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American Morning

"Top Kill" Resumes to Plug Oil Leak; President Obama to Visit the Gulf Today; Grand Isle a Ghost Town: Threatens Local Businesses; Spill is Nation's Worst; Oil Industry Fights Back; Coastal Chopper Tour with Gov. Jindal; Waiting for the Kill

Aired May 28, 2010 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Friday morning and thanks so much for joining us for a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING on this May the 28th. I'm John Roberts in New York. Good morning, Kiran.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, John, good morning. I'm Kiran Chetry here yet again on Grand Isle in Louisiana where they know all about natural disasters and they've dealt with them in stride over the years. This is a town of nearly 2,000 people. And it averages a direct hit from a hurricane every eight years. That they say they can handle.

But the man-made disaster created by the oil spill 100 miles off of this beach is proving much more difficult to cope with. And President Obama is going to see it for himself. He's coming this afternoon. We're at the mouth of Barataria Bay where it meets the Gulf of Mexico and literally is the lifeblood of the fishing and shrimping industry that provides so much seafood to the rest of the country. The president will witness for himself the tragedy that's tearing this community apart.

Fifty miles out and 100 miles down, a live picture, again of BP's ruptured oil well spewing crude at a massive rate and the oil devastating dozens of acres of sensitive marshland here, snuffing out the plants, birds, fish and many fear a treasured way of life.

Today is day 39 of the disaster in the gulf and the waiting continues. It certainly is agonizing. BP's "top kill" efforts underway again after a long, unannounced pause yesterday. The operation is taking longer than they expected, and we may not know they say if it's working until the weekend.

Meanwhile, President Obama is interrupting a weekend vacation, a family vacation through his hometown of Chicago to make an appearance here today. He'll be here for about three hours and what he'll see according to the newest government estimates is the worst oil spill in the history of the United States, twice the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster and growing every day.

Now at this moment, "top kill" is on everyone's mind. The heavy industrial mud is once again being pumped into the ruptured pipe after yesterday's long delay. David Mattingly is live for us in New Orleans this morning with more on the operation. There was a break for about 16 hours. And then we understand it, it started up again. What's going on with the operation, David?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kiran. We're going to have to choose our words carefully today because yesterday, BP was telling us that the operation was ongoing. Well, that turns out that for a 16-hour period, even though the operation was ongoing, the pumping was not. They shut the pumping down so they could evaluate some of the readings they were taking down there and then they resumed yesterday afternoon. They say that they're going to continue pumping that heavy liquid, that mud into the blowout preventer to force that oil back down into the well. They say so far so good, but it's going to be stopping and starting as they need to throughout this operation.

CHETRY: And the -- one of the questions that a lot of people had is why they didn't sort of share what was going on yesterday.

MATTINGLY: BP afterwards said that they'll try and do a better job of keeping people updated of what's actually going on minute -- well, not minute by minute but more as the developments happen. To them that was all part of the plan. So when they said it was going according to plan, they say they were telling the truth, just not providing those sort of details. That may change today if there's another pause to avoid any sort of confusion. But again it was a source of concern when we first learned about that, thinking there might have been a problem. They say don't interrupt that pause as a problem.

CHETRY: All right, David Mattingly for us this morning in New Orleans as this effort continues. Thanks, David.

ROBERTS: Well, after catching a political beating for not being more in front of this disaster, President Obama is going to visit the Gulf Coast today. Yesterday, he tried to make it clear the buck stops here. He's calling the shots, something that many local leaders say is news to them.

Ed Henry joins us now live. He's in New Orleans this morning. And, Ed, what message is the president going to be carrying with him today?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He's going to be visiting the beach there, getting an unclose look near where Kiran is to get a sense of just how bad the damage has been. He's also going to get some high-level briefings, meet with the governor here in Louisiana but also make a public statement, try and reassure the public again that he's on top of the situation. He started that message even before leaving Washington back at the White House with the news conference where, again and again he said, look, I take responsibility.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And make no mistake, BP is operating at our direction. Every key decision and action they take must be approved by us in advance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now one problem with that, though, is that just a few days ago White House aides were insisting to all of us that the government was not really calling the shots, that BP was and the federal government was just overseeing things. But consistency is not really what the White House is looking to project right now. They're more interested in just showing that the president, the administration at large is taking charge rather than trying to square all the statements in recent days. Their bottom line is saying, look, BP is still responsible financially. They're the responsible party, but the federal government is ultimately calling the shots, John.

ROBERTS: All right, we'll be watching that very closely today. Ed Henry for us this morning in New Orleans. Ed, thanks so much -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Yes, and you know, there's been a lot of finger pointing going on in D.C. about the oil spill, who's fault it is, who botched the cleanup on and on. But in the gulf right now, people just want the spill to stop and they also want to be able to clean it before it destroys the coast and the marshlands. I had a chance to tour the coastline with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal yesterday both from air. And you're seeing these pictures right now of oil making it to shore and the booms there laid out to try to prevent it. We also had a chance to walk along some of the areas of coastline where they're trying to build these protective sand berms as they call them.

And I had a chance to get his take on what he thinks needs to be done right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: I know folks in D.C. are trying to point fingers and forgot the politics. I really don't care. What I care about is stopping this oil off our coast. What's clear to me is there hasn't been a sense of urgency. There hasn't been the resources.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: And that was in response to a question about whether or not the federal government and the Obama administration could have done more and his take on whether or not they're to blame for a slow start to this operation. We'll have more of my tour and interview with Governor Jindal coming up ahead on the Most News in the Morning.

Also coming up at 7:15, we're going to be speaking to BP CEO Tony Hayward. We look forward to hearing his take on what went on yesterday and what's going on in the future. And, John, you know, it's also interesting, some of the environmentalists here are very concerned. They had a chance to go out on the waters yesterday as well to see areas that are just literally coated in oil and all of the sea life dead in those areas. And they're also upset that BP still has not disclosed to them, they say, these chemicals they're using in the dispersant so that they can figure out whether or not there's an impact on the wildlife. ROBERTS: Yes. And there's a lot of consternation, too, that there are some areas that BP is not in there cleaning up. And then there's this massive undersea plume that's been discovered by scientists in Florida and what that all is going to mean for the environment. A lot of questions still lingering this morning.

Also new this morning, and other news. The House has voted to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the military policy barring openly gay and lesbian soldiers from serving. The amendment does come with conditions though. It has to get a green light from Pentagon officials and from President Obama.

A horrific train crash in eastern India in the middle of the night. At least 65 people were killed, 200 others injured. The passenger train was headed to Mumbai when officials say it collided with a freight train. Investigators suspect that Maoist rebels caused the crash possibly using explosives.

And the NFL has cleared Ben Roethlisberger to return to training and meetings with his team. Starting next week, the Steelers quarterback was suspended without for pay for six games after a college student accused him of sexual assault. No charges, criminal charges at least were ever filed against Roethlisberger.

Let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines. Our Reynolds Wolf is in the weather center for us in Atlanta today. And you're expecting some storms later on tonight. What about the rest of the country?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, right now and speaking of storms, we're taking a look at the potential for tropical activity in terms of big, big storms and the largest in the planet.

Take a look at this, John. This is what NOAA came out with yesterday for the hurricane season in the Atlantic. Take a look.

They're forecasting anywhere from 14 to 23 named storms. On average we have anywhere from 11 to 28. Hurricanes though, anywhere from eight to 14. Out of those, anywhere from three to seven could be major hurricanes. So a very busy season to say the least.

Now, at this time, we are actually watching a system right now over parts of Mexico in the Pacific. That system that we're watching could be named Agatha. Within the next several hours, it is just a big disturbance for the time being but it certainly looks pretty potent and looks like it could be a potent season.

John, coming up, we're going to take a look at your national forecast to give you an idea of what to expect for the holiday weekend ahead and, of course, flight delays. That's all straight up. Let's send it back to you.

ROBERTS: You're going to make us wait?

WOLF: Got to. Got to. It's a tease. You bet.

ROBERTS: There you go. All right, Reynolds. Thanks so much.

Still to come on the Most News in the Morning, small businesses along the Gulf Coast in danger of going under. We're going to talk with the owner of one restaurant coming up next.

Eight and a half minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Well, welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. There is a shot underwater yet again of the oil well, the spewing oil. And as we understand it after a 16-hour delay yesterday, they've resumed pumping that heavy drilling mud back into the well. Still won't know if the operation is successful though until later today and perhaps as late as the weekend. Still not a lot of answers as to whether or not this is ultimately going to work.

Meanwhile, welcome back here to Grand Isle, Louisiana. You know, this is Memorial Day weekend. Of course, everyone calls it the unofficial start of summer. But here, literally it is the start of the season, a short season for recreation, for commercial fishermen and for everyone here to make money that tides them over for the rest of the year. Well, instead, the only people they're hosting are, a, cleanup workers, and b, members of the press trying to tell the story. There is no swimming allowed on Grand Isle. There is no fishing allowed and it's putting many, many businesses at risk of going out of business.

You know, Rhea Pelotto manages the Barataria restaurant and she joins me now.

Rhea, come on in. I had a chance to bump into yesterday. We were talking -- you know, we were walking around and we were trying to figure out exactly what the impact was and you just really put it well yesterday. The only people there were my producer and myself and a German television station as well.

RHEA PELOTTO, MANAGER, BARATARIA: Yes, ma'am.

CHETRY: What is it supposed to be like this time of year?

PELOTTO: This time of the year is family time. The kids are getting out of school, the beginning of the summer starting to get it off. Usually you see many people on the beach, you know, fishing out, flying kites, you know, picking up seashells. There's nothing now. It's like a ghost town. It's so devastating.

CHETRY: Well, you very upset yesterday. I heard you calmly explaining to some of the customers, this isn't on the menu. This isn't on the menu. And I said to you why? And you said because there's nothing coming in.

PELOTTO: There's nothing coming in. All our waters have been completely shut now. So, therefore, you cannot so much as, you know, take a fishing pole off the pier right now. It is that bad. You know, everything is considered contaminated, so we cannot bring in, you know, crab fingers, crab claws, our main dishes that people drive down here from all over the country to experience, and now we don't have that. It's been taken away from us.

CHETRY: You said that you came back here after -- you know, this is where you grew up and you came back here after some time in Tennessee because this is in your blood, you love it.

PELOTTO: Yes.

CHETRY: This is where you want to be.

PELOTTO: Yes.

CHETRY: What is going to happen to Grand Isle?

PELOTTO: Ma'am, I hope that we can start moving faster. Ever since I've been a little girl I've been coming here, since I've been 2 years old on this beach, you know, picking up seashells. I would like to know that someday I might be able to bring my children back here. But what it looks like right now is that might not be a possibility if somebody doesn't step up and if the federal government doesn't get involved more in cleaning out these waters and stopping all these oil from washing into our beach. We're ruining our ecosystem. It's going to be a domino effect. Everything from the beach that pollinates the trees, everything is going to be gone, you know.

CHETRY: What is -- I mean, you're the manager of this restaurant, the owner. What is your plan moving forward? You're open right now.

PELOTTO: Yes.

CHETRY: But yesterday there was hardly anybody there.

PELOTTO: Yes. We're used to doing a large amount of people. We are, you know, a fine dining restaurant. So when people come down here, you know, they like to wine and dine, come to our restaurant, get good service, good, you know, quality food. But now they're not going to be coming down here because there's nothing for them to do. You cannot walk on the beach, you cannot fish, you cannot go nowhere. So our business sales have dropped probably 60 to 70 percent so far.

CHETRY: And you think it's only going to get worse?

PELOTTO: I -- I know it's only going to get worse. You know, and I'm sure you know with all the cleanup crew and the media attention we're getting now, but what's going to be here three months from now?

It's a question that I have, you know, who's going to be here three months from now when this is all red and everybody's gone? Where are we going to go?

CHETRY: Do you -- do you -- who do you blame?

PELOTTO: I -- I don't want to specifically say one person, but I do believe that, you know, BP should, you know, take responsibility for this, but and I do know that there's a lot of other companies involved in it.

But I would just like to see somebody actually step up, you know. Yes, they could say we are going to compensate you for any lost wages or we're going to make this right. No, Sir, you've taken away our life, our livelihood.

This is not a Katrina event, this is not a Gustav, and this is not an oil spill. Exxon-Valdez was an oil spill. This is an eruption happening 5,000 miles underneath the surface, and it's like Mount Saint Helen out there, erupting gallons and thousands of oil into our water each day.

So, it's hard just to say, you know, one person's to blame, but I just want to know now where are we going to move forward from here is all that I'm asking. You know, where -- where are you going to take us now? You know, let's get some people down here. Let's try to make this better.

We've already -- the oil is already in our marshland. That could be the worst possible time because that's when our shrimps spawn and they mate. So this isn't just this generation. This is years, with the oyster beds.

I've seen them firsthand. It's like a thick molasses, they just wash over. We're talking decades and decades. That's our culture that we've lost, and it's pretty heartbreaking.

You know, I spoke to a man. I know one of my other waitresses, her name is Shannon, her grandmother's lived on this island for 86 years, Ms. Aileen Shermie (ph). Where does she go now, ma'am? That's all been taken from her. This is all that she knows, all that she's been raised on. If you're a 62-year-old shrimp -- shrimper, you know, you go trawling and that's been taken from you, where do you go now?

You know, I'm lucky that young enough to where maybe I'll be able to find something, but for these people's lives, that's all taken, and it's devastating. It's just heartbreaking.

CHETRY: Well, thanks for joining us to talk more about it.

PELOTTO: You're very welcome.

CHETRY: And we're continuing to cover this, and I know many other are, to see whether or not people make it right, as we talked about.

Rhea Pelotto, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

PELOTTO: Thank you.

