Animal Rescue New Orleans, a no-kill shelter, says so many families have been dropping off pets -- officially or just dumping them -- that they're beyond full. They've got as many dogs and cats in foster care as they do in the shelter.

The shelter writes this plea on its website: "It is hard to resist the begging, the tears, the pleading of those who have been effected by the most recent disaster to hit Louisiana."

Here's where people can help.

Adopting a pet from New Orleans isn't that practical, living in Maryland, but the shelter has a program that offers subsidies to needy families so that they can keep their pets, even if they're in economic distress. The Pet Retention Program pays for food, medical care and transportation to the vet. There are caseworkers assigned to families and they insist on spaying and neutering.

They've helped more than 60 families at a time, expect to be helping many more now with the spill and are seeking donations. Someone can sponsor a family's pet for $25 a month.

If you're interested in learning more or helping, click  here.

By Patrik Jonsson, June 24, 2010

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, President Obama's pointman on the Gulf oil spill, has called the effort to contain the runaway Macondo well and keep its crude release off beaches and out of marshes "an insidious war."

But if the framing of the Deepwater Horizon accident and its aftermath has morphed from disaster rhetoric to war imagery, local officials say the shared BP and Washington response has suffered from a lack of situational awareness, racking up a long list of battlefield mistakes that is hampering efforts to keep tens of millions of gallons of gooey crude from coming ashore in the kind of "tarball attack" that hit Pensacola Beach Wednesday.

"You've got a militia sitting in this room," Gulf County commissioner Bill Williams told Coast Guard and BP officials in a combative meeting on Wednesday. "They can either be with you or against you."

IN PICTURES - Staff shots: Response to the oil spill on the Gulf Coast

The Coast Guard has admitted that it has failed to both anticipate and control the 2,500 square mile oil slick that's hiding in the waters off places like Perdido Key, Orange Beach and Plaquemines Parish, resolving to do better.

In recent weeks, the joint BP-Coast Guard Unified Command has created four regional command centers with the goal of pushing command and control down to spill level to better orchestrate the movement of boom and skimmers as the spill evolves.

Allen said Wednesday he hopes BP's replacement of Tony Hayward with Mississippi-born Bob Dudley as the spill response manager will improve communication and movement of resources.

"BP's decision to greater response organization for the Gulf ... is a very, very good decision," Allen said Thursday.

Earlier in the week Allen touted the success of the operation. "We have marshaled the largest response in our nation's history, and we have continued to adapt and evolve this response at every turn," he said.

But local officials say they've seen little improvement as their requests get bounced around, ignored or even opposed.

The main problem, they say, is the confusing command structure, which to them seems to have too many generals and not enough battlefield commanders, thus gumming up the ability of local leaders to react to approaching oil.

"How can you fight a war when you don't let the people on the ground make decisions," says Escambia County Commission Chairman Grover Robinson. "You're going to lose that war."

Mr. Robinson told the Monitor that requests for more help after a large swath of oil washed up on Pensacola Beach Tuesday night were initially rebuffed because central command in Mobile said they couldn't put certain kinds of equipment on a national seashore. But most of Santa Rosa Island is a public beach. "How could they not know that?" Robinson said.

In Plaquemines Parish, Mr. Nungesser blamed "government bureaucratics" for shutting down construction of a piece of a new protective berm structure over concerns they were dredging an area outside the allowed perimeter, possibly damaging the natural sand dunes. The delay came as northwesterly winds drove the spill toward the Chandeleur Islands. Two weeks ago, the Coast Guard temporarily shut down a barge pumping operation run by the state of Louisiana because the boats didn't have enough life vests aboard.

"We have told ... the Army Corps of Engineers and every federal agency that we are in an emergency situation here," Gov. Bobby Jindal said Wednesday. "This is a disaster for our state. Days count. Hours count. We cannot wait for more conference calls and meetings for discussions. We need to adapt to the situation on the ground...."

Many are pointing to the inadequacy of the Oil Protection Act of 1990, which didn't anticipate a Gulf disaster of this magnitude. President Obama has said "The buck stops with me" on response to the oil spill, but that has also set him up for criticism of a management style that tends toward careful deliberation, not rapid on-the-ground decisions.

"The effort has been bedeviled by a lack of preparation, organization, urgency and clear lines of authority among federal, state and local officials, as well as BP," the New York Times' Campbell Robertson wrote recently.

Part of the problem is having BP in charge of the purse strings, says Robinson. The struggling multinational has vowed repeatedly to pay all claims and costs, but the route of the money is far from clear in a constantly changing claims structure. Robinson said his county has had to go through three different claims processes to get paid for nearly $2 million in local expenses, but has yet to receive a check.

