ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Mike Lytle, a third-generation fisherman from the coastal village of Cordova, said many residents there were walking around stunned, shaking their heads.

A lot of people he knows were planning their retirements with the $2.5 billion in punitive damages that Exxon Mobil Corp.

But the Supreme Court dashed their hopes Wednesday, deciding to cut the punitive damages for the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster to $507.5 million. That translates to an average of $15,000 per victim. was expected to pay the nearly 33,000 victims of the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Read more about the Supreme Court ruling.