Is there any creditable word on the possible effects caused by the oil leak near the Louisana coastline? The severity of the leak varies depending on which news source you follow. Many thanks to the Coast Guard and all others as they attempt to control this situation!

I hope that they get everything under control. One for all of the wildlife, and also; I am going to Panama City the middle of June for my family vacation. I love the ocean and I hope it will be beautiful then.

We're all kinda holding our breath and State officials expect the slick to start impacting Florida by Monday. But, Bay Conty officials do have a plan if the oil spill reaches us. It includes coordinating with State and Federal agencies. Plus, you can count on enthusiastic and widespread volunteerism across our area... we're very protective of our beaches!

Also, Governor Charlie Crist just declared a state of emergency for Bay and 5 other counties, which frees up some funding and eliminates a few hurdles in regards to protection and cleanup.

Here's an article on the county's plans:
Bay County officials: ‘We do have a plan in place' for oil spill, just in case

“A look at last night flyovers of the oil spill shows that the oil spill has not moved closer to our shoreline,” said Mark Bowen, the chief of emergency services for Bay County. “We do have a plan in place locally, at the state level and federally.”

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Selfish motives aside we really hope the Emerald Coast is spared from this. Between this and the fire at the Pirate Ship this has been a pretty crappy week! It will get better! I can't help but hope that the experts involved will get the spill under control before any major negative enviromental impact occurs and would also like to believe that the fine folks that brought us the Pirate Ship will preserve their own personal legacy at PCB by rebuilding this monument as well.

I'm not trying to sound selfish either but I do not want this oil coming ashore ruining the beautiful beaches of Alabama and the Florida panhandle. We are so looking forward to our beach vacation and will not be coming if the beaches and water are covered with oil. I'm more concerned at the 20 dead sea turtles found along Pass Christian, MS. I fear there will be more wildlife deaths of all the wonderful sea mammals. It breaks my heart to see dead sea turtles, I would be as upset if it were pelicans, dolphins, egrets, herons, fish, etc. This makes me sad.

The oil spill is definitely affecting tourism already. Hotels are reporting cancelations for Memorial Day weekend and this summer.

Not sure we can win against media sensationalism... and I can understand everyone's concern about their vacations. Unfortunately, there's no way to predict where this mess will end up and when it will happen.

So far, no confirmed reports of oil anywhere near Florida beaches.

For now, it looks like winds and currents are keeping it away from our beaches. Even when the media speaks about it hitting Florida beaches, they're referring to Pensacola and beaches west of PCB.

Everyone here is eager to help, so if it does make it this far east, I'm sure cleanup will happen quickly.

BP is working on the problem. One of the three leaks has already been capped (although it won't really have an effect on the amount leaking) and shows progress is being made. Everyone is hoping the giant dome that left port yesterday and is being deployed this week will work.

So, I hope people don't cancel their PCB trips prematurely. It's good to have a backup plan for your vacation, but PCB stands a good chance of avoiding this disaster. If you need some reassurance, check out our Panama City Beach live cams... the beach is absolutely stunning today!

Here's the latest response from BP:

Video response from BP

Update on Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Response
Release date: 06 May 2010

BP today provided an update on developments in the response to the MC252 oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.
Subsea Source Control and Containment Work continues to attempt to bring the MC252 oil well under control, to stop the flow of oil and to contain the oil subsea.

A valve that had been attached to the end of a broken drill pipe, one of the three points from which oil was leaking, was closed. This has stopped the flow from this point, but is not expected to affect the overall rate of flow from the well. BP continues to use remotely operated vehicles to monitor the flow of oil from the other two leak points.

A containment dome was loaded aboard a transport vessel at Port Fourchon, Louisiana, and began its transport to the MC252 well site. The 40x24x14 feet steel vessel, which weighs almost 100 tons, is expected to be lowered to the seabed today.

The drilling of the first relief well, which began on Sunday May 2, continues. It is estimated that it will take some three months to complete.

Surface Spill Response, Containment and Shoreline Protection Work continues to collect and disperse oil that has reached the surface of the sea and to protect the shoreline.

By mid-afternoon, twelve flights over the spill had been completed, delivering a total of 34,000 gallons of dispersant. During the day further in situ burning of oil on the surface of the water was carried out.
80,000 feet of boom was deployed during the day. This brought the total length of boom now deployed to protect the shore to over 100 miles.

More than 11,000 people have so far volunteered to assist in efforts to protect the coastline and in the clean up of any spill. More than 4,000 have already received training.

Here are a couple of oil leak related items that I saw earlier this morning.

BP is apparently using a more toxic oil dispersant when a less toxic version exists. And better yet, the more toxic version is only 54.7 percent effective at breaking down crude oil...when the less toxic version has a 100% effective rate. I'm going to go ahead and guess that cost has something to do with choosing Corexit over Dispersit? By the way, how awesome are both of those product names?

Toxic Oil Dispersant Used in Gulf Despite Better Alternative


And the second is a video explaining the "megadome" they're lowering today. Embeded below.

Transocean, Corexit, Dispersit, Megadome. This is like some sort of Jerry Bruckheimer disaster movie.

I'm not cancelling our trip as of yet. Our vacation is not until the end of August. And It looks like the oil is primarily staying off of the Louisiana coast so far. But I had heard some tar balls had reached Dauphin Island, AL. Wonder if that is true? Hope not. And that poor bird struggling in the oil against the wall of whatever that was, a ship, etc. Hope someone saved it and cleaned it up.

Finally! They have inserted the pipe into the mouth of the major leak, and they are successfully piping the oil and natural gas up to a container ship...
It's only a stop-gap measure, but it is working! Hooray!~

Looks like the Gulf Coast of Florida will not be threatened further. Keep your fingers crossed and keep your travel plans in tact! Our beaches are open for business!

Thank goodness!!!

From everything I can find, the oil isn't supposed to go much further than Pensacola, which is good news for PCB if that holds true. We will be back to PCB in September, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for good conditions and NO OIL!

Southwest reports that their bookings are AWESOME... that's incredible considering one of the non-stop markets is Nashville, and they have had terrible flooding.
So, looks like the word is getting out that our beaches are BEAUTIFUL and free of oil... big fat groupers are sizzling on the grill over at Schooners, and Capt. Anderson's is serving up those amazing seafood platters as fast as they can.

Ya'll come on down!

The water is warming up nicely and the beach is great. PCB is waiting. I have a few weeks left for rent this summer at the Majestic Seahorse Condo.
Panama City Beach Area, Florida vacation rental by owner: 2 bedroom Condo rental that sleeps 7. The Majestic Seahorse Condo "Carefully Crafted Corner Unit"

Our local news here in KY was reporting that things are much worse than I had last heard. I don't think anybody knows how bad it is, but I hope that the impact is minimal.

The drama continues to unfold, but, thankfully, our beaches are still gorgeous - no sign of oil near us in Northwest Florida.

The Emerald Coast Blue Marlin tournament is officially ON for this year - all indications are that our fishing waters will be just fine! So that's good news.

They have to get that thing STOPPED, though. Tragic.