The oil tanker Exxon Valdez, carrying 1.26 million barrels of north-slope crude oil, grounded on a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound at 12:04am local time on March 24. A Coast Guard helicopter crew was able to rescue the majority of those aboard and all but one person were rescued, according to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. Two minutes later the Coast Guard closed Port Valdez. Two vessels designed to skim oil off the water are ``being prepared ... for delivery and deployment.' The ship remained on the reef through high tide and a one-half mile oil slick was reported at 2:27am. Coast Guard personnel boarded the ship and reported 138,000 barrels lost. At 4:14 the Exxon Baton Rouge was sent to begin taking the remaining oil off of the Valdez.
The oil tanker Exxon Valdez, carrying 1.26 million barrels of north-slope crude oil, grounded on a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound at 12:04am local time on March 24. A Coast Guard helicopter crew was able to rescue the majority of those aboard and all but one person were rescued, according to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. Two minutes later the Coast Guard closed Port Valdez. The ship remained on the reef through high tide and a one-half mile oil slick was reported at 2:27am. Coast Guard personnel boarded the ship and reported 138,000 barrels lost. At 4:14 the Exxon Baton Rouge was sent to begin taking the remaining oil off of the Valdez.