It was a dark and stormy night...

The setting may be a cliche, but little else is in the scenario developed by the Coast Guard to describe what it calls a "reasonable worse-case" scenario for an oil spill in Hawai`i. Unlike many worst-case imaginings, the situation outlined by the Coast Guard, set forth in its Contingency Plan for the Pacific Island areas, does not require any willing suspension of disbelief to think it may happen.