Page 16 - Spilings News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Operations we saw yesterday in the other side of us here on grand isle, there are a number of large barges set up some 300 yards off shore in the gateway to louisiana's fragile marshlands. there's heavy equipment set up there, cranes, huge pilings. 18 wheelers on some of those barges. they're known as vac trucks because they have huge vacuums on board with hoses to suck up the oil off the surface of the water as that oil approaches the barges which are linked together to form a barricade against the slick. here's what some locals said about that. >> the storm does come here, it will push here....

Need be. to a hurricane. so, that is not lost upon us. we are very focused on the fact that there is a storm out there, and we might have to change gears. rather rapidly. >> reporter: earlier today, officials showed us containment efforts on the bay the other side of grand isle, the entryway to louisiana's fragile marshland and barges are set up 300 yards offshore, linked together and creating a barrier to try and stop the oil from penetrating any further. the barges are carrying huge pilings and 18 wheelers, known as back trucks, because they are equipped with huge vacuums to suck the oil off...

Workers safely. bp says it hopes to shrink that time down to two days. but any day that the containment operations aren't going on, there are tens of thousands of barrels of thick crude oil that are spewing into the gulf. there are anyway, but the number also go up dramatically if they have to stop containment. they will if that storm heads this way. >> harris: you know, we gave some pretty amazing numbers as i was tossing to you out there. we understand how much oil and how much crude now potentially. so let's focus in on that containment and their efforts. what are they doing in the waters n...

>> well, right now you can imagine a lot of people have been out of work for a couple months now because of the impact of the oil and none of ous can go two months worth without any paychecks at this point. there is a lot of frustration and anger at bp and really their main message here is can this company get anything right? meantime, they're trying to move ahead with this barge barrier plan that they have been talking about. first, the state criticized the federal government for not moving quickly enough to approve this plan. originally, they were supposed to drive down pilings and the barge...

Federal government to approve the barge plan. it took several meetings with federal officials to get some traction and it wasn't until a face-to-face meeting between president obama and governor jindal last week to get the green light. >> we have got to be creative in narrowing those passes so we can concentrate the limited resources we do have. >> oil can be spotted 12 miles north of the marshes here. >> we have 70 barges and we are going to be lit up like a christmas tree and working around the clock to fight it all. >> and the first step in all of this is going to be driving the pilings to ...