BP Oil Spill: Gov. Bobby Jindal Declares State of Emergency as Tropical Storm Bonnie Heads to Gulf

NEW ORLEANS July 22, 2010— -- Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency today as Tropical Storm Bonnie heads directly toward the site of the Gulf Oil spill, threatening weeks worth of progress.

BP officials and the federal government are scrambling to prepare for storm, which grew in strength today to become the second named Atlantic storm of the season.

Bonnie is currently blasting the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Puerto Rico, and it's expected to continue to track west, right into the gulf's warm waters that can supercharge a tropical storm into a hurricane.

Watch 'World News' for the latest on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

All operations at the spill site came to a standstill today as evacuations got underway. Non-essential workers have already been shipped ashore, and drilling on the relief wells has been suspended. It's a disappointing setback for a drilling effort that was just days away from finally connecting with the damaged well.

Jindal said that BP is better prepared for this storm than it was when Hurricane Alex churned the gulf's waters a few weeks ago.

"I think their plans are better than they were when they first started hurricane season," Jindal, a Republican, said, even as he expressed his concerns about the damage it can do to cleanup efforts.

The worst case scenario is that all ships monitoring the blown-out well would have to be evacuated, and no one would know if the containment cap failed and oil was again pouring unchecked into the waters.