engulfed, flames about 300 feet in the air. reporter: 11 men were killed in the explosion on the deepwater horizon rig. it was surreal, something i ve never seen before. reporter: a lingering problem was already beginning to seep through a mile beneath the water s surface. and we have people working 24 hours a day in four locations to both stop the flow, to actually fight this thing offshore, and protect the shoreline. reporter: slowly and deliberately, it began to bubble to the top. my administration will continue to use every single available resource at our disposal. if it hits our marsh, five to ten years, i won t be fishing. and that s that s disastrous. reporter: two weeks after the leak began, the president made his first of four trips to the spill zone. and we will spare no resource to clean up whatever damage this
in the air. reporter: 11 men were killed in the explosion on the deepwater horizon rig. a ball of fire lighting the night sky for months. it was surreal, something i ve never seen before. reporter: a lingering problem was already beginning to seep through a mile beneath the water s surface. and we have people working 24 hours a day in four locations to both stop the flow, to actually fight this thing offshore, and protect the shoreline. reporter: slowly and deliberately, it began to bubble to the top. my administration will continue to use every single available resource at our disposal. if it hits our marsh, five to ten years, i won t be fishing. and that s that s disastrous. reporter: two weeks after the leak began, the president made his first of four trips to the spill zone. and we will spare no resource to clean up whatever damage this costs. reporter: fishing waters along the coast were closed as
we re told about 98,000 people have so far applied for exhibition but all the bogus claims are reportedly gumming up the works and feinberg says that is slowing down the payments. at the same time, an associated press reporter who was among the first to scuba dive into the gulf spill way back in the day has gone back in the water for another look. to him, everything appears normal to the naked eye. but then on closer inspection we re told once thriving corral and barn kels are not doing well at all. today on studio b, we re talked to rich matthews about what he saw. there is a line on almost all of these rigs out there in the spill zone and at that line in the depth of that line does vary from rig to rig, but at that line there is really nothing above it living on the rig and below everything looks normal. shepard: nothing above it that s living. this is a picture of rich matthews swim not guilty muck back in june. he says it appears the dispersants did, indeed, break up the oil
slicks of oil. we never saw the massive impact on land or in the marshes but many of the marshes and beaches were impacted but we never saw the worst case, and that is because of dispersants but the question scientists have to answer: did they do more good? or more harm to the environment? shepard: you went diving this time you found something different. reporter: what we found was very clear sign that something had gone wrong on the rigs. i would not say it is different, we found similar things when we dove early in the summer when the oil was gushing and what we found is that there is a line on almost all of the rigs out there in the spill zone, and at that line, in the depth of the line it varies from rig to rig, but at the line there is nothing above it living on the rig and below, everything looks normal. and that line can range from 15
can, as diligently as i can, full-time, to get the gulf coast claims facility up and running, to get it funded, so that these emergency claims can be made as soon as possible. reporter: once again, the white house promised bp will pick up the tab. american taxpayers will not be responsible for any costs related to the spill. reporter: and oil has begun to leak back into the gulf again. this after a tow boat ran into a wellhead near the spill zone. vinita, rob? thanks, diana. the pentagon has now identified the sailor who is believed to be a hostage of the taliban in afghanistan. petty officer jarod newlove, 25 years old, from renton, washington. the taliban claims newlove is held in a safe place. newlove and another sailor, justin mcneley, are believed to have come under attack in a taliban-held area on friday. mcneley was killed. political news now. many democrats are in revolt against president obama over the war in afghanistan. a significant number of them