CHETRY: And coming up on the Most News in the Morning, the spill in the gulf, of course a bigger problem for BP than the Valdez spill was for Exxon. Christine Romans is going to be "Minding Your Business." She's going to be breaking down those numbers next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Coming up now on 21 minutes after the hour and we're going to continue to look at that leaking well as BP continues its top kill operation. Still a lot of drilling, mud coming out of the top.

We had heard yesterday that it actually stemmed the flow of oil, but they haven't managed to get the operation to a point where everything has stabilized and they can put some concrete in there and seal up that well. We hope to get some information later on today, but it might not be until tomorrow.

Coming up right now, Christine Romans here, and she has got our -- our business segment this morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The issue with the information about all of this is so interesting, John, because, you know, look, now it's become one of these things that people in the market are sensitive to whatever news is coming out of BP for its own share price. And so you had a couple of rumors a couple of days ago they might have to halt the shares, that they were talking about what happening with top kill, so we'll watch carefully.

They're going to have to manage how they release this information because of rules about how investors deal with this information, because the stock actually trades. So that will --

ROBERTS: Well, every incremental little development on the ocean floor there can affect the stock there.

ROMANS: Absolutely. Absolutely. So now it's become a market- sensitive issue, so that could mean that we see more control over the information that's coming out of BP. I would not be surprised about that at all.

Meanwhile, we know that oil and water and money and blame make an unholy mess, and that's basically what we're seeing here right now. We know this mess may very well exceed the levels of the Exxon-Valdez disaster.

Let's take a look at the gulf spill disaster and just how big this is. Twenty-nine million gallons leaked so far, that's taking a look at the high end of the range of 19,000 barrels per day. That's about 798,000 gallons we're talking about a day. That's the equivalent of 44 Olympic-sized pools, 660,000 gallons in an Olympic- sized pool. That's a whole lot of oil spilling into the gulf and -- and coming ashore here. The Exxon-Valdez spill, by comparison, was 11 million gallons, about 17 Olympic pools.

The economic damage of this for now, oil, tourism, fishing, shipping, $1.6 billion. And the thing to remember about this is that it was almost a month, some 30 days, I think, before you started to see big amounts of oil coming ashore, big amounts of animals and birds and seabirds coming ashore, covered with this oil. Even if they stop it today, completely, even if they were to do that, and I'm not calling for that, you could see this continue to trickle out for some time. So we just cannot calculate what the economic damages is going to be.

ROBERTS: And as we found out yesterday, there's that huge plume of oil said to be about 3,200 feet deep and 22 miles long that's lurking out there somewhere under the ocean surface.

ROMANS: Unbelievable.

ROBERTS: You got a "Romans' Numeral" for us this morning?

ROMANS: I do, 29. And it's meant to show you -- OK, so I told you about all of these pools full of oil. It's meant to show you how much of this stuff we consume every single day. Twenty-nine --

ROBERTS: Well, it's -- isn't it 20 billion -- sorry, 20 million barrels?

ROMANS: That's right. So we consume -- what we have -- what has been spewed out into the ocean, wasted and spewed out of the ocean, we consume that on a daily basis, 29 times that is what we all use just to live our American life.

ROBERTS: Every day, 29 times what's been spilled --

ROMANS: Yes, is what we consume. It's just meant to show how we --

ROBERTS: Voracious appetite.

ROMANS: We suck this stuff in, and the technology and the -- you know, the -- John, the whole world is geared to getting it out of the ground, not keeping it in the ground.

ROBERTS: Exactly. So when it comes out of the ground --

ROMANS: Now what?

ROBERTS: Well, yes. When it comes out of the ground when you don't want it to, then what do you do about it?

All right. Christine Romans this morning. Thanks so much.

Coming up next on the Most News in the Morning, the oil industry getting a black eye from the BP disaster. Now they're trying to fight the perception that they are the bad guys.

Twenty-four minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: All right. Take a look right now. This is, again, the underwater camera showing BP's top kill operation to try to get this well capped. They resumed the process of pumping in high-powered mud after 16 hours of stopping that -- that pumping yesterday as they had to reassess whether or not it was possibly doing more harm than good. We're going to keep that shot up throughout the day so that we can monitor the progress. Meanwhile, welcome back. We're here all along Grand Isle in Louisiana, the Friday of Memorial Day weekend where this place is supposed to packed and, again, it's literally a ghost town. All the beaches shut down, all the fishing shut down. And, as we know now, at least from the government scientist estimates, it is the worst oil spill in U.S. history, twice the size of the Exxon-Valdez disaster.

BP and big oil are public enemies right now, but some inside the oil industry say that the government's plan to halt future offshore drilling is a mistake, one that could actually hurt the economy. And Carol Costello has been following that angle of the story.

