It wasn’t the hurricane we feared so much. It was the possibility of it spreading the oil spill along the coast of Louisiana and into our wetlands.
So far, we seem to have escaped any large scale damage. And as Alex disappears into the northern Mexican and southern Texas coasts, we breathe a sigh of relief that it didn’t come directly at us.
Perhaps the major damage it did was the disruption in cleaning up the oil that has already spilled and delaying efforts to plug it. And the barges that were intended to block entry of the oil flow into Barataria Bay had to be taken inland because of rough water.
Hopefully, crews can get back to work this week and next in trying to clean up the greatest oil spill in U. S. history. It’s an effort that has taken teamwork which has not always been there.
Weather prognosticators predict 2010 will be a bad hurricane season. Hopefully, they will be wrong as they have been many times before.
But if it happens, there are many ways the winds may flow and they need not come this way. And if they do, it is not a given that they will push that oil ashore. They may disperse it out into the middle of the Gulf.
Meanwhile, we have to get back to the work of cleaning up the oil that has already spilled and stopping greater quantities from emerging.
We have a big job ahead. And a little help from the rest of the hurricane season will help.
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