Barack Obama came face to face with the reality of America’s biggest oil disaster last night, seeing tar balls on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico and promising stricken communities: “Justice will be done.”
As BP struggled for a third day to complete a “top kill” procedure aimed at tapping a leaking well on the seabed, the President flew over the slick, walked Louisiana’s oiled shores and witnessed for the second time the desperate efforts to hold back the tide.
“This is not just a mess we’ve got to mop up. People are watching their livelihoods wash up on the beach, parents are worried about their children’s health, everybody has watched this nightmare threaten the dreams they want to build,” he said during a visit to Grand Isle, a barrier island community.
Under mounting political pressure over the disaster, the President said that he had ordered Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security Secretary, and Admiral Thad Allen, the US Coast Guard chief, to “triple the manpower in places where oil has hit the shore or is within 24 hours of impact”.BP announced that it has spent $930 million (£640 million) responding to the disaster, but Mr Obama reminded the British oil company that there would be many more bills and that the federal government would be exploring “any and all reasonable contingency plans” if the top-kill plan failed. “Even if the leak was stopped today, it wouldn’t change the fact that these waters are full of oil,” he said.
BP said it would know on Sunday whether the procedure, which now includes a “junk shot” attempt to plug the well with materials such as shredded rubber and golf balls, had worked.
In a message to the people of Grand Isle, which has faced numerous natural disasters, and to others affected in the Gulf region, President Obama said: “I know that you have weathered your fair share of trials and tragedy. I know there are times you have wondered if you have been asked to face them alone . . . you are not alone, you will not be abandoned . . . we are on your side and we will see this through.”
Local residents observed that hours before the President’s arrival on the island, about 300 clean-up workers were brought in and put to work on the beaches. Hired by a contractor for BP, they were paid $12 an hour to pick up debris in what the US Coastguard said was a “pre-cleaning procedure” in preparation for the next wave of oil.
Around Grand Isle it was promising to be one of the busiest weekends of the year, just as it should be for the Memorial Day holiday. But it was the wrong kind of busy: instead of tourists there were squadrons of oil-spill workers clad in protective suits along the shore and helicopters overhead.
“Enjoy the beach by building sandcastles, swimming or sunbathing,” the tourism bureau’s brochure invites visitors. But wooden signs in the dunes now announced: “Beach Closed.” Some residents have erected signs of their own: “BP, we want our beach back”; and “Shame on you BP”. Vicky Lemoine, whose 17-year-old daughter Hannah painted the signs, said: “People are scared. I hope the President will see how precious the land is to the people here.”
Green Isle relies on the tourism, seafood and oil industries. At the Bridgeside Marina, scores of vessels should have been moored for today’s Speckled Trout Rodeo, but the marina is empty and the fishing grounds have been closed on federal orders. The competition was to have raised money for charitable causes, including a family whose home still needs renovation from one of the last disasters here, Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Grand Isle has been affected by hurricanes on average every seven years since 1860.
“We bounced back from it all — Katrina, Gustav, Ike. But I just don’t know if we’ll bounce back from this oil,” said Bob Sevin, the event organiser.
Source:The times
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