AS IF WE DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TO WORRY ABOUT

From NOLA:

As if the Deepwater Horizon oil-well blowout wasn't enough to threaten Gulf Coast communities with oil, scientists with the Naval Research Laboratory at the Stennis Space Center say waves as tall as 91 feet and strong underwater currents generated by major hurricanes create massive forces that can wreak havoc on the more than 31,000 miles of pipelines connecting oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico to the coast.

"Major oil leaks from damaged pipelines could have irreversible impacts to the ocean environment," conclude the authors of a study of the underwater effects of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 published last week in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

The report is one of several scientific studies using data gathered during Ivan, which traveled across an array of underwater instruments the scientists had moored in several locations along the Gulf of Mexico shelf just south of the Alabama coastline to measure current flows.
....

"It's well known that pipelines are damaged by hurricanes," Teague said. "Statistics published by the Minerals Management Service after Hurricane Ivan stated that there were 168 pipeline damage reports. In Katrina, there were even more.

"The damage reports ranged from dented to kinked pipelines, to pipelines that were pulled apart and ruptured," he said. "The reports refer to pipelines that are buried or damage that is caused by underwater mudslides. Based on our research, they equate to a snow avalanche under water -- imagine a big mound of mud rolling toward you."

The scientists may have been surprised that the underwater currents remained strong for a week after a hurricane, but apparently they were not surprised that pipelines could be damaged during a hurricane. What will we do to protect the coastline and Gulf waters against damaged pipelines during and after a hurricane?

Imagine! 31,000 miles of pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico.