TAMPA, Florida - June 29, 2010 - There’s no question that the Gulf oil gusher is the biggest environmental disaster in the history of this country and maybe the world.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has plans to evacuate the Tampa Bay area in the event of a controlled burn of surface oil in the Gulf of Mexico, or if wind or other conditions are expected to take toxic fumes through Tampa Bay, according to a report by Maryann Tobin in the Hernando County Political Buzz Examiner.

Tobin has been a freelance writer for more than twenty years, writing for local publications in New York and Florida. Maryann Tobin’s news story has generated high reader interest. It’s obvious that the Gulf oil spill continues to be the leading story in media as long as the oil well remains uncapped and the threat of exposure to environmental hazards like benzene exists.

FEMA may use its hurricane evacuation plan for Tampa and other cities on the Gulf. Tobin reported that, “Plans would be announced in the event of a controlled burn of surface oil in the Gulf of Mexico, or if wind or other conditions are expected to take toxic fumes through Tampa Bay.”

Art Horn, a meteorologist from Manchester, Connecticut, writing in Energy Tribune on June 21st, used the term “Oilcane” to describe the effects of hurricane winds on the oil in the Gulf from the BP gusher, “Should a major hurricane push the spill towards the gulf coast there will be nothing that can be done to stop it. No amount of planning or engineering will help. No number of visits to the Gulf by the (illegitimate) president or any other official will stop the inevitable. The storm surge will drive the water and the oil miles inland.”

Chemicals in crude oil and dispersants can cause a wide range of health effects in people and wildlife, depending on the level of exposure and susceptibility. Crude oil has many highly toxic chemical ingredients that can damage every system in the body. Dispersant chemicals can affect many of the same organs.