Destin, Florida -- More than 100 tar balls washed ashore on northwest Florida's Emerald Coast, fouling white beaches, as state officials warned of more "shoreline impacts" soon.
The tar balls moving in on Okaloosa Island, within Florida's Panhandle, from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill were part of a growing number of streams of brown and rusty red oil dotted with floating quarter-size tar patties landing on an area roughly bounded by Pensacola on the west and Port St. Joe on the east, officials said.
Hardest hit so far is an area around Destin, which styles itself as "The World's Luckiest Fishing Village."
Locals and tourists fished along the quarter-mile-long pier, but few caught anything, The Miami Herald reported Thursday.
"This is just a disaster," Will McCrory, 19, of Niceville, Fla., near Eglin Air Force Base, told the newspaper.
"I didn't think it would reach here this fast. It's like summer's been ruined," he said.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection warned that areas near and west of Panama City, also within the Panhandle, "may experience shoreline impacts by Friday."
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