Evening Buzz: Gulf Weather Worries
Maureen Miller
AC360° Writer
We're keeping our eye on a weather system that could spell trouble for the Gulf and oil spill cleanup efforts. A tropical depression has formed in the Caribbean. Forecasters are tracking various models of the storm that show it could move into the Gulf of Mexico early next week. The fear is it will become Tropical Storm Alex or worse - Hurricane Alex - the first named storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season. We'll have the latest on the track of the storm tonight on 360°.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, is worried that the federal government is not prepared to deal with a tropical storm in the oil area. Nelson is demanding to know that plans are in place to deal with the possibility of a major storm hitting the area. Nelson wrote a letter to National Incident Commander Adm. Thad Allen.
"I was told that if a hurricane or major storm passes over the Deepwater Horizon, efforts to capture oil at the site would be shut down for perhaps a week or more," Nelson wrote.
This means oil would gush freely into the Gulf until crews could return. You'll hear from Sen. Nelson tonight on the program.
Join us for this story and much more starting at 10 p.m. ET. See you then.
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Filed under: Maureen Miller • The Buzz |
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It is now the 70th day of the oil spill. There are ships
that can skim large amounts of contaminated water. They are not allowed because of the 1920 Jones Act which limits foreign-flagged ships in U.S. waters. A Liberian-flagged ship called the Whale is waiting now that skims 500,000 gallons a day. Other countries have ships and have offered ships. BP workers, most of them unskilled, to ride around in boats. The only thing they do is make the labor statistics look better. Why can’t President Obama waive the Jones Act? He chooses not to. The level of bitterness down here is higher than the humidity.
Terry,
We have Anderson to thank for keeping us up to date on this tragedy. Our government hasn't informed us because they just keep relying on BP for information. In the meantime, more oil, suicide, and dying animals. Where is our government? The president should set up his headquarters in the gulf until this ends. Instead, he's in Canada, he's golfing, he's eating hamburgers with the Russians while the Gulf is dying. Where is the leadership? Anderson, why don't you run for president? You have shown leadership and compassion. Keep up the good work.
anderson it is sad that politics and greed have let this continue gushing into the gulf ,iam a proud american who used to trust our goverment officals now they our no diffrent than mob figures,they, destroyed our ocean, spent our money ,took our homes,and sold our jobs to foriegn countries, george washington is rolling in his grave we fought the british over raising taxes,just a thought anderson love ur show
i thought the goverment was to protect its citizens...why r they hiding the truth..in no way is that protecting any of us..very sadened over the oil spill n everthing else thats going on in our country
The best single retrieval day thus far from BP's cap and collect was a single day of 1 Million gallons out of 2.2 Million gallons released. Regardless if the current cap is in place some 1 Million gallons of toxic crude Oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.
If they pull out for an expected 5 day period, then approximately the same amount as the Exxon Valdez spill will also be released (11-12 Million Gallons) into the Gulf of Mexico.
Maja, it was a great point that you mentioned but, Wendi is correct it does hurt the owner of the station who thought that BP was a valued corporation to do business with and yes, they may feel the same, but finding a solution to this is so far beyond. I think we need to be thinking more about the future i.e. what will happen to our children? and things of that sort.
I may be crazy but a hurricane could just take a lot of that oil and throw it up on beach where we could get at it .. dig the coast up and replant ...the bad part is it could throw that oil up on the beach ether way a real mess that could be spread out all over the place
@maja...Why are cars continuing to fuel at BP stations?
Maybe because some people realize that the gas station owners are independent Americans who just happen to have a BP franchise. Some of them don't even buy gas from BP. I think these owners have just as much right to sue BP for loss of income as the business effected in the Gulf.
The spill is a tragedy but at least it's good to see BP stumping up the money...unlike some American Companies I could name who hide behind lawyers, drag it out for 20 years, and pay a tenth of what they should have done
Before this crisis gets worse by complications of hurricane season, why not appoint a staff of experienced leaders to coordinate ongoing efforts. I know Gen. Schwarzkopf, Colin Powell or Rudy Giuliani could get things done. The public needs to know who exactly is leading the charge. Maybe a special show on the different organizations that are helping, who is in charge from each and how they are working together. Speaking on behalf of the public, it just looks like there is a lot of great effort by great people but also a lot of confusion and no one is truly in charge.
