E_E Continues to post articles on the Oil Spill. ADKOB Readers ask if there is an end in sight.

BROOKSVILLE — Usually at this time of the year, Hernando’s emergency response teams are getting out the hurricane plan in preparation for the start of the season next month.

Not this year.

Instead, they are using that plan and other emergency guides, as well as detailed information from the Coast Guard, to cobble together a response plan for the oil spill spreading in the gulf if it approaches Hernando’s fragile coastline.

Governor of Florida sets up an Oil Cleaning Taskforce.

May 11, 2010 11:55 AM

Tom McLaughlin

Daily News

The winds of fortune continued to blow Florida’s way Tuesday, and state officials were given another day to chart plans to battle an oil spill whose arrival still appears imminent.

On a day when southeasterly winds continued to keep the giant spill away from Florida waters, Gov. Charlie Crist announced the formation of a Gulf Oil Spill Economic Recovery Task Force.

For now, Emerald Coast beaches are unspoiled. See the photos »

View Tuesday’s latest day-by-day forecast for where the oil spill will flow between Wednesday and Friday »

Read Crist’s executive order that created the task force »

More Effects of the Oil Spill

By Renee Schoof and Karen Nelson
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Oil from a ruptured drilling rig could harm all kinds of marine life in the Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic tarpon and bluefin tuna that have key spawning areas nearby to endangered sea turtles, commercial fisheries, migrating song birds and marine mammals.

The spill gushed oil at the rate of about 210,000 gallons a day hit the wetlands and shrimp, crab and oyster nurseries of Louisiana. It could arrive to northwest Florida beaches by Monday.

Michael Sole, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said Friday morning Florida should prepare for landfall from the leaking spill, which is about 125 miles wide and 40 miles long.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency in Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay and Gulf Counties.

It’s too early to know the toll yet, and the worst damage is expected when the oil hits wetlands and beaches. Still, experts say that one of the nation’s biggest oil spills threatens many animals in the open water as well.

I told you so..the one big example why off shore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico should not be allowed.

The Associated Press

Published: May 12, 2010

Updated: 37 min. ago

WASHINGTON – A key safety device known as the blowout preventer used in the BP oil rig in the Gulf had a hydraulic leak and other problems that likely prevented it from working as designed, congressional investigators said today.

They also said BP PLC and other documents also indicated confusion over whether poor pipe integrity was allowing methane gas to leak into the well just hours before the explosion that killed 11 workers and blew the well open.