Glenpool Resident Delayed On Cruise Ship After Texas Oil Spill

An oil spill and recovery effort has at least one Tulsa-area vacationer stranded on board a cruise ship. Kayla Parker, a Glenpool resident and dispatcher for the City of Jenks, has spent a week on the Carnival Magic cruise ship.

Now her vacation has been extended for several hours as they wait to make port in Galveston, after a barge loaded with marine fuel collided with a bulk carrier in the Houston Ship Channel Saturday.

Parker said the ship was due to dock at 8 a.m., but as of 3 p.m., she and fellow vacationers were on deck watching cruise ships, industrial barges and other vessels stack up outside Galveston Bay.

Parker said they pulled up to port and deboarded late Sunday evening.

The Coast Guard reports the barge's damaged tank had the capacity for 168,000 gallons of marine fuel oil. Authorities still are assessing how much product was spilled.

"The primary emphasis remains the safety of response personnel working in the area and the protection of environmentally sensitive habitats, including birds and marine life," according to a release from the Coast Guard.