As I step from the airplane onto the accordian walkway I bump into a wall of heat and humidity that I had forgotten existed. July in New Orleans is not hospitable. The thick weather was created for flying cockroaches and alligators not modern, whimpy humans. I am in town for a week to visit with [...]

In a press conference on the beach of Grand Isle, Louisiana last week, a BP spokesman claimed that the company’s solution to removing oil from marshes will be to set up boom that will capture oil as the tides come in an out.

Raleigh says that the one-time compensation doesn’t begin to take care of the years-long effects of the disaster. “They gave us $5,000, but that really don’t mean too, too much if we’re going to be 10 years out of business.”

Last week I told you about my morning spent with Kay and Raleigh Lasseigne, a fisherman husband and his wife who live in Grand Isle, Louisiana. I introduced you to Raleigh this morning, and you saw their memorial to their oysters in photos on Friday; now let Kay show you herself.

Raleigh Lasseigne was a fisherman, shrimper, and crabber, and oysterman who sold his catch from a small building next to his home. Together with his son, also a fisherman, Raleigh’s life was the ocean and its bounty. Now Raleigh says it’s all covered in oil. “It’s a total disaster for the oyster business,” Raleigh told me Friday.

Discussion of some of the newly without work due to the BP Oil Disaster

I went to the home of Raleigh and Kay Leseigne, 60-something residents of Grand Isle who have both lived here their whole lives. Raleigh and Kay made a memorial to their last oysters, putting them up on a shelf in their home. Kay wrote on the memorial: “We love you, going to miss you.”

President Obama arrived on Grand Isle, Louisiana moments ago. His motorcade came zipping through the main road along the beach. Once sounds of helicopters and police sirens were audible, almost the whole restaurant along the road emptied to catch a glimpse of the 40mph+ motorcade. Ahead of Obama’s visit to this seven-mile-long island, BP brought in at least 100 additional cleanup workers from other areas. Eight school buses were parked at the foot of the bridge into town this morning, with dozens of cleanup workers milling about the bait shop and deli. They all wore distinct clothing from the workers who have been cleaning up the island this week.

I spent a heartbreaking three hours with Louisiana fishermen Jim and Angel. They work and live on a mid-size shrimping boat docked on Grand Isle, Louisiana. They’ve been through Hurricanes Katrina, Gustav, and Ike. They’ve been through more hardships than many of us can imagine. Each time, they’ve got through because they had the one thing on which they could always count: the water and its bounty. And now it’s gone.

Watch Jim and Angel describe how the oil disaster affects them.

We stumbled across a mass grave of huge, dead, rotting fish covered in oil set a few feet back in the dune weeds of Grand Isle, LA. They were recently deceased and clearly coated with black oil, evidently dumped there by clean up crews several days earlier.