In the wake of the murder of a New Orleans cabbie earlier this month, police are seeking to create a private-camera database for faster access to such footage.

Two days elapsed between the cabbie’s killing and police gaining access to private surveillance footage that identified the suspect.

The latest move is reviving the camera debate pitting public safety against privacy issues.

United Cab company driver Arvil Hicks III, 52, of Avondale, was shot several times and found dead in his cab the evening of May 23 in the Irish Channel — an event that nearby city surveillance cameras failed to capture.

Two days later, after accessing footage from another city camera and a private surveillance camera nearby, New Orleans police identified a suspect, Cornelious Ferrando, 23. In the interim, he apparently had fled to Mississippi and was shot dead during an attempted residential burglary where he shot the homeowners, officials said.

Surveillance cameras have long been an issue in New Orleans.

According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, or EPIC, as crime rates rapidly rose in post-Katrina New Orleans, all levels of government infused money into an extensive surveillance camera system to monitor crime hotspots.

In 2005, the federal government gave New Orleans federal funds to place surveillance cameras in areas potentially vulnerable to terrorist attacks, including Mississippi River levees and bridges, the port and the Superdome. The city’s Office of Homeland Security contributed $1 million as well.

The first cameras went into operation in October 2005. The plan is to have more than 1,000 in operation, eventually.

New Orleans police officers are largely in favor of both the presence of cameras and allowing government access to private camera footage.

“There are city and business cameras on every block,” said a NOPD officer who didn’t want to be named because of department policy. “The cameras serve their purpose.”

But privacy advocates argue that the effectiveness of the cameras is questionable, and the chilling effect on First and Fourth Amendment rights outweighs any minor potential benefits the cameras bring.

Trace Mayer, a privacy activist, said on his website, “The court probably did not foresee how this kind of data could be used, when gathered in large quantities, to profile and identify individuals on a massive scale.”

Digital camera images would be sent for monitoring to a main server archive, where the data is mined. It can be accessed from any location, including police vehicles.

Such surveillance has been beneficial in the past. For example, a network of public and private surveillance footage caught suspected Times Square bomber Faisal Shazad fleeing the scene earlier this month, and police used it to identify him later. British police used footage to identify four suicide bombers who killed 55 people in a subway blast in July 2005.

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Donald Constantine of the Army Corps of Engineers is the canal captain at this pumping station in New Orleans. Since Hurricane Katrina three stations have been completely remodeled with custom steel gates that can withstand a Category 5 hurricane. (Imani M. Cheers/NYT Institute)

While the nation focuses on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, weather experts warn there’s a greater threat headed for the Gulf — a hurricane season that’s expected to be more active than normal.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting the most active season on record, with eight to 14 hurricanes, according to lead forecaster Gerry Bell. Three to seven of them are expected to be Category 3 or higher.

Some 14 to 23 tropical storms are projected.

Bell said area residents must not overlook the start of hurricane season Tuesday amid the angst of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He urged residents to get prepared now.

“The impacts of hurricanes are far worse than the effect of oil on people,” said Bell. “When a hurricane comes on shore, a lot of things can happen.”

Bell said it’s unclear if hurricanes would push the free-flowing oil from the Gulf further inland. Nor could he estimate the kind of impact it might have.

The wind, temperature and warmth of the Atlantic waters are conducive to creating conditions where hurricanes can begin, gain momentum and pick up strength, said Bell. These factors combined raise the chance of frequent hurricanes and storms, he said.
Of preparation efforts, Bell said, “Now is the time. Find out if you are in an evacuation zone, and, if so, you should evacuate if called to do so.”

Bell advised making a plan and stocking up on survival supplies to last one to two weeks.

Hurricane season runs six months, through Nov. 30.

The 2009 season was the mildest since 1997, with nine named storms, including three hurricanes — two of them major — according to NOAA.

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Government hearings investigating the cause of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico resumed Saturday as BP officials revealed that the “top kill” was failing to stop the flow of oil, according to news reports.

BP engineers said the “top kill,” which began Wednesday, was being suspended again while the company reviews its next move.

BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said the method may be halted altogether.

“What I don’t know is whether it ultimately will or not,” he said Saturday, according to reports.

