Santa Dominican Republic
Sat, 24 Jul 2010 09:23:22 +0100
By DAVID DISHNEAU and HARRY R. WEBER
Associated Press Writers
ON THE GULF OF MEXICO (AP) - Ships relaying the sights and sounds from BP's broken oil well stood fast Friday as the leftovers of Tropical Storm Bonnie blew straight for the spill site, threatening to force a full evacuation that would leave engineers clueless about whether a makeshift cap on the gusher was holding.
Vessels connected to deep-sea robots equipped with cameras and seismic devices would be among the last to flee and would ride out the rough weather if possible, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said.
"If conditions allow, they will remain through the passage of the storm," Allen said in New Orleans.
Bonnie made landfall south of Miami early Friday as a feeble tropical storm with top sustained winds of 40 mph. It broke apart as it crossed Florida and was a tropical depression as it moved into the Gulf, but forecasters expected it to strengthen slightly and roll over the spill site around midday Saturday.
Some of the dozens of vessels working at the well site were leaving Friday evening. By daybreak, all but a handful, including those providing video images, were expected to remain. Allen said individual captains would decide when to leave, based on weather conditions.
The ships holding the robots would be among the first to return if forecasts force them to leave, but they could be gone for up to two days, said Allen, the federal government's spill chief.
The mechanical plug that has mostly contained the oil for eight days will be left closed, Allen said. But if the robots are reeled in, the only way officials will know whether the cap has failed will be if oil pooling on the surface appears in satellite and aerial views - provided the clouds aren't too thick.
Audio surveillance gear left behind could tell BP whether the well is still stable, but scientists won't be able to listen to the recordings until the ships return to the area.
Allen expressed increasing confidence in the experimental cap despite a few leaks that initially worried government experts. Scientists say even a severe storm shouldn't affect the plug, nearly a mile beneath the ocean surface 40 miles from the Louisiana coast.
"There's almost no chance it'll have any impact on the well head or the cap because it's right around 5,000 feet deep and even the largest waves won't get down that far," said Don Van Nieuwenhuise, director of professional geoscience programs at the University of Houston.
Crews of other vessels, including one boring the tunnel meant to kill the flow of crude for good, spent Friday hauling in their gear and getting out of the storm's way. Workers were pulling up a mile of pipe in 40-to-60-foot sections and laying it on deck of the drilling rig so they could move to safer water, probably to the southwest flank of the storm.
"Preservation of life and preservation of equipment are our highest priorities," said Allen, a veteran of the Coast Guard's rescue mission after Hurricane Katrina.
Shell Oil also was evacuating its operations in the Gulf, moving out more than 600 workers and shutting down production at all but one well sheltered safely in Mobile Bay.
At the spill site, the water no longer looks thick with gooey tar. But the oil is still there beneath the surface, staining the hulls of boats motoring around in it.
Strong winds and waves could help break up the oil further, but a storm surge also might push it into sensitive marsh areas along the coast.
"Those are two opposite consequences and we're prepared to move out and aggressively attack this once the threat has passed through," Allen said.
The foul weather has stalled progress toward killing the well and could delay until mid-August the sealing of the nearly two-mile underground shaft using mud and cement, Allen and BP say. BP had hoped to finish drilling a relief tunnel Friday, but had to plug it Wednesday to prepare for the storm.
On the tiny resort island of Grand Isle off the southeast Louisiana coast workers packed up the oil removal operation, tearing down tents, tying down clean boom and loading oil-soaked boom into large containers so it won't pollute the area if the storm causes flooding.
"Part of our severe weather plan is to remove all the equipment from the beach," said Coast Guard Lt. Cmd. Nan Bangs. "We don'twant to take a chance on something damaging the sand berm or the houses along there."
Before the cap was attached and closed a week ago, the broken well spewed 94 million to 184 million gallons into the Gulf after the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.
BP is likely to be fined per gallon spilled, although determining that could be difficult. Concentrations of underwater oil at least doubled last month, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Researchers at the University of South Florida said Friday they have the first scientific proof that two giant plumes of oil beneath the surface of the Gulf came from the broken well. BP initially denied the plumes even existed.
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Dishneau reported from New Orleans, Weber from aboard the Coast Guard cutter Decisive. Associated Press writers Mary Foster in Grand Isle, La., Jason Dearen in San Francisco and Matthew Brown in Billings, Mont., contributed to this report.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Any visitor new to the Dominican Republic will find a bewildering array of celebrations, festivities, holidays, and everything else in between. In fact, in the Dominican Republic, something fun is always happening somewhere every day of the year.
In most of the Catholic world, ‘Semana Santa’ or the Holy Week is a time for reflection, prayer, attrition and silence and other practices that generally encourage the faithful for time of quiet. This traditional practice has been going on for centuries at different degrees of relative silence in different Catholic countries all over.
The Dominican Republic with its own unique way of observing holidays practices, Semana Santa, a high point in Catholic worship, is celebrated in a way that only Dominicans could pull off. The general manner is very respectful, solemn, and prayerful. In fact, every tradition and method of worship is practiced and implemented by the Catholic hierarchy and observed by its people. But then again, why carry a sour countenance when this is the most important day of a people’s salvation? Off to the beaches we go.
As if conditions encourage it, the weather from March to April, the week in which Semana Santa is celebrated, is ideal. For a tropical maritime nation, in fact, there is little choice other than to sulk in a corner. The water is incredibly clear, the weather is warm, there is a lot of sunshine, offices are closed, the food is great, and tourism is at its peak. Except for motorized water equipment and water sports, which the government bans during the season due to past numerous accidents, everything is perfect, which brings us to the only downside of spending Semana Santa in the island.
The beaches are packed, hotels the same. This is the Caribbean Sea and there is just that thing in the Caribbean that lures people from everywhere, in the Dominican Republic, this is more so. To top it, Dominicans love their beaches and the well-heeled can get reservations in the hotels quicker than anybody can. If the idea is to spend Semana Santa in the island, bookings are to be done very early.
Otherwise, spending Semana Santa in the Dominican Republic is by all accounts the most colorful Holy Week anyone could experience. Catholic traditions and celebrations are the same everywhere except that in with the Dominicans, there is a twist. Processions are a tradition in the church anywhere but here, you will get to chase that jerk, Judas. It all starts on a Thursday. People will be dressing up like Jews, centurions and other outlandish colorful fun costume and chase a running man rattling a tin can representing the payoff from selling Jesus. These are all for fun though. The excitement is whether Judas could elude his chasers, (many times he actually does) or not. It is a wild, colorful, and noisy event full of action and excitement.
Of course anyone who tires of that could always have rivers to ford, beaches to get the tan, hills to climb and snorkeling to do.
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