winds of 30 knots gusting to 40, that is roughly 30 miles an hour gusting to had a miles an hour. it s been a rough day to make any dent out there in the gulf of mexico. it s heading south to northbound this wind, pushing it closer towards louisiana s coastline. the islands have already been impacted. closer to mississippi coastline and alabama coastline. federal authorities involved in this heading the effort are anticipating oil impacting mississippi and alabama this weekend or tomorrow. juliet: i suspect the president will get a clear view on the ground. what is his plan in that area? reporter: he will be briefed by the coastguard as well as driving down with governor jindall. he will be briefed by the respondents on the scene. bp is going to have representatives.
sensitive spots. right over my shoulder, you can see some of the grasses. when the oil moves into these places, it can kill some of the grasses. the roots are the anchor for some of the soil that you have back in these areas. if you have those grasses die out, the root systems are gone, it will change the landscape here forever. some of the other animals affected, the oysters, bottom feeders where you have the river and the salt water meeting. they could be contaminated. birds affected very quickly. you get the oil on the feathers, the birds can t fly. if they can t fly, they can t feed themselves and could starve to death. shrimpers are going to be affected and fishermen and the pristine beaches in alabama and florida, people go where the crystal clear waters are, they refer to as the emerald coast. if it makes its way onshore,
louisiana and mississippi and alabama. with winds blowing 20 to 25 miles an hour now, it s taking that top layer of water and anything on it and moving it onshore. this is coming and it s imminent at this point. as far as the forecast is concerned beyond tomorrow, we ll talk about that at the top of the hour. the sensitive wetlands of louisiana and mississippi look to be definitely inundated by at least the leading edge of this sheen. hopefully they can keep the bulk of the more quag lated cruel oil offshore. right now trying to fight back the oil. they have a huge monumental task ahead of them. it s 50 minutes past the hour. your top stories a few minutes away, 120 miles of oil starting to creep ashore on track to be one of the worst environmental disasters ever. we re live in louisiana. we ll show you what it looks like right now.
we were forced to turn back. reynolds wolf, in venice, louisiana. we ll keep checking back with you. thanks so much. the weather is making the cleanup effort more difficult. high winds are making for choppy seas and that makes p means it s harder to contain the oil spewing into the golf each day. rob marciano has more on what to expect today for the hundreds of vessels out there trying to help. good morning, guys, the winds are not favorable for this operation, pushing everything onshore. we talked about this yesterday. that just takes the top surface of the water, including oil, in the direction the wind is blowing to, that would be the louisiana coastline, also the mississippi coast line and the alabama coastline and the florida coastline not out of it either. it is posted because the water
welcome back to the most news in the morning. we re following the latest on the oil spill? louisiana. president obama sending three top officials to the state to see firsthand the oil slick. four states are on alert, louisiana, mississippi and alabama and florida. let s bring sally brice o hara in with the u.s. coast guard. great to see you. where is the bulk of the oil spill? how much is coming ashore? what s the status of efforts to keep it from coming onshore? good morning. thank you for the opportunity to talk this morning. i want to assure you that the federal government has had immediate sustained and scaled response to this incident.