Oil on Pensacola area beaches could hurt statewide tourism in Florida

St. Petersburg Times has excellent coverage of the oil spill disaster.

A slick on Pensacola's beaches could curtail tourism as far away as Miami, since many overseas visitors will hear "Florida beaches hit with oil" and not make the distinction between particular locations.

"If (the spill) hits a Florida beach anywhere, it's like when we have a hurricane or wild fire,'' said Minich. "A lot of people don't understand how big Florida is.''

St. Petersburg Times, By Steve Huettel and Mark Albright, April 30, 2010

Pensacola law firms are already gearing up for individual lawsuits and class actions against BP Oil (operator of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig) and Transocean Ltd. (owner of the oil rig).