Oil patch reached Florida
The oil pollution in the Gulf of Mexico now has reached Florida; tar pieces and sticky oil were washed up by the water on Friday at Northwest Pensacola. Following the most affected Louisana, Mississippi and Alabama states, Florida is the fourth one which got polluted by the spreading oil. Till Friday, a total of 225 kilometers of coastline was contaminated.
The Sunshine State, which gains 60 billion dollars annual income from tourism couldn’t avoid the biggest oil catastrophe in the history of United States. Pensacola Beach proclaims itself as the place where the whitest beaches are located. Local reports say that children picked up tennis ball sized tar pieces from those sands.
Florida authorities decided about deploying a larger number of cleaning workers and laying down even more sea dykes. Governor Charlie Christ has requested a further 100 million dollars from BP, which company has already contributed 25 million dollars to control the crisis.
The National Atmospheric Center after analyzing the crude oil’s movement predicted that within weeks the oil contamination may reach the eastern part of the United States and can reach up till North Carolina.
On the same day, U.S. president, Barack Obama – the third time in the last six weeks – traveled to Louisana state to discuss about the disaster. He talked to governors of Louisana, Florida and Alabama states, local officials and residents, got informed about the effects of the pollution. Due to the political pressure he faces now, Obama abruptly cancelled his planned trips to Indonesia and Australia.
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