Oil spill ashore at Gulf Shores, Alabama; smell in air

By The Associated Press
June 04, 2010, 11:34AM GULF SHORES, Ala. (AP) — Small gobs of reddish brown oil washed up in the surf for the first time Friday on the public beach at Gulf Shores, where the scent of oil hung in the air. “You don’t smell the beach breeze at all,” said Wendi Butler, 40, out for her morning stroll. The goo was limited to a few areas at Alabama’s prime beach resort, but the faint smell of oil was unmistakable as a southwest wind blew in from BP’s spreading oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. “I really smelled it down there,” said Jennifer Powell, combing the beach for shells with her husband. “It was like it was burning my nose a little bit.” The Powells, from Russellville, Ky., planned to return to the beach later this summer, but now they’re not sure they want to come back. “You won’t be able to get in the water, and it’s going to get all over you and all,” she said. “I don’t think I want my kids in that.” Cleanup crews were nowhere to be seen. Butler said the oily smell in the air reminded her of an airport flight line. She said she moved to Perdido Bay from Mobile days before the spill. Now, her two kids don’t want to visit because of the oil and she can’t find a job. “Restaurants are cutting back to their winter staffs because of it. They’re not hiring,” she said.