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American Morning
BP-Caused Oil Spill Devastating the Environment Along Gulf Coast; Obama Criticized for Perceived Lack of Leadership on the Gulf Oil Spill Crisis; North Korea Promising All-Out War
Aired May 27, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Right now live pictures from the Florida Gulf of Mexico. Is the top kill effort to plug up that leaking well working? BP official say it's too early to say. You can -
It's a remarkable picture you're looking at right now. You see the top of the blowout preventer and damage riser with the drilling mud, that heavy mud spewing out of the top and one of those remotely operated vehicles tending to that.
What an interesting picture this morning.
Good morning, it's Thursday, the 27th of May. It's a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. I'm John Roberts in New York City.
Good morning, Kiran.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. And you're right, it is fascinating to see that, and it was fascinating when we heard from BP, when you interviewed them this morning and they said it's literally like an underwater arm-wrestling match going on between, you know, the high-powered oil spewing out and the mud that they're pumping in. And still no word, definitely, whether or not this is going to work.
But let's get the latest from a mile down. Again, those live pictures. This is 5,000 feet under the water where the efforts to stop the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico continue.
And we're going to keep this up for you to see throughout the bottom of the hour -- throughout the hour, rather, on the bottom right-hand side of your screen so that you can monitor it along with the executives at B.P. and those that are trying to make this operation work.
It's called top kill. And it's the latest attempt to cap the runaway leak. Again, using that drilling mud and it's well under way.
The company says we should know whether the roll of the dice -- which is literally what it is -- worked and whether or not the oil stopped. We could know by this afternoon.
Also knew from the White House overnight, the president reacting to the spill. He's going to be extending a moratorium on deep water offshore drilling for six months as they investigate this disaster. The president will also push for strengthened inspections and tighter safety regulations for offshore drilling.
Meantime, the thick smell of oil is down here when you go out on the water. There's no mistaking it, also the chemicals being used to clean up the mess. Now, there are questions about health issues. One hundred twenty-five commercial boats were pulled off the water and brought back to shore. They were supposed to be involved in the cleanup operations but some crew members complained of getting sickened, complaints of nausea, chest pains and headaches.
Meanwhile, with each gallon spilled, it is becoming a bigger liability for President Obama. Even one of the most well-known Democratic strategist and Gulf Coast owned James Carville went -- I guess you could say -- "Ragin' Cajun" yesterday on the president. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES CARVILLE, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: B.P. is not the equal of the United States government. This president needs to tell B.P., I'm your daddy. I'm in charge. You're going to do what we say. You're a multi-national company that is greedy and you may be guilty of criminal activity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, joining us now by the phone is the president's point man in the Gulf, Admiral Thad Allen, is the U.S. national incident commander. He's in Houma, Louisiana, this morning.
Admiral Allen, thanks so much for joining us.
ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN, U.S. NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER (through phone): Good morning, Kiran.
CHETRY: There have been increasing calls, I think, for the White House to take more action. One comes from Tom Ridge, the former homeland security secretary, who said that the Coast Guard should get the nod from the White House to have, as he puts it, cart blanche to run the show for the cleanup, doing whatever you need, getting the private sector involved, the Navy, if need be.
Is that something that is realistic this morning?
ALLEN: Well, Kiran, we have access to any type of resources we need in the government, including DOD. And if I need to, I have personal access to the secretary of defense who in the past has actually issued verbal orders when we need to move there units, including things like C-17s moving boom from Alaska or using Air Force C-130s to spray dispersants.
So, I'm not sure it's a question of access to resources more than it is what I would call unity of effort, and making sure we're focusing the resources at the right place at the right time.
CHETRY: Yes. You talk about the unity of effort. And you really can't help but notice what appears to be a little bit of disorganization. I mean, we saw -- when Rob Marciano went riding along off the coast and he saw just large, large areas where there had been no cleanup effort going on over the past couple of days. That was confirmed from the people who took him out there and the researchers.
And when we went to go and check it out off one of the bayous here as well, it just didn't seem like it was an organized effort. You saw oil hitting some of the marshlands. Those were the places where people said were the top priority.
So, what, I guess, is going wrong? Moving forward, what can be done to correct this?
ALLEN: Well, Kiran, I think, there's a couple of things. First of all, we need to have accurate information on where the oil is at and where it's coming ashore. And we get a lot of that from satellites.
But, for instance, we launched a plane yesterday to do a long- shore surveillance, ran into a huge amount of thunderstorms and had to abort. So, there's a hole in our surveillance that we're going to have to try and deal with today. So, it's a combination of weather conditions, resources that are out there, projections coming from NOAA and other places, allow us to find out where the oil is coming ashore.
