Tropical Storm Bonnie Moves Toward Fla., Halts Oil Spill Work

In a statement, BP said, "With the guidance and approval of the National Incident Commander (NIC) and the leadership and direction of federal government, relief well activities at the [well site] will be temporarily suspended because of potentially adverse weather associated with Tropical Storm Bonnie, which is projected to track into the Gulf of Mexico."

In a transcript of a media briefing, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the federal commander for the BP oil spill response, said, "There is a variety of tracks that would take it near or over the well site itself. We're under the assumption that somewhere very early in the morning on Saturday we could see storm force winds at the well site."

Media reports quote a BP official as saying the storm would delay operations 10- to 12 days, depending on its severity and how close it passed by the site.

Castastrophe modeler AIR Worldwide said an expected track will take Bonnie directly over the Deepwater Horizon blowout site.

"One worrisome possibility is that the storm will worsen the environmental toll of the oil spill, as winds and waves may push oil into the fragile marshlands of Louisiana," said Tim Doggett, principal scientist at AIR.

In June, the first named storm of the Atlantic Hurricane Season, Tropical Storm Alex, missed the BP site but delayed work there.

"Last month, the waves of Tropical Storm Alex carried oil into formerly unaffected coastal areas, even though it was farther from both the oil spill and the Louisiana coast than Bonnie is expected to track," Mr. Doggett said.

Besides BP, AIR said other companies have also begun evacuating personnel from oil and gas drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico in advance of the storm, although no significant damage is expected to rigs and platforms at the expected wind speeds and offshore wave heights.

RMS said, "The NHC is calling for slow strengthening of the system during the next 48 hours and remaining at tropical storm status. All models are predicting Bonnie to remain at tropical storm status as it tracks across the Gulf of Mexico, with some predicting a decrease to the strength equivalent of a tropical depression." RMS noted that wind shear is expected to prevent the storm from strengthening to a hurricane.

The NHC has a tropical storm warning in effect for the central and northwestern Bahamas, RMS said. For the U.S., RMS said a tropical storm warning is in effect for the Florida east coast, from Deerfield Beach southward including the entire Florida Keys and Florida Bay, and along the west coast of Florida northward to Englewood.