by Abby Zimet
A week after crude oil inundated an Arkansas neighborhood, on-site observers describe a Walking-Dead-like scene, reeking and empty but for men in Hazmat suits, where Exxon has imposed something like martial law – taking over every task from wildlife and environmental officials, enforcing a no-fly zone overseen only by an Exxon official, telling residents panicked about their sick kids and plummeting property values nothing at all, virtually banning media coverage of the damage and, today, threatening to arrest an InsideClimate News reporter for criminal trespass when she entered their Command Headquarters looking for information. Her evidently big mistake: Walking up to a table with a sign that said “Public Affairs.”