Florida Gulf oil spill: Plans to evacuate Tampa Bay area expected to be announced

Plans to evacuate the Tampa Bay area are expected to be announced in the coming days as FEMA prepares for what is now being called the worst oil disaster in the history of the world.

The evacuations will be necessary for the elderly and those with respiratory problems along much of Florida’s coast, including the Tampa Bay area, if plans proceed to set the massive, approaching oil slick on fire, according to Oilprice.com.

www.examiner.com... announced


Yes I know the source may be suspect but I thought I would share the info anyway. Basically they are saying that by burning the oil, the chemicals from the oil become airborne and cancer causing agents are then carried down wind.


There is another major threat looming for inland towns and cities. With hurricane season in effect, there is a potential for ocean oil to be picked up by hurricane-driven rains and dropped into fresh water lakes and rivers, far from the ocean, thus adding to the pollution of water supplies and eco-systems.

There is other satellite imagery being withheld by the Obama administration that shows what lies under the gaping chasm spewing oil at an ever-alarming rate is a cavern estimated to be around the size of Mount Everest. This information has been given an almost national security-level classification to keep it from the public, according to our sources.

oilprice.com...


edit to add and fix stuff!
[edit on 20-5-2010 by liveandletlive]

[edit on 20-5-2010 by liveandletlive]

reply to post by liveandletlive


This I believe is the entire reason everything is being downplayed and the information satelite photos withheld.

Think about it. If it becomes public knowledge that oil IS NOT SCARCE, the monopoly that the government and the oil companies that are their partners will become harder to maintain.

Notice on the stock market, that the price of oil has gone below $70/barrel.

Why is that? Should it not be going the other direction?

Would not want people to actually pay attention to the world around them and start asking questions.

Scarcity is a LIE. Period. Being a little older, I know of many times the Peak Oil theory has been trotted out and the scarcity of oil lie has been propagated.

reply to post by endisnighe


This thing could turn into something nasty. I knew the slick had reached currents that have the potential to take it up the east coast but I didn’t think about air quality issues. Now you have brought up another angle. I really thought they would get it under control and clean it up. Now I am getting concerned.

The Examiner link doesn't work for me. (Atricle not ready.)

FYI, I live in Tampa and there is NOTHING in either of our local newspaper websites as of now. Don't get me wrong, not attempting to debunk. Just striving to assimilate facts. The topic is of keen importance to me and I take it quite serious.

www.tampatrib.com...

www.tampabay.com...

I the read the WMR article over a week ago. Not sure about some of the claims made.

Thanks. Please continue to update thread.


[edit on 20-5-2010 by kinda kurious]

The link is really long and if it doesnt work just add -announced to the end of the link.

Better yet, just click the bellow link:

Florida Gulf Oil Spill: Plans to evacuate Tampa Bay area expected to be announced

I am just attempting to vett this info.

It appears to me the "article" in OP from Examiner is like a blogger / news sharing site.

I can find ZERO valid basis for the claim other than the linked Wayne Madsen Report link.

Emergency preparations in dealing with the expanding oil menace are now being made for cities and towns from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Houston, New Orleans, Gulfport, Mobile, Pensacola, Tampa-St.Petersburg-Clearwater, Sarasota-Bradenton, Naples, and Key West. Some 36 FEMA-funded contracts between cities, towns, and counties and emergency workers are due to be invoked within days, if not hours, according to WMR's FEMA sources.

according to WMR's FEMA sources. This line is a tad suspect. I am thinking the article writer at the "news blog" took this as gospel and ran with it. (How wars start)

I can find no FEMA press releases to substantiate thus far.

Could anyone verify this info? I am not familiar with WMR, so I'm hoping someone can assist on this. Not one to panic easy but I have elderly relatives here. Much obliged.


[edit on 20-5-2010 by kinda kurious]

reply to post by kinda kurious


The examiner comes off with wild claims so I understand it may be hype. I have been searching for more info but it all seems to link back to them.

With that said, air quality could be an issue and is something worth thinking about. Thanks for the input.

reply to post by endisnighe


Not necessarily. Oil prices have as much to do with anticipated demand as supply. With the world economy seemingly going into another round of spasms it portends weaker economic activity and hence lower demand. That is likely the reason oil has dropped. But commodities in general are taking a hit probably for the same reasons.

reply to post by jtma508


Yes, very true.

I do take that into consideration now. I just find it highly irregular that with portents of war in Korea, Iran and other conflicts, the debacle in the Gulf, the president now backpedaling on oil exploration, that the price of oil is going south.

Almost as if the price of oil is being used to try and kickstart a fix in the economy.

It seems that the price of oil really has no relevance to the supply. There was no real supply problem just two years ago and look at where the price per barrel went.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Here is a slide show that provides a day by day record of the spill. They are saying they dont expect to contain the leak anytime soon.

I also found this:

A fact sheet on the demonstrated impacts to human health from exposure to crude oil has been provided by Dr. Michael Harbut, Karmanos Cancer Institute, and Dr. Kathleen Burns of Sciencecorps, outlining the dangerous health hazards posed by oil and oil fumes. www.sciencecorps.org... Significant health risks and impacts include:

 Visible effects such as skin damage, headaches, dizziness, nausea, confusion, coughing, respiratory difficulty, chemical pneumonitis, and other health problems.
 Serious effects without obvious immediate symptoms including liver and kidney disease, lung damage, immune system suppression, abnormal hormone levels, infertility, anemia, nerve damage, mutations, cancer, and other serious health problems.
 Serious risk to pregnant women, both to their own health and to the fetus’s, including abnormal growth and development, skeletal deformities and other birth defects.
 Extreme risk to children, especially newborns, who are very vulnerable to toxic chemicals in crude oil due to incompletely formed immune and detoxification systems. They may experience abnormal growth, neurocognitive damage, cancer and other health conditions.
 Those with preexisting medical conditions can see a worsening of those diseases due to even short-term exposure.

