Caricom warns oil spill could reach Bahamas, Jamaica

Saturday, June 05, 2010

GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Caribbean countries are warning that an oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico could reach the Bahamas and Jamaica.

The Caribbean Community says a recent change in wind patterns could push the oil past the southern tip of Florida and toward its northern member states.

Secretary-General Edwin Carrington said Saturday that tourism-dependent countries in the 15-nation group are concerned about the oil spill from an underwater well off the US coast.

The issue is expected to come up at Thursday's meeting in Barbados between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and regional foreign ministers.

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COMMENTS (7)

Antonette W.
6/5/2010

Jamaican govt may have to sue BP for negligence. If the oil reaches JA, it will adversely affect the ocean, thereby making it difficult for fishermen to make a living. It could wash up on the beaches and make matters even worse. I don't want to think of the ecological damage. Could it come at a worse time for JA?

viper ray
6/5/2010

ah bwoy, the bad news just keep on coming. If this oil reaches here, money can't repair the damage, so Bp better make sure it doesn't. Ah bwoy, These oil persons is all about profit, we need to rid our-self from the dependencies of oil once and for all,

John Curious Public
6/5/2010

We need to be careful with this news......the loop currents will take the oil up the eastern seabed of the Atlantic. Cuba, maybe. Jamaica, hardly. These are the kind of unsubstantiated pronouncement that will drive tourists away from the island.
.
On the other front, i hope we have some booms ready to protect our shoreline, whats left of it. Do we even own any? Ask the Spanish hotels.

froggy D
6/5/2010

Ever since Jamaica started relying on tourism, we get the jitters when disaters, natural or other wise threaten us. It shows how vulnerable we are. Yet we are still hell bent on digging up farmlands, chasing fishermen off beaches so that foreingers can build a hotel to host their countryman once a year. No one stop to ask just how fickle these guys are. If that oil slick, or oil sheen hits us they are not going to wait for us to clean up, they will pack up and go. That is the nature of it.

Maude Cooper
6/5/2010

It is amazing that with all the scientists around the world, someone cannot come up with an idea to stop this thing for good. Every thing so far has failed or half ass. I hope it never reach Jamaica, we have more than enough problems to deal with as it is. The tourism business cannot afford the least interference either right now.

Karen McConnell
6/5/2010

you would think they would have had a way to stop it before they started drilling just in case something did happen...

A. Croft
6/5/2010

As if we did not have enough to deal with we must now contend with an oil spill that may damage the beaches;bowy!
BP should have put a geodesic cement dome like a cone and get this thing taken care of a long time ago. All they had to do is determine the psi and then build a cement cone,like a dome, to withstand the force and siphon off the oil. So smart; yet so foolish. All that wild life tragedy could have been minimized and most of the oil could have been trapped and collected. I hope stops.

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Caricom warns oil spill could reach Bahamas, Jamaica