Guif Shores Oil Spill Update

[Sweetchuck]

I will be spending the weekend on the Gulf Shores in sunny Alabama. Me and the family will be hitting the beach and early next week, I'll be giving yinz an update as to it's current state.

I hear some of the beaches are open and there's a lot of cleanup equipment here and there and it smells sometimes, but rest assured you will get a full report, pics included once my research is completed.

Got a nice deal on a condo. Really nice.

[Kathianne]

I will be spending the weekend on the Gulf Shores in sunny Alabama. Me and the family will be hitting the beach and early next week, I'll be giving yinz an update as to it's current state.

I hear some of the beaches are open and there's a lot of cleanup equipment here and there and it smells sometimes, but rest assured you will get a full report, pics included once my research is completed.

Got a nice deal on a condo. Really nice.

I hope you have a really great time. If you have the $$, spend them on tips and such, the folks down there can really use the tourist money.

[Sweetchuck]

I hope you have a really great time. If you have the $$, spend them on tips and such, the folks down there can really use the tourist money.

I've been down here for a couple weeks now and the concern in this area is the change of ownership of vacation spots.

I've spent 25 years going to the Outer Banks in NC and most of the businesses there are locally owned and continue to be just that, but in the Gulf, owners are selling out because of the disastrous year. Selling cheap and once the Gulf is cleaned up - by next vacation season it seems, many of the real estate holdings and businesses might be gobbled up by money guys.

Everyone down there is troubled by the suggestion that the industry will be healed shortly, but a change in ownership from local business people to out of state investors will occur and change the landscape.

[Gaffer]

Makes you wonder if there wasn't a reason for the spill to go on for so long.

[Kathianne]

Hmmm,

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/07/30/did-the-government-cause-the-gulf-spill/


Did the government cause the Gulf spill?
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POSTED AT 9:30 AM ON JULY 30, 2010 BY ED MORRISSEY
PRINTER-FRIENDLY

The generally accepted view of the Deepwater Horizon disaster has focused on the blowout preventer and the non-standard procedures BP conducted just before the explosion and fire. However, most of the damage and the main source of the spill came from the collapse and sinking of the DH platform rather than the initial explosion. A new report by the Center for Public Integrity, based on testimony from people on scene and Coast Guard logs, contains evidence that the platform sunk because of a botched response from the Coast Guard, which failed to coordinate firefighting efforts and to have the proper resources to fight the fire:


The Coast Guard has gathered evidence it failed to follow its own firefighting policy during the Deepwater Horizon disaster and is investigating whether the chaotic spraying of tons of salt water by private boats contributed to sinking the ill-fated oil rig, according to interviews and documents.

Coast Guard officials told the Center for Public Integrity that the service does not have the expertise to fight an oil rig fire and that its response to the April 20 explosion may have broken the service’s own rules by failing to ensure a firefighting expert supervised the half-dozen private boats that answered the Deepwater Horizon’s distress call to fight the blaze.

An official maritime investigation led by Coast Guard Capt. Hung M. Nguyen in New Orleans is examining whether the salt water that was sprayed across the burning platform overran the ballast system that kept the rig upright, changing its weight distribution, and causing it to list.

...

The White House is keeping quiet:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/Examiner-Opinion-Zone/Obama-failed-to-acknowledge-governments-role-in-oil-spill-99552279.html


...

These new details raise serious questions for the White House, which has repeatedly pinned the blame on BP. If it turns out the Coast Guard is at fault -- either because it didn't follow proper procedures or couldn't respond adequately because of a lack of resources -- the public has a right to know why we're just now learning this information 100 days after the disaster began.

The crippling budget cuts President Obama proposed for the Coast Guard also deserve a closer examination. Obama's spending plan reduced the blue water fleet by a full one-third, slashed 1,000 personnel, five cutters, and several aircraft, including helicopters. According to the Center for Public Integrity, the Coast Guard updated its official maritime rescue manual -- advising against firefighting aboard a rig -- just seven months before the Deepwater Horizon explosion. That change in policy came at a time when Adm. Thad Allen warned the budget cuts threatened to turn the Coast Guard into a "hollow force."

An earlier report from Mehta and Solomon also raised important questions that the White House has yet to answer about what Obama knew when. That investigation revealed the White House timeline of events failed to acknowledge an oil leak until four days after the explosion, even though the Coast Guard's timeline reported a leak one day after the explosion.

[Sweetchuck]

I'm pretty convinced that BO did everything he could to prolong the spill.

Anyway, my update - didn't make it down today. We went to Mobile and got caught up in some other activities and wound up spending the whole day there.

Heading back down tomorrow. Full report to follow.

[Sweetchuck]

Ok, here's my report. Gulf's A-OK. In fact, it's a great time to book a vacation there. Crowds are down, prices are cheap. Beach and water's fine. There were some tarballs rolling around in the shallow tide and one small floater, but that was it. Nothing that made any of us get wigged out. Ate enough oysters this weekend to kill a small pig.

Here's some pics - these first ones were from our Saturday trip. We stopped at the battleship Alabama in Mobile. Wound up spending the entire day there. After touring the battleship and everything else, I had the sudden urge to attack a small nation.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b373/eastms/084.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b373/eastms/094.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b373/eastms/107.jpg

My kid was climbing on everything.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b373/eastms/093.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b373/eastms/090.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b373/eastms/066.jpg

Beach pics.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b373/eastms/006.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b373/eastms/005.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b373/eastms/002.jpg

Finally, I had to pull over and take a shot of this one:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b373/eastms/014.jpg