Adm. Thad Allen, in charge of the response efforts, and members of the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency responsible for monitoring oil drilling, heard additional testimony on the cause of the explosions from the Deepwater Horizon rig’s crewmembers on Saturday in Kenner.

Paul Meinhart III, the motorman for the rig, testified that emergency generators that might have helped stop the fire aboard the rig did not work after the first explosions, news reports said. He also said that his efforts to restart the generators failed.

Engineers spent Friday working on the “top kill” effort after the operation was stopped Wednesday and then again early Friday morning. Engineers discovered on Wednesday that much of the mud being pumped into the leak in the wellhead was flowing back out and on Thursday that “junk shots” being pumped into the hole also were not working.

Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer, said BP would continue to flood the leak with mud and debris for the next 24 to 48 hours and monitor the effect on the oil’s flow. He added that they would not put a time limit on the operation.

The AP reported that BP brought in about 2.5 million gallons of mud for the top kill procedure. Suttles said on Thursday evening that “junk,” including pieces of metal and rubber balls, was infused into the mix.

On Friday, BP and U.S. government officials made separate public appearances to talk about the crisis.

Tony Hayward, chief executive officer of BP, appeared on both “Good Morning America” and “The Early Show.” He told “Good Morning America” that “things are going pretty well.”

Responding to an increase in concern over the crisis, President Barack Obama arrived in New Orleans Friday morning for his second visit to the Gulf Coast since the explosion five weeks ago.

“I’m here to tell you that you are not alone, you will not be abandoned, you will not be left behind,” Obama said during his visit.

Accompanied by the governors of Louisiana, Alabama and Florida, and by Allen, the president began his tour of the area by visiting beaches in Port Fourchon, where it was reported that he picked up tar balls and reflected on the oil’s threat to the beaches and the region’s economic livelihood. He later traveled to Grand Isle in Jefferson Parish for a briefing with Allen.

The government estimates anywhere from 18 million to 40 million gallons of oil has leaked thus far from the well, making it the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

News of the latest efforts to contain the spill come on the heels of the resignation of Elizabeth Birnbaum, an official in the Department of the Interior who oversaw offshore drilling regulation, and Obama’s announcement of major temporary restrictions on offshore drilling. According to the White House, the new regulations suspend exploratory drilling off the East and West Coasts. Planned explorations for oil have been indefinitely postponed. Along the Gulf Coast, 33 exploratory rigs were ordered to halt production as well.

The spill has also shined light on major environmental concerns about the impact of the spill on aquatic life.

Thursday, University of South Florida scientists said they have found another large cloud of oil below the surface in the Gulf. The plume, which is the second significant undersea plume discovered since the oil spill, stretches 22 miles from the explosion site and is 6 miles wide and approximately 3,300 feet below the surface. It is also near an underwater canyon the helps feed sea life off the Florida coast.

Scientists in the College of Marine Science said the plume might be a result of the use of chemicals to break up oil at the site of the leak, news reports said.

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The Dew Drop Inn, a former African-American entertainment complex that included a restaurant, hotel, bar room and barber shop, is on La Salle Street in Central City. Entertainers like Ray Charles and Etta James have performed at this historic location. (Thaisi H. Da Silva/NYT Institute)

“My grandfather allowed whites to enter the building during segregation,” said Frank Jackson, owner of the Dew Drop Inn, in Central City. “He would often get arrested and had to fight the city because of the fact that he let whites in the building. It’s very significant just in the amount of talent that passed through those doors.”

Today, the Dew Drop Inn is listed among New Orleans’ most endangered sites by the Louisiana Landmark Society. Eight other sites are featured on the endangered list. The society created the list five years ago to draw attention to architecturally and historically significant places in the city that have deteriorated because of neglect, abandonment or vandalism. Some are in danger of being taken over by commercial development and demolition.

The Dew Drop Inn, a former African American Entertainment complex that once included a restaurant, bar room and barber shop, is on La Salle Street in Central City. After Hurricane Katrina, the inn closed. It was designated a landmark in January 2010, but remains in need of repair. (Thaisi H. Da Silva/NYT Institute)

The committee that selected the sites for the 2010 list included not only preservationists, but also those with knowledge about planning, development and the rich history and culture of New Orleans.

