in the southern gulf of mexico in 1979. looking at perspective, again, there are only 79 platforms that have been mounted in the gulf of mexi mexico. apply that several times to 20 or 30,000 wells that have been built. this is a big one. even with the concrete and steel box over it and the oil being siphoned up to a waiting tanker, if a big if for this to work; we hope it does how long will this oil be gushing? in the exxon valdez spill, it took nine months before the got stopped. bp is telling us they hope to be able to stop it within 90 days with the new well that s being drilled. that s still speculation now, but that s kind of the timeline we have. just real quickly, wes, this oil that might be siphoned to a
waiting tanker, is that usable oil, or is it all just wasted? no, it can be used, it can be refined. that s good news. not all is lost to some degree. thank you. thank you. a severe storm in missouri left residents with plenty of clean-up. the powerful storm dachblmaged least 75 homes in the town of lewiston. let s get the forecast from weather channel bill karins. good morning, bill. may is the peak of our tornado season. it s pretty quiet and will continue to be this weekend. all those little dots on the map, the green and the blue ones, those are where we have severe weather reports. we got hit pretty good from toledo right through cleveland. numerous reports of large hail and also damaging winds. today i don t expect a lot of severe weather out there. we just have a few thunderstorms that are going to sweep through
waiting tanker. joining me now is oil expert with texas a&m university, corpus christi, and a good morning to you. good morning. let s see the timing of all this. as you know, wes, we ve had thousands and thousands and thousands of gallons spilling into the gulf over these last nearly three weeks now. why did we see this box, 110-ton box, just be lowered to the ocean floor now? probably because there wasn t one already made, and there s probably going to be a lot of discussion about that. a similar tool was used during the exxon spill in 1979 for the first time and it was called the sombrero and was set down over the well. it didn t work the first time but did the second. wes, was bp totally ill-prepared for an accident of this magnitude? no, i don t think so. they amassed a lot of people and
he wrote the word help in the sand trying to get help. a fishing boat spotted him yesterday. let s get the new developments about the massive oil spill in the gulf of mexico. crews are waiting for the 100-ton concrete-and-steel box to settle into the mud near the ruptured well. the next step will be to connect a hose and pipeline so the gushing oil can be siphoned up into a waiting tanker. joining me now is dr. reese halter conservation biologist from cal lutheran and the author of the incomparable honeybee. good morning. good morning. do you think the 100-ton box covering the oil well will leak trying to contain the oil leak? fingers crossed, alex. it s very delicate as we watch this morning. everybody is with a wing and a prayer here. okay. if that doesn t work, then what? well, there s a couple things they re working on, actually. they re side drilling right now
i predict millions of trades will be canceled. if it was one person that precipitated this, i wouldn t want to be that person. the dow was down 500 points before this happened. it closed down 350. that s still the worst day in more than a year. we have a lot of problems to work through here. a mistake made it worse but it didn t cause it. christine roe manmans mindinr business. if you were to make that mistake, yesterday was a good day. crews lowering a four-story concrete dome over a leaking well in the gulf. they are trying to drop it over the rupture that has been spilling thousands of gals of crude into the gulf every day. this is a long shot. it would capture and funnel the leaking oil to a waiting tanker above. david mattingly has been monitoring this mission. still a long way to go. how is it going so far, david? reporter: well, so far, so