Surviving BP and the Fed

HolisticSurvival.comYou might forgive residents of Grand Isle, Louisiana, for feeling picked upon. First Hurricane Katrina kicked the doors in with her brutal winds, now BP oil is headed for the beaches. According to local residents, this double whammy has called into question the survival of their way of life.

Believe it or not, Louisiana coastline is not all swamps, marshes, and estuaries. Grand Isle is a barrier island connected to the mainland by a single road, complete with flat sandy beaches and rolling surf. The place is very popular for local tourists looking to head to the beach but who don’t feel like driving all the way to Texas, Mississippi, or further.

This beach is theirs and they like it. Like it a lot. But today is the kickoff of summer season and nobody is coming to visit and who can blame them? Visitors can get near the sand but the tar ball infested water is strictly off limits, and no one knows how long this might persist. With it seeming more and more likely that BP won’t get the Gulf of Mexico oil leak shut off until August, Grand Isle could be looking at a completely lost tourist season and that scares the locals who depend upon that five month period of time to earn the majority of their yearly income.

For now, hotels, motels, restaurants, and souvenirs are barely hanging on, kept afloat financially only by the influx of BP workers, executives, and the media throng that follows.

The Holistic Survival Team

Flickr / The Sierra Club