2010-05-05 CNN
At first glance, you would never know this warehouse contains vital weapons to combat the spreading oil slick.
They're staging areas set up from Venice, Louisiana, all the way to Pensacola, Florida. So what's going on here in this staging area is going on likewise in different locations all around the gulf coast.
Now, Robert, what is this stuff we're seeing right here?
Reynolds, what we're looking at here, these are -- these are oil skimmers so these will be deployed into the water, into the pockets of oil. Oil sticks to the surface of this roller. Skimmers, barriers, oil-absorbing booms stacked ceiling high for the effort. It's the traditional way to fight the spill. But with an estimated total of 5,000 barrels leaking from three different areas each day, other methods are being tested.
We successfully completed our first in such test burn.Official experimented with burning off the thicker areas of crude in the controlled fire Wednesday. And engineers are fabricating a new idea. Building this dome, they hope will capture the leaking oil under water. Every effort an attempt to protect the gulf coast.
We think it's best to hope for the best while we prepare for the worse. And I think that's the best way to approach this oil spill and the potential impact on our state's coast.
And as this barrier is loaded up to spread along parts of the Louisiana shoreline, still, one sobering fact remains, not every inch can be protected.
There is just simply not enough boom to cover the amount of miles of coastline that southern Louisiana has. So what we're doing is trying to cover specific areas, key areas that will help minimize the overall impact if there is any kind of shoreline impact of the oil.