in the gulf, patches of oil are becoming less apparent, at least on the water s surface. but federal officials, coastal residents and environmentalists know there s still a lot of damage that is less visible. nbc s chief environmental affairs correspondent, anne thompson, is live in venice, louisiana, watching it all. anne, what is the sense today? what is today, 101? 101 days? reporter: it is 101 days, andrea. but today the focus is on a meeting that s happening in new orleans that just broke up between admiral allen, thad allen, he s the national innocent commander on this crisis for the government and the coastal parish presidents. and they are talking, they were talking about downsizing this response one the well is killed. the well has been temporarilyรง capped for now two weeks and that means for two week is no new oil has gone into the gulf. and federal officials say that when they do their overflights, they re having a harder time finding the oil. they re seeing light stream
to spot. anne thompson is nbc s chief environmental correspondent live for us again in venice, louisiana. anne, we talked about this yesterday. there seems to be a lot of reporting about the oil dissipating more quickly than anticipated but i suppose that sets up a delicate situation as to when to scale down the response by the government. reporter: right. and that s exactly what thad allen, the government s point person on the crisis deals with today, savannah. he is going to hold a meeting in new orleans with the coastal parish presidents here in louisiana to talk about what to do once that well is killed. now, crews are zeroing in on the relief well. they hope to intercept it within two weeks but before that trying a static kill to kill the well an they hope to do that on monday. the discussions that admiral allen will have today concern downsizing this massive response that has been mounted once the well is killed.
reporter: tony hayward and his future with bp are a big topic of conversation here. all eyes are still on that operation out in the gulf. people anxious to see that drilling operation get back, get going again. so that they can intersect this well and shut it off. right now we re looking at some time next week possibly early next week where they re going to try that static kill. but the actual cementing of the well, as they call the bottom kill, that s going to come some time after. the entire time now, they re prepared to play what admiral allen is calling this game of cat and mouse with the elements out here during this hurricane season. they felt like this operation, what they did in evacuating the area as this tropical wave was coming in was good practice. they feel confident they can get out of the area quickly and back in quickly if they do have a true tropical storm or a hurricane. but they re hoping they don t.
coast guard and bp contractors, intent on moving the barges far inland for protection. too far away, he says, to redeploy quickly after the storm. there have already been a couple of tropical systems getting into the gulf this summer and each time it changes the wind patterns and blows the oil right into this area. and each time those systems haven t been anywhere near here. bonnie is expected to be a direct hit. booms and barges don t stop storm surge. booms and barges become victims of storm burge. reporter: i asked admiral allen about his plan. he says it was driven by his experience in hurricane katrina. i m still haunted by the specter of flying in over new orleans on the 6th of september as a principal federal official and looking down at new orleans to a parking lot full of buses that were flooded and not used for evacuation because they were not moved in time. next question. reporter: but this storm is nowhere near the power of katrina.
they re 30 to 40,000-ton ships, football field long by a football field wide about. they re built to withstand hurricane category 5 hurricanes and 100-year storm events. so there is no reason they can t withstand 30 or 40 knots of wind. to an alaska fisherman, that s a good day on the water in a much smaller boat. i would suggest, and i did suggest to admiral allen earlier in an e-mail that they simply disconnect from the wells, remain on station and get back to work as soon as possible on the relief wells. we can t afford another week or two, leaving that well under high pressure. every minute is a risk. now the president was briefed on bonnie s potential impact, which means he must have been briefed on what it might do to the oil that is already in the water. what do we need to know about that? well, we know exactly what will happen. with any storm system like this, the oil that is on the surface gets emulsified and broken up and naturally dispersed down into the water column.