Nelson: If oil continues to gush, no beach will be unaffected

Oil has begun to make its
way onshore in Pensacola, in Nelson’s home state. But with oil
continuing to spew into the Gulf, despite a successful effort to cap
and redirect some of the flow, Nelson feared that coastal currents
could carry the oil much further than has been previously projected.

Nelson
said a Coast Guard flotilla to deploy booms and skimmers of oil might
help contain the spread of oil before they hit beaches.

The still-clear beaches led Barbour on Sunday to declare his state’s beaches oil-free, and a victim of negative media coverage.

“The truth is we have had virtually no oil,” Barbour said. “The biggest negative impact for us has been the news coverage.”

Nelson said, though, that the ecological disaster would continue to grow in scope and magnitude if the cap doesn’t work well.

“If
it keeps gushing, it’s going to be all-hands-on-deck that’s going to
have to be required to meet this potential disaster,” he said.