Nassau Guardian Online, Wednesday afternoon:
The worst natural disaster to hit the Gulf Coast is likely to reach local coastlines by the weekend, according to Chief Climatological Officer Michael Stubbs, who said a shift in wind patterns is expected to propel the oil slick towards The Bahamas.
In an interview with The Nassau Guardian yesterday Stubbs said that in pervious weeks weather conditions have kept the oil slick contained in the Gulf of Mexico.
“As it stands now the wind is not supporting movement out of the Gulf. It’s keeping the oil particles that are floating along the surface in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Stubbs.
“However as Friday approaches we see the weather pattern changing and what would happen then is the winds in the area would be flowing clockwise, making it possible for oil floating on the surface to make it to the notorious loop current. So once the particles move into the loop current the chances are [higher] for it [the oil] to reach our area.”
[snip]
Stubbs, who heads a meteorological task force set up by the Ingraham administration to monitor the oil spill, said once the surface winds shift, oil sediments will most likely reach the Cay Sal Bank, Bimini, and western Grand Bahama – key fishing areas for the marine industry.
He said for this reason the government has already been warned to prepare for the likely arrival of oil in Bahamian waters.
[snip]
On Monday, Minister for the Environment Earl Deveaux told The Nassau Guardian that the government is doing all it can to tackle the issue which has persisted for more than a month.
However, just five days earlier in a press conference, Deveaux admitted that The Bahamas is not prepared for the level of calamity that the growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could cause the country.
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it looks like it will also hit Havana, The Everglades, and maybe even Miami beach.
It’s definitely going to hit South Beach and the intercoastal waterways through Ft Lauderdale. All those pretty yachts tainted by the oilpocolypse.
If I weren’t in such despair over the ecological disaster, I might see the poetic justice.
About the drinking water. The water system probably originate from the Everglades. It’s been several years since I lived there.
South Beach is a 100% man-made island a bridge away from Miami. It has a great nightlife (think Studio 54 expanded to a 10 mi island) and great high end shopping.
Ft Lauderdale was created by destroying the swamp on the east side of the Everglades (due north of Miami). The Intercoastal is a series of ‘yacht roads” that intertwine from Miami to Boca Raton.
This could potentially be as devastating to the Everglades ecology as it is to the Louisiana coast. Perhaps more so, the Everglades have not been subject to the pollution of the Mississippi River.
95,000 barrels /day, is the true rate (from Edgar’s link)
Conirmed by McClathcy: