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This Disaster Moves in Slow Motion: Thinking of New Orleans & the Gulf Coast Oil Spill

By Tina Antolini

It was only weeks after the SOTRU team was in New Orleans that the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico began sending millions of gallons of oil on a slow creep towards the Louisiana shore. We spent much of our time in the Crescent City talking to people about the slow, painstaking work of recovery from the winds and floods of Hurricane Katrina—and here they are, facing another natural disaster.

Oil, scooped up with a bucket from the Gulf of Mexico off the side of the supply vessel Joe Griffin, coats the hands of an AP reporter at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, May 10, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

But this one, unlike the dramatics of a hurricane, is moving in slow motion. You can’t fill sandbags or board up your house to protect against waves of oil-tinged seawater lapping up against the Gulf Coast. But the fallout from the oil spill may well have a devastating impact on New Orleans, a city that not only relies on the nearby ocean for its celebrated seafood-filled gumbo and tourism industry, but depends on the vulnerable coastal wetlands for protection against future hurricanes.

A man holds a plastic bag with seawater and oil from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill south of Freemason Island, Louisiana May 7, 2010. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

Figuring out just how dire the situation is is, right now, a game of watch and wait. I looked at these images of the oil spill’s progress towards the shore with a growing sense of dread. So many of the people we interviewed in NOLA spoke about the city’s future with a man-can’t-keep-you-down sense of hope. They talked about the feeling that with the Saints Super Bowl victory and five years of day-after-day resurrection of city life behind them, New Orleans was on the verge of a new era. Will the oil spill change that? I sure hope not. And, however fragile the city’s recovery may seem sometimes, I don’t doubt for a moment the resiliency of spirit that New Orleanians possess. This is a city with a longstanding ability to infuse even struggle with celebration and joy. Whatever washes up on their shores, however deprived they may be of the oyster and shrimp po boys they love, the people of New Orleans will figure out a way to get through this mess, too. And, in the meantime, while they’re waiting to see what happens next, they’re stocking up on seafood. 20 lbs of crawfish in your freezer should either last a little while… or make for a damn good party.

You can listen to SOTRU’s New Orleans episode here…

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 at 9:37 am and is filed under Episode Centered, NOLA, Staff Experience, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • http://katowoman.blogspot.com Irene

    I agree. The people of New Orleans are resilient, courageous, hopeful and proud. However, they have not been withstanding devastation caused by natural disasters, but man-made disasters. The majority of post-Katrina flooding in New Orleans was caused by levee failure on the part of the Corps of Engineers. The oil spill was caused by BP’s irresponsibility in following safety regulations and their disregard for establishing catastrophic recovery procedures and tools. Calling such events ‘natural’ diverts accountability and decreases our ability to put an end to such carelessness.

    The long-term impact of both of these avoidable man-made disasters is immeasurable. Power to the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in surviving this battle.