Deepwater Horizon: From tragedy to disaster

What happens when a tragedy transforms into a disaster? One may find that answer under the heading of “Deepwater Horizon.”

When the multi-million-dollar offshore oil rig exploded on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico and sank two days later the incident was already a tragedy if not a disaster-in-the-making. However, no one could be positive about either possibility at the initial stages.

Now nearly two weeks later, the 11 workers who were missing and were a subject of a search over hundreds of miles of Gulf waters are feared dead. That was and is the tragedy and what makes this such a personal story for anyone who wants to personalize it — whether they want to or not.

The sinking of the rig and the inability to stop the flow of oil went from a terrible headache for BP and other principals and evolved into a disaster as the oil continues to ride the waves toward the delicate Louisiana wetlands and beyond. Perhaps booms or  whatever can be laid down on the strait at the Rigolets and at Chef Mentuer Pass to keep the crude out of Lake Pontchartrain. But bad weather including coastal flooding will likely have the oil threatening Mississippi Sound and the beaches of Alabama and even Florida.

It isn’t just the birds, many which may die from oily feathers, or the two-toed Biloxi turkle dove or any real or imagined endangered species that face harm while in the path of this crude mess that makes this a disaster of many dimensions. Think about the fishing — commercial and recreational — and the oyster beds and shrimp that might destroy an economy that was just trying to return after a series of hurricanes. What happens when disaster follows disaster follows disaster?

It isn’t just the concerns of the “environmental wackos,” as I heard Rush Limburgerbreath call them yesterday. This runaway oil is an economic train wreck hitting a tornado after being buried in an avalanche following an earthquake. Just that one rig. Just imagine the impact on the U.S. petroleum industry alone. Then there is the potential economic loss from the fishing industry and tourism. I thought about visiting Gulfport and Biloxi in a couple of weeks but decided instead to visit my friend who lives in El Paso, across the Rio Grande from the world’s murder capital, Juarez. Oh well, I guess I’m an adventure tourista. But my decision was made before the potential oil spill disaster that could strike a Katrina-rebounding Mississippi Gulf Coast.

But yes, this thing, this oil spill in the Gulf, has turned into a bigger “thing.” It is an environmental disaster that become a major freaking ecological disaster. So let the Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and the ghost of John Wayne playing a Red Adair-like character in the 1968 adventure flick “Hellfighters” go in and get this “thing” under control. An economy depends on it.  So do the birds. So does the Earth. And if indeed the 11 missing are forever entombed into the deep, let them live where the seas once again show its beauty and the sailor’s wish of fair winds and following seas. It’s the least that can be done for those men.