Oil Hits Mississippi Beach for First Time

Largehunks of thick crude from the BP oil spill washed ashore on a Mississippi beach for the first time Sunday. The town victimized was Ocean Springs, a quaint,tree-canopied, artists'-village-of-a-placejust east across the bridge from Biloxi.

More than 100 Ocean Springs residents showed up with rubber gloves, pails and shovels along two tourist beaches, hoping to clean up the gooey tar.

Sandy Miller,life-long resident of Ocean Springs, fell to her knees on the sand and buried her head in a towel, sobbing."This can't be happening," she said. "This is our home. This is everything. ..."

Wildlife officials picked upan oil-covered pelican, but were unsure where to establish a battle headquarters. Earl Etheridge of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality said, "We have to wait for BP to get here. We can't start the cleanup without them. ... They have all the money."

Residents were asked to "stay back," not to try to clean up the oil themselves.

Etheridge warned the town that more oil is expected.