Hi Anderson and crew. Thank all of you for a great job. Let's all hope that these Hurricanes do not make things worse for the Gulf. I'm from the Tampa Bay area, and our beaches have not be affected yet.
Goodday all,
Boycotting BP is not the right thing to do for two reasons. First, is the reason given already and not hurt the station owners. As I understand, BP sells their oil in a market. The oil is then bought and refined into gasoline. BP will sell their oil to someone. The second point is that "this pig" needs money to fix the problem and pay us back. If it has no money how will it pay for this problem. My problem is with the administration. I have friends working down there that say the bureacracy is hindering everyone. I worked in the government and know how it can be. On friend said that he can only work 15 minutes out of an hour because of the heat and a local mayor is calling the crew lazy. OSHA won't let them work any longer even thought they want too. I believe you are attacking the wrong people.
i have lived in the gulf coast for over 30 yrs and this is a worst case senario to say the least. i really cant believe how some people think. the oil mess is here for generations. can we be so blinded that we just dont want to see the real truth. the whole country should start to pray fast because we are about to witness the death of the gulf of mexico right before our eyes. this is not far off base as the tipping point gets closer everyday. now the weather. the weather here is very very powerful and it will spread this oil mess as far as we can see. God must be very mad at this country to let this happen. maybe the greed will finally surface because no mans money will ever be able to clean this mess. if you dont believe then simply drain the oil from your car in your driveway or on your grass or anywhere for that matter and just try and clean it up. are you kidding me and thats just 5 quarts. God have mercy on us all. if he allows a hurricane to spread this mess than the handwriting is on the wall grab your pants because the time is near and again no mans money will help.
The government and BP are useless – they don't understand the disaster we are facing – Obama is clueless and no one has a plan in place that will stop the leak and it doesn't surprise me that they don't even have a plan on what to do in case of a hurricane. What was it that Obama said on Larry King last month? Oh yeah, Obama said "Hopefully a BIG Hurricane comes into the Gulf and disperses the oil" Search for that coment on the internet if you dont believe he said that – you'll see.
It seems to me that if we have a storm of that kind it's going to be catastrophic for farmers in the path of the storm and rivers, streams, & other water supplies will be contaminated by the oil. Like the person had sad earlier its going to be raining oil.
boycotting bp stations certainly hurts bp. wendi, your rationale is the same as saying you should eat at red lobster even though they have questionable business practices, just because it could hurt the owner and the employees.
if bp station owners and their employees are hurt by a boycott, they can file a claim through bp, same as everyone else is doing in the gulf.
The coast guards should be trying to fix the spill! Not trying to keep it off shore. There are jobless fisherman who can do that!
Where are the navy divers? Where are the big navy ships? Why are the coast guards sitting on the sidelines cleaning up the spill when they can be fixing the source? This would give more jobs to out of business fishermen. They earn money cleaning the spill. Why are we giving most of the responsibility to bp. They can't fix the problem. Let the government take total control of the situation. Let the government handle claims. america needs to push bp out of the way and handle the situation. Right now its like sending a 6 year old off to college. THEY DONT KNOW WHAT THE HECK TO DO!
Thanks to Anderson and Team, we all get the real story. Straight shooter that he is. I hope the storm holds to the west, We are so in line with something that could wipe out half of LA as we know it. Man has once again done it. Nature will rebel. I just pray for the workers that are drilling now that they are out of harms way and get the drilling done without any interuptions. Good Night
The world watched in horror as New Orleans residents battled with Katrina, a natural disaster, made worse by incompetence. Now they're fighting irresponsibilty, greed, lies, incompetence, beaurocracy, dishonesty, lack of integrity, all now being exacerbated by a possible natural disaster. How resilient are these people?
The public cannot be responsible for independent BP station owners, the same way it cannot be responsible for franchise owners of any other product or brand when something goes wrong due to poor judgment on the part of the franchisor. It is the franchisee's responsibility to take up arms and enter into legal action individually, or as a group. Whether their agreements allow them to do so is another issue.
The bottom line is this: Stop buying gas or products from BP stations, period.
I actually leave for Destin, FL in a few hours. Tar balls or no, I fear that some of my favorite places may go out of business due to cancellations.
