Michelle Obama

In a speech made at the Boardwalk Hotel in Panama City Beach, Obama said it is important to remember that there are many places along the Gulf Coast, like in Panama City Beach, that are still clean, safe, and are open for business. She was speaking after touring the beach and meeting with business, hotel and restaurant owners.

“That’s one of the reasons why I’m here,” she said. “It’s important for the rest of the country to know that these places are just as vibrant and just as beautiful as they’ve always been. And folks here in Florida and across the Gulf Coast are still depending on visitors and tourist dollars to put food on their tables and to pay their mortgages and to send their kids to college… It’s so important to spread the word that despite what everyone is seeing on TV and reading in the newspaper, that most of the coast is still open for business. It is truly important for people to understand that. Most of these beaches are perfectly clean…truly, one of the best ways that fellow Americans can help (the situation on the Gulf Coast) is to come on down here and spend some money.”

Obama paid tribute to the many military families, especially personnel in the Coast Guard and National Guard, who live in the community and who responded actively to the oil-spill crisis.

The First Lady referred to the business owners of the region as “a wonderful group of determined and dedicated men and women who care deeply about this community…” She added that, “I know that for a lot of folks in Florida and along the Gulf Coast, that destiny (of prosperity) doesn’t seem as certain anymore. The oil spill in the Gulf is the worst environmental disaster in our nation’s history. And over the last few months, oil spewing from the well a mile beneath the surface of the ocean has polluted our beaches, it’s endangered our wildlife, and it’s threatened the livelihoods of fishermen and small business owners from Biloxi all the way to Pensacola.”

She admitted that the oil-spill made it a difficult time for anyone who lives or works on the coast. And that’s why President Obama and his administration “are doing everything they can to get that cap on that well, clean up the mess, and to make sure that BP is held accountable for the damages that they’ve caused and the disruption that they’ve caused in so many lives.”