May 20, 2010

Breaking: Oil Makes Landfall, Cops Blocking Beaches, MoJo on the Scene [Video and Photos]

Photo: Mac McClelland

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

MoJo reporter Mac McClelland is getting one hell of a chilling story in Louisiana right now. This morning she headed down to the area where, according to online maps, oil from the BP fiasco was headed. Wherever she turned, she found sheriff’s deputies blocking the beach access roads—until she hit a beach at Grand Isle, and literally stepped into the mess. (Follow Mac on Twitter here.)

Here’s what unfolded in her tweetstream:

Has oil made landfall in port fourchon, LA? Can’t look, bc cops turned us around at bridge to beach. about 3 hours ago

Oil just hit land in grand isle. Blobs completely covering this shore. about 2 hours ago

Governor’s helicopters are flying overhead. about 1 hour ago

All these spots are blobs of oil. about 1 hour ago

All these spots are blobs of oil. on Twitpic

Crude all over my fingers. about 1 hour ago

Crude all over my fingers. on Twitpic

These vacationers say there was no oil earlier today; this shit all just started washing up, and it’s already everywhere. about 1 hour ago

This was when I realized oil arrived; when I stepped in crude. 42 minutes ago

This was when I realized oil arrived; when I stepped in crude. on Twitpic

5 sheriff’s cars have arrived. No pics allowed, no more access to elmer’s island. 27 minutes ago

The gov’s office has arrived. 10 minutes ago

The gov's office has arrived on Twitpic

Mac says the sheriff’s deputies who arrived at Grand Isle told her she couldn’t take pictures of them, but didn’t keep her away from the beach—yet. She’s headed back to New Orleans as we write, but will be back in Grand Isle later tonight. (Here’s some more background from the local media, and more pix.) UPDATE: Mac just called and noted that there are still kids on the beach, “splashing around in this huge sheen.”

Yesterday families vacayed among oil blobs (see all those bro... on Twitpic

This begs many questions, such as:

Why is law enforcement trying to stifle coverage of this horror? And, as our own Kate Sheppard (follow her on Twitter here) asks: Why is BP still in charge? Kate has also been following developments intensely, live tweeting the BP hearings, and breaking the latest news—ranging from concerns over these so-called chemical dispersants to the rig owner’s efforts to weasel out of responsibility. She’s covered BP’s fumbling containment efforts, its second Gulf rig, and its shameless attempts to downplay the problem: 5,000 barrels a day indeed! That’s how much BP says it is now recovering, and this thing is so far from being over.

You can keep on top of Kate’s and Mac’s dispatches on our home page, Facebook page, and by following their Twitter streams.

UPDATE: Here’s a video showing how sticky the stuff really is:

UPDATE 2: Check out these photos from Gov. Bobby Jindal’s tour of the fouled marshes.

(If you appreciate our ongoing BP coverage, please consider making a
tax-deductible donation.)

Follow Michael Mechanic on Twitter.

If you buy a book using a Bookshop link on this page, a small share of the proceeds supports our journalism.

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate