Oil and Hurricane Season Loom for Louisiana Resorts

GRAND ISLE, La. (May 11) -- Palm trees sway in the ocean breeze and the sandy beach is clean and ready for the high season. But the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico looms offshore, casting a gloom over this coastal town as tourists cancel weekend getaways and business owners fret about the future.

"That oil is going to wreck us. It's just going to wreck us," said Tony Grivet, owner of the Tropical Hotel, who, like most business owners here, relies on summer tourists for his livelihood.

This was supposed to be a banner year for Grand Isle, Louisiana's only inhabited barrier island, off the state's southeast coast, 110 miles south of New Orleans.

The town has mostly recovered from 2005's Hurricane Katrina and has since welcomed thousands of tourists who come to swim, bake in the sun and catch fish, blue crabs and shrimp. The island is dotted with modest weekend homes in pastel yellows and blues, sitting on 15-foot stilts to protect them from storm surges.

Hurricanes are the typical fear, and locals have learned to live with that threat and the uncertainties of a storm's path. The 2010 hurricane season begins in three weeks -- on June 1.

But they don't have experience dealing with a drifting oil slick that might or might not slosh up on the seven-mile beach.

"It's the unknown that's killing us," said Mark Scardino, owner of Hard Times Fishing Charters. "The wind is coming in from the south now, which is not good. But that might change. Nobody really knows what's going to happen."

The oil, spewing from a BP well about 50 miles from here, stems from the destruction of a drilling platform that blew up April 20 and sank two days later, killing 11 rig workers. Tar balls have been washing up on Alabama's Dauphin Island, a community similar to Grand Isle that's about 250 miles west of here.

Forecasts showed that a light sheen of oil could drift onto Grand Isle's beach sometime today, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The island is not immediately threatened by the heavier, more damaging oil, which remains dozens of miles farther out in the gulf, according to NOAA mapping.

Fears about the spill threaten the tourist season's big events, like the July 4 fireworks display and 22 fishing tournaments that draw anglers from around the world, beginning this month and stretching into October. The year's biggest attraction, the 89th Annual Grand Isle International Tarpon Rodeo, is set for the end of July.

"We're hoping for the best. We think people will come to Grand Isle no matter what," said Martha Ham, a secretary at the Grand Isle Port Commission, a local booster organization.

Business owners said today that their hotels, restaurants and fishing boats are cleaned up and ready -- but their customers are skittish about the oil, even though it hasn't made landfall here. Grivet said reservations at his hotel are off 90 percent from normal.

Last year at this time, Scardino said, he had about 18 clients booked for fishing trips that can cost up to $1,500 for deep-sea red snapper, lemonfish, amberjack and other fish. This year he has eight reservations, he said, and customers keep calling to cancel.

Anglers can still catch redfish and speckled trout, because the inland Barataria Bay remains open for fishing. Scardino tries to tell clients that the bay is open, he said, but they're convinced that the entire region is awash in crude oil.

"They think the oil is everywhere, so they cancel," he said. "I don't blame them. Who wants to spend $1,200, $1,500 and not be able to catch fish?"

Carolyn Angelette, a real estate agent with 60 properties on Grand Isle, said she's frustrated that her clients are such pessimists.

"I had 50 calls yesterday; everybody wants to know if they can cancel. Tomorrow I'll probably have 70. Every day it gets worse, and we don't even have oil on the beach," Angelette said. "The fish are biting, the sand is beautiful, the sun is shining. We were all ready for the summer, and I'm really just concerned about the town and our economy."