But, frankly, the reason I'm down here in Houma and I'll be down visiting some of the forward operating locations today to see how we can tighten up the formation and reduce the cycle time from either deciding (ph) the oil -- oil coming ashore to actually produce some of the effect of either getting rid of the oil or deciding that it's not oil and what we need to do about it. And I'm down here personally looking at that.
CHETRY: Are you also taking the word of the locals who are here on the water? I mean, is any of their input being heard? There seems to be a lot of frustration with parish presidents and others who say, we don't think anyone is listening to us. We're telling them where it is and we're telling them what we think needs to be done, and it's not happening. Some of them are threatening to take matters in their own hands if more doesn't change.
ALLEN: We're dealing very closely with the parish presidents. In fact, my deputy, Admiral Peter Neffenger and the Assistant Secretary Juliette Kayyem from homeland security are going to be meeting with the presidents today. We're -- we have established Coast Guard officers can act as our direct representatives to be with the parish presidents. And we understand their frustration. We also understand the difference in responsibility in government in Louisiana and how they're structured there.
And one of my intentions is to make sure that we have a good handle on that and how organized while I'm down here.
CHETRY: All right. Admiral Thad Allen, thanks for taking the time to talk to us today. Good luck as this effort moves forward. We appreciate it. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, a lot of lawmakers are leaning on the White House to do even more, as we said, possibly bring in the Pentagon. Is that the right move?
For more, I'm joined again by author and CNN contributor, Lieutenant General Russel Honore.
And we just -- thanks for being with us yet again. We just heard from Admiral Allen. He said that he does he could a get a verbal order that he could call the Pentagon. There just seems to be a lot of frustration among the locals about whether or not enough is being done, if the mobilization effort is as organized as it could be.
What are your thoughts?
LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE (RET.), CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I know Admiral Allen. (INAUDIBLE) on the ground is going to make a difference and integrating it's -- the Coast Guard with the parish presidents and with the National Guard. This has to be a joint effort. And if they need more command to control, I'm sure he's going to ask for it immediately because we've got to move now. I mean, the parish presidents and local fishermen, they know where that oil is.
They need to separate this down into grids and create a flattened command and control structure that can go after it before it hits the marsh.
CHETRY: And in some cases, it already has -- as I said, 30 acres. And that could be a conservative estimate -- 30 acres of marshland already touched with the oil. And when that happens, it's destroyed it.
Moving forward, what about increasing the urgency? I mean, who makes the call that this has to happen and it has to happen now.
HONORE: Well, I think that's going to be Admiral Allen in this chain of command. I mean, they've showed time and again, they can operate in crisis mode. They need to go into the crisis mode now and increase the command and control on the ground and get this thing under control as it comes into the marsh.
CHETRY: And this is what Plaquemines Parish president, Billy Nungesser said -- Bobby Nungesser -- he's actually threatening to take matters in his own hands, to bring in equipment if by Saturday at 8:00 a.m., he doesn't see any movement and start trying to suction the oil out himself. He said this same oil has been out here two weeks, it's still out there. Nothing is being done. The marsh is dying. It's dead.
Thad Allen says that they are talking about these parish presidents. But there seems to be some missed signals here.
HONORE: And we have to go from words to deeds. And the president will see that when he comes here tomorrow and I'm sure Admiral Allen will get that done.
CHETRY: All right. Russel Honore, it's always great to talk to you. General, thanks for being with us this morning.
And this reminder: President Obama is going to be holding a news conference and taking questions on the oil spill disaster today. That's happening at 12:45 Eastern. CNN will carry it live. And you can also watch it on your computer at CNN.com/live.
Let's send it back to John -- and as General Honore said, he's also going to be seeing firsthand the devastation here when he visits the region tomorrow.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. And when you take a look at it and you see the oil -- particularly back in those sensitive grass marshes, it's just heartbreaking. And, of course, the toll that it's taking on fishing and the toll it is taking in particular on wildlife. Our Rob Marciano with the first-hand look at that is coming right up.
It's eight minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Eleven minutes after the hour. Right now, live pictures a mile under water of a -- I guess it's a mixture of gas and oil and drilling mud all shooting out of that broken riser at the top of the blowout preventer at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
Results from the top kill effort to plug up the leaking well could come as early as this afternoon. Oil has been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for 38 days now.
Well, B.P. says, so far, so good, the top kill procedure is going according to plan. Earlier, on AMERICAN MORNING, I asked B.P.'s managing director, Robert Dudley, if they had reassessed an earlier statement by the company's CEO, Tony Hayward, which downplayed the spill's potential environmental impact in Louisiana.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB DUDLEY, MANAGING EDITOR, B.P.: It is clearly a disaster for that area. The beaches, the tide brings in the oil. We have the teams that clean up the oil and then the tide brings it back in and it's a continuous cycle. I think we'll be able to clean and get those beaches clean.
