million salmon would return every year, the greatest salmon fishery in the world. and now it is about a million. reporter: and most of those are hatchery fish. with weaker genes and less fat than the wild cousins. so the southern resident killer whales that live on chinook are starving. there are only 73 of this kind of orca left on the planet. and after a grieving mom pushed her dead calf around puget sound for weeks it rekindled a decade s old debate, salmon versus dams. what would you say to folks that would say the best thing that could happen for these animals is to take the dams down? i would say for the army corp of engineers, we re looking to do the right thing. we re looking to operate the dams that are here while taking a close look at what the future of these dams are in the region. reporter: to find the birth stream, many chinook out of the
river water away from the most populated areas. the army corp of engineers said the arkansas river was cutting into the bank of the power station at the dam and had to be reinforced and shut dunn. police and locals tell fox news they are worried this will flood the city. water is not predictable. i packed up the kids and girlfriend. we will roll out if conditions stay like this. in missouri the weather service should a mandatory evacuation in the central part of the state. nationwide a record 13 days of twister touchdowns ended on thursday but a dozen deaths are blamed and more dangerous weather is in the forecast. this evening that gushing levee is still broken. also happening right now. the national guard is reinforcing 2 other locations along the arkansas river that
you can see some of those homes right now. the arkansas river has engulfed this neighborhood. one of many in this area. we have seen people all morning long placing tarps and sandbags at the base of their homes, boarding up windows. one home has a pump right now that is pumping some of the water out of the house and we talked to some people in this area who evacuated homes saying they took things like pictures and work clothes and then left. did the arkansas river is forecasted to crest at 41 or 42 feet. that s an all-time high and nearly double the flood stage. unfortunately we did have some rain and hail overnight. this morning the army corp of engineers tells us it will assess what the new precipitation means and i want to bring keith from the state fish and game commission. they re patrolling the waters. these homes and these neighborhoods are left exposed when they re evacuated and you are looking out for bad actors. we want to make sure anybody
the rivers are still rising and more storms are expected tonight. ed lavandera is west of tulsa. ed? reporter: and these floodwaters started coming up yesterday. there are several dozen homes in the community that are under water. some residents say they ve taken on about two to six feet of water. and that dam right now, according to the army corp of engineers, is releasing 275,000 cubic feet of water per second to kind of put that in terms that we might be able to understand or comprehend, that is more than three olympic size swimming pools out of the dam and all of this flowing downstream. is not only a concern for the continued flooding here in the tulsa area but this continues to move toward western arkansas in the fort smith area. so ed was in fort smith. and the schools have been forced to shut down because classes were to end on thursday.
floodwaters are getting through. it is north of that dam. that is all backed up and the army corp of engineers is releasing water from that dam at about 275,000 cubic feet per second. that is three olympic-size pools coming out of that of the flood gates every second. and that is why all of this water you re seeing move downstream. so it is controlled, but there is the threat of more rain here in the tonight and into tomorrow. and depending on where that rainfall comes, it could really aggregate the situation. and brooke, you mentioned fort smith arkansas, that is downstream where here. the river in the tulsa area is expected to crest at some point tomorrow so it shouldn t get much worse than what w than what we see here and it depends on the rainfall and that is the caveat but downstream in fort smith, arkansas, the floodwaters expected to rise another five to six feet which could cause more problems there. so emergency officials urging people to evacuate and be ready to move at