Federal response teams were unprepared for the oil spill spreading across the Gulf of Mexico from BP's leaking well because practice drills assumed any incident would produce the cohesive slicks familiar from past disasters.
Thad Allen, the coast guard admiral in charge of the disaster response, admitted that federal agencies had been slow to react but said that the effort had been hampered by the unexpectedly dispersed nature of the spill.
Adm Allen was speaking as BP confirmed that it was capturing more of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. The British oil company retrieved about 11,000 barrels on Sunday, up from 10,500 a day earlier, through the use of a containment cap fitted over the ruptured well head late last week.