The marshes will take more time to recover. This has happened before in areas of Louisiana. They take time to recover.
And then, we have got to understand the impacts on the dispersant and the oil in the Gulf. And we've started -- we'll start a massive study program with scientists from all over the Gulf Region. This will take a decade.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: When he was referring to an area being a disaster, he was talking about 30 acres of marshland in Louisiana, though some people would dispute that the area is much larger than that. We still don't know if the top kill procedure will succeed.
One thing we do know: vast stretches of the Louisiana coastline are covered in heavy crude and the impact on sea life is nothing short of devastating.
Our Rob Marciano got a chance to reach out and touch the oil spill disaster himself. He's live in New Orleans now with the report on that.
Rob, when you -- anybody who's ever been down to the Gulf and seen those fabulous waters teaming with fish and wildlife, it's just heartbreaking to see the way that it's all just clogged up with sludge now.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is. And going out there, you know, most of our journey was through oil, at times and through the thinner oil, you could see the wake of our boat. Some of that beautiful blue water that we know the Gulf of Mexico tried to surface, tried to come up from the bottom and would be quickly covered by oil again. So, it was definitely a difficult thing to see.
We tried to go out to the Gulf yesterday. We wanted to go see that top kill operation, about 50 miles offshore, a long journey. We ran into some weather, so that didn't help, and then we hit another big roadblock, oil. And there was a lot of it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was worse right back there where it was super thick, man. I have never seen anything like it with all the oil. It's unreal. Oh, look at that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's thick, thick, thick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's unreal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is ugly. This is really ugly.
MARCIANO (voice-over): Ugly is definitely an understatement and we're only 12 miles from shore.
(on camera): By far, the thickest oil we've seen yet. This is just disturbing. Check it out. And the oil -- the layers of oil are actually building on each other in a puttylike form. This definitely is not dispersed. It's verily weathered at all. It almost looks like it's fresh, fresh from the pipe.
(voice-over): Some areas of the oil are thicker than others. This is only the western edge of the slick.
(on camera): We are still not even 50 miles from the site of the spill. Unbelievable.
(voice-over): Our little armada pauses.
(on camera): We're out here with five other boats and all of them have this nasty oil stuck to the hull. That's going to be a chore getting off. This boat just across the way, those guys are lowering a submersible camera to take a look what the water and oil mixture looks like below the surface.
(voice-over): Boats are carrying scientists peering into and under the oil.
Dr. Ian Macdonald takes samples back to his lab in Florida, while Dr. Doug Inkley patrols for the National Wildlife Federation.
A dead eel floats towards our boat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have a jar large enough to put this in?
MARCIANO: It too is taken as a sample, now headed to the lab for a closer look.
Minutes later, something else is in the water. This one is alive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That animal might be in a lot of trouble.
DR. DOUG INKLEY, NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION (voice-over): You normally don't see sharks like this running around on the surface. But this animal looks like it is in distress.
MARCIANO: The shark dives as we approach. Along the way, we see other sea creatures struggling in the oil like this baby crab. What's on the surface is easy to see.
DR. IAN MACDONALD, OCEANOGRAPHER, FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY: Animals like this in the open ocean where you don't see them washed up, how do you access that? If you have a shark that dies in the water and sinks to the bottom, where is the assessment on that? How do you assess that?
MARCIANO: Can't count it. Much like the oil spewing from the oil, the amount of wildlife lost here may never be known.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO (on camera): So the scientists have already gun. This spill will be studied for years to come. The immediate impacts. The thick oil is out there. What we didn't see, John, over our journey and once we got out into the oil was a skimmer. We didn't see one vessel charged to clean up this mess. BP said yesterday, for some reason they didn't have a lot of swimmers out there because they didn't think there was so much oil.
Well I can tell you from a firsthand account, if you go 12 miles south of South Pass, there is plenty of it. So much so we had to wear these. The fumes were so bad, we had to wear these respirators or ventilators just to breath more easily and these aren't very comfortable. We didn't want to wear them but we had to as long as we were in the thick, thick oil. Unbelievable sight out there John. In the thickest oil, we didn't see any marine life. The dead eel and then the shark, that was in some of the thinner oil. In that thick oil, it is a dead zone, at least in the top layer. There is no way something can surface and survive in that -- John.
ROBERTS: So when Robert Dudley, the managing director of BP tells us an hour ago that they have thousands of people out there sopping up this oil and you were out there and saw no one, what does that say about his statement?
