[/caption]Given the current situation going on in the Gulf of Mexico, with everyone trying desperately to contain and clean up the British Petroleum oil spill, the last thing anyone needs is a tropical storm.
Unfortunately, it appears that Tropical Storm Alex is headed right for the areas affected by the disaster. Federal officials, the Coast Guard, and BP officials are trying to assemble a contingency plan that would map out what workers in the area need to do to limit the damage of the storm as much as possible.
Alex is currently near the Yucatan Peninsula, and weather officials are not able to accurately predict which path the storm will take, and whether or not it will form into a hurricane.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicted that the storm has an 80% chance of tropical cyclone formation, Business Week said last week.
Currently the storm has been measured to have maximum sustained winds of 45 miles per hour. The NHC is estimating that the storm could take approximately 3 paths: turning west into central Mexico, hitting the very bottom of Texas, or heading straight for the oil spill area around the northwestern top of Florida.
Since it is too early to tell where the storm will actually hit, some officials think that all of the media hype and “what if?” scenarios being played out in regards to the storm affecting the oil spill containment are somewhat pointless.
Other interested individuals point out that the storm would make it impossible for the smaller boating vessels to continue their efforts, and that the containment vessel located above the spill itself would have to be moved during the storm.
This would leave the gushing oil well to continue spewing oil into the Gulf for the duration of the storm. Only time will tell which direction Tropical Storm Alex decides to take.
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