wednesday 8/11/2010

It’s our 2nd full day at BP SOS (Boat People SOS) in Bayou La Batre, AL.

David from BP SOS gave a tour of the boatyards, shipyard and marshlands. I’ve posted some of the images on Facebook but I have a several great videos that I shoot that still need to be posted.

The community here is so resilient. I remember what the area looked like after Katrina. It was very different then. The disaster was obvious because of the massive destruction caused by the surge line and winds. Now, the landscape looks beautiful and the houses are intact. However, this time the impact is financial, emotional and biological.

The boat docks are full of picturesque shrimp boats and the summer skies are bright blue. Unfortunately, it’s the height of the shrimping seasons and the boat should be at sea for weeks at a time. These, mostly individually own, shrimp boats can hold thousands of pounds of “ Best in the world” seafood and the duration of each excursion lasts between 25 and 40 days.

The boats are double parked in some of the slips due to the lack of available spots. “ We have never had this many boats in this harbor for this long of time” one of the fisherman said. It’s been over a hundred days since the oil began to link.

I’ll tell you, I’ve heard everything from BP Gas is killing us, our government is killing us, we need to be able to fish and/or we need more off shore drilling. This was a town built around fishing that has become a town built more and more around oil production. Oysters and shrimp are in high demand and a way of life, oil has become the liquid gold. Shipyards that once built shrimp boat now build for the oil industry. The craftsmen with their torches weld the huge hulls of the Push boat in the same docks where the fathers before them crafted fishing vessels. The economy is 90 percent boat oriented in some way.

I chatted with some ladies sitting outside of a fish processing building today. One lady, Peg, told me about her families struggles to keep going. Katrina was five years ago and it’s taken almost five years for this industry to recover. Peg told me about the past three months without work. Her in-laws are in the fishing business, she and her husband are in the business and they have 3 children. The process of filing for assistance, with BP’s involvement, has made a horrible situation even worse.


I am not in politics and I leave it to the ones how should know better than I.

I can’t understand what is going on with our government. During Katrina I couldn’t wait to throw a pile of blame at W. Bush. His administration’s response was a disaster and a complete lack of orientation and humanity.

This administration’s response, however, does not seem much better. Baden’s speech here a few weeks ago is been replayed a lot. In it he stated that things were not so bad as he stood on a resort lagoon pristine beach. BP Gas has people everywhere. Most are here working just as hard as they would at their normal jobs. Trying to restore, protect and get the oil out of the water, sand and air. Others, however, are in unmarked cars, sitting in parking lots and monitoring citizens who are checking out the shoreline, taking pictures or asking questions.

What a dichotomy. The stress level here is high.


Elizabeth and Nancy from www.Hippyusa.org an organization that teaches parents the basic teaching/educational skills that they need to prepare their preschoolers for Kindergarten. They prepared a one-hour computer class today and taught it to the kids. Elizabeth did a great job. It’s hard for her sometimes, like with most teens, to have someone tell them how to do anything. She stepped up to the plate, hit and scored. I could tell how nervous she was but no one else could.

We actually had a couple of parents take the basic computer skills class. I love watching people challenge themselves to move beyond where they are at whatever age. This one lady had been so intimidated by the computer that she would not help her children with homework. Today she faced a self imposed villain and came out victorious.

There’s a tropical depression stirring in the Keys. It’s scheduled to be here by Thursday morning. If I thought it was going to be larger, I’d think about leaving. But it’s better to stay here and follow the storm north than try to out run it. We’ll leave as scheduled on Friday.