janet napolitano was head of homeland security. bp alerted us to additional oil leaking from their deep under water well. but the federal government could do almost nothing to stop the relentless flow. there is a very confusing statute that came into play and it said that bp was the responsible party, therefore, they were our partner. in other words, the government had to rely on the polluter, bp, to fix it. it was a foreign company that came here and seemed to be making all of the decisions. and that is unfortunate. juliette was in charge of coordinating the government s response. and there was no other way. no other way. i mean, so you get rid of bp, who do we have to close the darn well? but bp didn t have a quick solution. they may have had a plan, but they certainly had never
the ocean floor. the fire was out, but the disaster was just beginning. oil spreading for miles across the gulf. in louisiana, plaquemine s perish feared what was coming. when it did surface and it was off shore, everyone off the coast was worried it was coming to shore. then came the image that horrified americans. live under water pictures of the well itself, gushing oil. cnn had that shot in the corner of the television all of the time. it was horrific. janet napolitano was head of homeland security. bp alerted us to additional oil leaking from their deep under water well. but the federal government could do almost nothing to stop the relentless flow. there is a very confusing statute that came into play and
they re asking people down river to evacuate to higher ground. the houston ship channel, home to some of the busiest oil traffic as well as sensitive wildlife, is closed this morning. as abc s mike boettcher reports, a ship collision left oil leaking and ships stranded. reporter: crews scrambling. to contain oil that spilled into the houston ship channel when a barge collided with a ship near galveston bay. one of six tanks breached. the tank carrying 168,000 gallons of oil. it s still unclear how much oil is in the water. containment booms were deployed to keep the spill from spreading. it is in the galveston bay. it is something we will continue for a little while. reporter: the houston ship channel, one of the busiest sea shipping routes in america. cruise lines delaying departure, passengers stranded. they told us we are delayed until tomorrow. we got to get rooms now. reporter: officials are concerned about a potentially
causing damage and further down the street there s a couple that had to live by candlelight and they were struggling to get their generator up and running. we also talked to a business owner who in town was out of power for seven days and he s been struggling to get his business back up and running. now, people are just trying to work hard to get their lives back on track. we were lucky today to survive this snow but we re expecting a lot more snow later tonight. wolf? get ready, margaret. thanks very much. good luck to the folks in the area. another big concern. a train hauling crude oil in the western part of the state, there are reports of oil leaking, haz-mat crews responding to the scene. we re joined by tom corbett. thank you, wolf. good to be here. tell us about this freight train hauling oil. what are you hearing about this? we heard a number of cars on
drilling ship that ran aground near a remote island. there is no sign of any oil leaking from the vessel. it is being towed to seattle, that is a long way, when it broke loose during a powerful storm on new year s eve. martha: how about this? in norta where google chairman, eric schmidt and long time-diplomat and new mexico governor, bill richardson have arrived together. schmidt is the highest corporate executive to visit north korea. the whole thing raises concerns for the state department. greg palkot is live for us in london. greg, what do you think about this trip? what are you learning? report rrt martha, it irunusual group and unusual group and i can say from experience an unusual place. richardson has been there several times. he dealt with political issues. he helped to get american nationals out of there held by the government.