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The Schaefer family has been in business 41 years in New Orleans Louisiana and have endured a whirlwind of experiences.
From the boom, to the tough years, Hurricane Katrina and now a man made oil disaster which is sending the Schaefer’s into crisis mode once again.
“It feels like another hurdle: Get over this, and hopefully after that, we’ll have a little straightaway,” said Merlin Schaefer, who is in charge of the family business, “Everything else taught you how to survive.”
Schaefer and his family have been working over time the last few weeks to prepare crawfish and shrimp for the Memorial Day coming up.
This last weekend the failed attempt to shut down the underwater oil gusher in the Gulf has caused havoc on the entire 17th Street Canal where the Schaefer’s business is based.
“It’s almost like it’s another attempt that they don’t know what they’re doing,” said Schaefer. “I don’t know how many more days we’re gonna have to be able to get the good seafood that we’ve been getting.”
To attempt to keep business running, Schaefer drives five hours to Texas to pick up seafood. He is trying to keep in the game and make as much profit as possible whilst he still can.
“Right now, we’re getting a little bit in. Come a month from now, we don’t know what’s going to happen with the shrimp. We’re taking every day that we can get,” Schaefer told CNN.
BP workers have attempted to shut down the leak and there is still hope alive for businesses in New Orleans but anger is also present.
”Look, we got the [New Orleans] Saints to win, so we’re into divine intervention. We were hoping that anything would help those engineers close that oil leak,” says retired Army General Honore, who lives in the city.
The residents of Louisiana are strong and have a lot of hope and determination. The city remains hopeful.