You got here yesterday and, you know, the last thing people want to hear right now is we need this oil and it's a huge mistake to stop the drilling and the exploration.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. And I'm sure the other last thing people want to hear from is the oil industry. But they are talking and standing up for their business.

$1.6 million barrels of liquid fuel per day is the number for the Gulf of Mexico. That's how much liquid fuel comes out of just the Gulf of Mexico. That's about 8 percent of the U.S. domestic oil and natural gas supply, and the oil industry wants to keep it that way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (voice-over): Disaster doesn't begin to describe this, and despite BP's efforts to fix what's wrong, in many people's minds it remains a villain. And so does the oil industry as a whole.

J. BENNETT JOHNSTON, OIL INDUSTRY LOBBYIST: So many things wrong.

COSTELLO: No one knows that more than J. Bennett Johnston, former senator from Louisiana turned oil lobbyist.

COSTELLO (on camera): So you're an oil lobbyist from the State of Louisiana. You have the toughest job in the United States right now, don't you?

JOHNSTON: Probably. No, no, BP's got the toughest job.

COSTELLO: You've got the second toughest.

JOHNSTON: (INAUDIBLE), not the toughest job.

COSTELLO: Now that you're witnessing all of this happening, and it's probably far from over, how do you lobby for the oil industry?

JOHNSTON: We've got to get away from the us versus them, us being Americans versus BP as if we need -- if somehow we can punish BP, everything will be all right.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Johnston says anger at BP is affecting every company drilling in the gulf, no matter their safety record. BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As far as I'm concerned BP is responsible for this horrific disaster.

COSTELLO: President Obama has ordered a halt to some new drilling in the deep waters of the gulf off the Virginia coast and to last for six months. But companies operating wells in shallow waters between 12 and 189 feet --

WILLIAM RICHEY, MCMORAN EXPLORATION: Well, we chase natural gas. That's our game.

COSTELLO: -- like McMoRan Oil and Gas can continue pumping natural gas and oil. It's a relief for McMoRan, whose wells operate differently than those hundreds of miles offshore and consider themselves good citizens.

(on camera): I'm sure you hear what people say, that people in your business are greedy. They only care about profit. You know, what do you care if the environment is sully?

WILLIAM RICHEY, MCMORAN EXPLORATION: Well, I'll tell you what, that perception is not accurate because everybody in our business, we care greatly about what we do, working safe. We want all these men and ladies on these rigs to go home when they get off to hitch, to their families like we do every night.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Richey, like Johnston says they're appalled by the disaster and by allegations of widespread corruption and lax oversight at Minerals Management Service, the government agency responsible for regulating offshore drilling.

(on camera): Did you know that kind of stuff was going on?

J. BENNETT JOHNSTON, OIL INDUSTRY LOBBYIST: Of course not. No. I mean, look --

COSTELLO: Does it surprise you that, you know, that these MMS people were so cozy with oil industry representatives?

JOHNSTON: No, we did not know that. Understand, I haven't been back in the Senate since '96. I don't think that was at the heart of this accident -- although, we'll find that out, too. I think it was sloppy on behalf of the companies.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Johnston says he's in favor of a presidential commission to look into allegations of corruption. But drilling -- new drilling -- should continue for the good of the American economy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Johnston says like it or not, the oil industry is part of America and the majority of those who work in the industry are loyal Americans. He says this disaster should not make the United States shy about drilling offshore, it's better than being totally dependent on foreign exports from countries we may not consider our friends.

CHETRY: Yes, and as we find out more and more about what may or may not have happened in the hours leading up to it -- I mean, all it takes is, you know, a few mistakes or a few lapses, and we see what happens, regardless of what systems they have in place.

COSTELLO: Well, I got to tell you, the oil company executives that I've talked to off-camera are appalled by what's happening with B.P. I mean, they're watching it aghast as well.

CHETRY: As the rest of America is.

COSTELLO: For what it's worth.

CHETRY: Yes.

COSTELLO: Yes.

CHETRY: Understandable. Carol Costello, thanks so much.

And, John, time to send it back to you in New York.

ROBERTS: All right. And we're crossing the half hour now and here's a look at this morning's top stories.

The top kill operation going on in the ocean floor there deep beneath the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It could be tonight, even the weekend, before we know if B.P.'s top kill operation is going to be able to choke off the oil spill in the Gulf. Heavy industrial mud is being pumped in there at quite an enormous rate.

The president arrives in New Orleans later on this morning. He's going to visit Grand Isle, Louisiana. This afternoon, he's only on the ground really for about three hours' time, but he'll be there for a briefing from the Coast Guard.

Officials say seven oil spill recovery workers who are hospitalized in New Orleans had proper gear in training. The Coast Guard says heed and humidity might have been a factor in making them ill. One hundred and twenty-five commercial vessels were recalled, you'll remember, from the water near Louisiana because of the illnesses, delaying the cleanup effort even further.

