Orange Beach Oil

Here is what I wrote the morning after the oil hit the shore in Orange Beach, AL.

The beach looks very different this morning compared to last night.  The really thick oil sludge was broken up by the surf.  Now the surf is full of floating oil sludge.  The oil is washing onto the beach but not sticking like it did last night (might have something to do with the tides).

As you can see, clean up crews were out this morning.  They weren’t there when I walked by but that’s expected as they work 15 minutes then take a 15 minute break when it’s as hot as it is here.

I don’t know if the oil is this bad on all of the beaches.  I think this oil was part of a long strip that was estimated to be pretty wide.  The smell isn’t bad enough to stop people from laying out on the beach but you obviously can’t get in the water.

Update – We went back to the beach there were only one or two people in front of the condos we are staying in. The smell ran us off after about an hour. Clean up crews were back to work but the job is far greater than 50 people with shovels can accomplish.