Despite BP Escrow, Gulf Coast Needs Help

As oil continues to spew into the Gulf of Mexico more than two months after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion that killed 11 workers, pressure is mounting on BP to stop the leak, clean up the oil, and pay for the damages.  President Obama has announced a $20 billion escrow from BP’s assets to pay victims’ claims.  Since that announcement, staff at the Greater New Orleans Foundation have begun to get a few inquiries as to whether or not donations to the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund are still needed.  If you have doubts about the need to donate to the Fund, please consider the following points:

1. Local families have an urgent need for assistance.

With fewer areas of the Gulf open to fishing, thousands of local families find themselves with no work and no income.  This situation will only get worse as the spill continues.  Claims take time to be processed, but bills must be paid and children must be fed.   NPR reports that South Louisiana families are waiting five hours in line for $100 grocery vouchers distributed by Catholic Charities.

2. The oil spill has not been declared a federal disaster.

The affected areas are not receiving federal disaster support, such as increases in USDA commodities, to help meet the increased need for food and other emergency assistance.

3. The long term environmental impacts of this disaster will continue for years and in unforeseen ways.

With oil still gushing and no end in sight to this unprecedented environmental catastrophe, it is impossible to predict or comprehend the total, eventual cost to the people, culture, economy and ecology of the Gulf region.

The Guardian reports:

How long will it take for an ecosystem this ravaged to be “restored and made whole” as Obama’s interior secretary has pledged to do? It’s not at all clear that such a thing is remotely possible, at least not in a time frame we can easily wrap our heads around. … BP, for its part, is well aware of the limits of recovery. The company’s Gulf of Mexico regional oil spill response plan specifically instructs officials not to make “promises that property, ecology, or anything else will be restored to normal”.

4. Claims from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill are still working their way through the courts, and payouts are dramatically smaller than originally promised.

Riki Ott, an oil pollution specialist, marine biologist, and former commercial fisher in Alaska, told Tampa Bay Online she recalls a meeting with an Exxon spokesman after the Valdez spill who told a roomful of people, “We will make you whole.”

5. Local community organizations, dedicated to this region, can be trusted to put the interest of Louisiana’s communities and environment first.The nonprofit community, long and personally invested in this region, has been on the ground responding to this disaster since it happened.

The nonprofit community, long and personally invested in this region, has been on the ground responding to this disaster since it happened.

The Southeast Louisiana Fisheries Assistance Center offers services to fishery business owners and workers including debt management assistance, assistance in preparing documentation for BP claims, business continuity counseling, mortgage foreclosure prevention assistance, and more, with language access for Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Spanish speakers. The Center, which received a $50,000 grant from the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund, has been assisting 75 to 125 individuals weekly. It extended its hours May 3.

The Plaquemines Community C.A.R.E. Center in Belle Chasse, which provides counseling and many other family services to the people of Plaquemines Parish, has been bracing for an increase in the need for their services since the beginning of the BP oil disaster. The C.A.R.E. Center recently received a $50,000 grant from the Plaquemines Community Foundation, an affiliate of the Greater New Orleans Foundation, to help support its programs.

The vital importance of nonprofit organizations to the New Orleans region became starkly apparent after the 2005 hurricanes when, with an enormous gap between costs and federal funds, the local community and nonprofit organizations took the lead in rebuilding.  These organizations serve as the lifeblood of local communities, providing services and assistance that are not available anywhere else, staffed and run by people who live in and love the Gulf Coast.  The Greater New Orleans Foundation is committed to working with area nonprofits to meet both the short- and long-term needs of our communities and environment in the wake of this disaster.

The vital importance of nonprofit organizations to the New Orleans region became starkly apparent after the 2005 hurricanes when, with an enormous gap between costs and federal funds, the local community and nonprofit organizations took the lead in rebuilding. These organizations serve as the lifeblood of local communities, providing services and assistance that are not available anywhere else, staffed and run by people who live in and love the Gulf Coast. The Greater New Orleans Foundation is committed to working with area nonprofits to meet both the short- and long-term needs of our communities and environment in the wake of this disaster.