Scuzzbuckets in L.A.

From the LATIMES dot com website:

Gulf oil spill: The Big Easy takes the news with shrug

In New Orleans, there is a sort of surreal atmosphere about the gulf oil spill disaster: Locals are aware of how grave the situation is, but many of them – particularly in the retail, tourism and restaurant industries – are swamped serving happy out-of-town revelers in town for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

At the Louisiana Music Factory, a specialty record store in the French Quarter, clerk Mike Robeson said that none of the tourists visiting the shop really mention the spill – and during the day he's too busy to really ruminate on it.


“There’s so much going on there’s almost no time to talk about it,” he said.

But on his way home Thursday night, Robeson stopped by the Nelly Deli grocery store, at Bourbon and Ursulines streets, to buy a half-pint of Jim Beam. The news was on television, and it suddenly it hit hard.

“The clerk was almost crying over the brown pelicans,” he said.

Hair soaks up oil

Hairdressers take note: Loose hair can be stuffed into nylon stockings which we double up and tie together to make "booms" that surround and contain as well as soak up oil spills.

We also sort through boxes of hair to make sure there is no garbage and then pay to send it off to nonwoven needlepunch factories to make batches of hairmats. These mats are for emergency oil spills and for oiled bird and mammal cages.

Go to matteroftrust.org to find out how to donate to the gulf oil spill cleanup.

Coast Guard's Flickr Album

The U.S. Coast Guard has a flickr album of the oilspill here

Fishers Frustrated

Fishermen feel frustrated that they're not being used in helping during the oil spill. But PB is in charge and don't seem interested.

What does this look like?

An oil hurricane. Creepy

Feeling helpless

From the Houma Comet

The spill threatens to have far-reaching consequences.

It could cause widespread damage to wildlife in an area of highly sensitive marshes, wetlands and estuaries that produce one-quarter of the seafood consumed in the USA, said Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., whose district includes Louisiana's southeast coast. "Every American is going to feel this if it gets as bad as they say it might," he said.

Melancon said he was "waiting for answers" from the federal government as to what equipment was available to stop the oil from spreading, and when it could get there. "You just feel helpless," he said. "This is an area that has been through an awful lot."

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal warned that billions of dollars' worth of coastal restoration projects undertaken after hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit in 2005 are at risk. The disaster also could affect a pillar of Obama's energy plan - an initiative announced a month ago that could open up new areas off the Atlantic Coast and elsewhere to offshore drilling.

Local fisherman Acy Cooper said he was frustrated that the cleanup effort - headed by the Coast Guard and the oil rig's operator, global energy giant BP - waited until Thursday to begin recruiting local fishermen to help.

"We should've been the first one they contacted," Cooper said "We know the bayous better than anyone else."

The face of tragedy

PHOTO BY TED JACKSON (nola.com) Worry and concern shows on the faces as Louisiana fishers talk outside the front doors of the council chambers in Chalmette, La. following in an emergency meeting Wednesday, April 28, 2010 to see how they can use their resources to help fight the oil spill spewing from from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster that is threatening the Louisiana coastline and its estuaries.

Oil washes ashore.....

Just walked outside in Slidell. The oil smell has made it this far.

Hello, Tomorrow

From noaa.gov, tomorrow's prediction of this manmade disaster:

Yes, it's just a prediction and it looks bad.
But we will work through this, right?

Anatomy of an oil spill

This is the best depiction of what's going on out in the Gulf right now. Click on picture to go to website.
From livescience dot com

Louisiana Oil Spill Website

emergency.louisiana.gov