My brother is a helicopter pilot down in the gulf. He ferries workers out to the oil rigs and back. He called me yesterday and I asked him what he has seen. It's very bad. Some journalists from Germany hired him to fly them over the oil slick. Currently there is a no-fly zone directly over this area and he could not take these photo journalists to the actual oil spill, which makes the scenario he told me about even worse.
More below the fold:
From miles away the odor of the oil is pervasive. There is no way to cover this stench from reaching into your nose, sense of taste, and causing your eyes to water. He then told me of an overheard conversation between two coast guard vessels. They had viewed two dead whales floating in the water, dolphins, and birds.
That night, during the evening local news from New Orleans there was a report that volunteers to aid in the clean up were told by BP that they must first sign a waiver that if they were injured in any clean up exercise BP would not be held liable. This caused such an outpouring of venom toward the oil company that BP upper level officials quickly claimed to have no knowledge of the waiver and blamed it on an over zealous underling.
This catastrophe continues and most Americans won't be really upset until these dead whales, dolphins, and birds start washing up on shore along with the countless tons of oil. Florida is already economically strapped thanks to Jeb's leadership, and Louisianna is still recovering from Katrina. And BP, still hasn't come clean on how much damage they continue to do to this once gorgeous area.
This tragedy will haunt us for many, many years. The one upside in all of this destruction is that maybe those who chanted, "Drill Baby Drill" will soon view first hand what that really means. Or maybe not--stupidity, like the oil gushing into the gulf, seems endless.