BP's oil spill might be old news -- considering that the initial explosion occured on April 20 -- but the effects, especially regarding travel, will likely linger for a long time. Today BP has claimed that it has capped off the well. This, hopefully, will stem the flow of oil so they can get to work cleaning up the oil spill.
For a bit of background information the source of the leaking oil lies less than a hundred miles from the Mississippi Delta in the Gulf Of Mexico. According to the NYTimes, for the first month of the spill the oil stayed mostly in the gulf. Starting in the last week of May waves of oil began washing into Louisiana's wetlands and beaches. Then, in June, oil landings were being reported to the states east of the epicenter -- Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida -- with varying degrees of oil. Heavy oil is located, particularly, south of New Orleans and on the Chandeleur Islands. In addition, the Coast Guard reported that oil had entered the Gulf's Loop Current and would carry the oil toward Florida's west coast and down the Florida Keys to Miami's beaches.
In the Panhandle some hotels have seen a 50% cancellation in hotels because of oil spill related concerns. However, the Keys and South Florida do the bulk of their tourism from fall to early spring so it shouldn't wreck too much havoc on their economy.
The future is always uncertain and it is hard to extrapolate accurately but a computer model released by marine scientists predicted that a ring of oil might encircle the entire Florida peninsula by the end of the month. Only time will tell.
The link below shows an interactive map of how much oil has been spilled.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/27/us/20100527-oil-landfall.html?ref=us
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