In Louisiana, Alex pushed an oil patch toward Grand Isle and uninhabited Elmer’s Island, dumping tar balls as big as apples onto the beach, and in Alabama, normally white sand was streaked with long lines of oil, reports the Associated Press.
“The sad thing is that it’s been about three weeks since we had any big oil come in here,” marine science technician Michael Malone told the AP. “With this weather,we lost all the progress we made.”Alex, which strengthened into the season’s first Atlantic hurricane late Tuesday and is the first June hurricane since 1995, prompted residents along the southern coast of Texas to evacuate, reports USA TODAY colleague Marisol Bello. It will likely make landfall near the Mexico-Texas border tonight.
Because of Alex’ 80 mph maximum winds and huge waves, dozens of oil-skimming boats were returned to shore Tuesday in Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. They’re expected to remain out of operation for days. Some barges, designed to block oil from sensitive wetlands, were also removed because of rough seas.
Since the spill began April 20, between 70.8 million and 137.6 million gallons of oil have leaked into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s broken Macondo well, according to government and BP estimates. The higher estimate is enough oil to fill half of New York’s Empire State Building, according to AP.
More oil-collection help could arrive once the hurricane passes, because the United States has accepted offers of assistance from international organizations and 12 countries including Mexico, Norway, Holland, Japan, Croatia and Canada.
