A New Orleans Resident Speaks On Life Since The Oil Spill
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A worker cleaning up oil from the marsh grass. (Dwayne Fatheree)
National crises like Hurricane Katrina and now the oil spill along the Gulf Coast of Mexico are easy to feel detached from for those who don't live in the immediate area.
Journalist and New Orleans resident Karen Dalton Beninato has been giving non-residents and residents alike a closer look at the spill's effects through Tweets and articles on the Huffington Post and NewOrleans.com.
Since the spill began 55 days ago, Beninato has talked BP, morale, Obama and social media.
In an article Sunday, Beninato notes the "end of an era" when one of the nation's oldest family-owned oyster dealers was forced to shut its doors. Even more ironic, she writes, this week marks New Orleans seafood week.
She spoke (in more than 140 characters) with Neon Tommy editor-in-chief Callie Schweitzer about life in New Orleans since the "worst environmental disaster in U.S. history."
NT: What's been the biggest disappointment for New Orleans residents?
KDB: I guess early on it would be the announcements--with regularity--that a fix was being implemented, because everybody needs some kind of hope so badly along the Coast right now. Not that it's about to be fixed, but even that it's fixable.
A flyover view of the damaged wetlands. (Dwayne Fatheree)
There were at least four procedures where you could see everybody holding their breath and walking on pins and needles. Of course the engineers had to try whatever they could, but it's eating away at the hopes people are getting with each new process. You'd almost like to not know about something if it's the placebo effect.
NT: What have you thought of the media coverage?
KDB: The news is so bisected right now. There's not a uniform response from BP as much as there is a giant hole.
It's turning from a regional crisis to a national crisis. It's national anyway with 30 percent of the nation's seafood from the Gulf Coast. It's also forcing everyone to readdress how and when we get our energy.
[The news] is changing on a minute-to-minute basis. It requires an active website and active social media. There will be a source on Twitter that you trust more than national news outlets because there's a source that's there in real time as it's happening.
NT: What does it mean for you as a resident?
KDB: If you're a New Orleanian, [the wetlands are] your protection and your buffer. I think we're all extremely interested in keeping that there...It's really going to be a fight to whether these marshes exist in the long run and action has to be soon. We're all pretty avid amateur scientists right now by default.
And we really are hitting a level of outrage fatigue because it seems like every day is worse news. To live with that cloud over your head...It's stressful.
We're all starving for some validation that whatever has gone wrong so far in the regulation is fixable and is being looked into. Just seeing the environmental fallout is grabbing the attention of the nation and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
A flyover view of the damaged wetlands. (Dwayne Fatheree)
NT: What news sources do you turn to?
KDB: Mother Jones is covering it the best--they have an embedded reporter, they broke the story about further possible spills, and Rachel Maddow. There's nothing like seeing somebody down there on the Coast in the muck. I think those are the two you turn to first because you don't feel as if there are any kind of filters there. Also Huffington Post and NewOrleans.com if I can add two shameless plugs.
NT: What's the overall mood in New Orleans?
KDB: It's determined. As the population group that fought their way back from Katrina...I think New Orleanians know that their voice is getting out more than it was in 2005, and they're making sure they're heard. It's all you talk about in daily life with people you run into, until it's just too much to process.
On the other hand, New Orleans is as fun and as beautiful as it's ever been, and it's important to remember that one of the best things you can do is get down there. Vacation on the Gulf Coast. History is in the making.
For a closer look at the New Orleans coast, see NewOrleans.com editor Dwayne Fatheree's photo slideshow of the marsh grass and flyover photos of the wetlands.
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