Ocean Springs Meeting for "cleanup training"

Yesterday we went to the Ocean springs meeting at the Mary C O'Keefe Cultural Center. It was nearly a waste of time. They handed out garbage bags and gardening gloves. They "trained" us on outdoor safety. The people from oil clean up volunteers and the pascagoula Audubon society spoke and told us they had 2000 volunteers sign up in 2 days of opening the website. I will post links to them ASAP.

Then the BP representative got up and spoke. He started by telling us not to hurt ourselves while cleaning up today. Then he said we should not lift too much because it may hurt our backs. We should be aware of exposure to the sun and wear sun block, and stay hydrated.

The floor was then opened up to questions...This is where I got most of my information. People seemed pretty pissed at BP in general. People wanted answers to the obvious questions. I'm not going to go through it, but the answers were either we don't know, or a diversion answer. Questions like: what should we do for the marsh, why hasn't the leak been stopped, why did this happen...etc... The only thing that he did say in specifics is, stay away from the oil, far away. Encouraging.

Then another person got up and spoke, he was an engineer like the first BP guy, but I'm not sure who he was affiliated with. He said that there was going to be training for Haz-mat people to treat the actual oil, and oily wildlife. These certifications will be cut from 40 hours to 4 hours. They will most likely be held at the J.D. campus, and be done in an afternoon.

I recommend everyone that wants to go to the beach or get on the water in the next year get the haz-mat certification. I hope it doesn't come to it, but this may be like trying to come south of the tracks after Katrina. You have to go get a pass and show your ID. If you didn't live there, don't even try. If you are seen after dark, you can be arrested.

The mayor of Ocean springs, Connie Moran spoke for several moments, took questions. From what she was saying, reading between the lines, her opinion is that this is going to be another Katrina-like event. There is no other way around it. I really don't put alot of weight on statements made by talking heads on the TV, or websites/blogs, but when someone in the "know" makes heart felt blunt statements, like she made yesterday, it made me worry.

I'll post some pics I took, if I can learn how to do it.