The Well From Hell And Alex
So, Hurricane Alex is going ashore around the Mexico-Texas border, so there’s no problem, right? Wrong, there are already problems.
This is a gulf. Water enters and exits around Cuba, either the Yucatan Strait or the Florida Strait. Alex is big enough and moving slow enough that it is affecting the northern Gulf Coast with wind, waves, and surge. The skimmers have already left for port because they don’t work in 4-foot seas, and the booms are worthless, as the oil will push over the top. Tropical storms spin in a counter-clockwise motion around the center, so the winds will be from the South and Southeast, depending on how far East of the storm you are. That will add wind to the surge and wave action to push oil further inland.
Platforms working off the Texas coast are already being evacuated, but it probably won’t be necessary for those working directly on the gusher.
The US is accepting international help, not, as some people [Republican politicians] have claimed, rejecting it. The only thing not accepted so far has been dispersants from France, because they aren’t on the approved list. Some of the aid, like booms from Mexico, is free, but other assistance is going to have to be paid for, which means BP approval under the present stupid system. If the aid doesn’t come, it isn’t because the Feds blocked it, it’s because BP refused to pay for it.