On the largely Republican-leaning Gulf Coast, the failure to ramp up both a symbolic and even real military effort to fight the slick has become, to many, indicative of a federal relief effort beholden to BP, even as the administration criticizes the oil giant.

"I’m just so frustrated because I can’t get a straight answer, I can’t see any sense of urgency yet in this administration," Sen. George Lemieux (R) of Florida tells blogger Ed Morrissey. "When I meet with the Navy and the Coast Guard, no one seems to be in charge. We’re the greatest country in the world and we can’t marshal the resources to suck up this oil before it gets on our beaches."

As a result, local communities and counties are starting to work outside the command structure to protect what Santa Rosa Island Authority member Tom Campanella called "sacred" beaches and marshes, some even risking jail in the process. But such battle rank dissension could just as well hamper, not help, the overall response.

The reaction from local officials is beginning to closely resemble reaction in Alaska to the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989, as anger, depression, and a sense of inevitable doom struggle for outlets as the oil comes ashore.

"We're trying to explain to people this is going to be a long-term situation – the table is set just like in 1989. Everyone is very, very distracted, maximally disrupted, they're expressing anger," sociologist Steven Picou tells McClatchy newspapers.

At this point nobody knows.  What is becoming clear is that a whole lot of people are becoming ill. 

Several days ago, the state of Louisiana announced that 71 cases of oil spill-related illnesses had been reported to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals up to that point.  A significant number of those had not even been involved in any of the clean up efforts. 

But the cases of illness are most prominent among those involved in cleaning up the oil spill.  CBS news has reported that more than 75 oil spill disaster workers have already been treated for mysterious symptoms.

The most common symptoms being reported by oil spill disaster workers include vomiting, dizziness, headaches and shortness of breath.

The wife of one fisherman who is involved in disaster relief efforts in the Gulf recently told CNN what her husband has been telling her about what is really going on out there....

"I received several calls from him saying, 'This one's hanging over the boat throwing up. This one says he's dizzy, and he's feeling faint. Everybody's loading up their stuff, tying up their rigs and going back to the docks.'"

Down in Texas, they are referring to these illnesses as "TILT" - Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance.  The following is an excerpt from a local news report out of San Antonio....

For weeks now, local hospitals have tracked patients with suspicious symptoms coming in from the gulf coast. Doctors are having trouble distinguishing it from the flu.

"What makes it challenging is that patients show up with non-specific symptoms. Headaches, fatigue, problems with memory and concentration, upset stomach," lists Dr. Claudia Miller at UT Health Science Center.

So what in the world is causing all this?

Nobody knows for certain yet.

But if the smell of the oil on some Gulf beaches is already so strong that it burns your nostrils, then what in the world is this oil going to do to our health?

Needless to say, this is a story that the mainstream media needs to start following a lot more closely.

One of our readers named Debra from Louisiana recently left a comment describing the breathing difficulties and headaches that she is now experiencing....

I live in Gretna, La just a little past the Huey P Long bridge. I have had headaches for several days now. I am also having trouble breathing like i am having a asthma episode. I don’t even have asthma. If it gets any worse i am going to the hospital.

All i can say is someone needs to look into this seriously, The air smells like burning crayons (that is the best way to explain it). It has smelled like this for several days now.

A reader named Stacy on our sister website recently posted a very alarming comment regarding what is happening in her area down in Florida....

We live in the navarre, florida area and in the past week almost every family we know has had vomiting and diarreha. This could just be anecdotal – maybe we just have a stomach bug circulating, but it is strange. We had a huge storm the week before it happened that blew in from the gulf so who knows.

Also, the city of destin, florida has taken it upon themselves to close the destin pass with their own purchased boom and barges. This is an elite destination and they are not waiting around for bp and their hired prison workers to clean the beaches. Apparently, the coast guard was at the meeting and told the locals that they will face criminal prosecution, but they don’t care. They are protecting their million dollar properties.

Another commenter from Louisiana named Joe says that everyone in his family is dealing with these kinds of health issues right now....

We live near Hammond, LA which is some 60 miles NORTH of New Orleans, LA. For the past two to three weeks we have been having mild flu like symptoms. I hardly never get sick but cannot get ride of a runny nose and a constant headache that only goes away when I leave this area (heading North). My entire family has the same problems as well as many of our friends in the area.

The most frightening thing is that nobody knows exactly what we are dealing with here.

Are there any other factors other than all the oil that is causing all of these health issues?

