Shrimp Boat Sunk by Hurricane Sally

My brother Linh Tran in Pensacola owns the boat St. Anthony which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Sally last September.  The hurricane had slammed his boat against a neighboring concrete wharf and the boat ended up leaning on one side.  It was devastating to see his boat halfway in the water but he worked hard to clean the debris because he thought he could still save it.  He tried to right the boat first with a neighboring boat then with a crane but the boat would not budge.  There was a company that came to lift two other boats but they said his boat in too bad a shape and that lifting it and putting it on land may cause it to break apart. 

He didn’t have insurance but most shrimpers don’t carry insurance since costly or not offered for old boats.  But he had been careful all these years because he would move it to a safe area every time a hurricane threatens the area.  However this hurricane was a surprise because it was forecasted to hit New Orleans and when it moved east, it was too late to move the boat. 

It has been over six months, and his boat is still in the water.  He has not been able to get any help.  FEMA deemed his boat a business and he was directed to the SBA for a loan.  He wasn’t approved for a loan but wouldn’t be able to pay back anyway since he lost his job when he lost his boat.  He went back to FEMA but FEMA says they only help homes. 

We feel so bad for him because he works hard every day to care for his family.  He had a GI bleed last February and despite that, he had brought his boat up on land to clean and do repairs and he was so proud of it (the first picture).  The boat was good to go for another five years before the next maintenance but then the hurricane happened so all that struggle to fix up boat was in vain.  The second picture is right after hurricane hit and the last picture is the boat now.  For weeks after it happened, he could not eat or sleep and sometimes couldn’t breathe.  It has really been the toughest time for us as a family.  We have been telling him to not look back and move forward but some days it’s still hard because he loved that boat so. 

We were able to sign him up for disaster unemployment but that ended last month.  So now he has no job, no unemployment and faced with the boat still in the water.  He no longer has hopes of repairing it but now is faced with how to discard it.  We tried to contact every agencies we could think of (Coast guard, Florida Fish and Wildlife, Boating and Waterway, FWC) but no luck on how to get help discarding boat.  This was a natural disaster, surely my poor brother who has already suffered the loss of his boat, will not have to suffer the cost to have the boat removed too?  We are praying that we can at least get some help with this part.