Shrimping trawler thrown from the water by Hurricane Katrina
Bayou La Batre, Alabama — Of the 23 Hurricane Katrina-grounded shrimp boats a contractor began removing two months ago, only the 80-foot Rip Tide remains perched on the bayou’s muddy bank. The city’s contractor hopes to return it to the water within days. Heavy rain in the area over the last few weeks has made quite a mess out of the removal process. Most of the 23 boats were removed during the drier-than-usual July, but the contractor’s bulldozers and track hoes aren’t much use when bayou banks turn boggy. Although most of the stranded boats belonged to shrimpers living in Pensacola, the Rip Tide’s owner is Buddy Johnson, president of B&B Boat Builders in Bayou La Batre. Strategic Salvage returned another of Johnson’s boats to the water last week, the Sea Diamond II. “I begged them not to let mine be the last ones, but that’s how it played out,” Johnson said Tuesday. “At first I thought they’d run out of money and would stop the project before they got to mine, to be honest. But it’s gone really smoothly.” Six of Johnson’s boats were among nearly 50 boats that Katrina’s storm surge deposited in the reeds and mud on the west bank of the bayou. About half of the 50 were removed by their owners’ insurance companies.
The Sea Diamond will require $50,000 worth of repairs, most of it done at his own shipyard, he said. Johnson said he’s unsure of the extent of the Rip Tide’s damage.