No matter what the postmark, the message will land where the message will land.

That seems to be the lesson being learned as more than 10,000 officials, workers, and volunteers stand poised to help limit the environmental damage from a crude oil leak growing at 210,000 gallons per day. More than four million gallons of oil has escaped, and despite the fact a calamity seems imminent, the nerves of workers, officials and idled fishermen seem to be the only casualties to this point.

Wildlife experts are standing by at labs across the Gulf; so far only a handful of birds have been evacuated for treatment. Likewise, officials continue to scour estuaries and open waters looking for a myriad of saltwater creatures almost certain at some point to be immersed in oil.

Yesterday in Louisiana, Governor Bobby Jindal said there was "bad news for Louisiana" as the winds shifted. That shift meant oil that had been headed east of the Mississippi River was actually reversing course to the western side, potentially pushing oil into the environmentally sensitive- and critical - Mississippi Delta that serves as home and flyover resting grounds for migratory birds.

"Oil coming west of the Mississippi," Jindal said, "would pose a whole new set of challenges." Shallower waters oil the oil is now approaching is far more susceptible to wind than the deeper water further offshore. There, booms are subject to being topped by windblown water. Still, booms and restraining systems are being placed into four passes near Grand Isle in efforts to prevent the oil from reaching those fragile wetlands.

As the growing oil patch has meandered on winds and currents, there has actually been little impact on wildlife.

But the shallower waters oil is now entering is far more susceptible to wind than the deeper water further offshore.

Deputy director for the southeast division of the U.S. Fish and WIldlife Service Mark Musaus says only a "few birds" have been taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center established at Fort Jackson, Lousiana. Two have already been released; two others remain.

In the meantime, a critical, yet small, percentage of the Gulf of Mexico remains closed to fishing, idling many of the captains, crews, processing houses and wholesalers who depend on the Gulf's bountiful fisheries for their livelihoods.

BP, owner of the gushing well, and responsible party for damages, continues to experiment with solutions to stopping the 5,000 barrel-per-day leak.

The latest proposed solutions include a scaled-down version of the mammoth capping device that was clogged with methane crystals as it was being lowered over the largest of three leaks over the weekend, to a much-discussed "junk-shot" the high-pressure injection of an amalgam of shredded tires, golf balls and such into the blowout preventer sitting atop the well.

That preventer, however, seems to be doing more than was originally thought. If it were not at least partially closed, officials say, as many as 40,000 to 60,000 barrels of crude oil might be gushing up the broken pipe.

Elastec/American Marine Inc. inspect a fire boom containing collected oil prior to conducting a controlled burn. Burns are being coordinated by the Coast Guard, BP and other federal agencies. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Justin E. Stumberg.
And the parallel well being drilled continues to be on-or slightly ahead of - pace to provide relief. But officials say it may still take three months to reach the target area as the rock gets progressively harder as the drilling continues.

If there is any bright spot in the uncertainty, it's the ability to plan more thoroughly than ever possible in critical situations.

Nicholls State in Thibodaux, Louisiana, has notified the Louisiana DFW that space for a temporary animal rehabilitation facility exists on their University Farm.

Nicholls has 3,000 mangrove plants in its Louisiana Native Plant Initiative area on that Farm, and is sending biology faculty and students to the coast to retrieve plants to begin preparations for reparations of native plant life - should it prove necessary.

Additionally, Nicholls has provided much-needed linguistic assistance in the form of senior multinational business major Linh Nguyen.

Nguyen, described as a "very strong student with high academic standards" who also happens to be also fluent in both Vietnamese and English, has been hired to help communicate with the Vietnamese population on the coast.

Yesterday, aircraft were spraying dispersants on the oil slick while controlled burns were underway. As the waiting continues, no option is being dismissed. As one official said, "we're trying to compress years of research into days."

Meanwhile, the leak continues and the oil cloud grows.

--Jim Shepherd