Gulf Coast Gears Up for Oil Spill Impacts
May 18th, 2010Recovering Economies Threatened
A spectacular Sunday view of the beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama, from the new Gulf State Park fishing pier. [Click on the image for a larger view.] According to the park’s assistant manager Milton Rittelmeyer, the new pier is projected to generate more than a half a million dollars a year. If the oil were to come ashore here, and fishing was banned — or even if people just chose not to come down and fish due to the perception problem — it could have a devastating impact on revenue for the state.
by Glynn Wilson
GULF SHORES, Ala. — When the news broke on April 20 that an oil rig had exploded and was leaking the Gulf of Mexico’s light, sweet crude into the sea, creating a massive slick that could be headed for Alabama and Florida’s beaches as well as coastal marshes in Louisiana and Mississippi, it took a few days but officials charged with promoting tourism along the coast started mobilizing along with the media covering the spill and emergency responders struggling to do something about it.
Herb Malone, the President and CEO of the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau, went into crisis planning mode like everybody else. When I ran into him Monday in his office across the street from the beach in Orange Beach, I knew I could get my hands on some facts.
I knew Malone well back in the 1980s and early 1990s, when he ran the Gulf Shores Chamber of Commerce, back in the day when I looked over his shoulder as the watchdog press in Baldwin County, then the political and environmental reporter for Gulf Coast Newspapers. That was back when it was more akin to a real news organization and used to beat the Mobile Press-Register on a regular basis.
I figured Malone had become even more of a Republican in the 18 years I had been gone from Gulf Shores, like everybody else in Baldwin County, especially during those 8 years of Bush. But I also knew Malone to be an honorable guy who understands the key to success in public relations is fast, transparent, accurate information. He and I both go back to the day when Republicans and Democrats could be friends while holding disagreements about the direction of public policy. We even played on the same team in a golf tournament once.
So when I asked for a quick briefing on the potential impact of the oil spill on the coastal economy, he hustled me into his office and started rattling off facts faster than I could write them down (I’ve just got to start videoing everything I do from now on).
