Mississippi Residents Worry Boom Won't Be Enough to Protect from Oil

(GULFPORT, Miss.) Worried and angry, folks along the Mississippi coast gathered to vent their frustrations over the oil spill creeping toward their shores. 

"I don't think I'm overstating the case to say that this is America's chernobyl at this time," said Louie Miller of the Sierra Club.  Miller called the news conference to stir the federal government to action.

He and others at the conference want the U.S. Military in Mississippi to take over the oil spill response.

"Get here now before the spill," said Terese Collins of the Gulf Island Conservancy, "and help us contain it so we aren't totally destroyed."

"We want help," said Louis Skrmetta of Ship Island Excursions, "and we don't want to be ignored like we were after Katrina."  Speakers at the news conference said the boom isn't enough. 

And while some local shrimpers applaud relief efforts in Mississippi so far, they agree that boom is no match for the choppy waters.