Huge BP spill means a high-stakes hurricane season

[IScreamSundays]

Source: reuters

Storms may scuttle clean-up efforts, force containment vessels to retreat, or propel spilled crude and tar balls over vast expanses of sea and beach, scientists said.

Meteorologists say that climate conditions are ripe for an unusually destructive hurricane season, the storm-prone period that runs from June 1 to the end of November in the Gulf. Oceanographers say that could hurt the clean-up.

"If a storm comes into this situation it could vastly complicate everything," said Florida State University oceanography professor Ian MacDonald.

"All efforts on the shoreline and at sea, the booms and structures and rigs involved in clean-up and containment, could stop working."

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64D69K20100514?type=domesticNews

[foxfeet]

1. Not to mention the still-unhoused people in Haiti.

It's gonna be a rough season.

[glowing]

2. "could stop working".. I think would is the word.

[neverforget]

3. BP, Halliburton and Transocean execs should be down there on their hands and knees cleaning this

up. If they don't want to do that, then we should just stuff them into the pipes spewing oil.

[daleo]

9. Construct a prison on an abandoned deep sea oil rig

A decade or so of watching the waves could be a salutory experience for the oil company executives responsible for the spill.

[NorthCarolina]

4. "Clean up efforts"...what a joke. The Gulf is as good as dead, and will remain so

for our lifetime.

[nolabear]

5. My God I hope not. Hope's all that keeps us striving and not giving up.

And a foolish hope is preferable to not trying.

[NorthCarolina]

7. Time will tell. Last I heard, it was still gushing as strong as ever

and they keep dumping more dispersants into it in an attempt to 'pretty it up' for the camera's. I'm hopeful for the best, but I'm also a realist. This ain't good.

[Duer 157099]

6. "If a storm comes into this situation" - "IF"???

What sort of stupid reporter uses the word "if" in this context?

Our journalism schools must really suck

[Stumbler]

8. I've been wondering about this since the news broke

Storm surge pushing oil-laced ocean waters to shore is one thing, but if the eye of a hurricane happens to pass over the still-gushing leak, it'll be a very interesting science experiment. As I understand it, hurricanes gain strength by sucking up warm ocean water into the wall that surrounds the eye, and as that water is cooled by it's ascent into the atmosphere it's cast away from the eye. So to my interested but non-accredited mind, it sounds like some or much oil could eventually land far inland from the Gulf shores, if a hurricane were to hit in the right spot... Am I over-exaggerating this threat? Can anyone with some more authority comment on this potential hazard?