The Gulf Coast’s sandy white beaches are perfect for summer vacations and support thousands of businesses. However, the huge oil spill will change that for years to come.
What You Can Do & How We Can Help
The Schmidt Firm, PLLC is currently accepting oil spill related beach and vacation loss of business claims in all 50 states. If you or somebody you know has been injured by the oil spill, you should contact our firm immediately for a free case consultation. Please click here to contact our Environmental Litigation Group or call toll free 24 hours a day at (866) 920-0753.
Beach and Vacation Loss of Business Information
Tourism is the backbone of economy along the sandy white beaches of the Gulf Coast. Beach towns, such as Gulf Shores, Destin, and Panama City are just a few of the popular tourist destinations. For Florida, tourism is the number one sector of the economy. In 2000, 23.2 million tourists visited Florida beaches, spending $21.9 billion. Now all the businesses directly and indirectly linked to tourism are at risk of losing everything. It will not only be the resorts, condominiums and hotels that lose business because of the oil spill. The restaurants, miniature golf courses, beach equipment rental companies, boat rental companies, tour guides, souvenir shops, outlet malls, bars, and almost every other business in the affected beach towns will suffer economic losses because of the oil that in leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.
One only needs to look at the history of the Valdez spill that covered over 1,200 miles of shoreline in Alaska with oil to see the magnitude of harm the BP oil spill could mean for the Gulf Coast businesses. Based on research since 1989 in Prince William Sound, scientists have learned that oil spill pollution could take decades to break down and disappear. While the oil may not be seen if you walk along the beach, if you dig down into the ground or beach around the Valdez spill at certain spots you can see pools of oil that remain in much the same condition as when the oil first spilled. For example, in 2001, scientists dug over 12,000 pits at dozens of beach sites that had been covered in oil back in 1989. In a study that should scare the business owners and residents of the Gulf Coast, the scientists found black, oily liquid in over half of the holes they dug.
A semi-retired fisherman gave an even more recent account of what happened to the beaches after an oil spill leaked off the coast of Mexico for four months. He said, “[H]otels on the beach had buckets of rags and kerosene” for the visitors to wipe the oil off their feet. These stories and studies demonstrate why all of the businesses in the Gulf Coast region that rely on vacations and beach tourism are at serious risk of losing their profits and patrons for years, not months because of the oil spill.
Do I Have an Oil Spill Related Beach or Vacation Business Loss Lawsuit?
The Schmidt Firm, PLLC is currently accepting oil spill related beach and vacation loss of business claims in all 50 states. If you or somebody you know has been injured by the oil spill, you should contact our firm immediately for a free case consultation. Please use the form below to contact our Environmental Litigation Group or call toll free 24 hours a day at (866) 920-0753.