Off Arks Throw News Today

>> alex, thank you. water surrounding the broken well in the gulf remain calm again today. theyre increasingly confident about the new well cap. after days of watching, still no signs of any leaks. even with the flow of crude apparently stopped for now, a tremendous clean-up lies ahead. nbcs mark potter has the latest from the recovery efforts from pensacola beach, florida. its almost as if theyve now figured out what seems to be a good stop gap in terms of the leaking oil. now the attention c...

Stay ahead of it but the steady stream of oil now makes it impossible to control. patty and michael hicks are visiting from the gulf shores. >> its sad not to be able to get into the ocean. i mean thats terrible. >> reporter: in nearby pensacola beach, florida, workers were out all neat keeping the beaches clean, a process unlikely to end any time soon. >> its still going to be dependent on the tide. so its going to take months before were finally able to clean up everything. >> we still do not ...

Horizon site in the gulf of mexico, pilots began spotting oil miles offshore. the closer they got to the damaged well, the more oil they saw. >> i didnt see any until we were probably about 30 or 40 miles offshore, and then we started seeing some of the stuff, the emulsified below the water, and now the closer we get, the more surface oil that weve seen. >> reporter: even with the well capped now, millions of gallons of oil are still in the water, drifting with the winds and currents. in some ar...

We have more. charles, set the scene. what are you looking at for today? >> reporter: good morning, contessa. todays going to be an interesting day because it will be the end of the 48-hour period with the 24-hour extension given by the coast guard yesterday. the containment cap is holding, as you mentioned, but admiral thad allen whos in charge of the command say ises at the end of the test period will take the cap off arks throw oil to flow into the gulf coast and put in the new containment ca...