Still, I feel a bit petty being concerned about my vacation when the people of NOLA are suffering so much more.
Keep them honest Anderson and everyone at CNN. While others are running shows of prisons and pundits, you cover the spill and keep responsible parties accountable.
Yes Lisa in Louisville, you are right! A trip to New Orleans to eat and help with cleanup efforts would be a great thing!
Anderson,
Once again, great job I love watching your stories. We applaud Billy Nungesser, he's one of us, a true American. I watch you every night and I sit and cry hearing the heartache from the Gulf and the gov't and BP are not doing a thing about it. They feed us lies and what they don't realize because they have no common sense whatsoever, what they don't realize, is that they are destroying this planet the only home we ALL have. Money and greed won't save them. BP lies and lies just so they won't have to pay the fines and the people. How could they? How could anyone be this low and cruel? My heart breaks for these people and if I were rich I would give them alot of money to help them because they don't deserve this, it's so not fair. I cry for our marine life that is being destroyed and won't recover for generations to come. I cry for our planet.
You know, people joke around about Nostradamous and the Mayans regarding 2012 and the end of civilization. But they didn't count on BP to do this for us. This is a very sad time in our history.
Thank you for keeping it real.
Thank you Randi Kaye and Tom Foreman for the live look at issues having to do with a storm system coming into the gulf. I am sorry but sometimes the communication gets stressful in these circumstances.
Sen Nelson is right BP and the CG need to give people an idea of what the plan is for hurricane season. The fed have responsibility for all this but people need to be apprised of the plan.
The LMRP has to lifted in the event of a storm or hurricane? Is there any way to stop or staunch the flow from the well if collection at the surface has to be suspended? There should be underwater transfer of the flow. Is there a pipe system underwater that can accessed? There should be. Is any of this something BP is working on? If it's possible I would like to hear about this.
Good evening Anderson and everyone at CNN. Again, I want to thank you for being right where you are and opening up your cameras and "platforms" to show us what is REALLY going on in the gulf. I know there aren't any more adjectives to describe this ongoing nightmare, but you are keeping it more than real and honest. I hope at least you get a break on the weekends. Now, I agree with my Senator Bill Nelson ( I live in Florida) and where are the Navy skimmers? Where have they been for the past 67 days? Who only ordered 6? Isn't the U.S. Coast Guard in charge of operations? Where are the oil/water separating machines that Kevin Costner helped fund and develop, as I last heard that 32 of them were "bought" and were on their way? Have they even been manufactured? When are they supposed to arrive? My heart aches for everyone there and I have sent money to The Nature Conservancy, NRDC, The National Wildlife Federation, and I love Billy Nungesser. What else can we do?
We CNN viewers are lucky indeed. No other network covers the gulf oil tragedy like CNN.
Looking forward to show tonight. I hope there will be a discussion about the different results that could occur depending on whether the storm blows east or west and what the storm surge can potentially do. I hope the storm fizzles out – the Gulf doesn't need this right now and it sure doesn't need that oil well to release more oil into the Gulf full force.
From the Caribbean,[no storm here]
Goodnight Anderson Cooper,360 crew and everyone.
Thank you for being my #1 journalist, keeping us continually informed and trying your utmost to keep the dishonest, honest, as you touch the lives of thousands everywhere .
Two weeks at 60.000 gallons per day that will pretty much damage that part of the gulf beyond repair for any of our life time .
Evening all. Maja, the reason is boycotting gas stations has little effect on BP. I understand the desire to stick it to BP, but not going to their stations just harms the owners. These station owners had nothing to do with the spill.
Maybe all of the bloggers on AC360's site should plan a trip to NOLA soon. Maybe a surge in the tourism industry would boost morale and keep money flowing to an area that needs it so much.
Maja,
The problem with boycotting BP stations is it just hurts the owner of the station and his employees not BP
Evening Anderson and all.
I would like to believe that G-d wouldn't be so cruel as to let this storm pass over the oil spill.
Why are cars continuing to fuel up at BP gas stations in USA? I still cannot understand this, particularly being a measure at the reach of everyone. There is a Spanish saying: That who feeds the pig, is as pig as the pig itself. Why do i continue seeing people feeding this pig?