And emotional testimony at a congressional hearing in the Gulf oil disaster. Survivors of the oil rig explosion are urging lawmakers to make B.P. and Transocean pay for the tragic accident that killed 11 people. We got to remember that in all of this, 11 people did die on that rig.

The father of an oil worker who perished in the explosion said, quote, "Make them hurt where their heart would be if they had a heart" -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Yes, very powerful testimony. We know the president is coming today to witness this firsthand. And you really do have to see it for yourself to understand the magnitude of the destruction and the frantic and continuous efforts to try to keep this oil at bay.

I had a chance to head up in the helicopter with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, also to land at one of these barrier islands and see how the oil has impacted the area.

Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You guys all know we got Kiran with us from CNN onboard.

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: Welcome.

CHETRY: Thanks so much. Thanks for having us.

JINDAL: Up ahead, (INAUDIBLE) the National Guard has built. You'll clearly see them in open water before they went to work. (INAUDIBLE) the oil would have gotten past the land bridge. And the National Guard's coordination, we're able to build that land bridge about 785 feet. We're working on (INAUDIBLE) like that all around the coast of Louisiana.

CHETRY: And, Governor, you said that they basically were able to do that in four days. Who had to make the call and OK that?

JINDAL: We did. We deployed our National Guard. They want to help defend their way of life. This is their -- this is their state. They fished here for years, many of them for decades. They want their children to (INAUDIBLE).

This is a great example of look, I hate to see this oil on a sandy beach, I'd much rather see that oil right here than back there in those wetlands. This oil here, we can come, you can come with shovels. They can come and clean that up. They can replace this sand.

You hate to see it. You don't want to see it on any inch of Louisiana's coast. But it would be much more dangerous once it gets behind us. That's the actually dredge out there, about 20,000 feet offshore. It's getting the sand there. As you can see, it's piped in back here. And that's how they're building these sand berms here.

CHETRY: So, we've been touring the East Grand Terre Island here with Governor Jindal and he's explaining to us exactly what's been happening. They were already dredging sand for a coastal project. They redirected it to build these berms, up to five to six feet high, to be able to be the first line of defense when the oil comes to shore.

They say it's ideal, of course, for any oil to come ashore, but at least they can capture it here and scoop it up, get it off the sand before it makes its way here. Without these berms it would slowly seeping to this very fragile wetlands and once that happens, these grasses would be destroyed.

JINDAL: These wetlands are important for the entire country. This is 35 percent of all fisheries for the entire country. You're talking about the Gulf as one of the most important ecosystems, one of the most important estuaries, 30 percent of those fish caught off our coast.

And what's even more important about these wetlands is that the Gulf is a nursery. Literally, this is where the young come -- and it's not just the fish and the shrimp and the crabs and the oysters we want to catch this year, it's for multiple years.

CHETRY: You know, of course, everything always turns into a political hot potato. And now, you even have Democrats, huge supporters of the president, like James Carville, saying that this has been botched -- in fact, in some cases, insinuating that this would be, quote, "Obama's Katrina." Is that fair?

JINDAL: Well, a couple of things. Look, Katrina for Louisiana was a unique event in our state's history. Over 1,000 people died from Katrina, over $100 billion of property damage due to Katrina. It's changed our state permanently. And we're rebuilding and recovering from that awful storm.

This oil spill is another huge challenge for our state. It threatens literally our way of life. It presents its own set of challenges. I know folks in D.C. are trying to point fingers and figure out the politics, I really don't care. What I care about is stopping this oil off our coast.

What's clear to me is -- there hasn't been a sense of urgency. There hasn't been the resources.

CHETRY: Explain a little bit about what you're trying to get the federal government to understand and to approve?

JINDAL: The most important to me is, get us the permit and get us the dredges. Most important thing to me is get us the local decision-making authorities so we don't have to wait. Get us the additional boom and skimmers. Get us, in other words, the tools to help us help ourselves fight this oil and keep it off our coast.

We're doing everything we can to protect our coast. All we want from the federal government is permission to go out and do even more and for them to hold B.P. accountable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: And they did get some of that permission actually to build some of the berms and put it on either the federal government's dime or B.P.'s dime. They say that they need approval to be able to do this in many more areas before it's too late.

Coming up next on the Most News in the Morning: we're going to talk to the president of Saint Bernard Parish about the latest efforts to save the barrier islands, and also, what he would like to say to President Obama when he visits the region later today.

We'll be right back.

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ROBERTS: Forty-one minutes after the hour.

Continuing to monitor pictures from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, that damaged riser, coming off at the top of the blowout preventer.

