Adding to BP's challenges - hurricane

As if things have not been bad enough in the attempts to close off and deal with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it looks as if things could get worse, much worse. According to this Time Magazine article, a tropical depression is forming and if it turns into a tropical storm or even worse, a hurricane, it would create even more problems.

At his press briefing on Friday, Coast Guard Admiral Thad W. Allen that it would take about five days to disconnect the drillship Enterprise—which is processing about 25,000 barrels of oil a day—from the broken well. The Coast Guard would need to carry out the disconnection—and evacuate workers—if forecasts predicted gale force winds in the area. (Gale force winds are 46 miles per hour or greater, which is slightly above the 39 miles per hour wind needed to declare a tropical storm.) A storm of that size would likely force a halt to any surface skimming on the surface of the ocean, or contained burns—two other means to control the growth of the spill, and the two ships drilling relief wells would need to stop and return to port. Between disconnecting the equipment, taking it to port and then reconnecting it over the spill site, Allen estimates that the well could be uncapped for two weeks in the case of a storm. That would mean hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil spilling into the Gulf that would have otherwise been captured. "Of course, we're watching the story very closely," Allen said.