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She dashed off an e-mail to inform several admirals about the leak that was destined to become the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. In the subject line she typed, “GAME CHANGER.”

After serving 42 days as the coordinator of the U.S. government’s response to the undersea gusher, Landry is now preoccupied with planning for a second potential game-changing event: the Atlantic hurricane season that began June 1. The government forecasts more storms than normal, increasing the risk of delays and complications in a response effort already pockmarked with failures.

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“This adds a new dimension of complexity that nobody anticipated,” said Landry, 53, head of the Coast Guard’s Eighth District, a command that spans 26 states and is located in New Orleans.

A direct hit by a hurricane could spread more widely an oil spill that has already surpassed the Exxon Valdez in volume and was described by President Barack Obama as “the worst environmental disaster of its kind in our nation’s history.”

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A category III hurricane with winds between 111 and 130 miles per hour could blow coastal water as much as 12 feet above normal, according to a Coast Guard hurricane readiness plan.

Such storm surges “may carry oil into the coastline and inland as far as the surge reaches,” according to an information sheet from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which forecasts weather in addition to other duties. NOAA predicts a 70 percent chance that 14 to 23 named storms, including as many as seven major hurricanes, will form in the Atlantic in the next six months. The seasonal average is 11 named storms and two major hurricanes.

While the agency doesn’t predict the likelihood of storms in the Gulf, all active hurricane seasons have produced at least one named storm there. In half the busy hurricane seasons on record, at least one major storm has hit the Gulf in June or July.

Unpredictable Situation

Timing is crucial. BP isn’t slated to finish drilling a relief well aimed at permanently ending the leak until August at the soonest. Oceanographers are loath to predict what might happen if a hurricane hit the spill.

The 17 December 2009 attack on the community of al-Ma’jalah in the Abyan area in the south of Yemen killed 55 people including 14 alleged members of al-Qa’ida.

“A military strike of this kind against alleged militants without an attempt to detain them is at the very least unlawful. The fact that so many of the victims were actually women and children indicates that the attack was in fact grossly irresponsible, particularly given the likely use of cluster munitions,” said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

The Yemeni government has said its forces alone carried out the attack on al-Ma’jalah, the site of an alleged al-Qa’ida training camp in al-Mahfad district, Abyan Governorate.

Shortly after the attack some US media reported alleged statements by unnamed US government sources who said that US cruise missiles launched on presidential orders had been fired at two alleged al-Qa’ida sites in Yemen.

“Based on the evidence provided by these photographs, the US government must disclose what role it played in the al-Ma’jalah attack, and all governments involved must show what steps they took to prevent unnecessary deaths and injuries,” said Philip Luther.

The photographs enable the positive identification of damaged missile parts, which appear to be from the payload, mid-body, aft-body and propulsion sections of a BGM-109D Tomahawk land-attack cruise missile.

This type of missile, launched from a warship or submarine, is designed to carry a payload of 166 cluster submunitions (bomblets) which each explode into over 200 sharp steel fragments that can cause injuries up to 150m away. An incendiary material inside the bomblet also spreads fragments of burning zirconium designed to set fire to nearby flammable objects.

Powers under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act were used in “error” after the proper authorisations were not given.

In one example, for April 2004, the Met Police wrongly stopped 840 people.

A pilot wanted to take a photographer from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans to snap photographs of the oil slicks blackening the water. The response from a BP contractor who answered the phone late last month at the command center was swift and absolute: Permission denied.

“We were questioned extensively. Who was on the aircraft? Who did they work for?” recalled Rhonda Panepinto, who owns Southern Seaplane with her husband, Lyle. “The minute we mentioned media, the answer was: ‘Not allowed.’ ”

Journalists struggling to document the impact of the oil rig explosion have repeatedly found themselves turned away from public areas affected by the spill, and not only by BP and its contractors, but by local law enforcement, the Coast Guard and government officials.

As a sheriff’s deputy dumped the contents of Joy Uhlmeyer’s purse into a sealed bag, she begged to know why she had just been arrested while driving home to Richfield after an Easter visit with her elderly mother.

No one had an answer. Uhlmeyer spent a sleepless night in a frigid Anoka County holding cell, her hands tucked under her armpits for warmth. Then, handcuffed in a squad car, she was taken to downtown Minneapolis for booking. Finally, after 16 hours in limbo, jail officials fingerprinted Uhlmeyer and explained her offense — missing a court hearing over an unpaid debt. “They have no right to do this to me,” said the 57-year-old patient care advocate, her voice as soft as a whisper. “Not for a stupid credit card.”

It’s not a crime to owe money, and debtors’ prisons were abolished in the United States in the 19th century. But people are routinely being thrown in jail for failing to pay debts. In Minnesota, which has some of the most creditor-friendly laws in the country, the use of arrest warrants against debtors has jumped 60 percent over the past four years, with 845 cases in 2009, a Star Tribune analysis of state court data has found.

