On May 7
BP spokesman Bill Salvin has earlier equated the operation with "taking a four-storey building and lowering it 5,000 feet (1,500 metres) and setting it on the head of a pin,".
Some video footage has now been released by BP which includes lowering the four storey Coffer dam over the spill.
So what are we looking at?
Video of the Coffer Dam being lowered into place.
This is how large a barrel of oil is.
This is how large a two storey building is.
This is what a narrow 4 storey building looks like.
This is the coffer Dam in place over the leak. Remember that it is 4 storeys tall.
BP's control and containment appears to have been primarily focussed to limit legal, media, financial and political fall out. Neglecting to release the video has taken a very important decision out of the hands of the American people. That is if you do not know how catastrophic the impending disaster will be, you are unable to choose how to address it. You have not been given the choice to properly prepare for it.
Effective decision making, to come to the right conclusion, requires as much data and information as possible be made available to those making the decision on how to treat an event like this.
BP have, through their efforts to control the media narrative, potentially limited the necessary response by choosing to down play the urgency.
The media, unfortunately, have played along.
A crisis compounded by selfishness, corporate greed and unwillingness to be honest and just tell it like it is.
Does anyone still think this is flowing gushing at 5,000 barrels per day?
Remembering also there are 86,400 seconds in a 24 hour period. How many 4 storey buildings, barrels of oil could be filled in that time from just this one leak?