SLIDELL, La. -- When Ken Feinberg met with oil spill victims in Slidell, in the audience was 25-year-old Adrianne Trosclair of Dulac, and she arrived in tears.
"I can't sleep at night. I go to bed with it on my mind, I wake up with it on my mind," she said.
Adrianne is a deckhand on her father's shrimp-boat, and they've been unable to fish in months, so she is running out of money.
"It really hurts because I have to go to my dad for help, and it is really hard on him because he is trying to survive himself," she said.
She applied to Feinberg's Gulf Coast Claims Facility for emergency help, but when the check arrived, it was only for $300, and was supposed to last for six months. Adrianne was terrified at the thought of not being able to pay bills.
"I thought I wanted to die, because of thinking about all my bills, my back bills, especially my car note because I really do need my car," she said.
I arranged for her to meet with a claims expert, and within minutes, he told Adrianne that hers and other claims were being reviewed, and that she should expect another check.
"I'm excited. I want to solve my problem, I want it to be done, I want to leave her happy. I want to leave here not worrying about my bills, and if I'm going to have money to eat tomorrow," she said.
But then we went to meet Ken Feinberg, so he could hear about her situation, and the tiny check stunned him.
"I can say to her that that is a little bit shocking," Feinberg said.
And she wanted him to know that others need help as well.
"I'm determined to make it better, but better has already occurred," Feinberg responded.
"I hope it can get better," Adrianne told Feinberg. But Adrianne said she got no help when she contacted the claims facility, so I asked Feinberg what was being done to fix that problem.
"That's inexcusable if anybody can't get through," Feinberg said. "One thing we are trying to do, I think effectively but obviously not effectively enough, is make sure that anybody who wants to get through can."
"I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders," Adrianne said when the meeting was over, as her mom hugged her.
Ken Feinberg concluded that he does want to get problems like that resolved as quickly as possible, and added that he plans to come back to this area to monitor the claims process as it continues.
"I'm determined to make it better, but better has already occurred," Feinberg asid.
