what we know happened with the exxon valdez. what, and again, also given the inability as you said to stop the leak at this point. what is the worst-case scenario are you looking at. >> let me compare and contrast the exxon valdez with this event. the exxon valdez was a vessel with a figured volume so we understood very, very clearly how much oil was there. in this case, it discharged 11 million gallons. in this particular case there is a well that goes down 18,000 feet to the reservoir of oil below the floor of the ocean. there is open connection now to the sea and to the surface. and we really won't know until we get that well capped exactly how much oil going to be released. we're working on a worst-case scenario and we're moving all resources in place to address it. >> reporter: and in the meantime as you said, the impact on the coast really depends right now, i mean in the next couple of days, on the weather, on the sea? >> it does. unfortunately mother nature gets a vote and that's one thing we can't control but we must re

it may well eclipse the exxon valdez disaster. a well that ruptured more than a week ago is responsible. efforts to shut it down failed. the slick covers as much as 600 square miles of square water. let's get more from weather anchor chad myers. >> it is a mess today because the winds shifted direction. they're now out of the southeast blowing this oil into the bayous of southeastern louisiana. well south of louisiana but into that little point that is the delta of new orleans. here is the map. here is the brown area where the brown oil is. the source there, obviously still coming out. yesterday, we found out about this time that there were not only 1,000 barrels coming out per day -- that's about 42,000 gallons -- but there were maybe 5,000 barls coming out -- that's almost 200,000 gallons of oil coming out per day. so here it is, right on the shore of louisiana today. farther back up towards biloxi by saturday. into mobile bay by sunday. and then maybe as far east as pensacola. the good news right now, the oil that is coming on

many remember exxon valdez.once we know more, do you expect that because this is such a galvanizing event, the president will speak in detail to americans about what happened, what it means environmentally, what it means for policies going forward? should we expect -- >> look, i think as carol said, this -- and as secretary napolitano, this is an incident of national significance and of national importance, and i anticipate that that could be possible in the coming days. april. >> robert, if someone here could speak on this -- this has a ripple effect, as far as the economy is concerned, on the fisheries, as well as gas prices. is there anyone in this administration who has already taken the lead or moved into the area trying to make sure that prices will not skyrocket as much as -- with this leakage and with possible problems with fish and -- >> let me just say, i will -- let me ask nec on what they might be working on in terms of gas prices. obviously, one of the things that we discussed with the president thi

if you look at the big circle here, that was the exxon valdez, that was 11 million gallons.s certainly not good news to have any environmental impact, but nowhere on the scale of the exxon valdez. if you're wondering how one of these rigs works, bring this over here, this is you have a crane obviously so you can get materials down into the water, you have the basic functions on top here, imagine this just going down into the ground from there and up comes from there, throughout the telestrators have placed through, this goes down into the water, it's a fairly simple idea obviously, incredibly high-technology, but nothing on the scale of the exxon valdez, discouraging news the coast guard calling off the search of the 11 missing people on that rig. >>> when we come back, you get to make your case, it's friday night on "john king usa" we asked you what makes you angry about your government, what are you frustrated about? we'll hear what you think and your solutions when we come back. ta-da! [ bride ] the wedding was just days away. suddenly i noticed my smile wasn't white enou

we have a very important station to make between this case and exxon valdez. response plan in levels of certification and qualification for those who respond to or else bills, -- two oil spills, and we have professionals on call. the companies that deal and cargoes that could be public does have to have plans in place, commitments with recovery operators. that is what has happened. we have those professionals at the scene, hired through the plan that bp was required to maintain. they are at much higher levels of preparedness. we have great advances in technology. the controlled burn, for instance, came much earlier in this bill than ever and tabled in the exxon case, and so we are putting tools to target much earlier to assure this is not an exxon valdez type of case. about what are the people who live in the affected region -- >> what are the people who live in the affected region, what do they need to know? >> first of all, that the parish presidents and others have been working with us and we have been working with them very closely. we understand the conce

many remember exxon valdez. once we know more, do you expect that because this is such a galvanizing event, the president will speak in detail to americans about what happened, what it means environmentally, what it means for policies going forward? should we expect -- >> look, i think as carol said, this -- and as secretary napolitano, this is an incident of national significance and of national importance, and i anticipate that that could be possible in the coming days. april. >> robert, if someone here could speak on this -- this has a ripple effect, as far as the economy is concerned, on the fisheries, as well as gas prices. is there anyone in this administration who has already taken the lead or moved into the area trying to make sure that prices will not skyrocket as much as -- with this leakage and with possible problems with fish and -- >> let me just say, i will -- let me ask nec on what they might be working on in terms of gas prices. obviously, one of the things that we discussed with the president th

over ten times larger than the exxon valdez spill. as you can see from this map which has here texas, louisiana all in the gulf, the spill traveled 600 miles from its center. 600 miles blanketing the coast of mexico, texas, and louisiana, causing extraordinary damage. now we're debating the wisdom of expanding oil production on the outer continental shelf. in essence, all along the coastlines of our country. some think the way to expand offshore drilling reasonably is simply to create some type of a buffer zone off the coast, as if a little more room can protect our shores, as if the ocean was in kneel little boxes that could somehow be confined. frankly, madam president, i think this graphic of the ixtoc spill those that oil spills don't respect state borders or buffer zones. in the wake of what we're seeing in the gulf, i'm deeply concerned that the current five-year plan recently announced by the administration would allow oil drilling less than 100 miles from cape may, new jersey. cape may is a great historical place in new jersey

