Page 138 - Basin News Today

Floodwaters are pouring into the basin where the river has been diverted to save major cities. they are being sacrificed for new orleans and baton rouge. rick leventhal is live where people are trying to save their homes. rick, its a race against time. >> it is, steve. the water from that spillway slowly making its way down here, 100 miles north of us. they have 17 gates open, 100,000 cubic feet of water every second headed this way and thats why the louisiana national guard and the army transpo...

>> i think its more for the animals than it is for the people. >> how so? >> they are used to ebb and flow but we have not seen water levels of these heights. certainly we have not seen the morganza spillway in almost 40 years. those animals are going to be trying to escape that floodwater and basically seeking refuge on the levees on the outside or any other higher ridges within the basin and those animals are going to have to swim a long way, be under stress and be displaced from their homes a...

Rick: anything south of the baton rouge area will be at the max level because they are draining the excess. the spillway will leave new orleans at the same level for quite a while. the crest is to the north, north of vicksburg. getting to vicksburg by thursday and natchez after that by saturday. but beyond that, everything is being diverted to the spillway and that will continue to flood the basin. all of this water is taking three to five days to get to morgan city, and it cannot drain out of t...

Anywhere down to the southern side of it, because of opening up the spillway, as well as the morganza, hit the levels you are going to stay at because everything below that is funneling off. there your crest to the north of vicksburg. still have all the way to get down there. that morganza spillway. all of that excess is coming down here into the basin. thats exactly where steve harrigan was just talking about. this entire area of flooding. water floods down the river, flows down the river and s...

assaulting a hotel house maid. >> she cant go back to work. she has no idea what her future is going to be in any respect. so aside from what took place in the hotel room, the trauma what has taken place in her life is extraordinary. the mississippi river is heading for historic crest at vicksberg over the next 24 hours. it is expected to peak a foot above the 1927 record across mississippi and louisiana. and 9,000 people have had to abandon their homes already. but this man plans to...

the governor of louisiana says the record water levels could last more than a month. houstons newspaper reports that doctors will perform major surgery on gabrielle giffords. but first, we have an idea of who will leave al-qaeda and its not who youd expect. dan rivers is in london. who is this man? >> this is saif al-adel, who is a former egyptian special forces officer, a veteran of al-qaeda, the chief of their military committee for many years. a veteran of afghanistan and somali...

Deafening display of appreciation for the first lady at spellman college in atlanta today. michelle obama gave the commencement speech at historically black school for women. she told more than 550 graduates their degree was not an entitlement nor a gift. >> it is a commitment that comes with a certain set of obligations, obligations that dont end when you march through that arch today. >> well, the first lady then asked the graduates to make commitments to their communities. top stories one mor...

Deafening display of appreciation for the first lady at spellman college in atlanta today. michelle obama gave the commencement speech at historically black school for women. she told more than 550 graduates their degree was not an entitlement nor a gift. >> it is a commitment that comes with a certain set of obligations, obligations that dont end when you march through that arch today. >> well, the first lady then asked the graduates to make commitments to their communit s communities. top stor...

Populated communities like morgan city, bigger cities like baton rouge and new orleans, sacrificing low lying areas as part of that effort. before the army corps of engineers began opening the spillway, new orleans wasnt expected to see cresting along the mississippi river until a week from now. but now, everything has changed. chad myers is in the cnn weather center to tell us why. >> up in morganza, the river plit, you get the acha fay lie ya and the mississippi. those gates that they opened w...

To divert the water and spare the cities to the south and it only happened once in 1973 and is happening again, today and towns like butte, larose evacuated, and people packing up furniture and appliances and everything they can carry, leaving homes that will likely be waist deep in water and possibly buried under 25 feet, of river run off, right in the path of a man made bayou lake, 20 miles wide, 150 miles long, filling up the basin and, local homes, and fish camps, they use on weekends, and t...