Travelers changing their plans as Gulf of Mexico oil spill moves east

[marmar]

from the NOLA Times-Picayune:



This family was determined to make it to the beach before the oil does.

Lena and Clayton Brunet, of Houma, spent Friday driving east toward Gulf Shores, Ala., hoping to take their 3-year-old daughter to the coast before the oil spill washing ashore can close more beaches.

But the Gulf of Mexico oil spill got there first, prompting the Alabama state health officer to issue a warning that people stay out of the coastal waters -- from Mississippi to the Florida state line. No such warning has been issued yet in Florida, though officials acknowledged a greater presence of tar balls there.

As reports flooded in of oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster creeping onto beaches that stretch from Grand Isle to parts of the Florida Panhandle, hundreds of Louisiana families who make summer sojourns to beaches on the Gulf of Mexico are awash in uncertainty over the impact of the spill on their safety and serenity.

"We have a 3-year-old and I'm six months pregnant," said Lena Brunet, 26. "We wanted to go before the oil got there and the baby came. Now that the oil's coming, we're trying to get there." ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/travelers_changing_their_plans.html