“One thing we’re trying to get across to people is that preservation issues are not just old buildings with beautiful architecture,” said Betsy J. Stout, chair of the 2010 New Orleans’ Nine Committee. “There are also cultural issues that we’re trying to preserve.”

Stout noted how Louis Armstrong’s house was torn down years ago to build the civic center. She doesn’t want to see that happen to other historic sites in the city.

That’s why the house of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legend Henry Roeland Byrd, aka “Professor Longhair,” is on the list as well as a former police station in the Treme neighborhood. The endangered list also includes a number of churches and places of worship, a cemetery and a hospital. An entire neighborhood, the Mid-City Historic District, was featured because hundreds of unique architectural homes and businesses are scheduled to be demolished to make way for a 27-block medical corridor.

“People who drive all over town don’t realize that we’re about to lose some very significant buildings,” said Patricia Gay, president of the Preservation Resource Center, an organization that promotes the preservation and revitalization of historic neighborhoods, according to their literature.

Stout said some properties are expensive to renovate, especially to private owners who may not have the funds to fix them up.

“We’re hoping that because we’re drawing attention to these properties that now we can help these people,” said Stout.

The Dew Drop Inn, which was operating as a 25-bed hotel before Hurricane Katrina, hasn’t reopened since the storm because the business didn’t qualify for certain federal funds or grants. In addition, he had lost the hotel’s insurance a year before Katrina and was in the process of getting new insurance.

“It’s been a struggle,” said Jackson.

His goal is to restore the Dew Drop Inn to its original functionality as a hotel, barbershop, nightclub and restaurant, all in the same building. He said he hopes that being on the endangered list will bring attention to his plight.

“Everybody wants to help but we haven’t been able to secure any funding up until this point,” said Jackson. “Our main goal is to get the funding to do all the repairs and to put it back online.”

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Rev. John Raphael is the incoming president of St. Augustine, an African-American boys' Catholic high school in New Orleans. Raphael has served as the principal for the past 5 years. (Imani M. Cheers/NYT Institute)

The halls are empty at St. Augustine High School on this spring day in May, except for administrative staff and the Rev. John J. Raphael , the new president of this prestigious Catholic school for boys in New Orleans.

The first alumnus to be named president of the school, Raphael, possibly more than anyone, understands the challenges the school faces. It is located in A.P. Tureaud Terrace, a community still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The school had more than $4 million in damages. Its second floor remained intact and served as a shelter for the surrounding community.

But the storm is over now and Raphael wants to get to the business of turning boys into men.

“Like every institution, especially the ones here in New Orleans, it was an opportunity,” said Raphael of rebuilding the school. “Either you’re going to fold because of the storm or you’re going to limp back or you’re going to take advantage of it as an opportunity to regroup and redeploy. And that’s what we decided to do.”

A native of New Orleans, Raphael was a 1985 graduate of St. Augustine, which serves boys in grades seven through 12. Established in 1951 to educate economically disadvantaged African-American boys, it is the leading secondary school for African-American males in Louisiana. The institution is steeped in history. In 1967, St. Augustine launched a legal challenge that resulted in the desegregation of high school athletics in the state and was the first African-American high school band to march in the Rex parade at Mardi Gras.

Raphael played saxophone when he attended St. Augustine.

“The expectations were very high for us,” he recalled.

He said the school taught him about hard work and academic discipline. It also gave him confidence. He wants to instill those same values in the 636 boys at St. Augustine now.

“Kids come to school with more home-based issues that cannot be ignored in a school and have to be addressed in a school,” said Raphael. “In my generation, St. Aug took over where our parents left off. We have so many kids who don’t have a male role model in their life,” and “who are not accustomed to male authority figures.”

Raphael left New Orleans to attend the University of Notre Dame, where he majored in philosophy. In 1995 he was ordained a priest and after stints in Texas and Washington, D.C., returned to New Orleans in 2004 to become assistant principal of St. Augustine. He was named acting principal in 2006 and earlier this month was named the third president of St. Augustine. His goal is to raise money for endowed scholarships. The private school costs about $7,200 a year for high school students, which includes tuition and other fees .

