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Monday, October 23, 2023

Mondays

 Oh man, well, that's not good

Contractors are attempting to recover as much as 15 barrels of crude oil released from an Extex Operating platform near Turtle Bay, about 9 1/2 miles south of the Jean Lafitte Harbor, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. 

The Coast Guard received a report of the release at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday. A team of LSU researchers in Turtle Bay also videoed the release on Saturday, showing crude oil spewing from a pipe atop the platform into the open water of Barataria Bay. 

There are so many little oil spills happening all the time along our coast from both active and "orphaned" or abandoned wells that it's really a mundane sort of thing to report. 

Meanwhile, watch out for "superfog"

Area residents should expect repeated bouts of “superfog” through at least mid-week, thanks to a stubborn dome of high pressure sitting over southern Louisiana, National Weather Service meteorologists said Monday.

The dense fog resulting from the combination of clear skies, light winds and overnight temperatures dropping to levels where dew forms are pretty normal for this time of year, said Ben Schott, director of the weather service's Slidell office.

What became more problematical was that the fog combined with smoke, creating superfog conditions, he said. "Smoke naturally diminishes visibility, and in combination with particles from the fires it can enhance the already foggy conditions by creating even more droplets of water in the air to make visibility worse, dropping visibility on roadways to zero visibility in some cases this morning across the region," Schott said.

They say the smoke is mostly coming from marsh fires in the Bayou Sauvage area. All weekend it smelled like burning plastic. Today, the superfog is causing even worse problems

Parts of interstates 10, 55 and 310 are closed after dense fog and smoke led to a massive pileup and other isolated accidents Monday morning. 

Authorities are asking drivers to avoid a roughly 20-mile stretch of I-55 running alongside Lake Maurepas and the entirety of the Bonnet Carré Spillway. 

So avoid that area.  Also, maybe just avoid all the areas today.

 

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