President Barack Obama on Friday took his second trip to the Gulf Coast since an underwater oil well began spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico. At Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport the president was greeted by Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander in charge of the response efforts.

Though President Barack Obama was less than a mile away, most residents of Grand Isle, La., never got to see his face. Some barely got to see his car. Led by a convoy of more than 20 police motorbikes and flanked by armored cars, Obama was escorted Friday to a beach in Port Fourchon, La., before riding quickly through the streets of Grand Isle to give a press conference at a Coast Guard station.

Gov. Bobby Jindal is pushing for the creation of barrier islands to protect the delicate marshlands from oil creeping towards the Louisiana coast, but environmentalists said Wednesday that they doubt the plan will work.