Oil Spill Hits Ala., Miss., Heading Toward Fla.

Updated at 7:20 p.m. ET

The massive oil spill gushing from a blown-out wellhead at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico has washed ashore on Alabama and Mississippi Tuesday and could wash ashore in Florida this weekend.

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Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said Tuesday that a two-mile long, three-feet wide strand of caramel-colored oil has been found on Petit Bois Island, a barrier island near the Mississippi-Alabama border.

The discovery means Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi have all been hit by oil.

The governor described the caramel-colored substance as "not a liquid, not a solid," but as an emulsified compound, similar to the gooey consistency of a Milk Dud, CBS News reports.

It came ashore in the form of a ribbon of oil measuring 1 yard wide by 2 miles long and was undetected by survey boats until it hit land because the ribbon stayed about 2 feet beneath the surface in open water, according to the governor. The main plume of oil, believed to be the source of this breakaway strand, looms about 35 miles off Mississippi's coastline.

Barbour said vessels will be dispatched to clean up the oil and that officials believe the strand broke off a patch of oil Sunday south of nearby Horn Island.

Petit Bois Island is uninhabited by people but is home to about 4,000 laughing gulls, Mississippi's largest colony, CBS News reports. The brown pelican, loggerhead sea turtle and American Alligator also live on the 6-mile long island. It will take clean-up crews a day to remove the substance from the island's coastline.

In Alabama, red-brown oil made its first appearance on a island near the mouth of Mobile Bay, three weeks after tar balls were found there.

Donald Williamson, director of the state Department of Public Health, said weathered patches of oil washed up on Dauphin Island's east end, prompting officials to close some state waters to fishing and post warnings urging beachgoers to stay out of the water.

Capt. Scott Bannon of the Alabama Marine Resources on Alabama's Dauphin Island confirmed Tuesday afternoon that crews were cleaning tar from the white sands and turquoise waters of the popular vacation destination.

BP has now spent over a billion dollars dealing with the oil spill, CBS News Correspondent Don Teague reports from Grand Isle, La.

In BP's latest attempt to plug the leak, an underwater robot used a diamond-tipped saw to cut away the broken, gushing pipe leading from the blown-out well. The next step: putting a cap on the well and attaching a new pipe to siphon oil to ships on the surface.

BP's Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said Tuesday that despite repeated failures, he's confident the company can cap the spill soon.

"If it goes to plan, we'll be trying to get it operational during the day tomorrow," Suttles told Teague. "I'm encouraged because there's not a lot of oil in the water and not a lot of oil getting on to the shore."

Suttles said Tuesday's appearance of oil in Alabama and Mississippi would be worse without the use of dispersants, of which BP has used 900,000 gallons so far.

In Grand Isle, La., the beaches have been cleaned, and officials hope that water-filled barriers will protect the sand, if oil begins coming ashore again.

Meanwhile, tar balls and oil from a massive oil slick could hit Florida's pristine white beaches as early as Saturday.

Pensacola Beach officials said their request for about $150,000 from BP to buy sifting machines and a tractor to help remove oil from the beach's famous white sands has lingered unanswered for more than three weeks.

Santa Rosa Island Authority executive director W.A. "Buck" Lee said he is fed up with delays from the unified command center in Mobile, Ala. Lee said he fears the equipment will not be ready before oil hits the beach.

The National Weather Service said winds will continue to blow from the south and west through Saturday pushing the slick closer and closer to the Florida Panhandle.