Tag: the Gulf coast

(cross-posted at firefly-dreaming)

(Click on photo to enlarge)

This is a “Flotel.”  It is a huge barge upon which pods, made of corrugated steel, are stacked two high and three wide.  Each pod holds 12 bunks.  There are 4 bunks to a “room”

(Click on photo to enlarge)

There is a common area for eating, showering and leisure activities.

The men working for BP, in helping with the clean-up, are expected to put in 12 hour days, for 18 days straight, and then, they are to receive 3 days off.  This means workers living in these “flotels” spend 24 hours a day there for 18 days straight.  And it means being away from their families for a long time at a stretch.

Although workers had been promised motels, BP brought in these flotels, because of, or so they say,

One of the logistical difficulties in combating the Gulf oil disaster has been finding housing for the thousands of workers brought in by BP and its contractors to work on cleanup and containment operations . . . .

However,

BP told a New Orleans Fox affiliate that the flotels were useful for keeping workers close to cleanup sites, thereby eliminating travel time.

(cross-posted at firefly-dreaming)

I guess most of us thought that the $20 billion fund to be set up by BP was to be used exclusively for payment of claims to coastal workers and businesses.  

Michael Rozen, a partner in the Feinberg Rozen law firm, which is in charge of administering the fund. . . . .

“My present understanding is … that it is available for all manner of costs,” Rozen said, stressing that all legitimate claimants would be paid.

“Twenty billion maybe isn’t sufficient for the mass of stuff that’s aired, in which case BP will have to add more. If that should be the case, people still have their rights and remedies under law.”

. . . . . Robert Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and activist, told Reuters that it was another “subterfuge by BP.”

Toxic tort lawyers Mike Papantonio and Perry Weitz said news that the fund can have other purposes “amounts to a trick,” because the public expects all of the money to go to victims.

“Imagine if BP uses a significant portion for clean-up costs,” Weitz said at the spill litigation conference. “What’s left for the victims?”  (emphasis mine)