Hurricane Assistance

Hurricanes will spread oil spillSosnowksi 10 Alex Sosnowski, Senior Meterologist (“Hurricanes Could Spill Gulf Oil Inland”, Washington’s Blog, May 14, 2010, http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2010/05/hurricanes-could-spread-gulf-oil-inland.html, Accessed: July 3, 2013, SD)¶ AccuWeather.com's Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski points out today that hurricanes may spread the Gulf oil inland:¶ While the oil leak disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is bad enough, many people have been wondering what could happen if a hurricane were to slam into the region.¶ AccuWeather.com hurricane expert Joe Bastardi is concerned by multiple threats from storms throughout the season in the Gulf of Mexico.¶ [According to predictions for an active hurricane season this year], much of the central and western Gulf of Mexico could be one of several targets for potential multiple tropical storm and/or

hurricane landfalls this year.¶ Depending on the approach of a tropical storm or hurricane, increasing winds and building, massive seas would first halt containment operations. ¶ Rough seas would dislodge or destroy protective booms, rendering them useless as the storm draws closer.¶ Next , as the storm rolls through, high winds on the right flank of a

hurricane making landfall would cause some oil to become airborne in blowing spray. A storm surge could carry contaminants inland beyond bays, marshes and beaches to well developed locations. ¶ Even a glancing blow from a hurricane passing to the west of the oil slick could be enough for winds and wave action to drive the goo nearby onshore, or to more distant fishing and recreation areas, perhaps in foreign waters.¶ During the age of sail, winds occasionally blew ships hundreds of miles off course. The wind could have the same effect on the oil slick.¶ Now, imagine several storms during the season doing the same thing.¶ Hurricanes are powered by the heat released when moist air rises. As McClatchy notes, it is possible that the oil might slow down the hurricane formation process in the oil spill zone itself by reducing the evaporation of seawater:¶ Oil wouldn't have an effect on the track of the storm or the intensity, said Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the National Hurricane Center in Miami.¶ He added, though, that a hurricane or tropical storm might have trouble forming in or near an oil slick.¶ "Oil itself suppresses evaporation of the ocean's water," Feltgen said. "Tropical cyclones require a good amount of that moisture for those deep thunderstorms to develop, so it could slow down the genesis process."¶ Masters said while there are different theories on what happens when storms and oil mix, it's difficult to tell until it happens.¶ "It's kind of an open question," he said. "We don't know what would happen, but if they don't clean up the oil spill by September, then we definitely could see some hurricane and oil spill interaction.¶ In other words, it may be less likely that a hurricane could spill right in the spill zone; but hurricanes could easily form outside of the spill zone and then interact with oil as they moved towards shore.¶ Oil is toxic for humans, containing many different compounds:¶ Oil contains a mixture of chemicals. The main ingredients are various hydrocarbons, some of which can cause cancer (eg. the PAHs or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons); other hydrocarbons can cause skin and airway irritation. There are also certain volatile hydrocarbons called VOCs (volatile organic compounds) which can cause cancer and neurologic and reproductive harm. Oil also contains traces of heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic and lead.¶ The oil in the Gulf is also unrefined, unlike the stuff you pour into your car. It also comes from the deepest oil well ever drilled, and it is possible that the chemistry is different at such great depths due to pressure, heat or other factors. So it is hard to tell at this point whether it is more or less toxic than standard, refined oil (Coast Guard chemists have tested the oil, but - to date - no reports have been made public.)¶ In addition, highly toxic dispersants have been used to try to break up the oil. See this and this. Not only are dispersants being released underwater, but the air force is also dropping dispersants on the slick from above.¶ The official information for the dispersant reveals problems:¶ OSHA requires companies to make Material Safety Data Sheets, or MSDSs, available for any hazardous substances used in a workplace, and the ones for these dispersants both contain versions of a disturbing statement.¶ ***¶ Both data sheets include the warning

"human health hazards: acute." The MSDS for Corexit 9527A [the dispersant apparently being used in the Gulf] states that

