Disasters

"The Atlantic hurricane season could be the busiest since 2005, when Katrina and Rita caused massive destruction along the same part of the Gulf Coast now struggling with the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, government scientists said Thursday."

"The Obama administration scrambled to respond on Sunday after the failure of the latest effort to kill the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. But administration officials acknowledged the possibility that tens of thousands of gallons of oil might continue pouring out until August, when two relief wells are scheduled to be completed."

"Unable for six weeks to plug the gushing oil well beneath the Gulf of Mexico, BP renewed an effort Monday to use a dome to funnel some of the leaking crude to a tanker on the surface. A similar attempt failed three weeks ago, but officials said they had resolved some of the technical problems that forced them to abort last time."

"After several years of relatively somnolent hurricane seasons in the Atlantic Ocean, conditions have aligned to create a heightened storm threat this summer and fall. If the season plays out as forecast, this will almost certainly complicate the months-long effort needed to insure the closure of the  gushing seabed oil well and limit the spread of resulting slicks."

"Three months before the massive BP oil spill erupted in the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration proposed downsizing the Coast Guard national coordination center for oil spill responses, prompting its senior officers to warn that the agency's readiness for catastrophic events would be weakened."

"Photographers say BP and government officials are preventing them from documenting the impact of the Deepwater Horizon disaster."

Oil-soaked pelicans in some coastal marshes, coated with oil from the Gulf spill, can no longer fly. The number of miles of shoreline smothered in oil continues to grow, and the oil pushes further inland.

"President Barack Obama Thursday rejected charges he was slow to respond to the Gulf of Mexico "tragedy" and clamped down on the oil industry, as he tried to contain political blowback from the crisis."

"MIAMI — Facing more than 100 lawsuits after its Gulf of Mexico oil spill killed 11 workers and threatened four coastal states, oil giant BP is asking the courts to place every pre-trial issue in the hands of a single federal judge in Houston. That judge, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes, has traveled the world giving lectures on ethics for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, a professional association and research group that works with BP and other oil companies. The organization pays his travel expenses."

"Gayla Benefield and Eva Thomson are sisters who have grown used to death. For two decades, they have watched asbestos from a nearby vermiculite mine strangle their parents, Thomson's husband, an aunt, several in-laws and numerous neighbors and friends."