The View of Gulf Shores Alabama Before BP’s Oil Slick Arrives

Glynn Wilson

[Click on the image for a larger view]

This is how I want to remember the view of the beach at the Gulf State Park Fishing Pier, destroyed in 2004 by Hurricane Ivan but rebuilt in 2009. The new pier is the longest on the Gulf of Mexico at 1540 feet.

With a cool front pushing down from the north and humidity low, the light, color and photosynthesis were astounding this morning as I packed my gear and headed for a break from the oil spill story on Mother’s Day in Birmingham. Due to the weather and the ongoing nature of the story, I did not want to leave.

This scene is not going to hold for long, however. The wind will eventually turn and shift to the prevailing weather pattern, with winds out of the south. When it does, the growing BP oil slick will make its way ashore.

A lot of factors will determine how bad this scene will look in a few days, not least of which is whether the engineers now trying to come up with a plan to stop the leaks can figure something out. The so-named “concrete condom” didn’t work.

Tags: Alabama, Gulf Shores, Gulf State Park Fishing Pier

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 9th, 2010 at 10:03 pm and is filed under BP Oil Spill, Environment News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.