MARCIANO: It's not accurate. I mean the only thing I can say to be devil's advocate on that is that it is a huge spill, John. And we were just really on the western fringes of it. But still, 20 miles in either direction, we didn't see one boat out there of the over 1,000 of them that should be working this thing. We didn't see one that was trying to clean this mess up. Where we were, it needed some serious cleaning. It is not going to clean itself, at least not for several years.
ROBERTS: Yes, same thing where Anderson Cooper was yesterday with the governor Bobby Jindal and there was nobody there cleaning up either. Have to keep asking those questions.
Rob Marciano for us this morning.
Rob, thanks so much.
You can get all the updates and complete coverage of the oil spill and its impact on the gulf coast region, cnn.com/oilspill, by the way. And now let's travel back down to the Gulf Coast to Grand Isle.
Here is Kiran.
CHETRY: John, thanks.
You saw firsthand just what it looked like out there. There are still fears about the tourism here. I mean this is supposed to be a hopping time of year down here but the beaches are closed. Recreational fishing, which is a huge, huge moneymaker down here, something people love to do. Also, not happening right now.
We are going to speak with Josie Cheramie, she's the tourism commissioner for Grand Isle, about what she thinks is going to happen next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY (voice-over): And right now, live pictures of oil gushing out of the broken pipe at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Some of that possibly mixed with the mud with the heavy drilling mud that they are pumping in. It was described by one BP official as an arm- wrestling match underneath the water as they try to get enough mud in there to stop the flow of oil and eventually plug it with cement, kill the well permanently. Will it be a success or failure?
We may know more about that later this afternoon. But right now, BP officials say that it is going as planned. Meantime, President Obama is trying to stop the flow of criticism that the White House is not on top of the situation. The president is planning to travel to the gulf coast. He is coming here tomorrow and today, he is also answering questions at a press conference taking place at 12:45 eastern.
And we are coming to you live again from Grand Isle, Louisiana. This is Thursday, the start of the memorial holiday weekend which usually kicks off the summer tourist season here. But instead, the beaches are closed and the people are dealing with a giant crisis which could prove to be crippling, even business ending.
And right now, I am joined by Josie Cheramie she is the Grand Isle tourism commissioner, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
You're the tourism commissioner but also your son and your husband are also commercial fishermen. So you are seeing all aspects of this. Right now just tell me a little bit about how bad this is?
JOSIE CHERAMIE, GRANDE ISLE TOURISM COMMISSIONER: It's really bad. It is very bleak. There is no tourism to talk about here because of the oil spill. There is no recreational fishing. Everyone should be relaxing and enjoying their holiday. That's not going to happen here in Grand Isle this year.
CHETRY: And what does it usually look like this time of year on memorial day weekend?
CHERAMIE: Gosh, you would see, instead of us here, you would see nothing but visitors. Children playing on the beach, people fishing, boats running up and down in the Gulf of Mexico. It would be just people everywhere.
CHETRY: And what is the feeling among many -- I know that you are fielding a lot of anxieties. I mean people come to your office. When our crews were there, people are coming in and out saying, I need a map. I need to figure out if I am able to fish in any of these areas. Other people saying, what do I do? You see for rent, for rent, for rent in all the beach houses. And so what is the feeling about when this is going to get better and if it is going to get better?
CHERAMIE: That's a hard question to answer. We just all are on pins and needles, because we don't know. This is something we have no answers to and haven't gotten any answers to it. So we don't know how long this is going to last for us.
CHETRY: Well when you say you haven't gotten any answers, what is your assessment of how this is being handled, both the cleanup efforts and also the efforts to cut the well?
CHERAMIE: If only it gets stopped. If what they did yesterday works, that's the beginning of the end. We can clean up what's already been out there, put out there but we just really need to get it stopped. That's the main thing.
CHETRY: Commercial fishermen, also, you know the life blood of this area and the industry, this is what breaks people here, your son and your husband both. You said they are not able to do any fishing. That has effectively stopped?
CHERAMIE: Correct.
CHETRY: So what do you do when the bills still come in, you know, and the money isn't?
CHERAMIE: Oh yes, well they are -- have been lucky enough to be hired on for helping with the oil cleanup. Hopefully, that will help us tie things over. It is just not what we do for a living. We want to get back to our living, making our living.
CHETRY: There is something of a cruel irony to that that the reason you are out of work and suffering is because of what happened with the oil but that's who you have to turn to get money now because that's the only viable employment opportunity.
CHERAMIE: Right, exactly.
CHETRY: So how is that going over?
CHERAMIE: It is mixed emotions. You know they want to clean up because they want to get back to work doing what they know best. So they want that out of their elements and they want to be able to do what they know how to do. And hopefully, they can get that soon so it is not so damaging that it is not long lasting.
CHETRY: Right and that what is the feeling among commercial fishermen and others as to whether environmentally this place can get back to normal? I mean can this be weathered and can people fish again?
