Just moments before we went on the air for our 10:00 pm newscast a year ago, we heard rumblings there had been an explosion on a rig in the Gulf of Mexico. We started investigating, but couldn't get much concrete information by the time we hit air. We still didn't know if it was an oil rig or a natural gas rig, but we did know both are extremely flammable, so an explosion wasn't necessarily a disaster. What we would find out in the hours and days ahead would change the Gulf, and the region forever.
Eleven rig workers were killed in the initial explosion of methane gas that gurgled up from the sea floor some five thousand feet below. The bodies would never be found. Dozens of other workers had to be evacuated in the orange glow of a raging inferno aboard the rig. Firefighters battled the blaze for two days, it was only extinguished when the rig finally collapsed from the intense heat and sank to the floor of the gulf. At that time, we were told there was no oil leaking. That couldn't have been farther from the truth.
For the next 85 days, we watched as millions of gallons of crude shot out of the well, and polluted our gulf. At first, we compared it to the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989. At the time, the worst oil spill in U-S history. It didn't take long for the Deepwater Horizon spill to eclipse the Valdez. In fact, before it was over, the Gulf spill would spew some 168 million gallons of oil... making it 19 times worse than the Valdez disaster in Alaska.
During the first few days of the spill, I traveled to Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana to report on the first oil that began washing ashore, and how people there were being effected. It was not pretty. I remember the strange bedfellows in Venice, Louisiana.. the southern most point of the state and the area that was in a collision course with that giant slick of crude that was slowly but steadily making its way to shore. This is a proud community of cajun people who depend on two things for their livelihoods... fishing and oil drilling in the gulf. Suddenly, one was responsible for the decimation of the other. But there didn't seem to be animosity. They all seemed to understand the risks of the oil industry were somehow part of the relationship. No one or no thing was being singled out for blame.
In mid July, the oil finally stopped flowing. But there was three months worth of that nasty, sticky, deadly crude still floating around. To this day, it is still coming on shore. As I now look back over the last year, it was a horrible time for so many. No matter how many stories we reported on individual despair, there were thousands more we simply didn't have time to get to. Livelihoods along our coast have been threatened, wildlife continues to die, and we didn't know if our pristine coastline will ever be the same. 365 days later, we still don't know the answers to many of those questions.
BP, under the forceful thumb of President Obama, set aside 20 billion dollars to help in the recovery. Currently, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility has distributed some 3.8 billion dollars to 177,000 claimants. 500,000 people have applied for claims.
Kym Thurman and I will be anchoring our special coverage of "The Crisis on the Coast: One Year Later" live from Gulf Shores tonight at 5:00 and 6:00. I hope you can join us for this look back, and look ahead following the biggest oil disaster in our history.
