DESTIN, Fla.  Dedra Barker raised her hand and took the mood of the room from somber to tearful.

At a meeting last month for residents of Destin to learn about filing claims against BP, Ms. Barker’s voice quavered as she asked about her options. As general manager of a small business that rents a dozen vacation homes in town, she was seeing cancellations even though the town’s white beaches were still unspoiled.

“I live week to week,” she said. “What do I do in the next week or two, when I can’t do my job and can’t pay my mortgage? Do I live in my car with my 12-year-old daughter?”

The company she works for, Beach Reunion, caters to family reunions and weddings, with a dozen houses that sleep as many as 30 people and can cost $8,000 a week. Normally at this time of year, each home would be packed and the business would be booking reservations for fall weddings. “Our phones have quit ringing,” Ms. Barker said.

Ms. Barker’s full-time salary of $750 a week, with bonuses, has been whittled to an hourly wage that leaves her take-home pay at less than $160 a week.