BEN NUCKOLS
Associated Press Writer
PORT FOURCHON, La. – The 40-foot-long corrugated steel boxes, resembling oversized white shipping containers, are stacked two high and three wide atop a barge at Port Fourchon, the oil industry’s hub on the Gulf of Mexico. The words “Martin Quarters” painted in black offer the only clue that they’re not stuffed with cargo.
This barge is a floating hotel, or “flotel,” set up by BP and several subcontractors to accommodate more than 500 workers hired to clean up the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Temporary housing is the only way to station workers at Port Fourchon, a massive shipyard that serves offshore oil rigs and is surrounded by ecologically sensitive marshes and beaches.
“There are no permanent residents here on the port,” said Dennis Link, a manager from a BP refinery who’s handling logistics at the 1,300-acre site that’s easily accessible by ship, but reachable on land only by a state road that snakes through the bayous.