By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor / June 30, 2010
With Hurricane Alex churning through the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday and this year’s hurricane season forecasted to be an active one, scientists are worried about how the Gulf Coast will fare from the potential wallop it could take.
Right now, scientists are predicting that this hurricane season, which officially began on June 1, could be as intense as or worse than in 2005 (the most active Atlantic season ever recorded and the year Hurricane Katrina struck).
This stormy weather has the potential to not only wreak the normal havoc on coastal areas, toppling trees and flooding inland areas, but could worsen the already devastating impact of the BP oil spill on the Gulf, spreading tar balls over a much wider area, as well as across not-yet-hit marshes, according to Ping Wang in the Department of Geology at the University of South Florida. Already, Alex has pushed oil from the spill onto Gulf coast beaches, with some tar balls as large as apples, according to news reports.
The Christian Science Monitor
BP Says Lightning Storms Held Back Oil Recovery Wednesday Morning -Wall Street Journal
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