Finally after nearly twelve weeks, there is a cap that that will stop the flow of oil from spill into Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Coast. It's a small step but there is a lot of work to do for the whole region to go back where it once was. My condolences to the 11 workers who lost their lives in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
One Mistake After Another
BP handled this crisis the wrong way from the beginning. When the explosion took place on April 20 at Deepwater Horizon, BP CEO Tony Hawyard minimized the impact of the oil spill by suggesting that the Gulf of Mexico was "relatively tiny" when compared to the "very big ocean." Also, he believed that the spill would not caused that much damage to the area. One rule when dealing with a crisis: Never underestimate the impact of a natural disaster. As a result, the oil spill reached Louisiana (affecting birds, fish and other aquatic animals) Mississippi, Alabama and now it has surfaced towards Florida, specifically, Pensacola.
"I Want My Life Back"
A month after the oil spill, Mr. Hayward gave an interview where he said that he wanted to "get his life back." Are you kidding me? Tell that to the people who lost family members in the oil rig explosion along with the citizens of the Gulf Coast who has to endure with yet another natural calamity. Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast nearly five years and since then, the region has made significant progress (businesses have either came back or new ones were developed in the area; New Orleans Saints winning the Super Bowl in February; tourism has improved, etc.) and now this. No one would ever thought that one disaster would not only become worse than Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in 1989 but also echo the slow response time of Hurricane Katrina. Everyone from the federal government on down should take the blame for their poor reaction time to this catastrophe. To handle the media firestorm, Mr. Hayward launched a $50 million ad campaign to apologize for his comments and to ensure the public that BP is doing all that they can to clean up the disaster. One problem: BP has not cut the check recently to seafood business owners, out-of-work drilling crews, fishermen and property owners who work and live in the Gulf Coast. In fact, the workers have received little compensation for their long hours of dedicated service in the region. It is funny that BP doesn't have the money to pay the workers, but there's enough funds to create a media campaign to protect themselves.
How to handle this crisis
What BP should have done to handle this crisis is the following:
1) Once the disaster took place, immediately hold a press conference and tell the audience what's going on . Also,make sure that all media outlets (newspapers, television, radio, online) has access to talk with whoever is in charge and ask questions. This has to be done within 24 hours (no later than that) after the disaster occurred.
2) As mentioned earlier, Never downplay any disaster because you never know how worse the situation could actually get.
3) If you can't hire any workers, go on television, radio and online and ask for volunteers to help clean up the Gulf Coast. If you do that, people will stop what they are doing and head down to the Gulf to help out.
In a time of need, that is what we do as a nation, we help out those who need our assistance.
It's too bad that BP doesn't realize that.
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