Raphael hopes to rally the purple pride of all 7,000 alumni into dollar green.

“Our alumni are strong in spirit, love, devotion, but the purple and gold must go green and I’m not necessarily talking about the environment,” he said. “We have to come into institution maturity.”

Donald Neveu teaches computer applications and Web design at St. Augustine, his alma mater. He left his 15-year career in the banking industry to teach at the school. The school’s faculty includes a number of alumni, including one from its first graduating class of 1955.

“I teach here because I want to give back to the community,” said Nevue, a 1992 alumnus of St. Augustine. “I want to give back to the school that gave me a start.”

It’s this type of commitment that made Veneta Mays enroll her son, Basil, in St. Augustine after Hurricane Katrina.

“I felt this was the best place for him to get an education,” Mays said. Her son, who graduated from St. Augustine this year, will be attending the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in the fall.

Some parents believe that St. Augustine offers more than athletics and academics.

Police officer Melvin Hunter is one. He came to the school Friday to pick up the report card for his 15-year-old son, Melvin II. He didn’t pass theology.

“The reason I sent him here is because he needed positive black men in his life,” Hunter said. “I’m happy with the results. I’m happy with the discipline. Being a policeman, I see what’s out there.”

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The population of the Gulf Coast grew twice as fast as the nation’s population between 1960 and 2008, according to a recently released US Census report on coastline populations, but the BP oil spill may change that trend.

Previous disasters, such as hurricanes that have hit the Gulf Coast, have affected population growth in coastal counties, the report stated.

After Hurricanes Andrew in 1992 and Opal in 1995, population in the affected coastal counties fell. However, population again grew by more than 20 percent in the following decade.

Recovery from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 has taken place more slowly, and the affected coastal counties have so far experienced a 2 percent loss in population, the report released May 26 said.

It is too early to know exactly how the damage from the BP oil spill will impact the population trend, said Robert Berstein, a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau. Currently, more than 100 miles of coastline in Louisiana have been affected by the oil spill, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The US Census Bureau report, “Coastline Population Trends in the United States: 1960 to 2008,” calculated that the Gulf Coast area’s population grew by 150 percent in that 48-year period, while the nation’s population grew only by 70 percent.

In 2008, the Gulf Coast had a population of 14 million living in 56 counties in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
For the past five years, Daniel Rothschild has directed the Gulf Coast Recovery Project to monitor the redevelopment of areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The project is organized by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

After Katrina, the return of social and economic entrepreneurs to the community has been essential to recovery from the storm’s damage, he said.

“The real key to effective rebuilding is really doing it from the bottom up, rather than the top down,” Rothschild said, referring to private enterprise, compared to government assistance.

Tom Clark, executive director of the Gulf Coast Education Initiative Consortium, said a growing number of casinos and business opportunities along the Gulf Coast has brought more families and money into the area.

In 2004, state-licensed casinos in Mississippi made $213 million in capital investments in the area. In 2007, casinos made $343 million in capital investments and provided 30,100 jobs.

“Before the casinos came in here, school buildings were getting crowded because of the influx of people and the casinos brought extra revenue to help build new schools,” Clark said.

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President Barack Obama talks with Carol Browner, assistant to the president for energy and climate change, left; and Admiral Thad Allen, right, at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in New Orleans on May 28, 2010. Mr. Obama stopped in New Orleans en route to Grand Isle area to visit the oil damaged area. (April Buffington/NYT Institute)

At Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport the president was greeted by Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander in charge of the response efforts.

The president gave a quick wave to the press before removing his jacket under the blazing Louisiana sun and hopping into a helicopter that took him to Grand Isle. There, the president attended a briefing on the status of the spill containment and efforts to stop the flow of oil.

Shortly after the briefing, Obama addressed the press at the U.S. Coast Guard Station in Grand Isle. The president said response teams in areas where oil has already reached the shore will be tripled within 24 hours to assist with the cleanup.

Obama promised to make sure BP pays all claims for economic injury. He also promised to help local governments cut through the red tape that has delayed many from receiving payments for job losses.

