Courtney Kemp: Beyond the Horizon

Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - David W. Ryan

April 20, 2010 is a day Courtney Kemp will remember forever or to be more precise the early morning after. Kemp received a call around 4 AM that fateful morning explaining to her there had been an explosion on the Transocean Deepwater Horizon oil rig her husband Wyatt worked on. He was one of 11 yet to be found.

Fast forward just over two months later when most family members would be using the two months to grieve and start the healing process. Courtney and two other widows have been the driving force for legislative change and halting a Presidential moratorium.

“Initially, I guess I was just in shock,” Courtney explains the days after the explosion and then her decision to get involved with a 90 year law known as the “Death on the High Seas Act” which limits responsible parties’ liability to pecuniary damages such as burial costs and financial support.

“It took a little while for me to figure out what to do. What was God’s way for me. I prayed a lot about it before I did anything.”

According to the legislation, the drilling rig is viewed as an ocean going vessel and the company that owns it is limited on accidental death or injury.

“I knew these laws were wrong and needed to changed, whether it benefitted me or not. We had to make sure other families would not be victims to these laws,” Courtney said. “So far we have really accomplished a lot in a short amount of time.”

That might be an understatement considering Courtney and the others in her group have helped Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee to push the bill through the sub-committee in only three days.

And just this past Thursday, July 1st, the House passed the bill related to the Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion, voting to allow families of those killed and injured workers to be compensated far more generously than current law allows.
This bill would change two laws from 1920 and a third from 1851, all applying to deaths and legal liability on the high seas.
And Courtney has been amid all the testimony including a trip to Chalmette, La., before a Congressional Oversight and Investigations Committee and just this past week a third trip to Washington D.C. and a meeting with Louisiana Governor Jindal.

As if the Legislative hearings were not enough to fill Courtney’s time, along comes a Presidential Moratorium on deepwater oil drilling.

“One day we’re testifying about the problems our husbands shared with us and sometimes in the same setting trying to defend the need for deepwater drilling,” Courtney said with vigor in her voice. “Just enforce the rules in place and don’t put money ahead of safety.”

Courtney has noted in her pubic speaking that in Jonesville and rural communities, the oil field is a way of life that affects a lot of people. “We have got to ensure the safety of the industry; not shut it down.”

Life Beyond the Horizon

The group of women have become close especially Courtney and Natalie Roshto, whose husband, Shane, was also killed in the blast. She also has a three year old son Blaine.

Recently, Natalie and her son Blaine came over to visit Courtney and her daughters, three year old Kaylee and four month old Maddison. As they rode through the country side, three year old Blaine leaned over to three year old Kaylee and asked, “Where’s your daddy.”

Without missing a beat, Kaylee told Blaine he was in heaven. Blaine quickly replied, “So is my daddy.” And for the next 20 minutes the three year olds embarked on their own version of memory lane.

“I talk to my girls about their Daddy almost every night,” Courtney said fighting back tears, “Kaylee knows, she understands, but of course Maddison can only listen.”

Talking to the girls and dealing with all this may have come a little easier since she and Wyatt had conversations about death and each other’s wishes if something was to happen to one of them.

“Wyatt’s dad, Sandy, had died in a car wreck just a few months prior to this,” Courtney explains, “So we had some very difficult discussions about death and such.

“One of the things Wyatt would tell me was that I shouldn’t dwell on his death and that I had to be strong for the girls.”

While haunting and surreal at times, Courtney has put her husband’s words to good use and another reason why she strives to honor his memory by her work.

Courtney is also quick to point out to the survivors of that horrific night, “There is a reason and a feeling of hope as to why they survived; it is up to them to make the most of their lives but to never feel guilty.”

In closing, Courtney said she was touched and thankful for all the prayers, support, and all the acts of kindness shown to her during these difficult times.

“I will continue to be a voice for the safety and enforcement of the oil field worker as well as an advocate to keep drilling in the deep seas as long as there is someone who is willing to listen.”

 

Read Courtney's Statement to Members of Congress

Courtney Kemp, of Jonesville, La., holds back tears as she testifies about the death of her husband, Wyatt Kemp, on the Deepwater Horizon April 20 explosion and oil spill during a hearing by the House Energy subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in Chalmette St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana Monday June 7, 2010. The wives of two workers who died in the April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion testified this morning before a special meeting of the House Energy subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in Chalmette. Both told committee members that their husbands, Shane Roshto and Wyatt Kemp, had told them in the weeks before the explosion about problems they had in controlling the well. "This well was different in the fact that they were having so many problems, and so many things were happening, and it was just kind of out of hand," said Kemp. MATTHEW HINTON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE