on his fishing permits and boats. i think the general perception is that we were compensated a long time ago, everything s rosy and that s not the case. reporter: it s a much deeper story. big-time. much deeper. reporter: so what do things look like 21 years later? the oil sustains may no longer be as evident, but they re still here, just below the surface. well, that is the cordova marina behind me where so many livelihoods were affected. anderson, i want to share with you a statement we got from exxonmobil today, exxon merging with mobile 11 years ago. the statement saying in part, the exxon valdez accident is one of the lowest points in exxonmobil s 125-year history. as a result of the accident, exxon undertook significant operational reforms and
reporter: that really smells like oil. it actually does. it s been, expect the worst and hope for the best. reporter: money has not made the problems go away. john platt got his final payment from exxon last year. nearly $500,000. but fishing s not what it was, so he used it to pay off debts on his fishing permits and boats. i think the general perception is that we were compensated a long time ago, everything s rosy and that s not the case. reporter: it s a much deeper story. big-time. much deeper. reporter: so what do things look like 21 years later? the oil sustains may no longer be as evident, but they re still here, just below the surface. well, that is the cordova marina behind me where so many livelihoods were affected. anderson, i want to share with you a statement we got from exxonmobil today, exxon merging with mobile 11 years ago. the statement saying in part,
who are searching for their loved ones at this very moment and also helping their neighbors in need. we ll also take you to the gulf coast to look at what the spill looks like underwater. tonight we ll explore the environmental impact, how bad it could be or possibly how much better. we ll also bring you late word on the risky attempt to stop the leak a mile beneath the oil s surface. but we begin as we should, and as we should have beginning for many nights this last week, here in nashville on the ground. i want to show you some of what we have seen today. because any block you go down in this area here in bellevue in nashville, you see homes that are still standing, but inside, it is very deceiving, because inside those homes are completely gutted, they re completely destroyed. i want to walk over here and just show you the outside of the home of a woman named betty bell knicks, who she lives here. her home is still standing, but she had floodwater all the way up past t
tonight we ll explore the environmental impact, how bad it could be or possibly how much better. we ll also bring you late word on the risky attempt to stop the leak a mile beneath the oil s surface. but we begin as we should, and as we should have beginning for many nights this last week, here in nashville on the ground. i want to show you some of what we have seen today. because any block you go down in this area here in bellevue in nashville, you see homes that are still standing, but inside, it is very deceiving, because inside those homes are completely gutted, they re completely destroyed. i want to walk over here and just show you the outside of the home of a woman named betty bell knicks, who she lives here. her home is still standing, but she had floodwater all the way up past those windows. and as we have seen block after block in this entire neighborhood, there are hundreds if not thousands of homes which have been destroyed and folks have just been basically tak