Page 213 - Bluff News Today

>> reporter: well, fred, its a little different from when we last spoke yesterday. the winds have died down some but the rain is pretty heavy. the rain has been on and off throughout the day. weve moved to a different area of the mississippi from when we last spoke. we are on this levee here. this is the bluff and this is the levee that protects the city of baton rouge. its really just steps but its held up. the city is okay. we drove around and saw a little flooding, very light flooding. a few ...

Ever flood. >> reporter: nearby, this town virtually disappeared under 16 feet of water. >> standing on the driveway, i can remember teaching the kitd to ride their bikes. >> reporter: the homes, schools, churches, swallowed by water that spilled over the leve lingered for months. >> everybody was punched in the stomach. >> reporter: the mayor at the time and most of the nearly 1,000 people in the town decided to do something drastic. erase the community that was their home for generations. >> i...

Flood plain, they found ways to prosper. developing a quarry under the bluff. turning the old town from ghost town into corn fields that are he werie i earning the town money. this is the mississippi river. a source of livelihood and anxiety. the river just broke a record set in 93 of 104 days above flood stage at st. louis. im walking along the levee that protects the town from the floodwaters. as you can see, on the other side, the water is hard to tame. as the floodwaters have found their way...

>> reporter: nearby, valmeyer, illinois virtually disappeared under 16 feet of water. >> standing here on the driveway, i can remember teaching the kids to ride their bikes. a lot of good family memories. >> reporter: most of the homes, the school, the churches, all swallowed by a wall of water that spilled over the towns levee and lingered for months. >> everybody was kind of like punched in the stomach. >> reporter: almost immediately dennis, who was mayor at the time, and most of the nearly 1...

To prosper, developing a quarry underneath the bluff and a warehouse now used by the national archives to store records and turning the old town from ghost town into govern fields to earn money. >> this is the mississippi river, a source of livelihood and a sense of anxiety for valmeyer. swollen past its banks, the river just set a record from 93. im walking along the levee that protects the town from those rising floor waters, but as you can see on the other side the water is hard to tame as th...

The town of valmire, when the mississippi river breached a levee in 1993. to make sure it didnt happen again, they moved two miles away up on the bluff. considering the record-breaking floods the u.s. has seen this year, is this the way for towns? >> its the defining image of the great flood of 1993, a home washing away in southern illinois. >> i did i then we would ever flood. >> reporter: it virtually disappeared under 16 feet the water. >> on the driveway, i can remember teaching the kids to ...

And this. are they in a position to be making these sort of demands? >> well, not really, charles, because right now you look at the numbers that have come out from the chinese economy from may, imports down 8.5% year on year, thats a real indication of softening demand. their consumer numbers are not very good. the first indications from june on the manufacturing sector show a contracting economy. so, you know, they are not in a good position, but they think they can bluff president trump and b...

At night? >> i dont have to wont it if the river is sneaking up on me, thats for sure. >> reporter: we are out here in front of their baseball diamond. its the middle of a big tournament they always have during the fourth of july weekend, but during that 93 flood, first base was under water. that gives you an idea of how much water inundated this town. while they say the idea of moving up on the bluff was the right choice for valmeyer, they say they dont think its the right choice for every town...

Injunction just like any other act of the executive branch. so i dont think that him saying im going to impose this extra question on the census through an executive order, there will still be a lawsuit. theyll get an injunction and for the same exact reasons the court has already rejected it, theyll reject the executive order. so its a bluff but its not going to change the legal dynamic here. >> the reporting that we have is that the president is frustrated with wilbur ross, the commerce secret...

Tighten up and took it to a second set tiebreak and third set and kept battling away. amazing. coco gauff. the first time that a 15-year-old got this far since jennifer cap r jennifer capry otty. >> what was it last week? she was caught on camera talking about having to take a science test before going to wimbledon and her teacher had no idea she was a tennis fee no, maam. earth to everyone, she rocks. alex thomas, thank you for the coco update. i want to move on to the president calling his cri...