

[QUOTE=Ogris;21699722]Very creative, but somehow not funny.[/QUOTE] Its the best I could come up with. Really, I'm just glad someone got it.

Fucking Obama. Huge oil spill and he heads out gulfing.

Why is he going there again? Is he going to drink the fucking oil?

[QUOTE=G71tc4;21703999]Why is he going there again? Is he going to drink the fucking oil?[/QUOTE] I believe you missed my post.

oil pls go