From the star of 'Oil Storm', Port Fourchon, LA

I watched "Oil Storm" & have been reading the posts regarding the movie with great interest & I believe that my unique point of view may be of interest. I work in Port Fourhon for the Greater Lafourche Port Commission as an officer with the Port Fourchon Harbor Police & have been at this job for nearly 20 years.

I've seen our port grow from just a few facilities into a major link for our nation's oil. The LOOP (Louisiana Offshore Oil Platform) pushes about 18% to 20% of crude oil into our country. I can look out our Operations Center & see the booster station less than a half a mile away.

The destruction predicted in the film very, very nearly came true. Port Fourchon did take heavy damage, but we aren't knocked out. That's only one of the aspects of the movie that didn't come true, thank God. The port was on the west edge of the storm, and as some of you may know, the north east side of a tropical system has the strongest winds & storm surge. We were extremely lucky. As of this writing, Port Fourchon remains the ONLY operational oilfield support port on the gulf coast.

I firmly believe that the panic predicted in the film as a result of the oilfields in the gulf & Port Fourchon being wiped out, didn't come true due to the fact that we are still here. The port is functioning, with all except very few of the non-waterfront facilities in full operation. Material, equipment & personel are moving to & from the gulf platforms & rigs. The work of providing oil & gas is continuing. I'm not saying this so that America can sleep well tonight, but at least the "Oil Storm" nightmare didn't happen, not this time anyway.

If you are interested & want to learn more about Port Fourchon, you can check out the port's webpage at: www.portfourchon.com. I also have a personal webpage with a Katrina pictures link on the lower left of the homepage. That address is: www.geocities.com/glpchp2003. I have a blog link also for more about what happened to us during Katrina. Please remember us when you tank up your vehicle next time.