EU Times Reports California Notified of Gulf Evacuation Plans

Even if you don't live in one of the Gulf Coast states, this one story you want to closely follow.

Salem-News.com

(SOMERDALE, N.J.) - This story gets worse day by day. Wayne Madsen, the investigative reporter, has a new for-subscribers report out. He says that CEMA — the state of California’s version of FEMA — has been alerted by its counterparts in the Gulf coast on mass evacuation plans. See details in EU Times news story of 6/30/10, "California Notified of Gulf Evacuation Plans". Per the EU Times:

"A well-placed source in California told WMR that the California Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) has been briefed by its counterpart agencies in the Gulf coast states that there are plans to conduct a mass evacuation of millions of Gulf coast residents due to the catastrophic environmental and public health effects of the BP oil disaster.

CEMA officials have been briefed on the planned evacuations by counterparts in the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, and the Florida Division of Emergency Management."

The Gulf states’ emergency planners stressed to their California counterparts that they are dealing with a disaster of unprecedented proportions and that contingency plans are being constantly updated and revised on ways to deal with the transformation of the Gulf of Mexico into a deadly “toxic soup” of oil and Corexit 9500 oil dispersants and the atmosphere into a dangerous mixture of hydrocarbon gases.

CEMA was briefed on the impending mass evacuation since California would be expected to absorb a large number of evacuees from the Gulf states. CEMA officials did not say how the state of California, which is virtually bankrupt, would pay for the influx of hundreds of thousands and perhaps greater numbers of evacuees from the Gulf coastal region."

Salem-News and Veteran Today's news stories on the FEMA plan to evacuate Tamp Bay of those with respiratory problems in the event of a burn-off of crude oil in Tampa Bay, pale in comparison to the EU Times report.

The VT news posted by Robert O'Dowd has received over 114,000 page views and 151 readers comments as of July 3rd. The VT story was based on an Examiner news story by Maryann Tobin. Tobin's story was based on an earlier Wayne Madsen report. She was forced to revise the story by her supervisor two month after its publication.

Video by Morris Herman: What we are seeing on youtube is not the red oil sludge appearing in plumes and on the surface. Using excerpts from experts on MSNBC this video explains why there has been so much secrecy, why foreign help has been refused for 70 days. There is a cover up, of what? Presumably it can only be negligence or sabotage. Learn more, visit: Morris108 on YouTube.

Maryann Tobin’s news story, “Florida Gulf Oil Spill: Plans to Evacuate Tampa Bay in Place” was pulled by the Examiner on June 30th. This story was originally published back in May. The source of the story was a Oil Price.com’s Wayne Madsen Report (WMR) of May 6th. A revised version of the story, "Florida Gulf oil spill: Plans to evacute some in Tampa Bay is suggested possibility." The revised version stated that, "An earlier version of this article stated that plans to evacuate the Tampa Bay area were expected to be announced. The article has since been clarified to explain that the alleged plans were not independently confirmed and referred only to some people with respiratory problems along the coast in the event of controlled burns."

Tobin has written a series of hard hitting news stories on the BP Gulf oil spill for several weeks. The Examiner, based in Denver, CO, operates a network of news websites, allowing citizen journalists to share their knowledge on a blog-like platform in several hundred markets in the United States and Canada. Tobin is based in Brooksville, Fl, about 50 miles north of Tampa, where any story on the impact of the BP Gulf spill gets readers’ attention.

Why did the Examiner wait two months to revise this story?

Speculation is that either BP or SOMEONE in the FEMA, the Coast Guard or other federal government agency pressured the Examiner to revise the story. There's no question that anyone with respiratory problems should evauate any area where there are odors from a crude oil burn-off. If the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) has not planned for this threat, they could be accused of gross negligence.

Even if you don't live in one of the Gulf Coast states, this is one story you want to closely follow.

Report from the EU: eutimes.net/2010/06/california-notified-of-gulf-evacuation-plans