Jindal declares emergency as Louisiana oil slick set to be 'worse than Exxon Valdez' - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Louisiana's Indian American Governor Bobby Jindal has declared a state of emergency after oil spilling from America's Deepwater Horizon rig is threatening to dwarf the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. A leaking pipeline is spewing out 210,000 gallons a day into the Gulf of Mexico - five times more than first thought. Experts fear the spillage will eventually be worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster, as the slick off the coast near New Orleans is already 100 miles long and 45 miles across. According to reports, it has also started washing ashore at the mouth of the Mississippi River. U.S. President Barack Obama has vowed to use "every single resource at our disposal" to help, including the military. The White House has even assembled top officials from Homeland Security, the Coast Guard, the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency and announced an aggressive effort to fight the spill. It is believed that the damage to Louisiana's bayous, marshes and inlets and its three billion dollar seafood industry is expected to be profound. "This is worse than an atomic bomb," The New York Daily News quoted Ricky Robin, a ninth-generation fisherman, as having told WWL-TV. The disaster began on April 20 when the rig operated by British Petroleum blew up and finally sank 50 miles from the fishing port of Venice.