Page 34 - John Platt News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

she too is an american. but while authorities have her husband, no one can find her. also tonight, we're getting our first look inside a damaged national treasure. nashville's grand ol' opry hit hard by this week's devastating floods. you'll see what is being done to save this country music shrine. and breaking news in the oil spill disaster. a giant metal dome could be placed over the leak tonight, a crucial step in trying to save the gulf waters. but now we're learning survivors of that initial explosion were pressured to sign legal waivers right after the tragedy. was that leg...

Leaked 11 million gallons of crude and left 1,500 miles of alaska coastline blackened. birds, sea mammals, fisheries and people were devastated. >> we got hosed here in cordova. and nobody cares. >> reporter: platt says his story is typical. the spill caused so much stress, it practically ruined his marriage. you're just one fisherman in this community, but you speak for many. >> people's lives were ruined. i mean, there were damned good fisherman, damned good fishermen here in the sound that just said, screw it. >> reporter: they left because the fish disappeared. the herring industry alone l...

Luck, or good luck, you find yourself saying, we really don't know what it's going to add up to at this point, but it could be much worse than valdez, or it could be much better. anderson? >> at least it's interesting to see the differences. tom, appreciate that. let's dig deeper now. we want to take you to the town that felt the brunt of the "exxon valdez" oil spill. two decades have passed, but the scars, financial and emotional scars run deep. we asked dan simon to travel up to cordova, alaska, and here's what he found. >> reporter: john platt is a commercial fisherman here in cordova, alas...

And the oil spill. >> reporter: sociologists spent years here since the disaster. they concluded a fifth of all commercial fishermen had severe anxiety and as many as 40% had severe depression. divorces, alcoholism, and even suicides went up. the spill occurred about 60 miles away from where we are on prince william sound, and even after all these years, oil residue can still be found on the shore. as a matter of fact, the local science center here keeps bottles of it on hand. >> so you can take a look at it, and it's still heavy oiled and if you smell it, highly aeromatic, still hydrocarbons ...

Birds, sea mammals, fisheries and people were devastated. >> we got hosed here in cordova. and nobody cares. >> reporter: platt says his story is typical. the spill caused so much stress, it practically ruined his marriage. you're just one fisherman in this community, but you speak for many. >> people's lives were ruined. i mean, there were damned good fisherman, damned good fishermen here in the sound that just said, screw it. >> reporter: they left because the fish disappeared. the herring industry alone lost $400 million. three years after the spill, they vanished and never returned. exxon ...