“You’re doing a fine job, Brownie”…..

Those were of words of former president, George W. Bush to former FEMA director, Michael D. Brown amid the swirl of devastation that swept across our nation’s Gulf coast after Hurricane Katrina.

Brown had admittedly underestimated the impact of the hurricane, whose winds and water had also swamped the agency's preparations—or lack thereof.

We find ourselves five years later with new leadership and newly appointed federal agency directors who came into power on the winds of hope and change.

Today they find themselves facing what may be our nation’s greatest environmental disaster to date--the BP oil spill-- and the administration has tripped over their own shoe laces in response.

The oil rig, Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20th, and sank on April 22nd, leaving a trail of death, destruction and an oil slick that now threatens precisely the same area devastated by Hurricane Katrina--and possibly a lot, lot more.

Today--ten days after the initial disaster--oil bubbles to the surface at a reported rate of 200,000 gallons per day and estimates of being able to slow or stop the flow of black gold are 4 weeks to 90 days away.

The Obama administration’s response--rhetoric.

“While BP is ultimately responsible for funding the cost of response and cleanup operations, my administration will continue to use every single available resource at our disposal, including potentially the Department of Defense to address the incident," Mr. Obama said Thursday afternoon.

The first major briefing on the subject for White House reporters which included Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson and officials from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Interior Department, represented an increased effort by the administration to show it’s on top of the situation.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson are going to Louisiana to help coordinate the effort and "ensure that BP and the entire U.S. government is doing everything possible."

While I say, “better late than never”, Obama aides were curt when questioned about whether there had been any delay in taking the oil spill seriously.

Mr. Obama, THIS is your Hurricane Katrina.

We’re about to lose the major supplier of seafood to the lower forty-eight. Think Gulf shrimp and a vast variety of fish and shellfish--for the uninitiated, I’ll translate the latter--OYSTERS!

We’re also about to lose the industries and economies the Gulf fisheries create, including the sport fishermen, deckhands, fuel docks, fishing equipment providers, and processing facilities. Along with them, tourism in multiple states may be affected.

Sadly, the children will also suffer.

No, I’m not talking about the often bragged about “brilliant” back seat babblers of the gas guzzling, oversized SUV’s and mommy vans that create the need for rigs like BP’s Deep Horizon.

I mean offspring of the Gulf of Mexico’s sub-aquatic and coastal based critter “families”.

The Gulf of Mexico and its estuaries are the breeding ground, the hatchery, and the nursery for much of the sea life found in the waters off the southeastern U.S. including the Florida Keys, the Yucatan Peninsula and in the Atlantic Ocean.

Depending on where the oil flows, it will affect everything from eggs hidden in the turtle grasses that line the Gulf’s sandy bottom, to the eggs, larvae and new born of all the wildlife that are so dependant on the coastal barrier islands and marshes of the Gulf coast.

Vast numbers of dolphins, manatees, sharks, birds, and reptiles including gators breed and reside in and along the Gulf--the “population loss” will be unimaginable.

The other player in how this disaster expands is Mother Nature.

She’s already indicated she won’t be sparing any relief in the near term, with winds and seas predicted to build this weekend, thus speeding up the landfall of the crude and minimizing the window of preparation available to the states.

Should the winds take a more easterly track--Mississippi, Alabama and Florida’s panhandle become at greater risk of being affected; and knowing how oil spreads with water, who’s to say these other states aren’t already in the crosshairs.

Add to this, the prevailing clockwise Gulf currents potentially dragging oil and dying or dead marine life south along Florida’s west coast to the Florida Keys—a possibility already discussed in The Key West Citizen yesterday.

Florida has more coastline, barrier islands and open water islands exposed to the Gulf of Mexico than Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama combined.

Should the oil reach Florida’s west coast, our white sand beaches will be useless for quite some time and swimming in the Gulf will be unappealing for even longer. The tourism industry on Florida’s west coast will be wiped out until the spill and the stigma are gone.

Some claim the evidence of Exxon-Valdez oil spill may be found in the environment for one hundred years—imagine the magnitude of what an oil spill sourced by 200,000 gallons per day, for 90 days will leave as an impact!

As all this drama played out in the news on Thursday, April 29th—there was barely word from Florida’s governor.

Instead of taking the lead in preparing his state for the possibility of a major environmental disaster; St. Petersburg native, Governor Charlie Crist, was busy struggling to save his political career and his Senate seat bid—bailing out from his beloved Republican Party to become an Independent.

Sorry Charlie, not the kind of representation I want for Florida in D.C.

It’s time for a few things to happen.

Florida’s emergency managers whose counties lie along Florida’s west coast need to take precautionary action and begin locating contractors and equipment should they need to try and protect their exposed areas.

The American public needs to boycott BP/Amoco for being prepared to drill for oil and take our money--yet unprepared to quickly react to such a spill.

Folks whose businesses are in the affected areas should file lawsuits naming BP/Amoco and as defendants, charging them with negligence in their response and causing the collapse of the industries affected by BP’s negligence.

Cuba voted for Hope and Change in 1959—look what they got.

Supposedly we, the American public did so as well in 2008—and all we’ve seen is “hoax and chains”.

Since Mr. Obama moved his family into the White House our current and future generations have been enslaved with unprecedented debt. We were force-fed a healthcare bill nobody wanted and are fighting a Cap & Trade bill supposedly designed to save the global environment—with Obama's environmental commitment proven by a nine day delay before reacting to the greatest environmental disaster in our lifetime.

For me, its déjà vu—you remember--the last time our government went to Louisiana to help after underestimating a disaster.