Gulf oil spill affecting residents’ vacation plans
The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) released this computer modeling study June 3, 2010. | Graphic illustration courtesy of weather.com
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill catastrophe has now reached four states and is estimated to wrap around the Florida peninsula and leak into the Atlantic Ocean by day 78.
Today marks day 54 and many local residents have gotten their vacations in, just missing the tar balled, oil slicked beaches while others elect to change their plans and head to safer destinations.
Local resident Kenny Hurst said he and his family went to Gulf Shores for the week of May 30th and even took a dip in the ocean early in the week.
“We all jumped in and swam in the ocean on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday,” he said. “We just barely got our vacation in before the oil affected the beaches.”
Hurst said the only evidence he and his family saw was on Friday morning just before heading home.
“We went to the beach for one last time before loading up and heading home,” he said. “At that time, beach officials were encouraging people not to touch the tar balls. There wasn’t a great deal of them at that point. You would just see some quarter-sized ones grouped together wash up in a wave here and there, but I know it is bound to get worse.”
Hurst said the general consensus of people living or vacationing down there was just sadness.
“Before we left, we told our neighbors about the tar balls located on the shoreline because they had small children with them,” Hurst said. “A feeling of sadness was expressed from lots of people down there and I hate it because I know it is going to be a tough time for the residents and their economy.”
More and more beaches are posting signs, warning beach lovers not to swim in the Gulf of Mexico waters or to touch any tar balls, oil slicks or dead and dying animals they might find on the beach.
Many tourists who were originally going to spend their summer vacation in the Florida Panhandle have canceled plans and hotels they already booked and moved their beach plans to the Florida’s east coast around Daytona Beach, Flagler Beach and even up north to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina.
Russellville residents Joanna and Richard Tutich have spent the month of June at Fort Myers Beach, just north of Naples, Fla.
Richard Tutich has been following the oil spill news closely and says the way the forecast maps look; the current should keep the oil away from Fort Myers Beach.
“The water is perfectly clear down here,” he said. “The way things are looking it shouldn’t even show up here. If it does somehow though, it is really going to be a shame because we love it down here.”
The BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Well exploded on April 20 and U.S. government scientists have estimated around 40 million gallons have already leaked into the Gulf, while the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have estimated 120,000 gallons of crude oil is gushing from the remaining ruptures every 24 hours.
The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research has created a computer model that projects the oil slick’s most likely path, showing by day 120, according to the model, the oil spill will have hit almost every state lining the east coast in the U.S. and possibly reaching south right around Cancun, Mexico.