Are these illnesses being caused by the extremely high levels of methane that scientists have detected in the Gulf of Mexico?

Are the 1 million gallons of dispersal agents such as Corexit 9500 and Corexit 9527 that BP has poured into the Gulf to blame?

Are people becoming sick due to all the hydrogen sulfide and benzene being released by the oil spill?

Considering the fact that exposure to benzene has been proven to cause leukemia, it is imperative that we get some answers sooner rather than later.

And unfortunately, the threat from this oil spill is only going to continue to grow.

The truth is that this is not just an "oil leak".

This is an "oil volcano" that is pumping out oil at such high pressure that BP is totally at a loss for how to stop it.

In fact, BP’s Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles recently told CNN that BP’s data indicates that BP can’t cap the leaking oil, or it might cause the well casing to blow out.

So when will this oil volcano be stopped?

Nobody knows.

Meanwhile, at least one industry expert is estimating that the oil beneath the surface of the water already covers 40% of the Gulf of Mexico.

40% of the Gulf of Mexico?

And it is still getting worse?

It is hard to even find the words to describe how horrific this nightmare is becoming.

If you live along the Gulf coast and you know of some health issues where you live, please leave a comment below.  Hopefully if we all work together we can start to piece the facts together about this very dangerous health crisis....

Source : The Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill Is Making A Lot Of People Really Sick

Some experts have been quick to predict apocalypse, painting grim pictures of 1,000 miles of irreplaceable wetlands and beaches at risk, fisheries damaged for seasons, fragile species wiped out and a region and an industry economically crippled for years.

President Obama has called the spill "a potentially unprecedented environmental disaster.” And some scientists have suggested that the oil might hitch a ride on the loop current in the gulf, bringing havoc to the Atlantic Coast.

Yet the Deepwater Horizon blowout is not unprecedented, nor is it yet among the worst oil accidents in history. And its ultimate impact will depend on a long list of interlinked variables, including the weather, ocean currents, the properties of the oil involved and the success or failure of the frantic efforts to stanch the flow and remediate its effects.

As one expert put it, this is the first inning of a nine-inning game. No one knows the final score.

The ruptured well, currently pouring an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the gulf, could flow for years and still not begin to approach the 36 billion gallons of oil spilled by retreating Iraqi forces when they left Kuwait in 1991. It is not yet close to the magnitude of the Ixtoc I blowout in the Bay of Campeche in Mexico in 1979, which spilled an estimated 140 million gallons of crude before the gusher could be stopped.

And it will have to get much worse before it approaches the impact of the Exxon Valdez accident of 1989, which contaminated 1,300 miles of largely untouched shoreline and killed tens of thousands of seabirds, otters and seals along with 250 eagles and 22 killer whales.

No one, not even the oil industry’s most fervent apologists, is making light of this accident. The contaminated area of the gulf continues to spread, and oil has been found in some of the fragile marshes at the tip of Louisiana. The beaches and coral reefs of the Florida Keys could be hit if the slick is captured by the gulf’s clockwise loop current.

But on Monday, the wind was pushing the slick in the opposite direction, away from the current. The worst effects of the spill have yet to be felt. And if efforts to contain the oil are even partly successful and the weather cooperates, the worst could be avoided.

"Right now what people are fearing has not materialized,” said Edward B. Overton, professor emeritus of environmental science at Louisiana State University and an expert on oil spills. "People have the idea of an Exxon Valdez, with a gunky, smelly black tide looming over the horizon waiting to wash ashore. I do not anticipate this will happen down here unless things get a lot worse.”

Dr. Overton said he was hopeful that efforts by BP to place containment structures over the leaking parts of the well will succeed, although he said it was a difficult task that could actually make things worse by damaging undersea pipes.

Other experts said that while the potential for catastrophe remained, there were reasons to remain guardedly optimistic.

"The sky is not falling,” said Quenton R. Dokken, a marine biologist and the executive director of the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, a conservation group in Corpus Christi, Tex. "We’ve certainly stepped in a hole and we’re going to have to work ourselves out of it, but it isn’t the end of the Gulf of Mexico.”

Engineers said the type of oil pouring out is lighter than the heavy crude spilled by the Exxon Valdez, evaporates more quickly and is easier to burn. It also appears to respond to the use of dispersants, which break up globs of oil and help them sink. The oil is still capable of significant damage, particularly when it is churned up with water and forms a sort of mousse that floats and can travel long distances.

Jacqueline Savitz, a senior scientist at Oceana, a nonprofit environmental group, said that much of the damage was already taking place far offshore and out of sight of surveillance aircraft and research vessels.

