Fri April 20, 2012 Coastal Communities Still Feeling Effects Of
Spill Two years ago today, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig
exploded, killing 11 workers, and causing the largest marine
spill in American history. Beyond the effects on wildlife,
tourism and fishing along the Gulf Coast, the spill has had a
lasting impact on the lives and relationships in communities
there. Diane Austin, an anthropologist at the University of
Arizona, was part of a research team that published a report
last year on those social effects. She talked with WRKF's Ashley
Westerman by phone about the pervasiveness of the Deepwater
Horizon disaster. AUSTIN: I think an example of how deep and
where those relationship are is: I was interviewing a motel
clerk who - when the workers, before they go offshore to work on
the rig, they stay usually and often have a motel their rig will
contract with for the period of time that they're in a location.
All those workers had stayed for months in this same motel and
as the clerk, when I was in there t