More than five years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster fouled Gulf Coast waters, the property and economic damages portion of BP’s massive settlement program was set to close its claims window in early June 2015, prompting the claims center serving Mobile to extend its hours ahead of the deadline.
The Deepwater Horizon Economic and Property Damages Settlement Program set June 8 as the final day for eligible businesses and property owners to file claims. Program administrator Patrick Juneau said his office expected a rush of last-minute filings, a pattern he said has held true across other major class-action settlements he has overseen.
To accommodate the anticipated surge, the claims center on Airport Boulevard in Mobile extended its weekend hours, staying open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Saturday and Sunday before the deadline. On the final day itself, the office planned to remain open until midnight to give claimants every opportunity to submit paperwork before the cutoff. Similar extended hours applied at sister offices along the Gulf Coast, including locations in Biloxi, Mississippi; Clearwater, Florida; and Metairie, Louisiana.
Phone support also expanded during the final push, with call centers open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. over the weekend and stretching to midnight the day before the deadline, giving claimants additional options beyond visiting an office in person.
For many Mobile-area businesses and property owners who suffered economic losses tied to the 2010 spill, the deadline marked one of the last chances to formally join the settlement process, which had already distributed billions of dollars to Gulf Coast claimants in the years since the disaster. Local officials and business advocates had encouraged eligible claimants throughout the spring to gather documentation early rather than wait until the final days, though the extended hours reflected an acknowledgment that many would do exactly that.
The Mobile office’s role in processing the deadline crunch underscored how deeply the spill’s economic aftershocks continued to reverberate through the regional economy years after the well was capped.