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Surge Desk

BP Halts Drilling on Relief Well as New Storm Approaches

Aug 10, 2010 – 1:08 PM
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David Knowles

David Knowles Writer

(Aug. 10) -- An unwelcome visitor making new waves in the Gulf of Mexico has forced BP officials to temporarily abandon the drilling of a relief well meant to permanently halt the world's worst accidental oil spill.

According to the National Hurricane Center, a storm that might be named either Danielle or Earl, depending on when it forms, has a 60 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours. The storm is currently located 100 miles west of Florida's southwestern coast, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports.



Meanwhile, far out in the Atlantic, a second storm has identical odds of becoming classified a tropical depression over the next two days.

The storm in the gulf is moving at five to 10 miles per hour in a northwesterly direction, meaning it could head directly over the staging area for the "bottom kill" effort to seal the troubled Macondo well.
Filed under: Nation, World, Surge Desk

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