Oil Flow Decreases, but Anger on the Rise
Incredibly, Bob Dudley had never seen this first hand - Louisiana's oily disaster.
"It's tragic and it's very apparent that it's tragic," Dudley said.
Incredible, because Dudley is BP's point man in this cleanup, now in its seventh week. And finally today, he saw a barrier island where just this weekend these pelicans sat drenched in oil, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann.
"There's nothing like seeing something and feeling it and smelling it than talking about it," Dudley said. "It's emotional. I have a very emotional reaction to it."
As long as there's water, oil will keep traveling. BP's spill has now reached the furthest point of Barataria Bay, behind Grand Isle. That island is now under siege, surrounded on all sides by oil.
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A mile under the Gulf, BP's containment cap is trapping more oil every day from the broken wellhead. Three of its four vents are open, to avoid another buildup of icy hydrates that clogged past fixes. At last count, this containment cap siphoned 462,000 gallons a day to a surface ship, maybe half the daily spill.
But more escaping oil's still smothering wetlands and wildlife - and this crisis will drag on for months.
"This will be well into the fall," said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen. "This is a siege across the entire Gulf."
Patrick Shay's so angry, he built a symbolic cemetery in his Grand Isle front yard. Each cross represents something lost in BP's spill: shrimp, fishing, the beach.
"We have to fight back," Shay said. "Kick, scream. Whatever we've got to do. This is our way of saying, 'Hey, we matter. We count.'"
On this oily shoreline, BP's Bob Dudley got an up-close sense of why so many people are furious with his company.
"It is very tragic," Dudley said. "I'd like to get more people out here to see it."
So many Gulf residents are fed up with red tape and delays, BP has agreed to pay for barges to come here and block oil from entering two waterways.
Gulf Clean-up Workers' Health Concerns - "The Early Show"
Locals Skeptical of Latest BP Oil Spill Fix - "CBS Evening News"
Thad Allen: Oil Spill Fight Will Last Into Fall - "Face the Nation"
Sen. Nelson: Spill Could "Alter Our Way of Life" - "Face the Nation"
The Politics of the Oil Spill - "Sunday Morning"
