into the earth's crust, allen says they will reach the main well by this weekend. steve harrigan is at fort pike on the outskirts of new orleans. how close are they to getting in there and actually killing this well? >> reporter: certainly getting very close on two fronts but also some problems ahead. you can see here, these are some of the vessels of opportunity, these are shrimp fiber men, and they are about -- fishermen and they are about to head to the booms. there are concerns about tropical storms in this area, even if it doesn't develop into a hurricane, it could certainly throw oil on to the beaches and lake pontchartrain. the system they are working on is called the -- it is a modified version of the top kill. it's called a static kill. basically they're going to pump cement, as well as mud, through the blowout preventer, and the hope is to try and kill it from the top. they think it's going to be a lot easier now that that temporary cap is in place.