We're told by B.P. officials what we're seeing coming out is not oil -- not strictly oil at least. It's mostly drilling mud, maybe a combination of some oil and gas in there as well. But we haven't had an update in a little while and maybe not likely to get one for a while yet.

Leaders along the Gulf Coast are tired of waiting. The anger building as the clean up effort lags. With the president on his way to the region today, some people are asking the federal government to pick a side, big oil or the people who are suffering through this.

Craig Taffaro is the president of Saint Bernard Parish. He's at the staging area of Brenton Sound this morning, where efforts are underway to try to stop a mile-long stream of oil off the Chandeleur Islands in Louisiana.

Craig, good to talk to you this morning.

Every morning, an armada of volunteers heads out there to try to sop up some of this oil, and we're seeing hundreds of feet of boom there behind you. What's the status of operations? How are you guys doing in terms of trying to keep that area clean?

CRAIG TAFFARO, ST. BERNARD PARISH PRESIDENT: Well, obviously, we feel like we've been a little more fortunate than our neighbors in terms of the heavy crude hasn't made it inward yet. But it's a fight every day in terms of keeping the massive amount of oil that's just off of our Chandeleur Islands, which is our major protection barrier and it's moving in.

And that's what our concern is. So, it's a fight everyday. We have over 50 boats a day going out and we're trying to raise that number.

ROBERTS: How are you feeling about this top kill operation that we've been watching for last 24 hours?

TAFFARO: Well, we're cautiously optimistic. Obviously, this is a critical part of our fight because it defines our universe. If we can stop the oil all together, then it allows us basically to make a plan with an end sight in mind. Until that happens, our universe is undefined in terms of what we're fighting and how much we actually will have to fight against.

ROBERTS: Even if they stop the oil today, there's still a tremendous amount out there. And I know that you've been having difficulty tracking it. Yesterday, we heard from the scientists in Florida that there's an enormous plume of oil somewhere out there in the Gulf, about 22 miles long, as much as 3,200 feet deep, six miles wide. What are your concerns about that?

TAFFARO: Well, that's what we -- we are seeing the same thing when we do our flyovers into the Gulf and around our islands, that there's multiple levels and layers of this oil. It's not just what you see on the surface where we catch the emulsified patches. We're really concerned about what we're seeing underneath the water. And you can see the imagery when you fly over it. It's a massive amount of oil under the water. And we feel like we're fighting against an enemy that we really can't see.

So, our protection of booms and skimming on top of the water just is not going to be enough. So, we're constantly looking for ways to stop the oil mid-stream and bottom-stream.

ROBERTS: You know, you've been a real proponent, Craig, of building the sand berms, dredging up sand from the bottom of the sound there --

TAFFARO: Right.

ROBERTS: -- and creating barriers between those islands to block the oil so it can't march further towards land. Yesterday, the Coast Guard approved the building of one of those berms. The Army Corps of Engineers has given permission for another five. But those are west of the delta, they're somewhere between Grand Isle and Venice.

So, how are you feeling about that plan this morning?

TAFFARO: You know, we feel like we've been a little bit cheated here because the idea of the barrier island protection plan and dredging to build those up is a comprehensive plan. It shouldn't be torn apart and piecemealed together. That's not going to do it for us.

So, we're going to call on the governor to make sure that that message gets out to the president of the United States today to ask the Coast Guard and to ask the Corps of Engineers to come to some type of united front, permitting and actually starting and authorizing the building of the entire plan immediately.

ROBERTS: You and Billy Nungesser who's the president of neighboring Plaquemines Parish have been very critical of the government operation there in terms of getting the word out and the chain of command and the structure of everything. Yesterday, Admiral Thad Allen from the Coast Guard said he was going to try to fix that. He's going to try to flatten out the command and control.

Have you noticed any improvement since yesterday?

TAFFARO: Well, we received -- we received the commander in our emergency operations center yesterday. That's a sign to do just that, to troubleshoot at the highest level. And we're hoping that that will take place.

You know, John, the major part of this is we have a great team on the ground right now. Even the workings that we're doing with BP, the coast guard, the National Guard here in Louisiana, as well as our local officials, we have a very well-functioning team.

The problem is that seems to be the holdup is that when our plan and our actions leave our local emergency operations center, sometimes it just doesn't flow very well. So, we need decision makers on the ground so we can react and respond quickly and implement plans without any obstructions.

ROBERTS: All right. Crai Taffard, thanks so much for your time. I know you're a real busy guy and you're about to head back out in the water, so we appreciate you taking the time. And we'll also let you get away from that horse fly for a while.

TAFFARD: Yes, thank you, John appreciate it.

