Reported, with damaging winds leaving thousands without power. Water slam against the window, debris flying everywhere. Norah the Cbs Evening News starts now. good evening. Im norah odonnell, and thank you for being with us. We are coming on the air tonight with more than 25 million americans in the path of severe and dangerous storms across the south and the ohio river valley. Thunderstorms, torrential rains, lifethreatening flooding, and tornadoes are impacting states across the gulf coast. And ef2 tornado hit the city of port arthur, texas, Destroying Homes and a church. There is catastrophic damage in louisiana after suspected tornado ripped the roof of an Apartment Building outside new orleans. And in mississippi, dozens of homes were hit and one person was killed when storms slammed the magnolia state. Tonight, Tornado Watches are in effect across the region. Cbss Mark Strassmann will start us off tonight from a new orleans suburb that took a direct hit. Wow reporter as many as t
function have been submerged for more than a week. on may 9th the gates at the spillway you re seeing on your screen were opened to channel water into lake lake pontchartrain. they opened the gates at the morganza spillway. this is the first time ever the core has opened all of the spill ways on the river. the alternative was to let all that water slam into the levees in bath on raoupbl and eventually new orleans. this is just a tremendous situation and one we are watching with so many of your friends and family affected. joining us now from baton rouge is one of the for most experts on rivers. his name is clinton wilson, a river hydrologist at louisiana state university. dr. wilson one of the questions we have is can we truly manage the river? well, jenna, i think, you know, we can manage the river. i think as long as we understand, you know, what