coast guard and bp contractors, intent on moving the barges far inland for protection. too far away, he says, to redeploy quickly after the storm. there have already been a couple of tropical systems getting into the gulf this summer and each time it changes the wind patterns and blows the oil right into this area. and each time those systems haven t been anywhere near here. bonnie is expected to be a direct hit. booms and barges don t stop storm surge. booms and barges become victims of storm burge. reporter: i asked admiral allen about his plan. he says it was driven by his experience in hurricane katrina. i m still haunted by the specter of flying in over new orleans on the 6th of september as a principal federal official and looking down at new orleans to a parking lot full of buses that were flooded and not used for evacuation because they were not moved in time. next question. reporter: but this storm is nowhere near the power of katrina.
tropical systems getting into the gulf this summer, and each time it changes the wind patterns and blows the oil right into this area. each time, those systems have not been anywhere near there, and bonnie is expected to be a direct hit. well, booms and barges don t stop storm surge. booms and barges become victims of storm surge. reporter: i asked admiral allen about the plan, he says it was driven about the experience in hurricane katrina. i m still haunted by the spector of flying in over new orleans on the 5th of september, as a principle federal official and looking down to new orleans at a parking lot of buses flooded and not used for evacuation, because they were not moved in time. next question? reporter: but this storm is nowhere near the power of katrina, and still local officials say that because of the oil, it does carry a danger they have never had to fight before. this new threat comes at a time when days have passed since they have seen any new fresh oil.
out of harm s way so they can return. booms and barges don t stop storm surge, they become victims and incapacitied and can t comply an oil spill response. what we re talking about is moving equipment to high ground so it s not harmed so it can be applied as soon as possible. okay. let s talk about what we re talking about here. the tropical storm, bonnie, at the mommy, it doesn t seem fierce, but it s a tropical storm. it is. it s 40 miles per hour, and had winds about 46 miles per hour, and a little buoy out there oh in the center of the atlantic ocean. you can see it on shore, it came over cutler bay, the center right there. eventually it will get back in the gulf of mexico. generally speaking, we think something goes over land, it s going to lose strength. is that going to happen? it did a little bit, 5 miles per hour. but you have to understand what part of that is land. there is water there, the water is very warm. we have noticed this before, when a couple storms have co