Blogging from Slidell, Louisiana about loving life on the Gulf Coast despite BP and Katrina
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Hunting for Oil
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Monday, April 25, 2011
Strange burglary
HANCOCK COUNTY -- A Jourdan River Shores resident stopped a robbery at a home here Thursday, saving his neighbor’s power tools and sausage, authorities said.
Deputies responding to a burglary report found Paul Boswell had blocked two Louisiana men inside the residence, investigator Matthew Carver said.
Joshua Alexander Johnson, 24, of Covington, and Jake Vincent Ruffino, 18, of Slidell, were arrested. Items found in the men’s vehicle included a drill press, a professional battery charger, a pellet rifle and several pounds of sausage and other meat, Carver said.
Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/04/22/3049767/2-men-arrested-in-robbery-of-power.html#ixzz1KXSGh9f0
Now this is recycling!
The first artificial reef constructed from the old Interstate 10 Twin Spans is now in place. The four-acre reef is located between the new I-10 bridge and Highway 11 (Latitude 30° 10.169' Longitude 89° 50.744'). The corners of the reef are marked by four yellow illuminated marker buoys. Sixty spans were dismantled, processed and deployed as reef material. In addition to providing hard-bottom habitat for bottom-dwelling organisms, the reef will create a valuable fish habitat for popular recreational species, including redfish, speckled trout, croakers, sheepshead and drum. The project was a cooperative effort among the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Department of Transportation and Development, Coastal Conservation Association of Louisiana and NOAA Office of Coast Survey. Since its creation in 1986, the department's Artificial Reef Program has developed 28 reefs in Louisiana's inshore waters.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Lake Catherine's Rebirth
Highway 90 is the road that traverses through Lake Catherine and Venetian Isles. For the past month I've been using this route to travel to work due to the heavy road construction taking place on Highway 11 and the twin spans. The commute is a little bit longer, but it allows me to relax while driving rather than dodge those huge deadly dump trucks.
Lake Catherine was literally flattened by Katrina. Before the storm this little community consisted of camps and small waterfront homes for fishermen weekend getaways for people living in the city. In the last three years Lake Catherine has seen a building boom of new camps and huge homes. Click here for a sampling of the various homes in the area.
What I enjoy the most about travelling through Lake Catherine are the signs the residents create for their homes/camps. You can see how people feel about their abodes by their signs. One Saturday hubby and I drove through Lake Catherine and took pictures of most of the signs and here they are. Enjoy!
Click on the photos for larger versions.
Here's another reason I enjoy riding through Lake Catherine
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
One year later - BP Oilspill
from PewEnvironment.org/OffshoreEnergyReform
Total barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico by the Deepwater Horizon blowout: 4,900,000
Equivalent of that in Exxon Valdez oil spills: 19
Barrels of oil per day BP claimed in its 2009 emergency response plan it could
skim and store in response to a spill in the Gulf: 491,721
Average barrels per day BP actually captured, burned and chemically “dispersed”: 19,251
Gallons of chemical dispersant dumped into the Gulf to try to break down the oil: 1,843,786
Projected three-year loss of tourism revenue for Gulf Coast communities as a result of the spill: $22,700,000,000
Number of active offshore oil platforms in the Gulf: 3,395
Number of them in deepwater (more than 1,000 feet): 64
Underwater depth of the Deepwater Horizon well, in feet: 4,994
Number of Gulf oil platforms in water deeper than that: 11
Underwater depth of the deepest of those, in feet: 8,062
Number of U.S. offshore oil well “incidents” (including fatalities, injuries, fires, and spills)
reported by federal regulators from 2006 through 2009: 3,282
Number of those that included “a loss of well control”: 23
Ratio of government inspectors to oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico: 1 to 54
Percentage of those inspectors who believe they did not receive adequate training: 50
Percent of increase in U.S. offshore oil and gas leasing since 1982: 200
Percent of decrease in staffing resources for federal offshore regulation since 1983: 36
Number of bills introduced in Congress since the Deepwater Horizon blowout that
would reform offshore drilling and/or improve spill response: 84
Number of those bills that have passed the House: 2
Number that have passed the Senate: 0
Figures are the most recently available as of October 26, 2010. Sources at this link
Sunday, April 17, 2011
A different perspective
NOTE: Click on pictures for larger versions
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New Orleans will soon be welcoming home a New Orleans native and his wife. Jeff St. Romain is leaving his post as president of Volunteers...
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Although it has been open for over four years now, there really wasn't a lot of hoopla about the reopening of the "Bay Bridge"...