“As I’ve said before, BP is the responsible party for this disaster. What that means is, they’re legally responsible for stopping the leak and they’re financially responsible for the enormous damage they’ve created,” said Obama. ”And we’re going to hold them accountable along with any other party responsible for the initial explosion and loss of life on that platform.”

As for the “top kill” procedure that began Wednesday, Obama said it’s still too early to tell whether it will be effective.

“If it is successful, it would obviously be welcome news,” he said. If it is not, “some of the world’s top scientists, engineers and experts,” he said, “has for some time been exploring any and all reasonable contingency plans.”

After highlighting the Small Business Administration’s efforts to increase loan approvals and defer existing loan payments to businesses affected by the spill, the president reaffirmed his commitment to making sure the people of the Gulf Coast are not forgotten.

Obama returned to Louis Armstrong Airport with Carol Browner, assistant to the president for energy and climate change, and Adm. Allen before taking off for Chicago, where he plans to spend the Memorial Day weekend with his family.

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Though President Barack Obama was less than a mile away, most residents of Grand Isle, La., never got to see his face. Some barely got to see his car.

Led by a convoy of more than 20 police motorbikes and flanked by armored cars and trucks, Obama was escorted Friday to a beach in Port Fourchon, La., before riding quickly through the streets of Grand Isle to give a short press conference at the town’s Coast Guard station.

Crowds of Grand Isle residents filtered out of their beachside homes as the commander in chief’s motorcade drove by. They waved and smiled into the car’s black-tinted windows.

The scene directly outside the Coast Guard press briefing was equally crowded. Photographers, reporters and residents camped out on the side of the road perched in the backs of their SUVs, popped the tops off beer bottles, and waved signs at the passing fleet, hoping to send a message to the president himself.
One man even pitched his own invention from the back of his pickup truck — a solvent designed to clean oil.

With acoustic guitars at the ready and “Support Green” pins affixed to their summer clothing, Jo Billups and Karen Harvill came to sing — and they didn’t mind the extra press.

“We want to send a green singing telegram to BP,” Billups said. “We are not the U.S. of BP. We want the government to step in and we want the Gulf restored. We wanted the president to see us. If this isn’t a wakeup call, there won’t be another one.”

Jonathan Henderson, who lives in New Orleans, but traveled to Grand Isle when he heard about the president’s visit, raised a white sign to the sky that read, “Clean up the Gulf,” with black letters drawn like dripping oil.

Earlier on the beach at Port Fourchon, Obama got a look at the impact of the BP oil spill on the shores. The president knelt on the beach and picked up nickel-sized tar balls, some of which could be the direct effect of oil washing up and solidifying.

“So either the boom soaks stuff up or manually you can pick up these tar balls as they’re coming ashore,” Obama said. “But obviously the concern is, is that until we actually stop the flow, we’ve got problems.”

Henderson, an organizer for the Gulf Restoration Network, an environmental activist organization, said he was happy to see Obama become a more active participant in solving the Gulf crisis.

At 2:20 p.m., Obama’s fleet rode out of the station and to a nearby helipad. As Obama’s helicopter flew away, Henderson once again raised his anti-oil sign.

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After receiving approval in April, demolition of homes began this week to pave the way for new medical centers in downtown New Orleans, and although the biomedical corridor is expected to generate thousands of jobs, it will also displace hundreds of residents and many businesses in a historic district.

Plans call for a university medical center, funded by the city, to replace the former Charity Hospital. In addition, new medical campuses will replace hospitals run by Louisiana State University and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which closed after Hurricane Katrina. The medical campuses, which will be located in a 27-square block part of New Orleans’ Mid-City neighborhood, will serve as a training ground for the area’s medical students.

Preservationists and residents, however, have expressed concern over the location of the centers. More than 200 homes and buildings in the historic Mid-City area will be removed to make way for the hospitals.

Last year, more than 1,000 people marched in a second line parade to protest the proposed medical corridor.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation also urged officials to build the medical corridor in other areas of the city, arguing that there are less expensive and destructive options than demolishing an entire neighborhood.

In 2008, the National Trust placed Mid-City on its list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. Last May, the organization sued the VA and Federal Emergency Management Agency for not considering the full environmental consequences of selecting the site. However, a federal judge denied their motion for summary judgment.

