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The latest forecast for the movement of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill show it going toward Louisiana’s fragile wetlands, according the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Winds on the coast turned and started blowing out of the east-southeast Monday morning, and are expected to continue in that pattern through Tuesday, according to the latest 72-hour modeling.
The forecast map that extends until Wednesday evening continues projecting no landfall of oil along the Mississippi, Alabama or Florida coasts.
The most recent map said the Mississippi Delta, Breton Sound, the Chandeleur Islands and areas directly north have a potential for shoreline contacts throughout the forecast period. West of the Mississippi Delta, the shoreline west of Barataria Bay to Isles Dernieres is threatened today.
Should winds continue east or southeast, potential oil contacts could reach as far west as Oyster Bayou on Tuesday and Atchafalaya Bay on Wednesday.
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| Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar |
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today that Director of the National Park Service Jon Jarvis and Acting Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service Rowan Gould have been dispatched to command centers along the Gulf Coast to help lead efforts to protect coastal communities and natural resources from BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Jarvis, who is stationed in the Mobile, Alabama Incident Command Center, and Gould, who is stationed in the Houma, Louisiana Incident Command Center, are among the more than 380 DOI personnel who have been deployed as part of the oil spill response. Additional DOI personnel already stationed in the region are among the more than 10,000 personnel currently responding to protect the shoreline and wildlife. Jarvis and Gould will work with federal and state natural resource managers to help protect state and federal natural resources.
“We are continuing to put all hands on deck to support the coordinated response to this spill and to do everything we can to help BP stop its leaks and clean up its spill,” Secretary Salazar said. “The National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service, under the leadership of Jon Jarvis and Rowan Gould, are on the front lines as we fight to protect the Gulf Coast from the dangers of the oil spill. Their leadership on the ground will ensure that we remain coordinated, prepared, and effective in protecting natural resources.”
The first two oiled birds found in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a Northern Gannet and a Brown Pelican, have been cleaned and are now recovered and ready for release.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will release the birds at 4 p.m. Monday, May 10, at Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge on the Atlantic coast northeast of Vero Beach, Florida. The birds will be released by Dr. Sharon K. Taylor, a veterinarian and the Service’s Environmental Contaminants division chief.
The Gannet, a young male nicknamed “Lucky” by the workers who rescued him, was found April 27 in the Gulf near the source of the leak. Clean-up workers on a boat reached out to him with a pole and he jumped on it.
State Rep. Earl Hilliard Jr.’s two-part legislative package to improve school safety was signed into law April 30 by Gov. Bob Riley, and will become law July 1, according to a press release from the Hilliard for Congress campaign.
Hilliard’s legislation requires that each contract awarded for construction of a new public school include a safe space or hallway where students, teachers, and educational support staff can gather during an emergency. Last year, Gov. Riley also signed Rep. Hilliard’s legislation, also to take effect July 1, that established a structure for school safety plans, which mandates that local boards of education adopt school safety plans and protocols.
“These new laws involve collaboration among community law enforcement, emergency responders, teachers, and non-teaching employees, to create a safety plan that fits each individual school,” Hilliard said.
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