'In a terrible way this is a portent of things to come and a warning'

Cal Flyn in the Guardian via the Observer (UK): When Hurricane Katrina wrecked the Louisiana coast, it wasn't the wind that created disaster in itself, but the floods which surged over the levees and washed across the wetlands in its wake. Now the region has been hit by a second disaster, an oil slick. A different kind of flood this time, a thick, black flood of crude oil that approaches the coastline, threatening the wildlife and the fragile ecosystem of the wetlands of Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta.

For years I lived in New Orleans, right in the French Quarter. It's a very special place and unique for its cultural mix, derived from the people who have settled there over the centuries. And I've spent a lot of time along the coast; spent summers there fishing. I have fond memories of St Bernard Parish, of Delacroix Island in particular. It's a famous place, an area of outstanding natural beauty where the Spanish Cajun settled to become planters and fisherman.

These places will never be the same.

They say that the well could take months to plug, that the spill could eclipse the Exxon Valdez disaster, which devastated Alaska in 1989. And to have this new disaster visited upon the same residents as were hit by Hurricane Katrina, an area that even today looks like it has been hit by some nuclear holocaust – well, one might ask: What does God have against New Orleans? But God has nothing to do with it. This accident was entirely man-made.

We court disaster every time we drill offshore. Such accidents are always a possibility with this kind of construction, yet the oil company responsible has had to throw its hands up and turn to the government. It just doesn't know what to do….

The oil slick as of April 30, shot by NASA