that is a modest wage and a decent wage. But it gets a lot more complicated than that. There are boat captains who were getting their business back after Katrina and Rita, recreational boat captains, fishing captains. Unlike Florida where people will come to the beach and then they will see a boat charter and they will wander onto the wharf and charter the boat, that does not happen in Louisiana because we don't have many beaches. People call from Mexico and Canada and all over the country months in advance and charter a specific boat with a specific captain because we have some of the best fishing in the world. They come with their sons and daughters and their grandsons and granddaughters. They come down with major corporate groups and do this chartering. These companies make millions of dollars a year. They can't work either. This claims process is going to be difficult. We have restaurants in New Orleans that are 70 miles from the gulf. They have had to either shut their doors or turn down their number of hours of operating or take things off their menus. I don't know how we will calculate the economic damage to them. This is going to be complicated. We have hotels. We have retirees who own three or four condos. A woman came up to me and said: Mary, my mother is not a business person. She is a retiree. She owns a couple of condos in Florida. That is her retirement income. She rents out these condos. She has had all cancellations this summer.
Editor's note · Context
Speaker Landrieu discusses the economic impact of disasters on local businesses and retirees in Louisiana.
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