Five years after Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana, what do you think or know about the Gulf Coast situation today?

I live in Alabama, which was highly affected by hurricane Katrina also.Some people here are actually still struggling from the damage. Some people didn’t have insurance or money to rebuild/ repair their homes. Some still live in small FEMA trailors. Alot of people lost everything they owned. We have alot of condemned homes that still haven’t been knocked down like they were supposed to be. Some important landmarks had to be demolished because they were damaged so badly.

About the BP situation, they say all the oil is gone. Which is a lie, its just not on the surface of the water like it was in the beginning. BP Isn’t wanting to send people there checks or even a reasonable amount to pay off peoples bills. My dad is in the seafood industry and BP was suppose to send him a check about a months ago. He hasn’t got it yet. The company he works for is still in business, barely. So he isn’t even getting paid half of what he is suppose to be making. A bunch of other businesses around here are closed down completely. Some people don’t think its a big deal and aren’t worried about it, but it has highly effected our envirnment and is harming the water creatures. Alot of people make their living off of seafood and have mouths to feed and bills to pay. So I think BP should get on the ball about sending out checks because its ridiculous.

It seems like you might be facing a lot of the same issues with this as with the Katrina-caused Murphy Oil spill in Chalmette, L.A. You might want to check on how the EPA reacted to that situation, and see if there’s anything else you need to worry about (e.g., is there oil on your land? if it rains, will that oil resurface?)

I figure a recovery from a disaster is only as effective as the motivation, cleverness and the willingness, of the victims, to work tirelessly allows it to be. It is just like being in a desperate firefight. You only win if everybody commits totally to winning at any cost or sacrifice.

@josie

The problem with that position is that the victims are often the least capable to fight. Often, if they regain their footing, it’s at a point where people have already forgotten about them. Which is why I disagree – we need to emphasize third party support and accountability – to a certain extent.

I live on a beach on the west coast of Florida. I worked with a medical team in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. I nearly shit my pants when Katrina came rolling up into the GoM toward my island, then watched helplessly all night as she passed us by and approached New Orleans, the city of my birth, knowing full well the situation with the Levy System and the many oil rigs in her path.

Before this, I, like many, had read reports of the dying underwater basin off the Mississippi Delta due to the billions of tons of chemicals, carcinogens and heavy metals being pumped into the River over the last 100 years from Bimidji, Minnesota to the petrochemical refineries around New Orleans. Statistics have indicated since the 1960s that the communities living along the 130 miles of River between Baton Rouge and Grande Isle have the highest cancer rates in the US.

At this very moment, I am sitting aboard a 40 foot sailing yacht in a marina at Cedar Key, Florida in transit for delivery to its owner in St. Petersburg. I began this voyage a little more than a week ago at Fort Walton Beach, Florida in the Panhandle near the Alabama line. This is my second trip along this route since late July. I have read that the oil leak has been stopped, that the slick is no more, that the emergency is over, and it has all but disappeared from the media. There is a referendum on the Florida ballot slated for next November on whether or not we shall allow drilling off our coast. In July the polls showed 58% against this. A few days ago that number had dropped to 42%. The citizenry’s memory is short.

I am here to tell you that the emergency is far from over. Gunkholing along the coast from FWB to Appalachicola, I found formerly pristine estuaries thick with tar and no cleanup crews in sight. Rotting oil-covered carcasses of sea fowl and fish all along this part of the coast. 4 freshly dead loggerheads. Last month I found the same, plus I encountered a pod of about 15 sickly dolphins, swiming slowly on their sides in the apparent throws of death. I found no slick on this trip. I attribute, unscientifically, the deaths to the dispersants used in the management of the spill.

Earlier this month a scientist from NOAA admitted to a Congressional investigation committee that he had lied about the extent of the damage due to the spill and admitted that the damage was vast and will go on for years. The committe, which was supposed t be attended by a score of Congressmen, was attended only by its chairman ant the NOAA witness. The day before the committee met, the New York Times printed an article that downplayed drastically the damage to the spill and described the long term damage negligible.

This, I assure you, is not the case and this is not over by any means.

@Espiritus_Corvus

Thank you…this is exactly the type of unique perspective we need to hear.