Not every warrant results in an arrest, but in Minnesota many debtors spend up to 48 hours in cells with criminals. Consumer attorneys say such arrests are increasing in many states, including Arkansas, Arizona and Washington, driven by a bad economy, high consumer debt and a growing industry that buys bad debts and employs every means available to collect.

Whether a debtor is locked up depends largely on where the person lives, because enforcement is inconsistent from state to state, and even county to county.

Instead, concern exists about a growing number of Americans who need bankruptcy protection but cannot get any benefit from it or simply cannot afford to file. As their financial problems worsen, that hurts everyone because it can hinder the economic turnaround.

“It’s shocking that we are back to the 2005 level,” says Katherine Porter, associate professor of law at the University of Iowa. “And the filing rate doesn’t even begin to count the depth of the financial pain.”

Bankruptcy laws changed in 2005 because filings skyrocketed and credit card companies and banks wanted to weed out deadbeat borrowers. The law made it harder — more expensive and more restrictive — for individuals to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which erases most debts.

Instead of seeking protection from bankruptcy, a number of debt-laden Americans have gone into a “shadow economy,” or informal bankruptcy, according to some experts.

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Only a fraction of those in serious financial distress are filing for bankruptcy, Porter says. In January, she and Ronald Mann, a professor of law at Columbia University, released a paper, “Saving up for Bankruptcy,” that probed why that is happening.

For starters, it’s simply expensive to file. Attorney and filing fees have risen, and under the new law additional forms, paperwork and attorney liability have added to the cost, Porter says. In the first two years after the law changed, the attorney fees for filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy rose from $712 to $1,078, according to a study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. And the filing fees increased from $209 to $299.

Dr. Edward Boyer, a toxicologist at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, said blood and urine tests that confirmed mustard gas exposure came back Monday night.

Boyer said the man, whom he declined to identify, had painful blisters on an arm and leg.

He said the patient was “handling it very well.”

The U.S. Coast Guard said the New Bedford-based vessel, the ESS Pursuit, dredged up two shells Sunday about 45 miles south of Long Island. One of the shells opened up and spilled the nerve agent on the deck. “It caused some blisters on one crew member and eye and nose irritation on three others,” said National Guard hazmat expert Capt. Christina Sampsonis.

Crew member Kevin O’Sullivan told WBZ the canisters had the date “1914” or “1918” on it.

The Coast Guard is now making sure the shellfish caught along with the canisters are not contaminated. “We’ve isolated the catch,” said Coast Guard Capt. Vern Gifford. “We’ll make sure none of the clams were contaminated before we release them.”

The U.S. military used the ocean as a dumping ground for munitions, including a mustard agent, from after World War II through the 1960’s.

The ship’s captain and first mate are still on the ship and show no signs of exposure to the mustard gas.

Site owner Taylor Energy Co. LLC said in a written statement that a production platform about 70 miles southwest of the Deepwater Horizon disaster was collapsed during Hurricane Ivan in 2004 by an underwater mudslide.

Pictures taken by an aerial photographer over the weekend suggested that oil was leaking from the drilling rig Ocean Saratoga, owned by Diamond Offshore Inc., and that a nearby vessel with a hose overboard was applying dispersant.

The Press-Register reported Tuesday that the slick emanating from the Ocean Saratoga has been visible from space in multiple images gathered by Skytruth.org, which monitors environmental problems using satellites. Federal officials did not respond to questions about the size of the leak, how long it had been flowing or whether it was possible to plug it.

The Press-Register was able to find mention of that spill in federal documents transcribing a May 17 U.S. Coast Guard media conference. In that transcript, Adm. Mary Landry said she was unaware there was another drilling rig leaking oil in the Gulf.

Officials with Diamond Offshore, which owns the Ocean Saratoga, said they could not comment on the ongoing spill and referred the Press-Register to well owner Taylor Energy Co.

Taylor at that time did not return calls seeking comment.

Taylor told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the work boat in the photographs was conducting scheduled drainage of a subsea containment system. The site has three containment domes below the surface, the company said.

The domes had “substantially reduced” sheening over time, Taylor said, and leakage was slight because more than 100 feet of mud and sediment cover the wells.

Federal authorities have approved the cleanup project, which is under about 500 feet of water, Taylor said.

Taylor Energy president Will Pecue said in the statement that the company had been working with both the Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service “to address the resulting environmental impacts of one of the 10 most intense hurricanes ever recorded.”

Diamond Offshore said late Tuesday there had been no leak from its rig.

The Coast Guard and MMS said earlier Tuesday that they were putting information together about the site but had not commented again by late in the day.

MMS records show Taylor Energy has been working on cleaning up, decommissioning and abandoning the site since 2005.

Hundreds of platforms and wells dot the Gulf of Mexico, and releases of oil are not uncommon.

Whoever was on the other end of the line was apparently trying to calm Harrell down. “I am fucking calm,” he went on, according to Buzbee. “You realize the rig is burning?”

At that point, the boat’s captain asked Harrell to leave the bridge. It wasn’t clear whether Harrell had been talking to Transocean, BP, or someone else.