Further to my post about the Coast Guard imposed 65ft rule I learned late last night that they had lifted their ban for media coverage in and around boom. The press release cited retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen (the go-to guy for the response) as saying “I have put out a direction that the press are to have clear, unfettered access to this event, with two exceptions: if there is a safety or security concern. This boom is critical to the defense of the marshes and the beaches.”
I applied this morning for my media credentials and was approved in less than 10 minutes. My pass outlines a list of regulations for myself, and any vessel operator to follow. It says in part “The US Coast Guard and Joint Information Center have approved your Media Vessel Credential. You are authorized to travel within the 20m boom safety zone for media activities. Please be aware that the area is an operational area and there may be many boats engaged in oil spill
recovery activities. This e-mail is the official media credential. There is no need to apply again as this credential is valid for the duration of the response.”
Next step is to call to see if I can get a spot on one of the overnight trips to the well site. If I get that, I also think I need to buy a new camera. And maybe a respirator
According to the National Institute for Mental Health, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) ” is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. Traumatic events that may trigger PTSD include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat.”
This fall/winter I was diagnosed with vicarious or secondary PTSD. In this post I want to share a little about my experiences, as well as the broader implications of PTSD in a community following large-scale disasters.
PTSD is something that is quite common after a natural disaster but usually resolves (for the most part) within a few weeks or months. Primarily, that occurs because after the crisis, life returns to some semblance of normalcy. With Hurricane Katrina, the Earthquake in Haiti and now with the BP Oil Spill, normal no longer exists for many people.
Today is the six month anniversary of the earthquake, we’re a week away from the three-month anniversary of the oil spill, and just a little more than 6 weeks away from the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
I live in St. Bernard Parish (SBP), just a few blocks from where it meets the city of New Orleans at the Lower Ninth Ward. SBP or “da Parish” (as it is known, although all the areas around here are called parishes) and the Lower Ninth were two of the hardest hit areas.
In 2007, two years post-Katrina, Jerry St. Pierre (then President of the Central Association of Obstetricians Gynecologists) said “Katrina has assaulted all the senses, and it is not over yet. This was not an acute injury, it is long-term. It is not a post traumatic stress disorder because we are still living it daily. One has the feeling that New Orleans is on life support and is struggling to survive.” These words really resonate for me. La Pierre stated them three years ago, August 29th will be the 5th anniversary of Katrina and yet, the city continues to suffer Katrina-related PTSD. Now with the oil spill, it can only get worse.
I recently wrote a chapter for an upcoming textbook and said “The mere experience of living amongst abandoned houses, or seeing the remaining signs of the disaster – destroyed properties, lack of trees, search marks on buildings – creates a constant reminder of the tragedy and loss.” If this is true for me, a resident only for a few months, it must be remarkably so for those who have been here since before the storm.
This picture is a typical sight in this area. Empty lots, with just steps or broken concrete in front, are everywhere, especially in Orleans Parish. In St. Bernard blight removal funding has allowed the parish government to start removing the concrete slabs and steps, leaving grass. Quickly the dirt becomes covered with grass and plants. The memory of what was quickly disappears.
While I hadn’t directly experienced Hurricane Katrina I had fallen in love with New Orleans on my first visit. In the fall 2009, as I began my PhD work, I spent all my school time studying issues of post-Katrina recovery. Primarily I was studying the emotional, cultural, social and psychological impacts of Katrina on the residents. It wasn’t unusual for me to spend 40, 50, 60 hours a week immersed in readings about this. When I had extra time, I was studying disaster impacts more generally. And when it came time for more casual reading I was reading books (fiction or non) about New Orleans. It was basically all I did. 100 hours on Katrina, disasters and recovery. Every week, for months.
I began realizing that I was experiencing trauma. I was more emotional, disconnected, stressed. But it was pretty manageable. I joked about it. I have spent more than a dozen years working with homeless people, sex workers, psych survivors etc. I am familiar with vicarious trauma and figured I could manage it on my own.
Until the earthquake in Haiti hit. All my symptoms came to the fore. I couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t sleep. My anxiety was high. My appetite was off. I couldn’t focus on school work. I cried all the time. I watched the news because if I didn’t I got upset but when I did watch it I cried more. All typical PTSD symptoms.
I tried to manage it and couldn’t so I sought help with a therapist. We discussed coping strategies and I began to feel better. In talking to him I realized that my symptoms were less obvious, less intense, when I was actually in New Orleans. Each time I visited my stress decreased; when I was in Canada it increased. As I talked to my therapist I realized that when I was there I was able to see the recovery taking place. When I was not there and just reading about it the research tended to be focussed on the negative and less on the progress and recovery so that was less visible.
I had hoped that my move to the area would help make things better. I’d be able to see the changes and improvements. I would absorb the spirit of the people. I left for New Orleans on April 25th. On April 20th the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill had happened but at first the impact wasn’t reported as being as significant as we now know it is. Today, day 84 of the spill and BP finally believes it is contained. Testing will further determine this tomorrow.
But it is too little too late. The lower parishes, including the lower part of my own parish, have been severely impacted by the oil. Coastal communities from Texas to Florida have had oil wash ashore. Last week it came into New Orleans itself in Lake Ponchartrain. The oil spill is going to have more of an impact than Katrina had and will be made even worse if any serious hurricanes hit the Gulf this summer.
