Oil Spill Landfall Hard to Predict

By Eileen Fleming

New Orleans, La. – Crews are laying booms off wetlands and watching shoreline from Louisiana to Florida, but tracking the movement of four million gallons of oil swirling in a plume underwater is proving to be a tough assignment. BP executive Doug Suttles says crews remain on standby along hundreds of miles of the Gulf Coast.

"We do have oil strikes in Louisiana and we have the reports that the admiral referred to around Alabama as well, but those are quite spotty at the moment. So I think this is very very difficult to predict."

Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry says projections have so far been accurate in three-day segments. Experts are also keeping an eye on the current that sweeps from the Gulf, around the Florida Keys and up the East Coast.
For NPR News, I'm Eileen Fleming in New Orleans.