On its Save Mid-City website, the National Trust explained its position: “Nearly all of these homes were damaged by the storm, and after years of toil to bring them back and revitalize the neighborhood in which they sit, it is difficult to believe that city leaders continue to believe it is in the best interests of the city to knock them all down and toss them in a landfill.”

However, Rob Goaz, chief of public affairs for Southeast Louisiana veteran’s health care system, said the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana chose the location for the new VA medical center after extensive environmental assessment. Goaz said the VA will repurpose the urban area and will take into consideration the architectural history of the buildings.

“We’re trying to restore the Pan American building to its original use as an educational training site,” said Goaz. “We’re trying to preserve that piece of the New Orleans skyline.”

Goaz also said the historic Dixie Brewery will be saved, as well as some homes that are indicative of classic New Orleans shotgun homes.

“They will be used for rehabilitation,” said Goaz.

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Deputy sherriffs stand guard at a beach on Grand Isle, La., which were closed as the oil spill reached the shore. (Imani M. Cheers/NYT Institute)

President Barack Obama took full responsibility for controlling the oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico at a White House news conference Thursday, but said the government would continue to rely on BP for cleanup efforts because of their superior technology and expertise.

“It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down,” he said. “The government is fully engaged and I’m fully engaged.”

The takeover of responsibility was a shift for the administration, which previously had said BP should make the major decisions because it had caused the leak, and had the technology. Now, BP will follow government orders on stopping the leak and cleaning the spill.

After a request from the Environmental Protection Agency, BP reduced its use of dispersants to break up the oil, because of the unknown long-term impact.

“Given the complexity of this procedure and the depth of the leak, this procedure gives no guarantee of success,” Obama said. “Process could take months.”

The president is scheduled to visit the Gulf on Friday morning to assess the damage from the oil spill.

The U.S. Coast Guard reports that “top kill” efforts in the Gulf of Mexico are making progress, but are far from completion. On Wednesday, BP began to inject mud into the well in order to plug the oil leak, but BP temporarily stopped the procedure late Wednesday when engineers found too much of the drilling fluid was escaping, but resumed it on Thursday.

Scientists have also found that more oil is leaking from the blown well than originally estimated. The U.S. Geological Survey findings range from 504,000 gallons to more than a million gallons leaking each day; BP had originally reported the amount as 210,000 gallons. It is estimated that the spill has surpassed the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill as the worst in U.S. history.

“Now we know the true scale of the monster we are fighting in the Gulf,” Jeremy Symons, senior vice president of the National Wildlife Federation told The Associated Press. “BP has unleashed an unstoppable force of appalling proportions.”

The new estimate of how much oil is flowing “does not and will not change the response,” Steve Rinehart, a BP spokesman, told The AP. “We are going all out on our response.”

Researchers at the University of South Florida College of Marine Science have also discovered a new plume of oil beneath the gulf. The plume stretches 22 miles northeast from the well leak, the second plume recorded since the explosion.

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen has approved portions of Louisiana’s $350 million proposal to build a wall of sand to protect the coastline from oil.

To date, federal officials said the oil spill has cost the government $87 million, the third-most expensive cleanup in U.S. history. BP officials said they would reimburse the government for “all legitimate claims.”

The president announced that a moratorium on new deepwater oil drilling permits would continue for six months while a federal commission investigates the spill. Obama plans to implement aggressive new operating standards and requirements for oil companies after the investigation. The government will also require certification of emergency cutoff valves on offshore oil wells.

The spill investigation and cleanup continues to hit roadblocks.

As the investigative hearings continue Thursday, BP’s Deepwater Horizon well site leader refused to testify, pleading the Fifth Amendment.

Elizabeth Birnbaum, director of U.S. Minerals Management Service, the department conducting the joint spill investigation with the U.S. Coast Guard, resigned today after criticism of poor oversight and unethical ties to the oil industry.

After some workers on commercial ships cleaning the oil in the Gulf complained of nausea and several were hospitalized, the Coast Guard pulled commercial vessels from the effort. The Louisiana Department of Health also warned oil spill workers of poison oak, chiggers and alligators while in the Gulf.
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