Ike and what remained after it by Barbora Misakova

Sometimes the nature can be more than destructive. Except ruined houses, damaged cars and transmission lines, there can be heavy death toll. And sometimes the nature is so powerful, that single living creature on the planet can be endangered. When at the end of August a tropical disturbance started somewhere near the Africa no one thought that it could become the most intense storm in 2008 Atlantic hurricane season (at least so far). But it happened and Ike became a category 4 hurricane which on the scale ranges from 1 to 6 (while 6 is highest destructive potential) earned a 5.2! That’s the power, isn’t it? Unfortunately it wasn’t used for good. But it destroyed almost everything, and cause environmental toll.
During the days before and after the storm, lot of residents and companies was reporting releases of oil, gasoline and other substances in the air, water and ground. All around Louisiana and Texas were appearing propane tanks, paint cans and other hazardous materials containers which Ike spread from industrial centers near Houston, Port Arthur in Texas and also other oil production facilities. Situation is quite complicated – lot of people is calling about new discoveries of hazardous materials which appear near their houses, in the marshes, backyards and other places. The Coast Guard’s National Response Center is collecting all information about chemical and biological releases and passes it to agencies working on the ground. They then have to identify the materials and clean it up. Probably the biggest problem is with damaged pipelines. Most of them are damaged so much that substance is “spewing” from them and so spreading into the water. For example there was enough spilled crude oil to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool! The situation of the air is better. Air quality tests found no problems, but the storm totally damaged many of the state’s permanent air pollution monitors in the region. Ike’s strong wind caused lot of troubles to the animals as well. Wind was so strong that more than 1000 baby squirrels were blown from their nests, and the result of storm will probably show on the bird migration – lot of birds lost their food sources and it is questioning if they stay here or fly away to find some food. Sometimes it just seems to me like the nature was its own worst enemy.


related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081006/ap_on_go_ot/hurricane_environment;_ylt=Api.hu4jc.bhi32hcAJ0NS0PLBIF

by Barbora Misakova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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