Oil blobs and oil sheen are seen today in the waters of Chandeleur Sound, La. (AP)

Gov. Charlie Crist and Florida’s elected CFO Alex Sink spent the day in the Florida Panhandle helping coordinate what they said has been a clumsy response from BP and government officials.

Crist said he spoke with officials at the Mobile Unified Command about implementing a plan from Escambia County that county officials believe will help protect coastal estuaries, fisheries and bays. “That was helpful,” Crist said.

“We just want to stay on top of it and remain vigilant and coordinate as best as we possibly can,” Crist said.

Crist said he was pleased with the progress today.

“They are coordinating well to be as prepared as possible when this does come ashore,” he said.

Sink said she was urging residents and businesses to keep meticulous notes about lost income from the disaster. Sink said careful records were needed “so we don’t get any b.s. on the back-end when we file these claims.”

“If a restaurateur over the course of the next couple of weeks is seeing business business decline and they have to lay off people – those people should be compensated,” Sink said.

“They shouldn’t have to go home and worry about where their mortgage payment is coming from because of something that wasn’t our fault. BP needs to account for and compensate us for that.”

Other notes from the interviews this afternoon:

• Crist said a Coast Guard station in St. Petersburg will be opened Wednesday as another command post. He said the Mobile, Ala. center would probably remain the main command center.

“Obviously there is greater and greater concern about Florida,” Crist said. “I wanted to make sure they never forget Florida. We’re doing everything possible to mitigate this as much as we can.”

• Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano might visit the Panhandle on Thursday, Crist said.

• Crist flew over the spill today. He flew over it for the first time last Tuesday.

“Clearly it’s a lot bigger than when I flew over it a week ago. That’s very disconcerting to me,” Crist said.

• Sink applauded the Florida EOC for sending at least 30 workers to the Panhandle to help with the response.

“That is critical. I saw them myself over there today,” she said. “That’s got to help. They’re going to be embedded in the various different units of that incident command and be a quick source to walk around the corner and get a decision made.”

• Sink was still unhappy about the delayed reaction Escambia received about their response plan.

“The whole idea that Pensacola has spent all this time putting together a local plan they think will work for their community and yet they can’t get an answer back? Something’s wrong there,” she said.

“There’s just too much bureaucracy and not clear lines of decision-making. They say they are listening to the local communities, but when those local communities can’t get decisions made and can’t get feedback, there’s a loop missing in there. I’m really, really concerned about that. I was not pleased at all.”

• Sink was told that BP is sending more people to help the one worker they have answering a 1-800 number to deal with claims from the spill. Sink said she wants to speak with BP officials about their response.

“Businesses that are going to be subject to business interruption. I mean, they already are. The fisheries are, but it goes far past that. We’ve got reports of people canceling vacations, restaurant business is going to be down. Until we understand what the impact is going to be, I’ve got to get the word out to be sure that anybody is affected keeps their records.”

• Here’s the whole quote from Sink about wanting to avoid “b.s” on claims of lost business as a result of the spill:

“I’m going to get in there and help our businesses and our individuals figure out how they keep their records and how they keep their notes and every phone call they get from somebody who has canceled out on something or every restaurant who’s losing a piece of convention business to be able to identify what that is and what dollar amount is associated with this so we don’t get any B.S. on the back end when we file these claims.”

Tags: Alex Sink, BP, Charlie Crist, Deepwater Horizon, oil spill

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