Recent Posts in Oil Spill Category

The most common reported symptoms included throat irritation, shortness of breath, cough, eye irritation, nausea and headaches, according to the department's oil spill surveillance report.

Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine said in a letter to BP's COO, "There exists anger, anxiety and uncertainty among the families and communities affected by the spill, which will easily manifest into addiction and various forms of mental health crisis if not confronted."

If you or a loved one has been affected by the oil spill, call Cellino & Barnes now at 800-249-7320 or use our CLAIM FORM online.

Read more at CNN.com

The Cellino & Barnes attorneys are representing individuals and business owners who have lost income, been hit with decreased business revenues, experienced property damage or suffered other economic consequences or injuries as a direct result of the spill.

As the crisis has continued to drag on, the economic consequences for business owners and workers in the region have begun to accelerate. Last week, BP agreed to pay $20 billion into a compensation fund for victims of the oil spill, which was triggered by the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April.

Newly released documents show that after the Deepwater Horizon sank, BP made a worst-case estimate of 2.5 million gallons a day flowing into the Gulf of Mexico.

"In addition to an accident that caused the tragic death of 11 workers and has resulted in the worst environmental disaster in American history, the oil spill in the Gulf has also triggered a chain of events that is causing massive economic disruption to thousands of families in the region," said Stephen Barnes, an experienced trial attorney at Cellino & Barnes, one of the nation's largest personal injury law firms. "This is a national tragedy."

According to Barnes, the attorneys at Cellino & Barnes have recovered more than $1 billion for its clients. Some notable national settlements include cases against the airline industry, pharmaceutical companies and the auto industry.

Cellino & Barnes Oil Spill Video

• April 20, 2010 - 11 workers die in the Deepwater Horizon oil well explosion.
  
  
• April 24, 2010 - Underwater robotic vehicles discover oil leaking from the damaged drill pipe of the rig (two days after the rig sank).
  
  
• April 26, 2010 - The oil slick stretches 80 miles across the Gulf and is 36 miles southeast of Louisiana.
  
  
• April 28, 2010 - Experts now believe that at least 5,000 barrels(210,000 gallons) of oil are being released from the well each day.
  
  
• May 2, 2010: President visits Gulf coast oil spill for the first time.
  
  
• May 6, 2010 - A specially constructed containment vessel was lowered into the Gulf of Mexico, but ice crystals plugged the top of the structure, preventing it from capping the leak.
  
  
• May 6, 2010 - Oil from the leaking well made its first confirmed landfall.
  
  
• May 20, 2010 - Lawmakers release live streaming video of the underwater oil leak
  
  
• May 28, 2010 - President makes his second visit to the Gulf and states, "I am the president and the buck stops with me."
  
  
• May 29, 2010 - BP announces that its "top kill" plan to fill the well had failed.
  
  
• June 1, 2010 -  Scientists claim they have found more than one oil plume, one of them "22 miles long, six miles wide and more than a thousand feet deep". BP denies the existence of underway oil plumes. 
  
  
• June 1, 2020 - BP CEO, Tony Hayward was quoted saying "I'd like my life back".
  
  
• June 9, 2010 - Actor Kevin Costner testifies on Capitol Hill about his company's oil-cleaning devices. BP ordered 32 of Costner's Ocean Therapy Solutions.
  
  
• June 10, 2010 - Experts now predict approximately 800,000 gallons of oil are leaking into the Gulf each day.
  
  
• June 15, 2010 - President Obama gives speech from the Oval Office in which he vowed to make BP pay for losses due to the disaster.
  
  
• June 16, 2010 - BP officials met with Obama and agree to set up a $20 Billion escrow fund to pay damages.
  
  
• June 16, 2010 - Scientists increase the estimate of oil escaping in the gulf to up to 2.5 million gallons a day, from around 800,000 gallons a day.

In a speech today, President Obama stated that he "will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes" to deal with the oil spill. He further promises that "We're going to fight back with everything that we've got."

President Obama is scheduled to address the nation tonight to lay out plans for dealing with the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

So how much oil has leaked into the gulf?

No one can say for certain how much oil is leaking into the Gulf of Mexico, however, some experts are now estimating that between 1 million and 2 million barrels. That converts to bewteen 42 million and 84 million gallons of oil.  The lowest estimate is nearly four times the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.