Posted on 06/26/2010 11:24:03 AM PDT by DukeBillie
Although a tropical depression near the Yucatan Peninsula bloomed into Tropical Storm Alex early today, its westward track seems to be aiming it away from the oil gusher site off the Louisiana coast, stopping authorities from launching a five-day response shutdown in advance of gale force winds.
"Where it's at right now, we don't have any indication we would reach gale force winds at the well bore," said Adm. Thad Allen, national incident commander, in a press briefing late Saturday morning.
"We understand it's moving westerly at this point," he said. "It doesn't threaten our site."
But acknowledging that the track can change, he said oil responders are carefully watching the weather and consulting with the National Hurricane Center.
"We're tracking the weather very closely," he said. "We all know that the weather is unpredictable."
The oil spill response over four states includes 38,634 people and more than 6,000 vessels, some portion of which would have to retreat to safety in a storm, he said.
"The safety of life is always the number one priority," he said.
If authorities have to suspend the oil-catching efforts because of a storm or hurricane, some ships would likely move to the least tumultuous lower left quadrant of the storm, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Alex, Alex he’s our man! If he can’t do it, nobody can!
and with the current five day tracking, nor will it.
Esp. all his exaggerated characterizations, and then how he says, "..sorry, I got carried away."
As Jose Biden would say that’s a big f....ing system...
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