Oil slick drifts closer to Florida

Oil cleanup workers hired by BP walk along the beach in Dauphin Island, Alabama
12 April 2012

The BP oil slick has drifted closer to the coast of the Florida Panhandle as a risky gambit to contain the leak by shearing off the well pipe ran into trouble a mile under the sea.

BP said it was about halfway through slicing the pipe when the diamond-tipped saw became stuck.

The company said it took 12 hours to free the saw and that preparations are under way to resume cutting.

The plan is to fit a cap on the blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to capture most of the spewing oil. The twisted, broken pipe has to be sliced first to allow a close fit.

"I don't think the issue is whether or not we can make the second cut - it's about how fine we can make it, how smooth we can make it," said Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the government's senior official in managing the crisis.

Admiral Allen said more staff, boats and helicopters were sent to the eastern Gulf Coast as the slick spread. The boats will help skim oil and add more protective booms to collect it. Four helicopters will help skimmers spot threatening oil.

As the edge of the slick drifted within seven miles of Pensacola's famous white beaches, emergency workers rushed to link the last in a long chain of booms designed to fend off the oil. They were hampered by thunderstorms and wind before the weather cleared in the afternoon.

Forecasters said the oil will probably wash up by Friday, threatening a delicate network of islands, bays and beaches which are a haven for wildlife and a major tourist destination dubbed the Redneck Riviera.

"We are doing what we can do, but we cannot change what has happened," said John Dosh, emergency director for Escambia County, which includes Pensacola.

Since the biggest oil spill in US history began to unfold on April 20, crude oil has fouled 125 miles of Louisiana coastline and washed up in Alabama and Mississippi as well. Over the past six weeks, the well has leaked anywhere from 21 million to 45 million gallons.

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