Obama at the Pensacola Beach Fishing Pier

Full text of President Obama's remarks on Pensacola Beach:

_______________________

Remarks by the President After a Briefing with Admiral Thad Allen and Local Officials on the BP Oil Spill

Fish Sandwich Snack Bar, Pensacola, Florida

9:48 A.M. CDT

THE PRESIDENT: We just had a very useful discussion, and I want to thank Governor Crist and the congressional delegation, as well as our owner here, Mike Pinzone, of this wonderful facility overlooking this beautiful beach. I want to also thank the mayor of Pensacola for his hospitality.

What we’ve done is to try to find out from local business owners, local officials, as well as state officials like Alex Sink and Senator LeMieux and others, how the response can be most effective here specifically in Florida. And when you look out over this unbelievable beach, one of the things that you can see is that so far at least this beach has not been affected.

This is a still place that’s open for business and welcoming so vacationers and people can have a wonderful holiday here. And I know the mayor wants to emphasize that. But there are obviously fears about the oil that is offshore.

And what we emphasized was that we’re going to be doing everything we can -- make sure that there are skimmers out, there are booms out, and a response to keep the oil offshore. But even if we do the best possible job on that, what the mayor described, what Mike described as a local business owner here, is that they’re still being affected by perceptions -- that business has dropped off as much as 40 percent in this area. And that has an impact on the entire economy. You saw the same thing yesterday when we were in Alabama and Mississippi.

So a couple of things that we’ve done. Number one, to make sure that there is a nimble and effective local response, Thad Allen has now assigned deputy incident commanders to each of the individual states, so Florida will have its own deputy incident commander, as Mississippi and Alabama do.

In addition to the sites in Houma and in Mobile, we’re also going to set up an incident management team in Tallahassee, here in Florida. All this is designed to make sure that on the federal response we are able to work and make decisions at a local level in response to the suggestions of people who know the communities best and know the waters best. And my expectation is, is that we’re going to see a lot of good ideas coming from the local area that we can implement right away, as opposed to waiting until it goes all the way to the top.

But the other thing that we’re hearing here is the same thing we heard yesterday, which is businesses need help right now. I’m going to be addressing this this evening, the issue of how we can make sure that claims to businesses that have been affected are responded to quickly and fairly.

I’ll be meeting with BP chairmen and officials tomorrow to discuss the stories that I’ve heard from people like Mike. Mike has put in all the paperwork. In fact, he has documented more than amply the fact that his business has been deeply affected by this crisis, but he hasn’t received the compensation that he needs to make sure that his business stays open.

And I told Mike -- and I want every business person here in Florida to know -- that I will be their fierce advocate in making sure that they are getting the compensation they need to get through what is going to be a difficult season. But what I described for them is the fact that if we can get through this season, cap this well, mitigate the damage -- we’re not going to eliminate it completely; there’s going to be damage to the shoreline -- but if we can reduce it as much as possible, help businesses get through this season, clean it up, by the time we get to next season there’s no reason why this beach behind us is not going to be as beautiful as ever, and Pensacola and other coastline communities across Florida won’t be thriving as they always have.

So the key right now is just to make sure that people like Mike are helped, that they’re able to get through what’s going to be a tough time. And I told him and I told the governor and all the other Florida officials here that we’re not going to go away. We’re just going to keep on at this until we are able to not only get back to normal, but maybe even get better than it was before this crisis.

So I appreciate everybody’s input, and we look forward to continuing to work with you on this enormous challenge.

END

9:53 A.M. CDT

Ike Storm Story: Keystone Kop Rescue

Yesterday on Pensacola Beach a county deputy sheriff sitting on an ATV tried to warn young, fit, surfers near the Gulf Pier out of the water, made dangerous by Hurricane Ike. In all fairness, the deputy's heart was in the right place. But his head? Well....

