It’s true. The oleaginous mishap that killed 11 oil rig workers, plus the boat captain who committed suicide, and has closed beaches and poisoned waters and killed an as yet unknown number of sea creatures, and is sucking the oxygen out of the water, and triggered the release of millions of gallons of toxic oil dispersing chemicals, and will ultimately cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damage, and has already devastated, and will continue to devastate, Gulf Coast livelihoods and cultures for a generation or more … isn’t a federal disaster.
I subscribe to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster declaration email list. I haven’t been doing much reading of late so it wasn’t too surprising that I missed the declaration. Today I went through all the updates from the date of the explosion through today, and there wasn’t one related to the oil spill—and isn’t “spill” sort of an innocuous term for this thing?—for any of the Gulf states.
So I went to the FEMA website, where the only mention of the spill is a fairly inconspicuous link that says “If you have been affected by the oil spill go to www.disasterassistance.gov for guidance.” That site has a large placard on the home page that leads to another page on which the first link is to the Obama administration’s oil spill page, where the first thing you see is a statement from the president about the “spill”.
“To the people of the Gulf Coast: I know that you’ve weathered your fair share of trials and tragedy. I know there have been times where you’ve wondered if you were being asked to face them alone. I am here to tell you that you’re not alone. You will not be abandoned. You will not be left behind.”
Yes indeed: your economies have been sledge-hammered, your ways of life have been ended overnight, and it’s your fair share.
But I digress. The second link on the page is one that says “File a claim with BP.” That link leads you to … exactly where you already are. Beneath it are instructions on what to do next.
BP is accountable for processing and paying all removal costs and applicable damages incurred by individuals, businesses and communities as a result of the BP oil spill. If you think you might be eligible to file a claim with BP, please CLICK HERE to go to BP’s website (http://www.BP.com/) and file an online claim, or call 1-800-440-0858 to file a claim with BP by phone.
If you need additional assistance beyond the BP claims process, please click on the “Individuals and Families” tab above. Small businesses and local communities can also find resources by clicking on the tabs to the right.
The BP link takes you to BP’s home page, where the first thing you see is of course not the body of Captain William Allen Kruse, but a slide show depicting hardly any oil and a number of helpful-looking BP people, along with a pleasant looking actor pretending she’s a claimant, along with three pelicans being released back into their oil-soaked habitat after having been soaped clean. Yay! And then about two-thirds of the way down the right sidebar there’s a little link to the claims page, where the first thing you learn is that “BP deeply regrets the spill that has occurred in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the Deepwater Horizon Incident [and] takes full responsibility for responding to the Deepwater Horizon Incident.”
Incident! That’s what we’ll call it! The Incident in the Gulf! Yay! No wonder there’s been no federal disaster declaration. It’s only a spill. It’s only an incident.
So that’s one thing we know for sure is settled. Also on the page are handy factoids about what BP has done so far to make good on the damage. They have, for instance, already paid out $165 million. $165 million! Yay! That’s almost three days worth of profits for the company! And they will,for instance, consider bodily injury claims even though they don’t have to! Yay!
Bodily injury claims are not payable under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990; however, BP will evaluate each bodily injury claim submitted on a case-by-case basis. You will need to provide medical records, medical bills, or pharmacy records to support the claim.
One suspects, forgivably, that evaluation will be pretty much the end-all of bodily injury claims.
Not an emergency. Not a disaster. Not Our Problem. And please don’t try to report on this stuff, because BP doesn’t like it.
Anyway. The rationale for refraining from a disaster declaration is probably that it would let BP off the hook for the $20 billion they’re supposed to pay. (That’s three months profit! Yay!) But whatever. At least the folks down there have the president’s word that they won’t be left behind, although behind what isn’t made clear. The eight ball?
Incident. Incident. It is all incidental.
