[StBernard] St. Bernard Oil Spill Operations to be fully resumed by Monday morning

[Westley Annis]

Bonnie downgraded to a Tropical Depression

St. Bernard Oil Spill Operations to be fully resumed by Monday morning

 

Tropical Storm warnings for Bonnie have been discontinued. Tropical
Depression Bonnie is not expected to re-intensify before making landfall
along the southeast coast of Louisiana overnight tonight. A gradual
weakening is expected as the system moves inland. A wind advisory is in
effect for the Coastal southeast Louisiana parishes, and a coastal flood
statement was issued to highlight higher than normal tides through early
Sunday. Bonnie is expected to produce one to two inches of rainfall over
portions of southern Louisiana. 

 

"As Bonnie continues to be downgraded, it has given us an opportunity to
refocus our efforts back to reconstituting our oil spill operations and we
will continue to stand the base back up as early as Sunday mid-day, " St.
Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro said early Saturday afternoon. "We
expect to be back in full operation early Monday." 

 

Oil spill resources were staged at a site in Chalmette as part of the
Hurricane Preparedness drill for Bonnie. President Taffaro highlights that
this location was already in use as an off-site staging area for oil spill
resources, making the drill even smoother. "We were in the process of
re-staging our assets to a more centralized receiving and staging area in
Chalmette so that we are better prepared for any incident that comes." 

 

"Our Hurricane Preparedness plan requires operations related to the oil
spill to be ceased 72 hours ahead of landfall. So we actually pushed that
back a little bit because of the nature of this storm. Getting behind in
responding to an approaching storm should be avoided at all costs as there
is no way to freeze time and catch up. The 72 hour requirement for oil spill
operations is in place so parish plans are not interfered with for the
safety of the general parish population.  The trigger condition is the
experience of tropical conditions at the outermost part of St. Bernard
Parish."

 

Operations, Safety, and Command personnel at the St. Bernard Parish Command
Center in Hopedale for oil spill operations will begin conducting damage and
safety assessments on base first thing Sunday morning and response
operations are expected to begin as soon as mid-day Sunday, with full
operations resumed on Monday.

 

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