Not surprisingly, the surfers wound up rescuing the deputy. Unfortunately for the deputy, two beach goers were armed with video cameras -- that latest Can't-Do-Without-It beach toy. Here's the whole story from two different perspectives:

iVert3 - Kop to the Rescue

Sharpshooter1220 - Surfers to the Rescue of the Kop

Hurricane Ike Threatens "Certain Death"

Hurricane Ike likely will make landfall late tonight or early tomorrow morning. "Certain death" faces anyone who remains at home in Galveston, Texas, a local NHC advisory said in Houston this morning.

The advisory paints a truly appalling picture of the devastation expected from Ike:

PERSONS NOT HEEDING EVACUATION ORDERS IN SINGLE FAMILY ONE OR TWO STORY HOMES MAY FACE CERTAIN DEATH. MANY RESIDENCES OF AVERAGE CONSTRUCTION DIRECTLY ON THE COAST WILL BE DESTROYED. WIDESPREAD AND DEVASTATING PERSONAL PROPERTY DAMAGE IS LIKELY ELSEWHERE. VEHICLES LEFT BEHIND WILL LIKELY BE SWEPT AWAY. NUMEROUS ROADS WILL BE SWAMPED... SOME MAY BE WASHED AWAY BY THE WATER. ENTIRE FLOOD PRONE COASTAL COMMUNITIES WILL BE CUTOFF. WATER LEVELS MAY EXCEED 9 FEET FOR MORE THAN A MILE INLAND. COASTAL RESIDENTS IN MULTI-STORY FACILITIES RISK BEING CUTOFF. CONDITIONS WILL BE WORSENED BY BATTERING WAVES CLOSER TO THE COAST. SUCH WAVES WILL EXACERBATE PROPERTY DAMAGE... WITH MASSIVE DESTRUCTION OF HOMES... INCLUDING THOSE OF BLOCK CONSTRUCTION. DAMAGE FROM BEACH EROSION COULD TAKE YEARS TO REPAIR.

Although Galveston itself is under a mandatory evacuation, authorities in Houston have announced only a voluntary evacuation for parts of Houston:

Harris County executive Ed Emmett told the Houston Chronicle that people who live on high ground should remain at home.

"Unless you are in danger of water coming into your house, and I mean storm surge, not rainfall, you need to stay put," he said.

In other words, "Hunker down, Houston."

Houston-based blogger SciGuy reports:

[I]t appears as if Houston remains on target to take a direct hit by Hurricane Ike. The official forecast has changed little other than increasing landfall intensity from 110 mph to 115 mph, at landfall.

At whatever strength Ike comes ashore, it's going to be a nasty, nasty storm for coastal dwellers in southeast Texas and southwestern Louisiana.

Here on Pensacola Beach, nearly 500 hundred miles east of Houston, the outermost band in Hurricane Ike's enormous windfield appeared to be passing overhead early this morning.

Winds and surf will be roiled for much of the day, although technically not approaching tropical storm conditions, much less anything like what the Houston-Galveston area will be seeing a few hours from now. Local street flooding has begun to recede somewhat from yesterday's high tide watermarks.

Fishing Pier Fee Hike

Personally, we've never gotten a bang out of matching wits with a fish. Still, we think the Pensacola Beach Fishing Pier is one of the grandest attractions on the beach. Up-close views of deep-water fish and sharks, and (often) mammals and reptiles, clean air, terrific scenery, breath-taking sunsets and, not infrequently, enjoyable phot0-ops.

The fishing pier is, without a doubt, the best thing the Santa Rosa Island Authority ever did. But every time we go there, day or night, summer and winter, the trash barrels are overflowing and the bathrooms are beyond filthy.

If we thought for a moment, as the Island Authority apparently does, that an extra quarter from walkers like us or another dollar from fishermen would bring improvements, we'd be all for it.
Sadly, it isn't to be.

There is an old and accurate saying in the hospitality industry that applies here: "You can judge the quality of everything Management does by the state of their public bathrooms."