CHERAMIE: That's the unknown answer. We don't know. And we are hoping for the best. We want to survive, we are survivors. We've been through a lot of things and we've bounced back. And we intend to bounce back from this too. But we just don't know how long it will take us to get back on top again.
CHETRY: But you think this season is shot?
SHERMAY: Pretty much so. I would think we have enough oil out there that it has got to come up to the surface and be cleaned up. And it is going to take a while.
CHETRY: Well we wish you the best. Everybody who comes here to visit knows how great the people are and how hard everybody works and, you know, just how beautiful this is.
CHERAMIE: It is.
CHETRY: It is a real tragedy.
CHERAMIE: It is.
CHETRY: Josie Charamie the tourist commissioner of Grande Isle, thanks for joining me this morning.
CHERAMIE: Thank you.
CHETRY: John.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Coming up now, 27 minutes after the hour. The raging Cajun, James Carville, is on fire these days. And one of the targets of his ire, President Obama and the administration's response or lack thereof to the oil spill. James joins us, coming up, in just a few minutes here in The Most News in the Morning. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Crossing the half hour now, breaking news overnight. Closer to the boiling point on the Korean peninsula, North Korea now promising all-out war.
This comes after the South Korean military carried out drills firing artillery shells and dropping anti-submarine bombs this morning on the west coast of the country. Things started to escalate after South Korea accused the North of sinking one of its warships that killed 46 sailors.
Also developing right now, man versus earth. Is it working? Efforts still underway to stop the oil gusher at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. BP says we should know by this afternoon whether the top kill operation was a success. So far, it has pumped several thousand gallons of mud, 65 barrels of mud a minute at times into the well. They will cap it off with concrete if all goes as planned.
And new from the White House overnight, the president reacting to the spill. He will extend a moratorium on deepwater drilling for the next six months as they investigate this disaster.
And now let's go live back to Kiran Chetry on Grand Isle, Louisiana this morning.
Hi, Kiran.
CHETRY: Hey, John. We are here on the Gulf coast. As we just heard from the tourism chief here on Grand Isle, this season is basically a wash. It is done. People were supposed to be here by the thousands. The beaches are closed. Commercial fishing and recreational fishing, all cut off.
The boats we are on are people going out to assess the damage and lay boom, and researchers to assess the environmental impact. As for anything supposed to be happening, it is not because of this oil spill.
Meantime, everyone has their fingers crossed that this latest attempt to cap the well that it will be successful. These are pictures now from deep below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. BP's top kill is well underway, an effort to literally smother the oil leak with drilling mud, oil that's polluted the waters and the shoreline for 37 days and counting. We should know later today if it worked.
Right now, though, crude oil continues to spew from that ruptured well. Of course, we are going to keep this feed up for you to see throughout the hour. It will be in the bottom right of your screen so you can monitor along with everybody else as to how this is going.
Meanwhile, as for the fishermen in the region, the shrimpers, people who make their living off the water, their livelihood have been compromised perhaps permanently. There are a lot of questions as to how they will survive and how will the marshlands and the sea life and the water that not only enabled them to make a living but captured their hearts on top of worrying about the economic impact.
We had a chance to head out to sea off the coast of Grand Isle firsthand to see the devastation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN BLANCHARD, LOUISIANA SHRIMP DISTRIBUTOR: I have all this adrenaline in me because my body knows this is the time of the year to harvest, and I have nothing to do. I'm going crazy.
CHETRY: We have met Dean Blanchard before, one of the largest shrimp distributors in the country. And he has become the voice of frustration for the many in the bayou that make their living off the water.
BLANCHARD: When this is all said and done, they are going back home. We have to live with this for the rest of our life.
CHETRY: He took us out to show you what he fears is the end of the Gulf coast shrimping, at least in his lifetime. He says his once bustling loading docks typically brought in half a million dollars worth of shrimp a day. Today, one lone boat, machines sitting idle.
BLANCHARD: Everything is shut down. We are dead in the water right now.
CHETRY: Workers like dock foreman George Danos wonder how long they will have a job.
CHETRY (on camera): So did this happen the worst possible time?
BLANCHARD: The worst possible time and the worst possible year. This is the year we have been waiting for 10 years. The last year we had like this was in the year 2000. Every ten years, you get one like this. That's what keeps you going in the bad years.
CHETRY (voice-over): It is not just money. The men and women on these waters are mourning a way of life they see slowly dying before their eyes. BLANCHARD: A lot of people don't think fishermen are environmentalists. We want the environment as pristine as it can be. We live out here.
CHETRY: Dean and other locals are critical of how the cleanup is being handled.
