cars and push it off the side of the road. we are told the woman that was in this car was hit by pounding hail, pulled off to the road, then her car was covered in at least a couple inches of mud. we are told the mud line was actually much higher. it s come down quite a bit. this area was really rocked in a matter of hours. as i mentioned, six inches of rain here. but the mud and debris is really all across this community. over on interstate 5, a major thoroughfare in southern california, hundreds of cars were stuck in rising mud waters. they had to shut down that interstate. as a matter of fact, in communities like this today, they are going door-to-door to make sure anyone who is trapped can get out of their home. we are also expecting heavier rain later on this afternoon. so you see all of this mud, all of this debris here still in the middle of the road. well, they will have another round of wet weather potentially more problems. andrea, back to you. up next, the burn rate. hilla
out down toward the gulf of mexico, and through here, they opened it up. this is the picture from when they did it in april of 2008. all of this mud comes down and it goes into lake pontchartrain, and there they are in norco, louisiana, and they are opening up the gates, and they were leaking anyway, but they opened it up to allow the water into the lake pontchartrain and it is great for new orleans, but not for the lake pontchartrain. i want to go back to the map and show you the mud line. that is the water that came out of the mississippi river back in 2008. this is what it will look like in a couple of days in lake pontchartra pontchartrain, and this is mud and muck and silt and sewage and can it hold all of that? it can hold it and goes out the other side and back into the gulf of mexico a different way, but now you are just flooding this beautiful lake with stuff, with pesticides and ugh! you never want to do this,
dramatic developments. a big concern of a tropical storm churning. depending on the storm s path, it could interrupt work on two relief wells currently being drilled. we will have more on that for you. bp said they are making progress on drilling the wells that are the best hope to putting an end to the gusher. they are due to be completed in mid-august. the relief wells go at pace. the driller that is a relief well is 10,968 feet below the mud line. the largest oil skimming vessel and the ship called a whale has the capacity of more than 250 times that of modified fishing boats. the owners are still in negotiations with the coast guard for the needed permits. let s get more on tropical storm alex gaining strength on the
bp says it s making good progress on drilling those two relief wells that are the best hope of putting an end to the gusher. the coast guard says they re due to be completed in mid august. the relief wells continue to go at pace. the primary relief well is 10,968 feet below the mud line. and the world s largest skimming vessel is headed to the site. it has a capacity more than 250 times the modified fishing boats now skim tg gulf. for more on the tropical storm which is gaining strength, let s go to bill karins. good morning to you. well, good morning and we re going to be talking, alex, not you, but the storm, for the next five to six days. it s going to cause headaches for mexico and areas in the united states. where is the storm?