A New Claims Process Begins Tomorrow

Most everyone in the Gulf know that starting August 23, BP will stop accepting claims from businesses and individuals suffering in the aftermath of the BP oil spill. That job now falls to the federal government group headed by Kenneth Feinberg. If you don't know Brockton, Massachusetts' favorite son, Feinberg was in charge of paying claims from the September 11th terror attacks. Consensus is that he did a good and fair job on that, so he was a natural choice for this new roll. However, all is not beer and skittles with the new BP claim process. This AP story from the WLOX TV web site describes the latest.

Clearly this will take time to play out to completion, and many things can change. But if past is prologue, one might look at the five years since Katrina to see how many people were not given a fair shake by insurance companies, FEMA and others entities.

I do not have first hand information on any claims made against BP except one. The one from Kenny DiNero, owner of a bait/tackle shop in Ocean Springs. He also runs a couple of boats to catch shrimp. He was my first interview back in July who had filed a claim with BP for lost business with his boats in early July.

I stopped down to his place this past Friday. After buying me a beer, he extracted from an envelope a small stack of papers, one of which contained the heading "Forensic Accounting". The net result was that BP was going to pay Kenny a little more than $4,200 for his losses in April, May, June and part of July. I did not study the documents in detail, nor would it have done much good if I had. I'm lousy with numbers. However, does it seem that about $1,200 per month is the right amount of compensation for bringing his business to a halt?

I will add that I've talked with community leaders, including two at the Tears to Cheers Music Festival on the Beach yesterday in Biloxi who said that large numbers of people are getting only fractions of what would be fair restitution for their hardship. I am hoping to get an interview with one of those leaders this week.

If a florist in Florida or a restauranteur in Idaho get paid off but local Gulf people and business get shortchanged then there is much wrong with the situation down here.