Oil Rig Cook Haunted by Nightmares Since Blast

(AP)  Oleander Benton, a cook on an oil rig that exploded off the Louisiana coast, was sitting at a laundry room table with a friend when the lights went out. Then, there was the blast.

The Deepwater Horizon platform shuddered, debris fell from the ceiling and Benton hit the floor, as she had been trained to do. She scrambled through hallways littered with rubble, following a man in a white T-shirt.

"I could not see anything but that man. He just kept on saying 'Come this way, come that way.' It was like he was coaching me to my lifeboat, because I couldn't see," she said.

She made it across the sweltering, mud-caked deck to a lifeboat - one of 115 people to safely escape the platform after the explosion a week ago. Eleven others are missing and presumed dead.

Benton, 52, recalled her tale as crews used a remote sub to try to shut off an underwater oil well that's gushing 42,000 gallons a day from the site of the wrecked drilling platform. If crews cannot stop the leak quickly, they might need to drill another well to redirect the oil, a process that could take about two months while oil washes up along a broad stretch of shore, from the white-sand beaches of Florida's Panhandle to the swamps of Louisiana.

More on the Oil Rig Explosion

Oil Spill Growing off Coast after Rig Explosion
Oil Spill Continues; Will Robot Fix Leak?
Man-Made Disaster in the Gulf
Crews Work to Stop Oil Leak in Gulf
Sunken Oil Rig Off Louisiana Coast is Leaking
New Oil-Rig Safety Rules Eyed Before Blast
Louisiana Oil Rig Explosion

The oil, which could reach shore in as little as three days, is escaping from two leaks in a drilling pipe about 5,000 feet below the surface.

Nightmares have haunted Benton since the explosion April 20. She remembers following the man who knew his way around the platform, which is about the size of two football fields. She stumbled as he led her to the deck.

"Mud was everywhere ... This was mud that was shooting up from the well. It was oily mud, real oily," she said.

The fire made the already muggy night almost unbearable. Benton's name was checked off as she boarded a lifeboat, then there was a roll call to make sure everyone was accounted for.

"It looked like it was taking forever to get that boat in the water," she said, but "I think that's just because I was so anxious to go."

Benton didn't want to discuss her injuries, other than to say that she was bruised. Her attorney, Stephen Rue, said she was having trouble sleeping and is suffering symptoms of post traumatic stress syndrome. She has not yet filed a lawsuit in the case.

As of Tuesday morning, oil that leaked from the rig site was spread over an area about 48 miles long and 80 miles wide at its widest. The borders of the spill were uneven, making it difficult to calculate how many square miles are covered, Coast Guard Petty Officer Erik Swanson said.

[hannahAr]

Am I the only one to pick up on the part of her statement that the LIGHTS WENT OUT FIRST, FOLLOWED BY AN EXPLOSION??? Isnt anyone investigating that!!

[hannahAr]

After consulting my expert on this matter, I am told that a poorly designed generator without the proper safety design, could have shorted out and followed a path of methane gas to the drill site and indeed have caused a massive explosion. I do however, still have my own doubts.

[hmmIwonder]

Prevention of destruction is the first of all responsibilities of any civilization and its citizens.

[ronozz]

We can?t possible drill our selves to energy independence. We now use 20% of all the oil produced in the world. Wake up, all the easy stuff is gone we will have to drill farther and it is going to become more expensive. This will just postpone the final pain. We need to count on American ingenuity to find better energy sources so we can quit paying $400 billon a year for foreign oil. America could one again export more then we import.

I predict that 10 years from now far more energy will be produced by oil producing algae, wind farms, solar farms and a host of other technologies being investigated plus our natural gas reserves than what we get out of these oil wells. If the US succeeds in producing all our energy at home the price of oil would be back a $10 a barrel making deep ocean wells not cost efficient enough to make a profit.

[rwsmith29456]

I deinitely would have had to clean out my pants.

[sjc_1]

We can make methanol from natural gas, biomass or coal. You can make gasoline from the synthesis gas from natural gas, biomass or coal. There is really no need for any of this, except it makes a few companies a ton of money.

[dwilson59]

OK what will get me to work in the morning?

[dnamj]

Yay oil! Drill baby drill!

[us_1776]

The eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico is where all the tourism and great beaches are and we NEVER want to see any of these greasy, smelly, polluting and dangerous rigs anywhere in the eastern Gulf.

[dwilson59]

Now let the Law Suits begain.