Oil Slick Makes Landfall on Gulf Coast: Big Pics
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April 30, 2010 -- The environmental disaster that emergency workers have been scrambling to control in the Gulf of Mexico has entered a new phase. Yesterday, NASA's Terra satellite snapped the above image as the first tendrils of an angry swirl of oil made landfall on the tip of the Mississippi River Delta.
As some 5,000 barrels of oil continued to gush from the sea floor daily, disaster response crews prepared for a catastrophe that could rival the Exxon Valdez oil spill in scope of environmental damage, and could take months or years to clean up.
"We're in it for the marathon," said Doug Helton, incident operations coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. "If they can't get that valve engaged, the release of oil could go on for 2-3 months," while other emergency measures are implemented.
Computer projections, pictured below, indicate that the slick will envelop much of the eastern Louisiana coast throughout Friday and Saturday as strong winds out of the southeast push the sludge ashore. NOAA crews are flying over the slick twice a day to assess its position and update forecasts.
Fragile wetlands ecosystems could be devastated by the spill, as could the region's multi-billion dollar fishing industry. Oil booms have been placed at the entrance to vital estuary habitat, but only time will tell how much damage the pollution will do.
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