The damaged site of BP oil well will not be evacuated. The federal authorities have taken this decision to leave the cap on even if the well is unattended. National incident commander Thad Allen said the cap, installed last week, has stopped the gusher of oil that spewed into the gulf for three months. But the possibility existed that BP would be required to open it in the event of a storm and the evacuation of underwater robots and other equipment that are keeping a close watch for any new leaks.
According to Allen after days of consultations and careful monitoring, federal scientists were confident enough in their knowledge of the surrounding seabed to leave the well sealed. Allen said that they wanted to create a 3-D model of the neighborhood. A tropical storm with winds exceeding 39 mph is expected to reach the vicinity of the well site 50 miles off the Louisiana coast early Saturday, possibly forcing evacuation of the fleet of response and drilling vessels.
Allen informed that the officials still undecided whether to disconnect equipment involved in drilling the relief well, a move that could set that nearly completed operation back by days. In another development, federal fishery authorities said they were reopening more than 26,000 square miles of gulf waters that were closed to commercial fishing, roughly a third of the area that had been closed.