"Some people are saying, It hasn’t gotten to shore yet so it’s all good,” she said. "But a lot of animals live in the ocean, and a spill like this becomes bad for marine life as soon as it hits the water. You have endangered sea turtles, the larvae of bluefin tuna, shrimp and crabs and oysters, grouper. A lot of these are already being affected and have been for 10 days. We’re waiting to see how bad it is at the shore, but we may never fully understand the full impacts on ocean life.”

The economic impact is as uncertain as the environmental damage. With several million gallons of medium crude in the water already, some experts are predicting wide economic harm. Experts at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies in Corpus Christi, for example, estimated that as much as $1.6 billion of annual economic activity and services — including effects on tourism, fishing and even less tangible services like the storm protection provided by wetlands — could be at risk.

"And that’s really only the tip of the iceberg,” said David Yoskowitz, who holds the endowed chair for socioeconomics at the institute. "It’s still early in the game, and there’s a lot of potential downstream impacts, a lot of multiplier impacts.”

But much of this damage could be avoided if the various tactics employed by BP and government technicians pay off in the coming days. The winds are dying down and the seas are calming, allowing for renewed skimming operations and possible new controlled burns of oil on the surface. BP technicians are trying to inject dispersants deep below the surface, which could reduce the impact on aquatic life. Winds and currents could move the globs of emulsified oil away from coastal shellfish breeding grounds.

The gulf is not a pristine environment and has survived both chronic and acute pollution problems before. Thousands of gallons of oil flow into the gulf from natural undersea well seeps every day, engineers say, and the scores of refineries and chemical plants that line the shore from Mexico to Mississippi pour untold volumes of pollutants into the water.

After the Ixtoc spill 31 years ago, the second-largest oil release in history, the gulf rebounded. Within three years, there was little visible trace of the spill off the Mexican coast, which was compounded by a tanker accident in the gulf a few months later that released 2.6 million additional gallons, experts said.

"The gulf is tremendously resilient,” said Dr. Dokken, the marine biologist. "But we’ve always got to ask ourselves how long can we keep heaping these insults on the gulf and having it bounce back. As a scientist, I have to say I just don’t know.”

Leslie Kaufman contributed reporting from New Orleans.

Source : Gulf Oil Spill Is Bad, but How Bad?

The relentless spill is bringing back feelings that are far too familiar to Robin and others still dealing with the physical and emotional toll wrought by Katrina five years ago.

"I can't sleep at night. I find myself crying sometimes," said Robin, of Violet, a blue-collar community on the southeastern edge of the New Orleans suburbs, along the highway that hugs the levee on the Mississippi River's east bank nearly all the way to the Gulf.

Psychiatrists who treated people after Katrina and have held group sessions in oil spill-stricken areas say the symptoms showing up are much the same: Anger. Anxiety. Drinking. Depression. Suicidal thoughts.

Social services agencies have not seen a significant increase in people seeking help since the spill began, but that doesn't mean the need isn't there, said Jeffrey Bennett, executive director of the Gulf Coast Mental Health Center in Gulfport, Miss., whose state saw oil wash up on the mainland for the first time Sunday.

On Sunday evening, many in Alabama's coastal fishing community planned to attend services for a popular charter captain who committed suicide on his docked boat. Authorities had no way to know whether his death had anything to do with the spill, but they hoped it would move others to seek help.

John Ziegler, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Mental Health, said no one had walked into counseling centers set up in fishing communities since the disaster. Then on Friday, two days after the captain's death, five people came in saying they needed help because of the spill.

Even people whose livelihoods aren't affected by the spill find themselves crying on beaches, like Nancy Salinas, who was on Pensacola Beach last week when Florida officials closed it because oil was washing up. "It just breaks your heart," she said. "I can't get my feet in the water."

Ziegler, the Alabama mental health chief, said counselors have gone out to marinas, docks and other places frequented by fishermen and others affected by the spill.

"They've had folks break down and weep," he said. "They've had people share some of their deepest feelings about their future and how they're feeling now that things seem imminent."

The social and psychological toll on residents of the Gulf will last long after the oil is cleaned up, say veterans of the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989.

The first of four veterinarians from the National Zoo has left for Louisiana to help clean, rehabilitate and release animals affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, NBC4 reports.

The veterinarians will rotate in and out of Houma, La., over the next eight weeks to help at an incident command center, where they will be working with the U.S. Coast Guard to help determine where to release the rehabilitated animals.

Here is a Post gallery of photos documenting efforts to help animals affected by the spill.