Thad Allen Meets With Gulf Leaders

By Miles Wolf Tamboli - Talk Radio News Service

National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen spent Thursday morning with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Parish presidents from the Gulf region.

Speaking with reporters, the former Coast Guard official explained that the leaders had discussed and agreed upon three major issues: “to assess how we can move forward from response to recovery,” and to refine the team’s hurricane preparedness plans following Tropical Storm Bonnie in such a way that the command will be able to respond to more varied degrees of storm systems, and to develop a “joint vessel of opportunity employment plan,” said Allen.

“Vessels of opportunity” are generally local commercial boats that have been put out of work by the spill, and subsequently employed by the response team, explained Allen.  Unfortunately, the joint command will need to move to employing more specialized contractors in the near future, leaving many of these vessels out of work yet again.

The meeting also provided leaders the opportunity to voice their concerns over the large amount of boom that has yet to be deployed, which could end up further harming marshlands if not removed before any intense storm, explained Allen.

Allen further reported that BP’s next attempt to stop the leak, known as the “static kill,” may be implemented sooner than Monday, as authorities had initially expected. The static kill is similar to the top kill method, which BP had attempted but failed to implement earlier in the leak, but has a better chance of success, say authorities, due to the reduced pressure of the leak and the engineering of the “stacking cap” that is now keeping the leak contained.