BLANCHARD: I blame the people that just come here to make a buck and don't care about this. And they are hindering the people that have a great passion to save this. Then, the sad part is that the people that don't care are the people that BP are putting in charge. That's the problem. All they are here is to get a paycheck.
CHETRY (on camera): What we are looking at over here is Queen Best Bird sanctuary off of Grand Isle. They are trying to lay this boom and protect the birds as best that they can. So far, you see them still flying around, but this is where they found some oiled eggs.
And the locals also say that the sound these birds are making indicates they are in distress.
He is pointing out that some of this boom meant to be in the water absorbing oil has instead washed ashore. When it is washed ashore, it is doing no good protecting the delicate lands here from the oil.
Look at all these dolphins.
BLANCHARD: They are panicking right now.
CHETRY: Are they going to die?
BLANCHARD: Yes, they are going to die if enough oil comes in. Next week, they will die.
CHETRY: Why?
BLANCHARD: They won't be able to breathe. They will come up right in the middle of a big red patch of oil.
CHETRY: We just got back taking a tour of this waterway, which is called Bayou Rigo. It is a very popular shrimping and fishing area. The smell of oil is thick in the air. You can smell it. Actually, we were only out on the water for about an hour. You can feel it in your throat and you really can feel it everywhere.
And this is the situation for the fishermen, for those who are out on the waters trying to lay boom and trying to keep the oil spill at bay in this area.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: As we know, the Coast Guard making the call to pull 125 fishing boats off the water because of those concerns. You know, we did put some of the allegations that Dean Blanchard made about whether or not some of the people contracted to clean up the oil are doing all they can, either understanding the waters, what kind of orders they have been getting as to what they are supposed to be doing out there and whether or not they are equipped to do it.
And we asked BP about that. We got a statement from Andrew Gowers, who is a spokesperson, saying "We're employing thousands of people in the cleanup and providing work to many who've lost their income as a result of this disaster. Nobody should be in any doubt about BP's long term commitment to cleaning up the mess and addressing the economic damage."
That's what they are saying about the situation. John, you asked as well, and so did I, the questions. When Rob shows us, he says for 20 miles out to shore in the thick oil he didn't see a single skimmer in any direction.
And so just a lot of questions as to whether or not this is coordinating properly and whether or not this is happening as quickly as it could possibly happening to get the cleanup under control.
ROBERTS: Certainly a lot of pressing questions about the cleanup efforts. Kiran, great piece, great look at what they are going through down there.
And the "Raging Cajun" James Carville, slamming President Obama on the oil spill response. James Carville coming right up after the break. It's 38 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Live picture from the sea floor now. That's the top of the blowout preventer, one of those remotely-operated vehicles on the left side of the screen. You can see a combination of drilling mud, gas, and oil coming out of that damaged riser there.
We should know by this afternoon whether or not this top kill operation has been successful. BP is telling us, take a look at the pictures with all the fluid and material coming out of the top, don't draw any conclusions from that. That is just a lot of the mud that's leaking at the top, because it is under pressure.
Their hope is it will be going deep into the bore hole of that oil to the point where once they shut off the pumps there will be enough weight of the mud in the bore hole to keep the gas and the oil down. That is the big question as to whether or not they can get enough in there. We'll keep watching that operation for you all day today.
President Obama travels to the Gulf tomorrow for a firsthand look at the oil spill, taking plenty of heat for handling the crisis in the way he has. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal says the administration dropped the ball.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. BOBBY JINDAL, (R) LOUISIANA: Look, we have been fighting this oil for over a month now. We are requesting resources, too often finding the response to be too little, too late. We cannot let bureaucracy and red tape delay our reaction while oil hits our wed lands week after week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: James Carville was along with Governor Jindal and our Anderson Cooper for a boat tour of the oil stained wetlands. The Louisiana native was expressing his outrage. James Carville, Democratic strategist and CNN contributor, joins us this morning from New Orleans.
Billy Nungesser, who you know well, Plaquemines Parish president, said the government's response was dysfunctional, no chain of command, and no one was in charge. What do you think, James?
JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think this government has adopted a strategy that is flawed at its very core, and that is that they are in partnership with BP. And they are not in partnership with BP.
Bp is the ultimate in corporate arrogance. Chairman of the BP board said two days ago to the "Financial Times," quote, "BP is a big, important company and the United States is a big, important nation."
President Obama needs to understand that BP does not wish him well, that the United States government is in charge of this. I said yesterday he has to be the daddy in this relationship and BP has to understand that. They are not the United States government. They don't wish us well. They are responsible for this cleanup.
The president needs to look them in the eye and say, hire contractors, fix this, write checks.
