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United States News Title: Alex to Become Hurricane as Swells Reach Gulf Spill Tropical Storm Alex, the first named system of the Atlantic hurricane season, strengthened today over open waters, forcing the evacuation of rigs in the Gulf of Mexico while pushing swells toward the worst U.S. oil spill. The storm, packing maximum sustained winds of 70 miles (110 kilometers) per hour, was 380 miles southeast of Brownsville, Texas, heading north-northwest at 12 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a 7 a.m. CDT advisory. The circulating winds approached hurricane status of 74 mph. A hurricane warning was issued for the coast of Texas near Padre Island to the mouth of the Rio Grande and south of the Mexico border to La Cruz, the hurricane center said. The storm will intensify and turn more to the northwest today, moving further from the oil spill, it said. BP Plc said efforts to contain the spill may be disrupted as weather conditions worsen. “Alex is likely to become a hurricane later today,” the center said. Five to 10 inches of rain was forecast for southern Texas and northeastern Mexico over the next few days, some of which could cause deadly “flash floods and mudslides, especially in mountainous terrain,” it said. Landfall near the U.S.-Mexico border was expected late tomorrow or early July 1. A hurricane watch means storm conditions may develop within 36 hours. A tropical storm warning remains in effect for the low-lying coastal area from Baffin Bay to Port O’Connor, Texas. A storm system is named once sustained winds reach 39 mph. “Alex will be a large hurricane,” Jim Rouiller, senior energy meteorologist for Planalytics Inc., said yesterday. “Current projections place the destructive right forward quad of Alex across southeast Texas, possibly up to Corpus Christi.” Oil Spill The storm’s track keeps it away from a direct hit on an oil slick from the damaged BP well. Large ocean swells though are making their way toward the oil spill, said Brian LaMarre, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Slidell, Louisiana. “A hurricane is like a giant plunger and the waves radiate out,” Joe Bastardi, chief hurricane forecaster at AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania, said yesterday. “Some big swells are coming out and pushing oil to the coast and there isn’t anything anyone can do about it.” BP needs about three more days to connect a new cap that will feed crude from the leaking Macondo well to the Helix Producer, a vessel that can capture 20,000 barrels to 25,000 more barrels a day beyond the London-based company’s current containment capacity, said senior vice president Kent Wells. Helix Delay As the work can only be completed in flat seas, Alex could cause a seven-day delay in connecting the Helix, he said. The work was to be completed by July 7, he said yesterday. The waves may swell to as high as 12 feet in 36 hours, pushing oil into the Gulf Coast wetlands, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the U.S. government’s national incident commander, said. Allen said he doesn’t think current operations to capture spilled oil will be affected. Crude oil fell for a second day in New York, meanwhile, on speculation the storm will bypass the main producing areas of the Gulf of Mexico and reach land in Mexico. Oil for August delivery fell as much as 2.6 percent to $76.25 a barrel. The Gulf of Mexico measures about 500 miles from north to south between the Mississippi River delta and the Yucatan peninsula, and about 1,000 miles west to east. It is home to about 30 percent of U.S. oil, 12 percent of its natural gas production and has seven of the 10 busiest U.S. ports. Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned company known as Pemex, closed oil-export terminals Cayo Arcas and Dos Bocas as Alex bore down on Mexico with tropical force winds that extend outward up to 105 miles. Pemex, Latin America’s largest oil producer, is operating all its rigs and said they will remain open as the storm passes. Gulf Evacuations BP and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the biggest oil producers in the Gulf, are evacuating hundreds of workers from platforms in the western and central Gulf as a safety precaution. Shell said it was shutting production in the path of the storm as it evacuates 700 workers from offshore operations. About 835 workers remain offshore. “Production from our East assets will be evaluated as the storm progresses,” it said. Exxon Mobil Corp., Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Apache Corp. said they are evacuating non-essential workers. Oil and gas companies are requesting additional helicopters to evacuate workers, primarily in the western Gulf, said Kade Monlezun, manager of business development for Air Logistics LLC, a helicopter services company and unit of Bristow Group Inc. Helicopter Evacuations “They’re also prepared to evacuate further east,” he said. “But with the drilling moratorium, there are fewer projects going on and less need for additional aircraft for evacuations.” The Gulf Coast is also home to about half of U.S. refining capacity, according to the Energy Department. Gulf Coast refiners in August and September 2008 lost about 20 percent of daily production capacity due to hurricanes Ike and Gustav. Five people were killed after they tried to cross rivers swollen by Alex’s rains in Nicaragua, said Maj. Alberto Mendez of the civil defense agency. A passenger boat collision that killed one person on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast may have been caused by low visibility because of heavy rains, Mendez said. In Guatemala, two farmers were buried and killed by a mudslide triggered by Alex, said David de Leon of the national disaster agency. Five deaths were reported in El Salvador by landslides or drowning in swollen rivers.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
Owe-bama's refusal to push forward on Cap and Trade to fight climate change produced this storm. I know cause thats what baby bobby kennedy said in 2005 about Bush....(laughing)
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