Thanks to Brandon Nix for these images… he writes:
“Good Afternoon James,
I thought I would send you these pictures from Orange Beach I took this
morning. The oil spill situation doesn’t look good here at all. All of the
dark area you see in the pictures next to the water is oil, not seaweed,
unfortunately. I’ve only seen one cleanup crew out today just down to our
east working back toward the Gulf State Pier. Booms are deployed out around
the pier area but there is nothing being done west of there, booms or
cleanup, as far as I can see from our 14th floor balcony at SeaChase; and I
can see for a good long way. It’s really sad that more is not being done,
in my opinion. You can’t get within 10-15ft. of the water without stepping
in oil and the smell of petroleum is very strong.
The weather is great and I wish more people would reconsider their vacations
and come on down. The rest of the beach is in great shape, and you can do
everything you always do at the beach other than get into water. I have
been shocked at how few people are down here and this has got to be
devastating to the local economy. Hotel/condo parking lots are half full,
traffic is light, and very few people on the beaches. If people are
wondering what they can do to help, my thoughts would be to schedule a
vacation somewhere here at the coast and help input money back into the
local economy. I’m sure they could use it based on my observations. I
apologize for this long email but thought you might want a current update.
Thanks for all you and ABC 33/40 do.
Best Regards and Loyal Fan,
Brandon Nix”
