she ll join us to explain why, today, friday, april 30th, she ll join us to explain why, today, friday, april 30th, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to today on this very busy friday morning. i m meredith vieira. i m ann curry in for matt this morning. as you know, this morning long thin lines of oil leaking into the gulf now lapping up on the shore of louisiana s ecologically sensitive shorelines. much thicker oil is now just a few miles from shore. on thursday homeland security secretary janet that pa that know says it is now a spill of national significance. she ll head to the region today. an official at the oceanic and atmospheric association calls the situation a very, very big thing. did the obama administration wait too long to respond? we ll ask the woman overseeing the government s response to the disaster in a moment. first, we ve got nbc s anne thompson in venice, louisiana where the spill has now reached land. anne, go
captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to today on this thursday morning. i m meredith vieira. i m matt lauer. british petroleum, the company that outfitted the rig that exploded and caused that massive oil leak has estimated that about 1,000 barrels of oil per day could be leaking into the gulf. late last night though federal officials said that number could be five times higher. this is turning into a real mess, if not a full-blown environmental disaster. it is terrible news while crews were trying to stop two known leaks, they uncovered a third leak. with the spill now less than 20 miles from shore, clean-up crews are now planning to burn as much of the oil as possible before it reaches land. we ll get the latest on the clean-up from a british petroleum officials overseeing those efforts in a moment. also ahead a new appeal to find madeleine mccann, the 3-year-old british girl that vanished from a portuguese resort where her family was stayin