this is a photograph in the aftermath of the exxon valdez spill. now, we hope and pray the spill in the gulf stays offshore, but the reality is it could make landfall any day now. and this photograph could be repeated 1,000 times. madam president, now we learned the spill from the deepwater horizon is worse than it was originally reported. far worse, at least five times worse. the coast guard and noaa revised their estimate of the leak. they now say it's not 42,000 gallons per day, but 210,000 gallons a day. imagine if the leak continues for two months, which seems like a real possibility at this point. in two months it will have exceeded the amount of oil spilled in the exxon valdez disaster. well, let's keep something in mind. the exxon valdez was a tanker with a finite amount of oil aboard. this is virtually a bottomless pit of oil. when asked to compare this spill to previous spills, the coast guard compared it to the ixtoc 1 spill. on june 3 of 1979, an exploratory well called the

in a worst case scenario it would take a month to equal the 11 million gallons spilled in exxon valdez. >>> dorothy hite's body will lie in repose on pennsylvania avenue northwest. she led the organization for 40 years. her funeral will be held on thursday at the national cathedral and it will be open to the public. >>> 5:0 is your time. still ahead on news 4, the bad news for metro riders. how much more you may have to shell out to catch a ride. >>> and who they're hoping will give their star qb some protection. >>> it could be a wet weekend. a check of your forecast, next >>> good morning, live view from our city camera showing the washington monument, pointing to a clear sky at this hour. right now at reagan national, temperatures at 56 degrees. i'm tom kierein as we start off this friday morning, you should have no travel problems off to work and school. mid-50s prince george's county, arlington, fairfax counties in the 40s. it's in the 40s around the shenandoah valley. eastern shore, getting a few sprinkles near cambridge, drifting off to the south and east. lots of sun today, hig

this wasn't like "exxon valdez" where it all came out all at once.his and hopefully strategically if the weather cooperates. >> so people who are thinking, all right, this is 50-miles plus offshore so it's never going to reach our shoreline, are they wrong? >> they, dind, are wrong. noaa has said this will affect about 40 miles of coastline, like i said, in louisiana and florida. so this can certainly get there very quickly and can affect those ecosystems and the people who live nearby. >> okay. daniel stone from "newsweek." thank you very much. >> thanks, alex. >>> people in mississippi are reeling from a tornado that suffered a large swath of destruction. >>> and president obama and the memorial for the miners.

that may be small compared to 191 million galloned spilled by the "exxon valdez" in 1989, but officialsay it's still a big problem. >> our goal is to contain this oil subsurface as much as possible, but we have to be prepared to respond to a major spill. >> reporter: the slick is currently 30 miles offshore and more than 600 square miles in size. high seas suspended cleanup efforts for a second day on sunday, but the coast is safe for now. >> we don't see any impact to any shore lines at least within the next three days. >> reporter: officials are using robotic submarines to try to shut off the leaks in the next 24 to 36 hours. >> if knows row bottom tick sub marines don't work, crews will twri to drill a relief well to cut off the flow, but that could take several months. so what they thought was manageable problem might become a very serious situation. >> let's hope the submarines work. thank you so much. time to check the rest of the day's news. >> good morning, betty. >>> good morning. a court appearance is scheduled today for a man who was arrested carrying a gun at a north carolin

the exxon "valdez" never had the chance, the waves took the oil onshore and it was a gloppy, wet messmore dispersent they can get on it and float below the surface and eaten by the microbes it's good as well. >> and by the way, about 1,750 barrels of oil, you know, go into the ocean on a regular basis on a daily basis, that's normal leakage and that's why we'vecrobemicrobes, they eat a certain amount of oil, but if it takes longer to cap, it's a problem. >> if it goes on for weeks, it may never make it on shore. >> chad, thank you, at the severe weather center. >>> you've seen all sorts of protests over the tough immigration law passed in arizona last week, but one city wants to take its protests out of the street and into people's wallets. you could end up taking 4 times the number of pills... compared to aleve. choose aleve and you could start taking fewer pills. just 2 aleve have the strength to relieve arthritis pain all day. >>> we're seeing more backlash today from arizona's new law cracking down on illegal immigration. it's moved beyond the streets and actually even beyond the

again, in accordance with the 1990 oil pollution act passed after the exxon valdez, b.p., as the responsible party, is required to fund the cost of the response and clean up operations and they are doing so. the president has also asked that homeland security secretary napolitano, interior secretary salazar and e.p.a. administrator jackson go to the gulf coast to ensure that b.p. and the entire government is doing everything possible to respond to this incident. in addition, the president's directed responding agencies to devote every resource to not only respond to this incident but determinity cause. earlier this week, secretary in a pal -- napolitano andal czar laid out the next steps for that investigation. we have a lot of folks up here. we have a couple of slides that we will put up. this is the satellite picture as of 6:00 a.m. this morning. you see where the b.p. deep water horizon was and the area that we're monitoring. with that let me turn this over to secretary napolitano. >> well, thank you. i'd like today to update you with the latest information about the b.p. oil spill. the s