Florida Responds to Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster

Floridians and Visitors Urged to “S.A.V.E.”

Safety first!

• Oil is a hazardous material and must only be handled by highly trained professionals and volunteers.
• Do not attempt to clean impacted beaches or attempt to rescue oiled wildlife on your own.
• Touching oil is a health risk and disposing of it improperly may cause additional environmental damage
• Distressed wildlife may become aggressive and harm you.

Always heed local warnings from health officials.

• Do not trespass on closed beaches.
• Even leaving your footprints behind may cause environmental damage.
• Volunteers should not expect to just show up at affected beaches and work.
• Doing so puts you at risk for health problems, hinders the efforts of response personnel, and may cause further irreparable damage to impacted beaches.

Valuable resources are needed by responding agencies.

• Consider donating much-needed cash to responding organizations.
• Confirm the needs with a responding organization before collecting items.

Engage wisely.

• Join a responding organization and become trained to volunteer safely and effectively.
• The need for volunteers and donations is long-term.
• Time and resources will be needed for months.

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