Furthermore, we see this in the paper this is going to shock you, American, close your children's ears. They don't need to do this. On that rig BP could have done a thing that cost a little more money that would have been safer or they could have done the thing that cost less money and it was less safe. It is going to shock you. They decided to shave the money. They made $6 billion in the first quarter. They really don't have enough money.
ROBERTS: I know what you are talking about. You are talking about the bore hole casing. And BP is disputing that they cut corners to try to save money there with that well-casing. They thought they made the appropriate decision. I just wanted to lay out their side of that story.
CARVILLE: Their side of the story, they know they save money because it was in the memo.
ROBERTS: On this idea of a partnership between the federal government and BP, I know that Read Admiral Mary Landry from the Coast Guard said that early going, but she walked that back pretty quickly. Would you describe it as a partnership?
CARVILLE: I don't know. I know that the head of BP says it is a little spill in a big ocean. I want to see the president -- I think this president, I voted for him, I contributed to him. I think he has done some remarkable things. I think he is a smart man.
I think he is being ill-advised. And I think when he comes down here, it don't do to do the BP sanction tour in the hazmat suits on the beach. Go see what is happening at the marshes. I was at the mouth of the river yesterday, and I saw I can't tell you how many distressed areas I saw. I didn't see one person out there.
I think the president has to ask some hard questions about the advice he is getting and about what some of these people are doing. I'm very, very optimistic that we are going to start seeing a sea change here tomorrow and Friday. I think this thing is going to look a lot different. I hope it is. I cannot stand to criticize the president of my own party, but we need action down here.
ROBERTS: Yes and I think the immediate help is that they get this "top kill" operation to work too.
CARVILLE: I hope so too.
ROBERTS: And stop that flow of oil.
Karl Rove is out with an editorial on "The Wall Street Journal" today in which he suggested this could be worse for President Obama than Katrina was for President Bush. Now, you might say and shake your head and say, ok, what else would you expect Karl Rove to say.
CARVILLE: Right.
ROBERTS: But he's not the only one saying that. A lot of people are saying that including some Democrats.
CARVILLE: To be fair Rush Limbaugh said it. Who said by the way, who Rush Limbaugh said that it was environmentalist that blew up the rig? And he said that (INAUDIBLE) that oil and water were the same thing.
ROBERTS: But let's -- let's -- let's look at the practical result of this. Could this be worse for President Obama than Katrina was for President Bush?
CARVILLE: I do not -- I think that when this President takes action, I think this is going to be thought to be his finest moment. I think when he comes in here and he talks to BP like they needed to be talked to and he puts a plan in and he gets his people, I think his people are going to say this was his finest hour, when he came in and moved. That's what I believe.
I don't want -- and I don't want to get into comparisons or anything. But I think that this President when he fully understands the magnitude that's going on, the lies that he has been told, the attitude that BP thinks that it is equal to the United States government, can afford him a chance to show what he can do, when we have lost 11 lives as a result of this kind of negligence.
And I think that we're going to go in and we're going to see that that mining minerals, that service, we're going to see how much corruption there is. And if Karl Rove wants to do something, he ought to call for an investigation of that agency. And that's what we need to do. Hold these people and bring them to the bar of justice.
ROBERTS: James, you said yesterday that you thought heads should roll in the government over this. Whose head? Whose head?
CARVILLE: Well, I -- I -- one thing, I think the President needs to do and find out. And I don't know what the performance has been. But -- but how would the MMS be operating without enhancements, without people knowing, without more investigations where they were this far into this administration?
Now, I am told that they tried to change it last July. They've made some changes but I would want to be satisfied that those in changes were in line with what I believe to be the criminality of this that was going on during the Bush administration.
Now, a lot of them, one of the things we have not done --
ROBERTS: Yes.
CARVILLE: A lot of this stuff started when the Bush people took over this MMS, and made it an extension of the oil companies.
ROBERTS: Well, no question, pretty damning inspector general's report that came out in the last couple of days.
James Carville, it's great to see you this morning. And thanks for being with us. I appreciate it.
CARVILLE: You bet.
ROBERTS: All right. At 12:45 eastern today, don't forget, the President is going to hold a news conference, delivering remarks and taking questions in the crisis in the Gulf; probably, his most extensive remarks that he's made so far on this.
CNN is going to carry it live. You can also catch it on your computer at CNN.com/live.
Coming up on now its 48 minutes after the hour. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back.
Right now, crews are on a mission to try and stop this gushing oil. And those are the live pictures from the sea floor a mile under water, at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico as we enter Day 38 of the oil spill disaster.
And right now BP crews, trying to plug the leak by pumping mud into the blown-out well; 65 barrels of mud a minute being pumped into that well. As of 8:00 p.m. last night, they said 7,000 barrels had been pumped into the well. BP officials expect to know by this afternoon whether or not this "top kill" maneuver worked.
