Sunday, July 10, 2005

The Persian Gulf: After the Storm



















Skirting abandoned bunkers and mindful of hidden Iraqi mines, we have driven deep into the inferno of Kuwait Ahmadi oil field. Fires of dynamited wellheads, roaring like jet engines, rage on every side.

We stop for photographer Steve McCurry to shoot pictures, and I take a count. Sixty-eight fountains of fire hurl smoke into the black canopy overhead. Throughout this shattered land more than 500 flaming wells spew poisons aloft, each systematically ignited by Iraqi invaders three weeks before.

In this dark and surrealistic landscape a drizzle of soot and oil flashes in our headlights and stains our protective gauze masks. The smoke cloud blocks the midmorning sun, and the fouled desert air is chill.

Some of the fires leap 200 feet (61 meters) in the air. Twisting and writhing in the wind, they resemble flaming tornadoes tethered to their wellheads. The hottest we give wide berth, lest the searing heat touch off our gas tank.

see:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/100best/storyD_story.html

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