Recently, I have received a collection of emails from travelers planning trips to the Gulf of Mexico area. They all want to know whether their beaches will be fouled by the spreading oil slick. Here is an interactive oil slick map that will show where oil has come ashore and other environmental effects of the oil spill.
CLICK HERE TO LINK TO THE UPDATED OIL SLICK MAP.
This oil leak map has been created and is being updated by texts, tweets and e-mails from those who have felt the effects of the Gulf Coast oil spill. This is a new crowdsourcing technology, that gives citizens, travelers and the federal government another look at the impact of the crisis.
The map has been created and is being updated using the Ushahidi open source software by students at Tulane University. The site is hosted by Radical Designs and the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, a New Orleans-based justice and environmental nonprofit.
If you are planning on traveling to the Gulf region, bookmark this page and come back to see what is happening to the oil slick.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