"excessive exposure may cause central nervous system effects, nausea, vomiting, anesthetic or narcotic effects," and "repeated or excessive exposure to butoxyethanol [an active ingredient] may cause injury to red blood cells (hemolysis), kidney or the liver." It adds: "Prolonged and/or repeated exposure through inhalation or extensive skin contact with EGBE

[butoxyethanol] may result in damage to the blood and kidneys."¶ The bottom line is that hurricanes could very well spread the damage from the Gulf oil spill.¶ In the best case scenario, the gusher will have been capped and some cleanup

commenced by the time the first hurricane hits the Gulf, the hurricane will be small, and the effects minimal.¶ In the worst case scenario, a major

hurricane could spread toxic compounds inland onto crops. It could also aerosolize and then spread toxic chemicals, causing serious health problems for local residents - especially children, the elderly and those already at risk.

Caribbean area increasingly vulnerable to hurricanesAOML 3 – Atlantic Oceanographic Meteorological Laboratory, AOML, a federal research laboratory, is part of NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research , located in Miami, Florida. AOML's research spans hurricanes, coastal ecosystems, oceans and human health, climate studies, global carbon systems, and ocean observations,(“Hurricane Vulnerability in Latin America and The Caribbean:¶ Normalized Damage and Loss Potentials”,Aoml.noaa.gov,8/9/2003,http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/Landsea/NHR-Cuba.pdf,6/28/13,MH)

In recent years, the documented variability of hurricanes in the¶ region suggests the beginnings of a more active regime. Goldenberg et al. ~2001! provide evidence from Atlantic Ocean sea surface temperatures, atmospheric circulation patterns, and the time¶ series of Atlantic hurricanes themselves that 1995 marked a distinct switch back to active conditions last seen in the 1940s to¶ 1960s. If conditions persist as they did last century, high levels of¶ hurricane activity may prevail for the next two to three decades.¶ Such a change would be most evident in the Northern Caribbean¶ ~1.3 hurricanes per year in the active era versus only 0.4 hurricanes per year that occurred in the quiet era of 1971–1994! and¶ the Southern Caribbean ~0.4 versus 0.2 hurricanes per year!, but¶ would not cause a significant change in Central American hurricanes ~0.2 hurricanes per year in both regimes!.

Current foreign aid funds for hurricane relief in Cuba are stolen from the people-diverted to government and military facilitiesTamayo 6/25-(Juan O. Tamayo,former Foreign Editor and Chief of Correspondents at The Miami Herald and for many years the newspaper’s lead person in its coverage of Cuban affairs, a Research Associate, Miami Herald, 6.25.13, http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/25/3470187/priest-alleges-that-foreign-hurricane.html, 6/27/13, MH)Outspoken Cuban priest Jose Conrado Rodriguez alleged that foreign aid sent to his native Santiago de Cuba province after Hurricane Sandy last year was diverted to government, military and tourism facilities but denied to private homes.¶ “The situation in Santiago is very grave” because many of the more than 100,000 homes damaged by the storm have not been repaired, Rodriguez told El Nuevo Herald on Tuesday. “The aid has not reached the people.”¶ Rodriguez first made the allegations in a public letter to the head of the Communist Party in the province, Lázaro Expósito, urging him to crack down on the diversion of the aid and “the corruption that surrounds you.”¶ “We have watched with astonishment the theft of the assistance that so many countries sent to our people,” he wrote, “how that aid was sold … at inflated prices in flagrant violation of the intentions of the donors.”¶ “We have watched with astonishment as government or armed forces installations were repaired in record time, while the people remain without roofs,” he wrote in the letter, dated June 16.¶ Warning of possible civil unrest, he added, “We are witnesses to the people’s frustrations, to their desperation and impotence, to a … threatening silence that makes us think that it could explode at any time with justified and uncontrollable fury.”¶ Rodriguez told El Nuevo that foreign diplomats who visited him after Sandy noted “a very high degree of exasperation” in the city of Santiago de Cuba, due to host the July 26 celebrations this year that mark the start of the Castro revolution.¶ Sandy pummeled eastern Cuba in October, killing 11 people and causing $2 billion in damages. Many of the homes belonging to 100,000 families remain without roofs or the families are jammed into the one or two rooms that have roofs, Rodriguez said.¶

