Gulf residents, businesses say they're still suffering from BP oil spill effects

Mark Schleifstein - 

As 2010 comes to a close, several Gulf Coast residents and businesses are still suffering both economic and emotional effects of the BP oil spill in the Gulf, representatives of tourism and fishing communities say.

"Families continue to need assistance and businesses are grappling with uncertainties about the future," said Dan Favre, a spokesman for the Gulf Restoration Network, a New Orleans-based environmental group that arranged a telephone news conference Tuesday with representatives of several coastal organizations. "After eight months, oil is still here and so are we. The BP disaster continues to have real impacts on real people."

Spokespeople for the United Houma Nation in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes and Vietnamese-American residents of Bayou La Batre, Ala., said residents are experiencing severe stress from the loss of their livelihood. Many are experiencing serious physical and mental health problems.

"I have seen people picking up aluminum cans to supplement their incomes," said Daniel Le, a representative of Boat People SOS. "People have sold their furniture, their TVs, so they can buy food and pay their bills and feed their children. People came out in hundreds waiting in line for the food drive which we organized with the Bay Area Food Bank."

Maryal Mewherter, a spokeswoman for Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing, said indigenous people like the Houma Nation members "were left with an uncertainty about being able to return to work, sell their catch or being able to eat any of the seafood from the Gulf of Mexico."

The stress is showing up as physical and mental health problems, she said, including headaches, intestinal problems, loss of appetite, depression and anger.

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