ROBERTS: All right. Craig, good luck this morning. Forty-six minutes after the hour. Reynolds Wolf is going to have this morning's travel forecast right after the break. Stay with us.

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ROBERTS: Let's et a quick check on this morning's weather headlines because after all, we are going into a holiday weekend. Reynolds Wolf in the Extreme Weather Center. A lot of people traveling from here to there today, whether by car, bus, rail, or plane, and let's take a like traveling today.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's going to be looking interesting but also feeling very warm. In fact, yesterday, we had some record high temperatures. It looks like that heat may continue into the holiday weekend, John. So, the places where the mercury really got high, try this on for size (ph), Lake Charles got 95 degrees, 89 degrees in Colorado Springs, Binghamton, New York, and Alamosa, California also into the 80s. Record highs in those spots. Now, what we're going to be seeing today, again, the warm trend will continue.

In fact, nearly two thirds of the nation will be well above normal, Raleigh with 83 degrees, 86 in Atlanta, 92 in New Orleans, 94 in Houston and Dallas, 72 on the cool side of things in Salt Lake City and 55 back in Seattle, New York, and Boston may leave the 70s. But in terms of rough weather, we could have some issues in parts of the northern plains, also for the eastern seaboard look for some scattered showers developing into Carolinas, perhaps into Virginia and even into parts of Georgia. But very nice and dry for you across the central plains.

Now, what about delays? What can you expect down there? Well, you're going to have obviously some delays in places like parts say, well, in parts of the Carolinas, but also your D.C. metros and Philadelphia due to the afternoon thunderstorm anywhere from a 30 minute to a 60-minute wait, over an hour in Atlanta due to the thunderstorms. In Chicago, logistics, anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. Yes, they got, of course, little issues on the runway out there that's going to be taking place because, of course, Air Force One flying through that area. In Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, thunderstorms may keep it grounded for about 15 to 30 minutes. These are just pop showers that, again, may cause a few delays there.

John, that's the latest we got for you. Let's send it back to you in New York.

ROBERTS: All right. Reynolds, thank so much. Really appreciate that.

WOLF: You bet.

ROBERTS: This morning's top stories just minutes away now including waiting for the kill. BP saying the efforts to plug the oil leak at the bottom of the Gulf are underway again. It's now officially the worst oil spill in the nation's history no matter how you spin. We're going to be talking with the CEO of the company coming up. And what President Obama has been doing while the Gulf Coast has been suffering? Those stories and more coming your way at the top of the hour.

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ROBERTS: Fifty-four minutes after the hour. BP continues the top kill procedure this morning. They're trying to plug that leaking oil well with mud and then cap it with cement. We're going to continue to monitor these pictures for you all day long today.

There's a new interactive feature on CNN.com called home and away, the website dedicated to honoring the brave men and women who, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, gave the last full measure of devotion. What you see here is a map of Afghanistan and the United States. And you'll see that there are a number of dots here in Afghanistan, sort of aggregated around some of the areas where we're seeing a lot of the action like in Helmand Province and Kandahar and up here in Kabul. And then, there are corresponding dots on the maps of the United States which is where these dots here represent casualties.

These dots over here represent where those casualties came from. We have it for Afghanistan. You can also click on the Iraq tab and that will build up too. A lot more casualties in Iraq that was just passed 1,000 in Afghanistan, some 4718 U.S. and coalition casualties in Iraq. You can look where the concentration of those have been out here in Fallujah and the west here in Baghdad up in mostly (ph) in the north as well, and then get the hometowns of all of the service members who have been killed in Iraq as well.

Today, we're going to pay tribute to one particular servicemen, Lance Corporal Eric Anthony Palmisano, 27 years old, home town of Florence, Wisconsin. He was one of seven marines who was killed after the seven-ton truck they were riding in rolled over in a flash flood near Al Sadd, Iraq that was in April of 2006. What you can do with this website is if you're a loved one of a service member or even a friend of a service member, you can upload via Ireport, your memories of the service member, things you'd like to say, ways that you like to have them remembered.

For example, here, Eric's mother has sent in a number of different tributes to her son. And if we take a look here at this other page, this is the great interactive nature of this. Here's a picture of him in a truck. There's another photograph of him here. You can just upload so many things. There's a nice collage that has been made as well. And let's take a look at something that his mother wrote. He joined the marines to follow in a proud family tradition of marines. His grandfather, uncle, and nephew were all marines before him. Eric wanted to serve his country, wanted his family to be proud of him. We are, we are, oh, how we are.

Please check out our Web site. It's a care package project, by the way. We began in April of 2006 to in Eric's memory to help out other service members who are still overseas fighting and dying for this country. So, log on and check out your hometown and pay tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. CNN.com/homeandaway. Top stories coming your way right after the break. Stay with us.

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