Whether health damage occurs depends on individual characteristics and exposure levels, but health experts agree that no exposure is free of heath risks. There is no “safe” level of exposure to carcinogens such as benzene; crude oil contains multiple carcinogens and mutagens.




[edit on 20-5-2010 by liveandletlive]

reply to post by endisnighe


very good point, oil is not rare at all and not running out. Purhaps this is a blessing in disguise...finally the world knows that oil is pleantful...sadly this knowledge comes at an expense to the gulf.

I can see this happening. My husband went to visit a cousin yesterday, who has a house on Lake Ponchatrian, in Slidell, LA.

They went to sit outside on her porch, and they both could smell fumes from the oil spill.

Not only is this creeping towards Florida, but, it seems it has made it's way inland to Ponchatrain.

Nobody has heard any warnings about the spill, or fumes in that area, either, but, they can smell them.

Latest space station image of the Gulf:




Let me describe for those that cannot see quite well.
The gray area is oil.

With a huge and unpredictable oil slick drifting in the Gulf of Mexico, state and federal authorities are preparing to deal with a variety of hazards to human health if and when the full brunt of the toxic mess washes ashore.

The list of potential threats runs from minor nuisances such as runny noses and headaches to nausea. While waiting to see how bad things will get, public health agencies are monitoring air quality, drinking water supplies and seafood processing plants and advising people to take precautions.
www.pressherald.com...


In a possible hint of things to come, a foul stench drifted over parts of southwestern Louisiana last week. The oil probably was the culprit, said Alan Levine, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, whose office heard about dozens of complaints – even from state legislators in New Orleans, some 130 miles from the leaky undersea well.
www.huffingtonpost.com...

edit to add:
He said people can smell the chemical odor of evaporating crude at levels in the air well below the levels that concern the EPA.

“The smell and the health concern are two different things,” said Francisco Cruz, EPA spokesman out of Mobile.

What people likely are smelling is the volatile organic compounds that have evaporated into the air, one group of airborne elements the EPA is monitoring. These include benzene, toluene and ethylbenzene.
www.mcclatchydc.com...

Are these the same people that told the rescue workers a t gound zero the air was safe?


[edit on 20-5-2010 by liveandletlive]

[edit on 20-5-2010 by liveandletlive]

BP conceded for the first time that more fuel was leaking into the Gulf of Mexico than previously estimated...

Source with map of proximity to loop current



[edit on 20-5-2010 by kinda kurious]

I dont get it. In one report they say this:

Whether health damage occurs depends on individual characteristics and exposure levels, but health experts agree that no exposure is free of heath risks. There is no “safe” level of exposure to carcinogens such as benzene; crude oil contains multiple carcinogens and mutagens.

Then in another report they say this:

He said people can smell the chemical odor of evaporating crude at levels in the air well below the levels that concern the EPA.

“The smell and the health concern are two different things,” said Francisco Cruz, EPA spokesman out of Mobile.

What people likely are smelling is the volatile organic compounds that have evaporated into the air, one group of airborne elements the EPA is monitoring. These include benzene, toluene and ethylbenzene.

What a joke. If your down wind I would be concerned!

Originally posted by endisnighe
reply to post by liveandletlive

 

This I believe is the entire reason everything is being downplayed and the information satelite photos withheld.

Think about it. If it becomes public knowledge that oil IS NOT SCARCE, the monopoly that the government and the oil companies that are their partners will become harder to maintain.

Notice on the stock market, that the price of oil has gone below $70/barrel.

Why is that? Should it not be going the other direction?

Would not want people to actually pay attention to the world around them and start asking questions.

Scarcity is a LIE. Period. Being a little older, I know of many times the Peak Oil theory has been trotted out and the scarcity of oil lie has been propagated.

I rarely agree with you endisnighe; however, on this one I must. There is more oil in the ground than the next 1000 generations could ever need. These oil companies manipulate the price of oil for profit. They need more profit...turn off pumps...artificially create a shortage...BAM!!!!

What is this "Loop Current" business? First time in my life I see the
GULF STREAM called the Loop Current. Seems someone is trying to play down what is really going on...

I cannot imagine who that would be... HA!

Its the Gulf Stream, tell it like it is... its going to carry that oil around the tip of Florida and in a few weeks people in London are gonna be smelling it.

reply to post by expat2368


I thought the exact same thing the other day! I grew up in south Florida and never, ever heard this current called the "Loop Current". The other day on CNN International the meteorologist said that the so called Loop Current becomes the Gulf Stream at some point in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

All I could do was chuckle.

reply to post by expat2368


reply to post by octotom


Semantics perhaps? NOAA refers to them as such. Yeah I'm a native Floridian and a lifelong boater, a new way to describe the Gulfstream. Big whoop. Just sayin.

NOAA Extends Fishing Closed Area to Portion of Loop Current as Precaution


www.noaanews.noaa.gov...

[edit on 20-5-2010 by kinda kurious]