BP told Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, Alex Sink, to call a 1-800 number when she called about a problem. The Governor, Attorney General, Chief Financial Officer, and Commissioner of Agriculture are the only offices elected state-wide; they are the cabinet of Florida. Not knowing that, or the fact that she is running for Governor, is a major screw-up. She signs the checks, so people don’t show disrespect.

Most of New Orleans’ marine mammals from the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas stayed at the Gulfarium after Katrina. The Gulfarium is a for-profit business, but people won’t visit if they are jerks, so they aren’t jerks.

We are talking about our survival here, so people are going to do whatever it takes. If you have been through hurricanes on the coast you know you can’t wait around for someone else.

Up in your area, if there’s a cave in you don’t have to tell people to go and bring a shovel and pick if you have them.

Glad to hear they’ve contracted with this Delaware company to organize some of the work. But, like you said, if it hits the coastlines heavily the way some scientists are suggesting, the really heavy lifting will be done by people on the spot. It’s just going to take too many people for one company to oversee. The company from Delaware might be overwhelmed quickly it it comes to that.

BP just seems to be going about so much of this completely backwards. Not that I know anything at all about oil spills really, but apparently that doesn’t stop me from having an opinion. I mean, couldn’t they have found a company somwhere ON the gulf coasts to do this work. Don’t know, maybe there isn’t one.

Anyway, good luck to all you folks (and critters, too).

We have our own little marine show, the Gulfarium, and that’s were the larger animals, the dolphins and large sea turtles, are treated as they have the staff and facilities that do this all year.

No one down here who would take the trouble to call, would let an animal in distress sit around waiting for a call to a 1-800 number to bring a response, when they can call the sheriff and have an experienced person show up quickly,

The local groups have already put out a call for supplies and things like inflatable backyard pools to contain what gets washed off the critters.

My former vet [he’s retired now] was on Animal Planet for a surgery to remove an arrow from a migratory bird. There is a lot of training and experience down here, and those people are not going to stay at home if there is an animal in trouble.

Anyway, yep, we got some rain but luckily nothing like the Tennessee crowd. In fact, we’ve been drying out nicely the last few days.

One question for you. I’m curious about officials urging the public not to help the wildlife. I get that injured animals can be problematic, but any ordinarily sensible person should be able to prepare for that, I mean as long as it’s not a whale or whatnot. My thinking is that by the time all this oil gets to the coastlines, officialdom will be overwhelmed with injured and oiled wildlife. Wouldn’t you think unofficial help would be better than no help?

Hey, Juanita

Y’all have had some rain along the ridge line, I hope you were high enough to stay dry.

The problem with polluting the islands is that they are held in place by plants, and if the plants die, the next storm eliminates them as a barrier to mitigate storm surge. They are also nesting grounds for sea birds and turtles, so that will be lost too. Even if it doesn’t come ashore the oil is killing sea life, so a lot of people are going to see their livelihoods disappear.

There’s no doubt that BP isn’t going to willingly give up a dime. It is going to be a long hard slog, that many people just can’t afford.

As for corporations as large as BP, they keep a squad of attorneys in a deep dungeon (aging like cheese, I suppose) working day and night to protect the interests of these large corporations. Individuals don’t have a chance.

Wishing all you guys on the coast a little good luck for a change, Brian. This really does fall under the category of “one d*mn thing after another”.

Aggrieved parties, whatever you do in your interactions with BP, do not sign away your right to sue for further damages. At this point, we don’t know how bad it will become, but you want compensation for all the harm… and there are reports that BP is already attempting to get fishermen to sign away their rights, under the pretext of helping them apply for compensation sooner. Good luck, and take your lawyers with you.