27,000 gallons of oil spilled amid freak Colorado flooding

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/23/27000-gallons-of-oil-spilled-amid-freak-colorado-flooding/



Inspectors have reached a third of state’s 50,000 sites and report eight ‘notable’ spills totalling 27,000 gallons of oil

27,000 gallons of oil spilled amid freak Colorado flooding
By Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian
Monday, September 23, 2013 19:31 EDT

Inspectors hunting for oil pipelines and oil drums damaged in Colorado’s epic floods are being “completely overwhelmed” by the sheer scale of destruction, a member of Congress has warned.

Jared Polis, a Democratic representative from Colorado, said the state’s regulatory agency was struggling to reach flooded areas and arrive at a full accounting of the damage and potential leaks to its 50,000 oil wells. Inspectors have so far reached about a third of the flooded oil fields. Last week, aerial surveys of the flooded area showed dozens of overturned storage tanks.

“Inspectors are completely overwhelmed. There are only a couple of dozen in the state and some areas remain inaccessible even today,” Polis told the Guardian. “The number of inspectors is insufficient to reach all the sites.”

On Monday the vice-president, Joe Biden, spent the day in Colorado, touring the devastated areas. The body of a 79-year-old woman was found beside the Big Thompson River, authorities said, bringing to eight the death toll from the massive flooding.

[GeorgeGist]

1. Is the Guardian trying to make it appear ...

That the road is flooded with oil, or is the photographer really unable to focus?

[Champion Jack]

2. freak

freak |frēk|
noun
1 a very unusual and unexpected event or situation


is that like a storm of the century that happens every year or so...?