AP Top News at 3:21 a.m. EDT

AP Top News at 3:21 a.m. EDT

Long road to oil cleanup looms over Gulf Coast

GULF SHORES, Ala. — A wellhead cap at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico is slowly pinching off a geyser of oil spewing from the earth, but there’s no containing much of the crude that’s already escaped, a reality becoming increasingly evident on the region’s beaches. The battle to contain the oil is likely to stretch into the fall, the government’s point man on the spill warned. The cap will trap only so much of the oil, and relief wells being drilled won’t be completed until August. Meanwhile, oil will continue to shoot out.