‘Economically devastating’ Five years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Five years ago, the residents of Destin became all too familiar with the word boom and its highly visible yellow color.

This oil containment apparatus was a common sight along the beaches and bayous of Destin after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on April 20, 2010.

And while the city was largely spared from thick, mucky oil washing ashore like its neighbors to the west, the panic and uncertainty of one of the largest environmental disasters was a large pill to swallow.

Eleven people lost their lives in the explosion on the oil rig that saw oil leak from the well for a total of 87 days, spewing roughly 4.9 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The well was officially sealed in September 2010.

Looking Back

“It seems like a lifetime ago,” City Manager Greg Kisela told The Log Thursday morning.

“You really think back at that period of time, all of the uncertainty and the chaos, then you kept watching the TV and seeing the horrible stuff that was happening to the west of us and you go, ‘is that what’s going to happen to us?” he said. “You didn’t have any control. You had the Coast Guard in control, and no disrespect to them, but they had never handled anything like that before. BP was overwhelmed, and the state of Florida wasn’t really helping.”

Given the fear of oiled beaches, the normal tourist crowds were almost completely absent from Destin beaches and shops.

“It was an economically devastating time,” Kisela said.

Battling Perception

Those who called Destin home, knew the picture being painted by media outlets wasn’t the reality.

“It was more the perception that was put out there by the national media who generalized the damage to the entire Gulf Coast, but it hurt badly,” Destin Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Shane Moody told The Log. “Small businesses closed, many suffered. Even longtime, strong-standing businesses were hurt.”

“Even worse was we felt as if we were just coming out of the crash in 2008, and 2010 was looking to be a promising year,” he added. “And honestly, I think we are just now, five years later, getting out from under that damage.”

The summer of 2010 was supposed to be current City Councilwoman Prebble Ramswell’s first year instructing the Destin Junior Lifeguard program.

“I was excited to have full-time employment doing something I loved,” Ramswell told The Log. “However, it was not to be. Fear of oil and dispersant contamination led to nearly half of the registered participants pulling out of the program. Though we did have students remain, the program had to be cut in half, which also meant our schedule was cut in half as well as our employment.”

For his part, Councilman Jim Wood said the most important lesson he learned from the oil spill was clarifying the issue of perception versus reality.

“I learned to trust my own observations/perceptions and to focus on facts versus overreacting on this or any other issue based on the exaggerated or biased reports from others, in this case the national news media.”

Ingenuity

But the news wasn’t all doom and gloom. A number of Destin residents, such as former Mayor Craig Barker and his business partner Donnie Brown, and Guy Santucci used their creativity to try and combat any ill-effects that might plague Destin’s sugar white beaches.

Brown and Barker had designed a pneumatic air curtain, which would be run by giant compressors that would will pump air through a pipe that is suspended in the water column, creating bubbles. The force of the bubbles on the water’s surface would create a barrier that would force underwater oil to the surface. A skimmer could then collect the oil.

In Santucci’s case, he gutted an old pontoon boat and converted it into a skimmer, complete with a conveyor belt. At the time, he told The Log he was willing to pass the machine on to BP officials to help protect the coast.

Five Years Later

As he reflects on the events of the oil spill, Kisela said overall the city’s leadership and residents should be thankful it wasn’t a lot worse than some tar balls washing ashore and intermittent sheen on the water in some places.

“We did really, really well,” he said. “The things we could deal with, could control, we did very well with.”

In a time of crisis, Kisela said his team in Destin and representatives from Okaloosa County put their differences or any issues aside and worked seamlessly together.

The city may have seen its tourist numbers take a hit for a period of time after the oil spill, but resiliency was something area business owners were stocked up on, given they are accustomed to pushing through tough times and hurricanes.

“Most of the people who slugged through it have come out stronger,” Kisela said. “In my lifetime, there was nothing more onerous than this disaster.”

To see photos from the oil spill coverage, see: This Photo Gallery