Bloomberg TV’s O’Leary Remarks on Sights (and Smells) of the Gulf

Bloomberg TV’s Lizzie O’Leary, was reporting from Manhattan Monday after spending five weeks reporting on the Gulf Coast.

O’Leary, who is based in D.C., was dispatched to the Gulf Coast on May 24, and reported from locations throughout Louisiana (New Orleans, Venice, Grand Isle, Buras, Myrtle Grove), Orange Beach, Ala. and Pensacola, Fla.

I caught up with her to find out about her trip.

Q: What has struck you the most being down there covering this? It may sound trite, but its enormity. There are so many different spills, heading in so many directions, I am not sure you really grasp it until you get in a plane or helicopter and fly over it. Then you can see blobs hovering off this place or the other, and big fingers of crude reaching out toward beaches and marshes and channels. And the smell. You can even smell it from 3,000 feet up.

Q. What is it like on the ground there – and what has surprised you? It’s always worse in person. And yes, no matter how many times you see an oiled pelican on TV, watching one float stock still a few feet from you, unable to thermo-regulate anymore, is pretty awful. One thing that has struck me over the past two weeks or so in particular, is the color of the oil. It seems darker, less emulsified. You can definitely tell you are seeing some relatively fresh crude.

Q. Do you have plans to go back? Yes. I’m just taking a few days off to rest and do some laundry. Then back next week! Lots more to do on the claims process, the relief well effort — which is making some progress — and whatever happens next with the moratorium.

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