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The river and its tributaries will overflow that levee within the next several days. what they are trying to do is stop the erosion from hitting farm lands on this supposedly dry side of the mississippi and its tributaries. i can tell you that's not dry any more. the water has started to seep over on the other side that's supposed to be dry. they've been rushing to get this project completed and managed to complete that section today, john. >> what is your sense, casey? officially officials are warning people it's coming. it's days away, it's coming. sometimes advanced warning is great because...

>> by doing that it allows the water to back up in this area. the water gets to a certain level and it rolls over the top. that's where the water is now. at the top of that. it's not going-over and it's the water in the whole channel in there. it's completely dry. you are seeing the mississippi river here. this river is on the main line levee and the water is always on there and that's not normal. that's the back up. you can see right here that the water is up against the main levee.

Orleans may 23rd before this is all done. why is that? i want to draw your attention to how big the mississippi river basin is. we go from new orleans then we include the tennessee valley all the way up the appalachian trail. it topped the highest part of that mountain range. one goes that way, some rivers go that way. almost up to buffalo. down into central ohio back into minnesota. all the way to montana and then down through the continental divide. that entire river system, that is the drainage to the river that you are standing in front of right now. it is why it is taking so long for this...

With the flooding victims even before a disaster declaration specifically for the flooding has been declared. they say that is unprecedented. some families are grumbling in terms how quickly the white house processes these things. they have not issued a specific disaster declaration to the flooding. are they on schedule, behind schedule, about right? >> fema instituted some things over the past few years that do help speed up the process. traditionally with flooding events, fema would have to wait until the water receded, then go in and inspect the homes to determine what the water level was. ...

Six, eight feet on stilts and we see it half buried in water. >> right. >> that the community called the cut-off there those homes are destroyed. those families are beginning to learn slowly they will not be going back into those homes. they are destroyed. a lot of anger in this community tonight. let's get broader context on this disaster. here is the latest from tennessee down, this disaster affecting 107 counties. that's across four states. at least 7,000 households either have damage or their residents had to evacuate. the flooding in memphis, tennessee, came within a foot of the all-time ...