Diverse Community of the Bayou Laments Life After Oil Leak

July 13, 2010 — -- For the people of the Louisiana bayou and Cajun territory, the water of the Gulf of Mexico is not just a way to make a living, it is their history.

Diane Sawyer of "World News" visited several towns in this part of Louisiana to speak with residents and hear how they were adjusting after the oil leak as BP awaited the results of testing on a new cap.

Click HERE to see the journey "World News" took on our map.

Betty Reyes' husband, Raymond, is a fisherman but now he is working for BP.

"Raymond's out in the Gulf right now, looking for oil. They're running around looking for oil," she said.

She and her neighbors said that they were told the seafood was safe to eat, but they were still wary.

"They saying our fishing is good so we can go ahead and August, we'll hope it'll [the Grand Bayou Canal] open up [to fishing] again. We hoping, the shrimp and the crab. Yeah, it's all good."

She and the other women said they had to forgo their favorite weekend cookout of shrimp boil -- mounds of shrimp, crab, corn and potatoes -- because of the possible dangers from the oil leak.

"We have to eat other things, yes. We're having to eat beef and pork and chicken for our meats," one neighbor said.

Betty's brother Dwight Reyes said he made his living on his boat.

"That's my home," he said. "I go out every night and come back in every morning."

He has been a shrimper for 25 years and said he did not think he could start over.

"I'm too old to do anything right now," he said. "I'm going to be 64 years old and that's too old to learn at something new."

He received two checks for $5,000 each from BP as part of the company's effort to help out-of-work fishermen. With his boats, house and groceries, he said, his monthly bills amount to $1,500.