Oil slick is spoiling Gulf Coast's comeback year

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Reporting from Gulf Shores, Ala. —

This was supposed to be the season of recovery.

Recovery from Hurricane Ivan in 2004, which left the high-rise hotels and the rainbow-colored beach bungalows in ruins; from soaring gas prices, from the recession and from the winter season that wasn't — when near-freezing temperatures kept sun-seekers home.
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Recovery from Hurricane Ivan in 2004, which left the high-rise hotels and the rainbow-colored beach bungalows in ruins; from soaring gas prices, from the recession and from the winter season that wasn't — when near-freezing temperatures kept sun-seekers home.

Instead, the summer of 2010 is shaping up as a season of worry in this idyllic coastal resort, where visitors over the Memorial Day weekend said they had come only because deals from desperate lodging owners were too good to pass up. To a person, visitors said they were sure beaches would be oily messes by high summer.

"Two months is a long time for all that oil to be spilling out. It's gotta go somewhere," Brandon Roberts of nearby Fairhope said as he prepared to go scuba diving in the warm water lapping on the wide, white-sand beach that makes Gulf Shores a draw for vacationers from Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

My friends on Padre Island Texas [retail, fishing guides] reported to me that this kickof of the season [memorial day] was pretty dismal and they haven't been affected by the oil spill...yet.

[edit on 1-6-2010 by whaaa]

Somehow BP needs to pay for the damage that is ensuing.

Originally posted by A por uvas
Somehow BP needs to pay for the damage that is ensuing.

I have no illusions that big oil will not suffer but continue to show record profits.
It's only the taxpayers that will end up suffering and paying for this debacle for generations.