The effect of the oil spill isn’t just this fishing and shrimping season. It isn’t just this season of lost employment. It is a complete change in people’s way of life. This is going to change how people live. In fact today I saw a video (included below) where a reporter predicts a mandatory evacuation will occur within a week. I don’t know if I believe it will be that soon but I do believe there are communities – like Venice, and Grand Isle, where an evacuation is quite likely.
There is work being done to help people with the impact of the oil spill. I have volunteered a few times with Catholic Charities at food pantry/financial assistance programs. My lovely pal Joycelyn (Happy Birthday today darl btw) Heintz was featured in an article in the New York Times yesterday looking at mental aspects of the oil spill. She works as the coordinator at the Center for Wellness and Mental Health with the St. Bernard Project, the organization my students primarily worked with this summer. Joycelyn was also the 100th home finished by the project – they have now finished 280 and have 50 under construction. The St.Bernard Project has been a leader in rebuilding and providing mental health support to the local community, now they’re working on employment opportunities for vets and unemployed residents, as well as providing support to fishing families affected by the oil spill.
I’ve realized in the past few weeks that my PTSD isn’t as in control as it was in April before I left. But I hope that being here allows me to manage it better than I might have been able to do in Canada. Being able to volunteer will hopefully help me feel like I am contributing towards change. We’ll see. I do know I’ll feel a lot better if the cap holds up to testing tomorrow.
Wow. The Coast Guard has just implemented a new rule stating that no one – whether members of the public or media – can get within 65ft of oiled wildlife, boom, response vessels etc.
When I went to Grand Isle a few weeks ago we stayed far away from boats in the water because we didn’t want to distub any work that they were doing.
We did however get pretty close to the boom itself; while the others had fancy cameras I have a cheap little Fuji and the zoom is adequate but not impressive. Which of the following two pictures provides you with better information?
This…(a zoomed in picture from 20 ft away)
…or this, a picture right near the boom?
Now, I can’t afford a $40000 fine or to get charged with a Class D felony, so I’m obviously going to have to respect this regulation as much as possible. But, until someone offers to pay me to write about the oil spill, I’m a freelance writer without a job, and as far as the Coast Guard or BP or anyone else is considered I’m the same as Jane Public.
However, members of the media are a critical component of enabling the public to know what is going on. While I respect the need for safety and security – for the boom not to get tangled or run over, for the wildlife not to be injured, for response vessels not to risk collision or waves from other boats – there is a limit to this. The Coast Guard actually wanted to impose a 300 ft limit but that was dropped to 65ft. Already media can’t fly lower than 3000 ft over the oil spill without special permission from the FAA. Now getting close to oil on the ground or in the water requires the Coast Guard’s permission.
Associated Press photographer Gerald Hebert says “”Often the general guise of ‘safety’ is used as a blanket excuse to limit the media’s access, and it’s been done before…It feels as though news reporting is being criminalized under thinly veiled excuses. The total effect of all these restrictions is harming the public’s right to know.”
Anderson Cooper, CNN‘s guy on the ground here, did a wonderful rant on this which includes the following:
“We’re not the enemy here. Those of us down here trying to accurately show what’s happening, we are not the enemy. I have not heard about any journalists who has disrupted relief efforts. No journalist wants to be seen as having slowed down the cleanup or made things worse.
If a Coast Guard official asked me to move, I would move. But to create a blanket rule that everyone has to stay beyond 65 feet away boom and boats, that doesn’t sound like transparency. Frankly, it’s a lot like in Katrina when they tried to make it impossible to see recovery efforts of people who died in their homes.
If we can’t show what’s happening, warts and all, no one will see what’s happening. And that makes it very easy to hide failure and hide incompetence, and makes it very hard to highlight the hard work of cleanup crews and the Coast Guard. We are not the enemy here.”
You can view this video to put the above into context. I might have to go watch him broadcast soon, just to tell him how great this was.
Omnipresent in the minds of all down here is the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and resultant oil spill from April 20th 2010. We’ll likely never know how many gallons of oil have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico but it is in the multimillions. By conservative efforts about 40 million as I write this post or by super generous over 230 million gallons. I use the handy oil spill calculator to figure this out.
Today I went out into the Gulf of Mexico with a few others to see the oil. We left out of the Sandpiper Marina in Grand Isle, Louisiana with Captain Robert Vegas at the helm.
We wanted to see oil and boom, and we weren’t disappointed. We also saw dolphins, most swimming freely but one that was in distress; in too shallow and with oil on its dorsal fin.
We saw birds, most ok, some covered in oil; brown pelicans so a little hard to tell.
The beauty of the Gulf is being marred by this tragedy. It will continue to be destroyed for months and years to come.
This tragedy is best explained through photos.
The signs are everywhere…
But sadly, so is the oil….
The coloured booms trap the surface oil from coming ashore. The white booms absorb the oil. If they are placed properly, if there is enough (there is a shortage), if they don’t drift or wash ashore.
When the oil gets through because the booms aren’t there or aren’t working, animals and birds get hurt.
This dophin was covered with oil and thrashing because it was caught in shallow waters. We tried calling the number for reporting oiled animals – it was a BP sub-contractor in Houston who didn’t even know where Grand Isle – one of the largest hubs of response – even was. Eventually we reported it to the Coast Guard and Fisheries & Wildlife and they went to rescue it.
Some of the birds had oil on them, but note the stained grass – the brown is oil that has washed up on the nesting grounds of the brown pelicans. Only recently removed from the endangered list I wonder if they will get added again soon.
All in all a very interesting and intense day. Soon I hope to go out from Venice to see another area that has been badly affected by the oil.
