Oil spill: Obama to visit affected coast for review

There is growing criticism that the government and oil company BP PLC should have done more to stave off the disaster,which cast a pall over the fragile environment and the regions economy,still recovering from the devastation of 2005s Hurricane Katrina.

Weve been beaten down,disaster after disaster, said Matt OBrien of Venice,whose fledgling wholesale shrimp dock business is under threat from the spill. They come asking me what I thinks going to happen. I aint got no answers for them. I aint got no answers for my investors. I aint got no answers.

As the spill surged toward disastrous proportions,critical questions lingered: Who created the conditions that caused the gusher? Did BP and the government react robustly enough in its early days? And,most important,how can it be stopped before the damage gets worse?

The Coast Guard conceded Saturday that its nearly impossible to know how much oil has gushed since the April 20 rig explosion,after saying earlier it was at least 1.6 million gallons equivalent to about 2 1/2 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The blast killed 11 workers and threatened beaches,fragile marshes and marine mammals,along with fishing grounds that are among the worlds most productive.