Florida on Edge as Oil Spill Seeps into Current

Source: CBS News/AP

Environmental Damage Spreading across Gulf Coast; BP Ramps up Efforts to Plug Underwater Well

(CBS/ AP) An outer edge of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has reached a powerful current that could take it to Florida and beyond, according to government scientists.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday that a small portion of the slick from the blown-out undersea well had entered the so-called loop current, a stream of faster moving water that circulates around the Gulf before bending around Florida and up the Atlantic coast. Its arrival may portend a wider environmental catastrophe affecting the Florida Keys and tourist-dotted beaches along that state's east coast.

Even farther south, U.S. officials were talking to Cuba about how to respond to the spill should it reach the island's northern coast, a U.S. State Department spokesman said.

Florida's state meteorologist said it will be at least another seven days before the oil reaches waters west of the Keys, and state officials sought to reassure visitors that its beaches are still clean and safe. During a news conference, David Halstead, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, showed off a picture of a Coppertone bottle on a beach.

"What's the only oil on the beaches? Suntan oil," Halstead said.

"We don't know whether it's going to be minimal or not. It could be catastrophic," U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on CBS' "The Early Show" Thursday of the oil spill damage.

"BP is on the hook to make sure that everything is made whole including the environment and the people that will be affected," he said.


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/20/national/main6502035.shtml?tag=stack

for awhile. And still, they minimize it.