Extreme flooding and damage to infrastructure were widespread across Florida’s panhandle after the Category 2 storm, and now, miles of oil are washing up this Florida beach after Hurricane Sally.
Pensacola News Journal reported that the U.S. Coast Guard witnessed a 5-mile stretch of Johnson Beach on Perdido Key splattered with oil weeks after the storm.
U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Dustin Williams explained to the Pensacola News Journal that they’d discovered the spill over the weekend.
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Samples of the oil were collected, and while the source is still unknown, it is speculated that it is actually remnants of a spill from 2010.
The submerged oil that Hurricane Sally agitated to the surface may have been from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, or a different spill altogether.
The Coast Guard and National Seashore park service are working diligently to remove the debris from the beach.
Pensacola News Journal quoted Janice Gilley, Escambia County Administrator, explaining that the debris looked like tarballs that had been liquified by the sun.
While it is unknown just how much oil was deposited onto the sand, it has impacted about 5 miles of shoreline.