charge of the army corps of engineers described this as an off ramp of the mississippi river highway. this is one of the few places where water can come off the river. even though it has to come off the river basin, it makes its way to the gulf of mexico. i don t want you to go far away because we re going to come back toia. right there in louisiana, right where it s happening in morganza. stand by because you mentioned the army corps of engineers. i m going to go to ed fleming. i know it s a difficult decision to open the morganza spillway after 40 years of not having to use it and the heartbreak for people who know they re going to get flooded. the amount of water that is coming down the mississippi river all the way from cairo, illinois, all the way through louisiana is record-setting, and we operate this as the system, this is one of those that ed mentioned, and we operated it started today, and we re thinking this is a successful operation going on right now. i have been tel
swollen levee system, a taxed levee system, and they don t know if it s going to hold even with this. they re being inundated with water. people who have dealt recently with tornadoes just a couple weeks ago, and hurricane katrina and rita that hit the area and have done so much devastation to louisiana. you can t take your eyes off the pictures. imagine if this was happening in your community. this much water, knowing your homes, your hafarms, your livelihood would be flooding. wheler get to the players. ed lavendera on the ground. he ll join us in a second. look at inflooding. this is what is being flooded. this is all just moments ago. once they started to release the pressure on the morganza spillway and let that water out, look at the levees. water pouring across the levees. that s the mississippi river there. look at that. unbelievable. we re going to follow this breaking news story for you because we don t know what is going to happen here. we don t know how this is go