brian: we have just learned that the underwater robots started to work to remove the cap from the gushing oil well, which could contain if everything goes well with a new cap the well by monday. malini wilkes is standing by with more on that. and your other top stories. hello. reporter: hi, brian. the robots are replacing the well head with a tighter fitting cap to allow more ships to hook up and siphon off the oil. while it s installed, up to 5 million additional gallons of oil could flow in the gulf. six troops died in afghanistan. one died from gunfire and another from roadside bombing and third killed in insurgent attack and fourth died in an accidental explosion. two other americans died in roadside bombings in the south. the national weather service says the rio grande river is expected to rise two more feet at rio grande, texas. it s already three feet above flood stage there.
although, it won t actually plug the leak. that won t happen until somewhere between late july and mid-august when b.p. is expected to finish drilling two relief wells allowing the company to permanently seal the leaking well with mud and cement. in the meantime, oil continues to wash on to beaches, and in to marshes. here in louisiana, that s a big concern for alligator ranches. they spent recent years grappling with a sluggish economy and devastating hurricanes. at the beginning of this year, unusually long and cold winter may have reduced or delayed egg production. now with the oil spill, gator ranchers face many uncertainties. who is to say we never experienced this before? but the animals, themselves, what is he going to do to them? is it going to kill them? are they going to migrate to different areas? you know, we don t know. it s pretty scary. so a lot of uncertainty