I used to live in a small fishing town on the Louisiana coast and the economy ebbed a flowed depending on how the season was going. Most of those people were poor to begin with and with no shrimp and red fish coming the money just stops flowing. Entire communities will go under before the government gets around to making BP pay the bill, not that I believe they will ever pay for all the damage.

I think one of the things about this that bothers me the most is the complete lack of urgency people not affected seem to have about this. This isn't something that could become a crisis it is a crisis right now and is only go get worse. When are boats going to be able to go out again? How long do people believe this industry and the way of life that has built up around around it can remain on hold?