Plan would innovate new hurricane prevention and precaution technologiesLacey 9 Marc Lacey,Marc was The Times’s Mexico bureau chief, responsible for covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. From 2006 to 2010, he led the newspaper’s coverage of Mexico’s drug war, Cuba’s transition from Fidel Castro and Haiti’s struggle for stability, among other issues in more than 30 countries large and small.,The New York Times, 8/20/2009,http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/world/americas/21storm.html?_r=0,6/27/13,MH) Ivor van Heerden, a hurricane expert at Louisiana State University who visited Cuba last year, contends that American policies should be loosened to allow a transfer of technology to Cuba to help bolster its oceanographic and weather data collection. The United States could learn from Cuba’s evacuation plans, post-disaster medical support and citizen disaster education programs, he said.¶ “

Cuban Embargo fails – Hurricane impacts are devastatingHaass 09 – Richard N. Haass, Richard N. Haass is president of the Council on Foreign Relations (“Forget About Fidel”, The Daily Beast, 3/6/2009, http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/03/06/forget-about-fidel.html, accessed: 6/28/13, ckr)

There are signs that change may finally be coming to Cuba, 50 years after the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power. In a major shakeup, Raúl Castro, Fidel's brother, fired several high-level officials last week. While Raúl did more to raise expectations than living standards in his first year as president, he may now be positioning the government to go beyond the tentative reforms so far introduced. Then again, he might merely be installing loyalists who share his view that the regime should keep a tight grip on society.What's more certain is the need for change in Cuba. Last year's hurricanes cost the already poor island nation $10 billion, 20 percent of its GDP. The global economic slowdown has dampened tourism. The population of 11 million is shrinking, in part because of a housing shortage that's leading many families to have fewer children. Cuba's people, the lion's share of whom were born after 1959, face a future that promises little in the way of either prosperity or freedom.Some American conservatives maintain that all this is reason enough for the United States to persist in its policy of ignoring Cuba diplomatically and sanctioning it economically. At least in principle, one could argue that the revolution is running out of steam and that regime change from within may finally be at hand. The problem is that this argument ignores Cuban reality. The country is not near the precipice of collapse. To the contrary, the intertwined party, government and military have matters well in hand. The population, ensured basic necessities along with access to education and health care, is neither inclined to radical change nor in a position to bring it about.The American policy of isolating Cuba has failed. Officials boast that Havana now hosts more diplomatic missions than any other country in the region save Brazil. Nor is the economic embargo working. Or worse: it is working, but for countries like Canada, South Korea and dozens of others that are only too happy to help supply Cuba with food, generators and building materials. Those in Congress who complain about the "offshoring" of American jobs ought to consider that the embargo deprives thousands of American workers of employment.The policy of trying to isolate Cuba also works—perversely enough—to bolster the Cuban regime. The U.S. embargo provides Cuba's leaders a convenient excuse—the country's economic travails are due to U.S. sanctions, they can claim, not their own failed policies. The lack of American visitors and investment also helps the government maintain political control.There is one more reason to doubt the wisdom of continuing to isolate Cuba. However slowly, the country is changing. The question is whether the United States will be in a position to influence the direction and pace of this change. We do not want to see a Cuba that fails, in which the existing regime gives way to a repressive regime of a different stripe or to disorder marked by drugs, criminality, terror or a humanitarian crisis that prompts hundreds of thousands of Cubans to flee their country for the United States. Rather, Washington should work to shape the behavior and policy of Cuba's leadership so that the country becomes more open politically and economically.Fifty years of animosity cannot be set aside in a stroke, but now is the time for Washington to act. Much of the initiative lies with the new president. President Obama, could, for example, make good on campaign promises to allow Cuban-Americans to freely remit funds to relatives in Cuba and to visit them regularly, and could loosen travel restrictions for others as well. (Some of these measures can be found in legislation currently working its way through Congress.) Obama could also initiate technical contacts. Each country already maintains an "interests section," a small embassy by another name, in the other's capital. They also share information about weather. But they could resume exchanges on such common challenges as migration and drug interdiction, and initiate them on homeland security and counterterrorism.