Hurricane Dorian’s tumultuous tour of the Atlantic came to an anticlimactic fizzle last week as the storm’s anticipated landfall along the eastern seaboard did not reach the epic proportions forecasters initially anticipated.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the inhabitants of the Bahama Islands, which received the brunt of the storm’s full force. At least 30 people were killed in an event that will not be soon forgotten by the island’s emotionally wracked citizenry. A bird’s eye survey of the Caribbean Island resembles the site of a nuclear blast or a Category 5 tornado. While the island has always held a tenuous relationship or a fragile dichotomy with killer Atlantic hurricanes, Dorian was truly a force to be reckoned that will forever change the island’s environmental and socioeconomic landscape.
U.S. Hazmat Rentals can protect environment during storms
Like so many other natural disasters, the resulting fallout from these killer storms and their residual effects can prove more problematic than the hurricane’s opening salvo of wind, rain and lightning. In addition to the sheer volume of destruction and heartache, a breach of an onshore oil tank at a Grand Bahama refinery has darkened an already scorched landscape. The scene that has unfolded at the terminal’s on-shore tank detail resembles the closing days of the Gulf War when Iraqi forces deliberately set oil wells ablaze in one final act of aggression by an occupying force. (General Sherman himself couldn’t have planned a better scorched-earth policy).
All historical references aside, the Grand Bahaman oil spill has likely left a permanent black mark on the island’s pristine natural beauty. There’s no word if the sludge has made its way to the sea, but for an island that relies on an expansive filtration system for daily water consumption, the damage to the water table seems almost inevitable. The oil storage facility’s silver capped domes have been stained with the distinct residue of petroleum and excess.
Natural disasters are the harbingers of hazmat incidents. Even the most secure storage tanks and facilities can quickly turn into wayward bio-hazard missiles if proper precautions are not in place to derail this date with destiny. While the complete structural failing of an oil finery may not be preventable during a hurricane, other safeguards can be put in place on the micro-scale to ensure that damage to the ecosystem is minimized.
