Oil port's hurricane barrier is washing away

[IDemo]

Storms have eaten away at beach shielding nerve center for nation's energy

AP - CAMINADA HEADLAND, Louisiana - The booming oil hub called Port Fourchon, a nerve center in the nation's oil supply chain, is turning into a sitting duck for hurricanes as the beach that protects it from the Gulf of Mexico washes away.

The miles-long sand bank — blasted last year by hurricanes Gustav and Ike, and by Katrina and Rita three years before that — is nearly all that keeps the Gulf from thrashing the pipelines and shipyards that handle 15 percent of all crude oil flowing to inland refineries.

Port Fourchon, about 70 miles south of New Orleans, also supports 90 percent of the Gulf's 3,700 offshore platforms and connects with the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port — the only U.S. port capable of handling the largest oil tankers. The offshore port handles 1.5 million barrels of oil a day and ties in by pipeline to about half of domestic refining capacity, most of it on the Gulf Coast.
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Officials worry that unless work begins immediately to bolster the port's defenses, a direct hit from a strong Category 3 storm or worse could wipe out its waterways, docks, giant cranes, tanks and helipads, crippling the facility for weeks and creating a national energy crisis overnight.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32240934/ns/weather/

[madrchsod]

1. it will be ok for now

our priority is the war on terror in distant lands.

[Bigmack]

3. Our priority is on anything that can be "solved" with a gun...

Solutions requiring reason and intelligence are, quite simply, "un-godly" and thus, unnecessary. Ms Bigmack

[ensho]

2. tick, tick

enjoy what's left of the upper Gulf of Mexico while you still can

[timeforpeace]

4. The existence of things like this got Bush into even deeper trouble in Katrina, and if a hurricane

of Katrina's size hits this season, Obama will also feel the sting. Fix it. Now.

[hunter]

5. You'd think the oil companies could pay for this out of petty cash.

If the oil companies want our government to fix it, we should say "certainly!" and then nationalize them.

[phantom power]

6. Your hatred for America must be visible from space.

:toast: