howard dean you know it s so interesting, everybody is talking about how america moved to the left on the issue of gay marriage and i saw this in pensacola, florida, a very very conservative place. i was in a district called the most conservative in the world, every memorial day, you would have i think up to 100,000 maybe more gay and lesbians come to pensacola and hang out on pensacola beach, to show them a year or two, the cham fwer of commerce is enough. this is really good for the city financially and that was what maybe 15 year ago? but you see this in state after state after state, mike pence, very conservative guy, had to bow to chamber pressure. you are probably going to see this with asa hutchinson and arkansas. i think you are seeing a redefinition of the word
you, michelle. and with this local economy pretty hard hit by the oil spill, fewer tourists, all of that, how about the impact of today s air show. might that help things out? reporter: well, alex, good morning, they are definitely helping that the blue angels will draw a crowd. yesterday they had a practice run here. this morning, already, the sun is just now coming up and already people are coming out here with their coolers. some people even slept on the beach overnight to stake out their spot. this is the annual tradition here in pensacola beach. every year they have this home coming show. it is the second most revenue generated weekend of the summer for pensacola. and certainly it s not only something that the tourists and residents and locals look forward to but also the blue angels team. this is where all naval aviators start their career is here in pensacola. and from there, you ll go out to different places around the fleet, but it s always nice to come back home.
michelle franzen in pensacola beach, thanks so much. more dangerous flooding is expected in south texas today because of the rain swollen rio grande river. the river has swamped rivers and elsewhere along the texas/mexico border. and affecting levels upstream and the river is still rising. a freak accident in pittsburgh has left one woman with burns over much of her body. the 43-year-old was standing on a sidewalk when an underground explosion sent flames shooting through a metal grate on friday. it engulfed her umbrella, melting it on top of her. the energy company blames a malfunctioning transformer. the weather sometimes can play a factor. in these underground vaults when you get a lot of rain, and a very quick downpour like that. sometimes they can cause problems. that woman is listed in stable condition. she s got first and second-degree burns to her face, arms, and legs.
we have new and encouraging news on the 82nd day of the gulf oil disaster. if successful, the cap dubbed top hat number ten could have that leak completely contained by as early as monday. all this while bp says the first of two relief wells, our best bet for stopping this thing, could be finished by the end of the month. the retired coast guard admiral thad allen says construction might take until late august. and the texas coast guard says new lab tests show that most of the tar globs in texas the past few days are not from the gulf of mexico oil spill. more testing is going to be done to figure out exactly where they came from. and after a day of practice runs, the u.s. navy s blue angels are getting ready to take the sky this afternoon. and nbc s michelle franzen is live for us on pensacola beach this morning. and a good saturday morning to
oil spilled into the gulf for 11 hours before they were able to get the cap back on. there was, however, a smaller dome capturing some of the oil. tar balls continue to wash ashore on pensacola beach. the once-pristine sands are covered with them. clear-up crews are working hard to dig them up. cnn i reporter greg hall has lived in pensacola his whole life and has never seen anything like this. the tar balls are horrible. this is the worst i ve seen yet. they re everywhere. you can t walk a step without stepping in tar balls this morning. this is right across the street from my condo near peg leg pete s. and it s as far as the eye can see.