It turns out that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill nightmare can get worse.

A mere two words can, in fruition, drastically change the effect that the oil spill will have on the Gulf Coast: Hurricane. Season.

Indeed. Today, we are 18 days into the Atlantic hurricane season. Most people living on the Gulf Coast know what needs to be done to prepare for a hurricane: strategy. For citizens, it means stocking up on bottled water, batteries, perhaps investing in a generator, digging the shutters out of their winter hibernation spots, knowing when to evacuate and which route to take. It takes a lot of planning. 

But planning for this year's hurricane season should be and needs to be drastically different, especially for city, county, state and even federal officials. Planning for this year's hurricane season should be monumental and at the top of every one's priority list. This year, there is another small little detail that officials will need to account for. The reported 2.5 MILLION GALLONS OF OIL THAT CONTINUES TO SPILL INTO THE GULF EACH
DAY. In addition to the over 140 million gallons of oil that has already spilled into the Gulf. 

If we go by BP's estimations, there will be no measure that will fully stop the spill until August 2010, which means that by the height of hurricane season, there will be an estimated 327.5 MILLION GALLONS OF OIL IN THE GULF OF MEXICO. That's 327.5 million gallons of oil that can potentially be dumped onto land by a hurricane.

Needless to say, it's time we start planning for this worst-case scenario.