Feinberg Addresses Panama City Oil Spill Claims Concerns

This is the first article discussing the townhall meeting that occurred Wednesday, January 19th with Ken Feinberg. [Read Your 3 Options for BP Claims Payments]

Ken Feinberg was greeted by an ocean of people that were directly and indirectly effected by the BP oil spill disaster this past summer in a public townhall meeting this morning. The meeting was held in the conference ballroom at Edgewater Beach Resort in Panama City Beach. With literally hundreds in attendance the sign up sheet for questions filled up quickly.

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The BP Effect – CandyMaker

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Through out the course of the our BP Effect series, we’ve visited numerous industries affected by the oil spill. As we wrap up the series, the last place we wanted to check in on is with a few of our retail friends in Pier Park.

There’s been an enormous amount of information circulated regarding the financial losses and fears of business owners county wide during the height of the Spill, however, with this article I was hoping to offer a slightly different view, and with the help of Candy Maker and Trader Tom’s owner, Tom Ehlke, I’ve been able to do just that.

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The BP Effect – Does it ‘Affect’ Everyone? Panhandle Helicopter’s Story

So, there was an oil spill this summer, close to us, close to home. One could argue that it effected all of us one way or another. Many are up in arms about it, many just want people to stop talking about it. Some are making claims to recover losses, some are making claims to make money, some are making legitimate claims and getting a run-around. Did the BP Effect, effect everyone? Panhandle Helicopter didn’t seem to be concerned with the “catastrophe” that had droves of people and businesses down over the summer. He had record breaking months almost every month this year, and was down, just one month, less than 7%.

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The BP Effect on a Smaller Scale

We’ve talked about how this summer’s oil spill scare effected large-scale marinas, restaurants, property management companies and retail, but today, we’re going to take it a notch and talk about how this mess effected a home-owner. The Balmy Oasis Cottage is a small beach cottage that owner Pat Guin rents out on her own. She and her husband bought it as an investment and rely on rental revenue to make payments and cover costs of ownership. This summer was tremendously painful for their “business”, but with pockets of “blessings”, they made it. Here’s her story.

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The BP Effect – Captain Anderson’s Marina

The BP Effect series, so far, has been a blast to write. I’ve had the opportunity to meet tons of great people and get a real feel for how dynamic this incident was and how broad-ranging the effects have and continue to be. This is the fourth article in the series and today I’m talking about a business that has had, arguably, one of the most literal direct impacts from the BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill. Captain Anderson’s Marina’s business IS the water. They have four sources of revenue, all of them are directly and indirectly tied to the Gulf of Mexico. But first, I want to clear some stuff up. And, rather than rant on here, click here to read about what caused this summer’s economic disaster in Panama City Beach.

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The Oil Spill and What Caused this Summer's Economic Disaster

With The BP Effect article series, I keep seeing a resounding theme of comments, and I wanted to clear something up.

The cause of the “disaster” part of this whole incident was two fold and without both of them, there would have been no “disaster” here in Panama City Beach. The word “disaster” in terms of how Panama City Beach was effected relates not to how much oil was on the beach (because there was practically no product EVER reported on our beaches), but to how our area was effected ECONOMICALLY. The first was the actual BP oil spill. Had that not happened, the second wouldn’t have been a factor.

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How has the BP Oil Spill Affected Your Business

In what was supposed to be the best summer Panama City Beach has ever seen, tourism numbers were crushed in light of a dark, oily threat that loomed in the Gulf of Mexico, courtesy of British Petroleum. BP operated the Deepwater Horizon oil platform that dynamically floated approximately 250 miles southeast of Houston, it blew up on April 20, 2010, causing what is being labeled as many as the greatest oil spill in the history of the United States. From an ecological perspective, Louisiana was devastated. Ecologically, Panama City Beach was fine, but economically and perceptually, we were devastated as well.

Over the next 12 weeks, we’re going to dig deep and talk about the myriad ways area businesses were affected, directly and indirectly, and discuss some of the ways they made it through, despite the troubling circumstances. The goal is absolutely not to be a negative spin, but rather just a presentation of the facts and how real people were affected by something that really never even happened here.

Was your business affected? We would like to talk to you and let you tell you story to our tens of thousands of readers, pictures and links to your website included. 😉

Please share your story by using the form below.

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Famous People Join Hands in Support of Gulf

We thought this was pretty cool and wanted to share.

Ruptured Oil Well Capped, Is the Oil Spill Threat Behind Us?

More than half-way through the summer, BP has finally capped the spewing well in the Gulf of Mexico and is, at this point, preventing any more oil from spewing from the ruptured Deep Horizon Oil well 5,000 feet below the surface. There are reports that the capping has instigated a seepage of oil in other spots, which could be terrible if confirmed, but with the first of two relief wells almost complete and set to open in just a couple short weeks, officials are hopeful that there is an end in sight to this mess.

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UPDATE: Panama City Beach Currently NOT On Oil Spill Trajectory Map

(Latest update: July 15, 2010)

Over the last few weeks, very small quantities of oil product have been reported and cleaned up on Panama City Beach. And, when I say very small quantities, I mean so small that almost no one saw any oil wash up on the shores of Panama City Beach before it was cleaned up by the 700+ beach clean up workers that continue to patrol the beaches. In addition to the 700+ workers that are walking the beaches by day, there are around 250 walking the beaches at night.

As of July 14th, the oil plume was located 130 miles from Panama City Beach. At one point, it was as close as 20 miles off our coast. What this means is that for the next two to three weeks, our beaches are all but totally guaranteed to be oil free. This is great for the summer tourism season. Right now, we are well outside the NOAA 72 hour area of uncertainty.

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