This NOAA map of Gulf hurricane paths near the BP disaster is the most terrifying graphic I’ve seen lately. The site of the oil leak (not spill, by gum–this is a leaking oil deposit) is marked by a red star, and the hurricane paths are from the last 100 years. Talk about your unfortunate placement:
Reports Talking Points Memo:
So what happens if a big storm hits?
“There’s a bunch of impacts,” says William Drennan, a hurricane expert at the University of Miami’s Rosentiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
“If you get a storm which is coming toward the coast you can get a significant storm surge,” Drennan told me in an interview Thursday afternoon. “If you get a storm surge, then the top meter of the water is going to go…certainly hundreds of feet possibly miles inland.”
That, he said, could propel oil “deep into the marshland,” where the ecological impact could be worse than if the oil remained on the surface or slightly below.