And of course, our fingers crossed here on Grand Isle as well as throughout the Gulf Coast and across the country that when BP does release word this afternoon, it's good news that, indeed, this well was finally able to be killed -- John.
ROBERTS: Wouldn't that be nice if we heard that, Kyra.
Plus, time now for your "AM House Call", stories about your health. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us live from Atlanta to answer your questions this morning.
Sanjay great to see you. Let's dive right in.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESONDENT: Good morning.
ROBERTS: First question comes from Sharon in Atlanta. She asks, does untreated high blood pressure damage the brain, and can it be reversed?
DR. GUPTA: You know, this is my area of expertise. It's something I think about quite a bit. And the answer is, yes. I think a lot of people realize that the brain first of all gets a lot of blood flow. If you have high blood pressure, you can cause minor strokes within the brain and in more severe cases, you can cause bleeding within the brain as well.
So obviously this is something you really need to pay attention to. The numbers are really important. When you are talking about normal blood pressure, it is below 120 over 80. You get into the danger zone, really truly hypertensive if your numbers are 140/90. Systolic is the upper number. Diastolic is the lower number. Saints above devils, John, that's how I always remember it.
Also just really quickly, simple ways to lower your blood pressure: get exercise obviously, but also sodium. John we talk about this all the time. Reducing your sodium intake is so important. If you are taking in a lot of sodium, incidentally, it also causes you to lose potassium. You get too much sodium, too little potassium that can cause other problems as well such as muscle aches when you are trying to exercise -- John.
ROBERTS: Well, I wasn't aware of that that increasing salt decreases potassium, interesting.
The next question comes from Jenny in Indiana. She writes to us today. She says, "I was diagnosed with shin splints. I had therapy. It didn't help. Is there anything else I could do?" You are training for your triathlon here; that's something that you could potentially suffer from. So what do you say to her?
DR. GUPTA: Yes. It can be so frustrated if you have shin splints because it takes you out of the game for a little bit for sure. If you have had therapy there Jenny and it is not getting better you may want to make sure, in fact, you are dealing with shin splints.
There are a couple of things that can be sometimes confused for this including what are called stress fractures of the tibia; that's a bone in the lower part of the leg. If you have fractures there, that can be a more serious problem than shin splints alone. The shin splint is typically caused by inflammation of the muscles around the bones and not fractures in the bones itself.
But if you have shin splints incidentally, a lot of people will say you can run still as long as it doesn't hurt while you are running or immediately afterward.
And also John, maybe you know this but running downhill if you have shin splints actually hurts a lot more. It is the way you are absorbing force on your lower leg so avoiding the downhill part of the run. Just do the uphill. It is better exercise as well.
ROBERTS: I try to avoid the downhill run, the uphill run and the flat run whenever I can.
DR. GUPTA: You are a cyclist, that's right.
ROBERTS: I'm not much -- ever since I was a kid, I have never liked running. I would love to like it but I just don't.
Sanjay great to talk to you. Thanks so much.
DR. GUPTA: Thanks, john.
ROBERTS: Don't forget, Sanjay tackles all the big medical head likes on his weekend morning show, "SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." at Saturday and Sunday morning, 7:30 Eastern right here on CNN.
BP tries to kill the spill. We go back live to Louisiana with Kiran on the Gulf Coast coming up next.
Fifty-five minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: All right. Right now, we are looking at live pictures of the floor of the Gulf of Mexico; results from the "top kill" effort to try to plug up that leak by pumping drilling mud into the oil well. We could know as early as this afternoon whether or not that was a success.
Meanwhile, back here on Grand Isle and in many of the other coastal towns in the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi people are waiting word about whether or not that operation will in fact work. You see the pictures of the beaches right now. It's a huge, huge tourism week, Memorial Day weekend.
The official kick-off for this area and basically, the beaches are closed, tourism is shut down. Commercial fishing is shut down, recreation fishing as well. And a lot of questions as to whether or not this way of life will ultimately disappear for the lifetime of the people here on this island.
John, I just wanted to let you as well as the viewers know that we are going to be heading up in a helicopter right after this with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
As you know, he took a boat tour yesterday. He is going to go up in the helicopter today to assess this further. He is extremely impatient. He is calling for the federal government, the Army Corps of engineers, to fast-track approval to build up some barrier islands and make sure that this oil doesn't destroy more marshland. So we will bring you the results of what we see when we go up in the air a little bit later, John.
ROBERTS: All right. Looking forward to that. Thanks so much Kiran.
Continue the conversation on today's stories; go to our blog at cnn.com/amFix. That will wrap it up for us but the news continues with Fredricka Whitfield in the "CNN NEWSROOM."
