The damage from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico isn't just financial and environmental. It's emotional.

A researcher from the University of Maryland was surprised by the depth of the psychological damage done to communities – even before the oil reached their shores.

Lynn Grattan, a neuro-psychologist, joined a colleague from Florida in studying a fishing community called Apalachicola for about a week. The slick had not yet made it there, but the levels of stress and anxiety were obvious, she said.

“You could see and feel it in every restaurant and shop, at every town meeting,” said Grattan, an associate professor of neurology, psychiatry, epidemiology and public health. “Where ever people gathered, it’s discussed. It’s a community in crisis.”

She said some fisherman had already lost their jobs because of the impacts to the industry as a whole. And some were working for BP on prevention measures, such as laying booms to capture oil before it reached the shores. But the oil wasn't yet there.

And while Grattan was expecting some increase in stress levels, she was struck by the level it had already reached. They were worried about their financial future, the safety of consuming shrimp and oysters and also the environment and wildlife, including the population of turtles that lived there.

She plans to analyze her data this week to see the actual level of distress. The information will be compared with that from a community that has been exposed to oil. The researchers plan to visit that community next week.

Then, all of the data will be used to help care for the affected areas – and it will be used to help people who suffer in future disasters.

There has only been limited data collected on the mental well-being of communities after oil spills. But Grattan said public health officials did discover that those in Alaska impacted by the Exxon Valdez spill suffered effects for up to four years after the spill.

“We hope to develop effective communications and outreach to minimize the impacts,” she said. “Based upon what we find, we’ll use the best available knowledge to plan outreach and intervention for the current communities. And what we learn hopefully will help future communities coping with disaster.”

Grattan said she’d report back in a week or so when she has actual data to share.

NASA photo via the Associated Press of Kemp's ridley sea turtle hatchlings from eggs saved from the Gulf Coast and release into the Atlantic Ocean