National Geographic News photo editor Chris Combs has filed a report from the Louisiana shoreline, after Hurricane Alex pushed oil onto already cleaned beaches. This time, he reports, there's no one around to clean them up:
"This is the worst oil we've seen yet, and…this is the absolute worst time for the oil to be here," said Wayne Keller, executive director of the Grand Isle Port Commission.
The Grand Isle Port Commission's Keller supervises some of the efforts to clean oiled beaches on nearby Elmer's Island National Wildlife Refuge, off Grand Isle, where beach access has been cut off by high waters from Hurricane Alex.
"We can't stop it. There's no skimming, booms aren't working in the heavy surf. It's a mess right now. And "the largest [oil] plumes we've seen yet are offshore."
Pictures: Hurricane Alex Pushes Oil on "Cleaned" Beaches (Photograph by Chris Combs, National Geographic; thanks, Marilyn Terrell)
