A Storm of a Different Kind

A Storm of a Different Kind

A Storm of a Different Kind

Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, Alabama are the twin jewels of the Alabama Coast. Situated side by side, together they make up 53 miles of the Alabama Coastline. Although battered and bruised by major hurricanes over the years, most notably, Fredrick in 1989, and Ivan in 2004, these small beach towns have always been able to rebound. As disruptive as the storms are to people's lives, nobody spends much time blaming God or anyone else. They just get to work and rebuild. You could even say with each storm the area comes back a little better because of the evermore stringent building standards that are required to enable new structures to withstand the next big one.

My wife and I lost our property to Ivan. I will never forget that first visit after the storm to what had been our getaway in paradise. I still have vivid memories of the sand-covered highway, the broken and vacant spaces where buildings once stood, the few slow moving vehicles, the armed National Guardsmen and just how quiet and desolate everything was. However, nothing compared to what greeted us when we opened the door to what was left of our condo. The floor was covered with black sludge and all of our furniture was water damaged and beyond use. On top of that, our place had been looted of the few things that had survived the storm.

But as we do on the coast, we built back. It took a while, the better part of a year, but we did it. It took another year or two for the tourist to come back, but they came back, also. Most of the shops, restaurants and other businesses survived and there was even great optimism of things to come with the opening of an open air amphitheater and an upscale shopping and dining complex. And then the oil came.

The oil spill was a different kind of storm. It was a storm that did no physical damage to the condos or the shops or the restaurants but it was as devastating as if it had been a category 5. It was insidious because everything looked so normal. The condos, shops and restaurants were ready for what was to have been the best summer since Ivan. It was like everyone had prepared for a big party but very few of the guests showed up. Occupancy rates were down by 40 to 50%. Restaurants and other businesses experienced the same or worse.

And now the summer is over, the well has been plugged and there is hardly a word mentioned about the oil spill in the news. The responsibility for paying claims has shifted from B.P. to the government. There have been attempts to prop up the Alabama Coastal economy with free concerts and vacations subsidized by the oil money. But the truth is things are not very good at the Alabama Coast.

Just ask Penny Pound, the owner of Beachy Clean who went from a thriving condo cleaning business with six employees to now where it is just her and a part-time helper. Her income has been cut in half. She has applied for B.P. money but to no avail.

Matt and Regina Shipp closed a successful restaurant in Mobile to open the popular Harbor Grill in the fall of 2009 during the off season. They were met with great success and were looking forward to an outstanding first summer until the spill. Now to give themselves and their 35 employees a chance, they badly need the oil money to make up for last summer's loss of revenues. Matt says they have been given a fraction of the amount that they have claimed. After submitting over 1000 pages of documentation, they continue to be asked for more.

This indeed is a different kind of storm.

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