Major Oil Spill Escapes Notice – for 14 years!

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From the Washington Post, this extraordinary story: A 14-year-long oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico verges on becoming one of the worst in U.S. history.

An oil spill that has been quietly leaking millions of barrels into the Gulf of Mexico has gone unplugged for so long that it now verges on becoming one of the worst offshore disasters in U.S. history.

Between 300 and 700 barrels of oil per day have been spewing from a site 12 miles off the Louisiana coast since 2004, when an oil-production platform owned by Taylor Energy sank in a mudslide triggered by Hurricane Ivan. Many of the wells have not been capped, and federal officials estimate that the spill could continue through this century. With no fix in sight, the Taylor offshore spill is threatening to overtake BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster as the largest ever.

New Push for Mitigation and Resilience – several perspectives

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From BloombergNews: Devastating Storms May Spur Action on Disaster Preparation

  •   Tougher building codes, buyouts could reduce harm next time
  •   Scolding from FEMA head brings resilience debate into the open”Hurricane Michael’s devastation could spur policymakers to better prepare vulnerable communities for the effects of climate change.”

From the Insurance Journal: Latest Storms May Finally Shift Focus to Disaster Mitigation by Local Communities

Why is Florida risking future hurricane misery?

Hurricane Michael Reminds Us It’s Past Time to Get Smarter About Where We Build.  Since 1970, the state has added nearly 15 million residents, most of them flowing into storm-prone counties that border the Gulf or the Atlantic.

After Hurricane Michael, Floridians must demand stronger building codes — everywhere

Why was there so much damage from Hurricane Michael? The easy answer: Michael was a spectacularly strong hurricane. Near the top of the scale.
The rest of the answer is, however, that important people decided that homes and businesses and Air Force bases housing billions of dollars in airplanes should be built to a lower standard than Mother Nature’s reality dictated. They bet that a superstrong storm wasn’t going to come along. They lost the bet.