Underwater robots steadily assembled heavy metal pieces Monday as BP prepared to install a tighter cap over its busted well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, offering hopeful signs that it could soon bring the gusher under control.

The oil giant said it was ahead of its schedule to get the new, better cap in place. Once the cap is in place and working properly, officials hoped it would capture all of the oil spewing out of the well and that it can all be funneled to containment ships at the surface.

"The hope is that we can slowly turn off the valves, close the capping completely and then test pressure to see how the well is performing," Thad Allen, the government's point man on the disaster, said on CBS's "The Early Show."

While the operation is under way, the previous cap had to be removed — meaning all of the oil is escaping unfettered until the new cap can be installed. Still, the chance to capture all the oil was a welcome bit of news 83 days into the environmental and economic disaster that has fouled the Gulf and its fragile coastline.

After more than two months of failed efforts, there remains a healthy dose of skepticism among those who live and work along the coast.

Leslie and Adam Jez packed their camper and set off with their 3-year-old for Arkansas' Albert Pike Recreation Area, as they had many times before. But instead of starting their vacation Friday, they met up with family at the campsite a day earlier — a decision that proved fatal.

Flash floods pushed a torrent of water through their campsite on the edge of the Ouachita National Forest before dawn, killing at least 19 people including Leslie and her mother, Sherry Wade. Adam survived, and authorities said Monday morning that his son, Kaden, was confirmed dead.

State police said one other person was still missing, and search teams resumed their work Monday morning.

"(Kaden's) only vocabulary when it wasn't 'mama' and 'daddy' consisted of tractors and horses," Leslie's grandfather, former Arkansas legislator Charles "Bubba" Wade, said Sunday. "I can just see her holding the baby" during the flood, Wade said of his granddaughter, his words choked with grief.

No one has been found alive since Friday. The last two bodies recovered — one Saturday and the other Sunday — were found among the tangled piles of tents, trees, children's toys and clothing in the rugged, heavily wooded terrain along the Little Missouri River.

Mississippi official say the death toll has risen to nine from a devastating tornado that flattened homes and businesses in the state. More than a dozen others have been injured.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokesman Greg Flynn said five people were killed in Choctaw County, 3 in Yazoo County and 1 in Holmes County. No names have been released and details are not available.

Two of those dead in Choctaw county are children.

Gov. Haley Barbour told The Associated Press there was "utter obliteration" in parts of Yazoo County, an area where he is from. More than 15 other counties were also damaged.

The swath of debris forced rescuers to pick up some of the injured on all-terrain vehicles.