A hurricane was only briefly in the Gulf of Mexico, and it didn’t go near the oil spill site, but it spread oil far and wide anyway.
High seas, first from the hurricane and then from a tropical wave that passed by, ruined BP’s initial attempt at oil skimming. Waves and currents pushed oil into Lake Pontchartrain and all along the Louisiana coastline and dragged a few tar balls as far as Texas.
The big question is how much oil was washed over the booms into the marshlands in the Mississippi delta. I haven’t seen any specific reports on that.
