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The River Wild: Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Under Water; Much of Downtown Des Moines Under Voluntary Evacuation; No Rollin' on the River

Aired June 13, 2008 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: A desperate situation getting worse by the minute. The waterlogged Midwest can only watch and wait as the floodwaters rise.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 100 city blocks are under water. Even a downtown hospital is not safe. And thousands of people don't know when they'll be able to go back to their homes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been in Cedar Rapids for 21 years. I was here when the floods of '93 hit. No comparison between the two. This is just catastrophic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon, over at the severe weather center.

We're following breaking news right here today in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Well, you can practically shoot the rapids in Cedar Rapids. There is no line today between the normally sleepy Cedar River and the city. They are one.

The water has also made history, reaching to 31 feet. And except for rescuers and emergency crews, zero people are in downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa, today. The only thing those who live there and work there can do now? Well, they can wait and wait and wait until the waters recede. Across the state of Iowa today, nine rivers are at or over historic flood levels.

It is the flood of the century, it's even the flood of last century. Nothing but water in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, today, and nearly the entire state -- the entire state is, as the governor declared, a disaster zone today.

Right in the middle of all of it in Cedar Rapids is CNN's Brianna Keilar -- Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Don. I'm actually standing in the Cedar River. I'm in waders here, one of the only ways that you can really see things, short of being in a boat.

But this is about 10 blocks from where the Cedar River really should be. And this is a neighborhood that has just been devastated by these floodwaters.

If you can believe, a lot of people have come by. They've actually -- we saw a couple in their street clothes walking down the street, considered very unsafe, we're hearing from the Army Reserve. But just imagine living in this neighborhood where your home is destroyed, and maybe also working in downtown Cedar Rapids, which really has gotten the brunt of this flooding. Well, that's happened to a whole lot of people here in Cedar Rapids, and our Betty Nguyen spoke with some twin sisters who are dealing with that very situation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHELLE DICKENSON, CEDAR RAPIDS RESIDENT: When we left, our basement was coming in, flooding.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Did you have time to get anything?

DICKENSON: Just belongings, clothes. We left our pictures and everything. Moved it up to the third floor, so hopefully that will save it.

NGUYEN: This has been really trying for you, I can tell. You've never seen anything like this in your neighborhood. I mean, this is a 500-year flood zone.

DICKENSON: Never. Yeas, it's crazy. I don't even know what to think about it, honestly.

NGUYEN: What's the hardest part right now? Is it just the material items, or is it...

RACHELLE DICKENSEN, CEDAR RAPIDS RESIDENT: Having no place to go.

DICKENSON: Not being able to go home.

NGUYEN: Where are you staying now?

DICKENSON: A friend's house.

NGUYEN: How long have you lived here?

R. DICKENSON: I've lived in Cedar Rapids my whole life.

M. DICKENSON: But down there a year. It will be a year in July.

NGUYEN: What's in the house that if you could salvage it that you would want? R. DICKENSON: My pictures.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: It's going to take some time for this area to recover. The Wilkinson (ph) sisters live down about a block on the right in a rental unit. They're obviously taking this very hard, because as you heard, they work in downtown Cedar Rapids. It's very difficult.

But for people in this neighborhood, it's just a huge disruption of daily life. Also down this street, the county assessor's office, where you pay your property taxes, the county DMV, where you go and get your driver's license, and also a neighborhood bar. We've heard more than people lament the fact that that is under water, sort of a watering hole for the neighborhood.

It's just really basically everything is kind of turned upside down, Don. And even though this river crested 32 feet above its normal level, several hours ago this morning, we've seen it recede only a minuscule amount -- Don.

LEMON: Oh, yes. We're going to be talking about cresting, exactly what that is, what all of this means.

Great work, Brianna. We appreciate your reporting and we'll be checking back with you throughout the CNN NEWSROOM this afternoon.

Incredible scenes from a disaster zone. This photo that you're about to look at shows water pouring out of a Iowa reservoir's emergency spillway. The area is in Johnson County, north of Iowa City. And thousands of homes and businesses and other structures across the state are under water.

In Cedar Rapids, Maize Island, site of the county jail and county courthouse, well, that's flooded. In this photo, we see floodwaters surrounding freight cars on a railroad bridge in Cedar Rapids.

And here, some lighter moments, even in a disaster. Residents of Wisconsin, of one neighborhood there, came out to play in the high water after their street flooded after the heavy rains.

OK. On the phone with me now, joining me from Johnston, Iowa, just outside of Des Moines, is Bret Voorhees. He speaks for the state's Homeland Security and Emergency Management Service.

We thank you for joining us today. We know you have your hands full.

You've got a number of cities who are sort of down river and who may actually be facing the same situation that Des Moines's facing.

BRET VOORHEES, IOWA DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY: That's true. In the -- along the Des Moines basin, Tomoy (ph) is the next town. And we're working with them as best we can to help them with sandbags, with the National Guard, and the other state resources. Along the Cedar River, it's actually the Iowa River is the next town, and that would be Iowa City. And it's expected to crest there Tuesday. The good news is, it did crest in Cedar Rapids. But this is an historic 500-year flood.

LEMON: Yes. And you were there -- were you there for the flooding in 1993?

VOORHEES: I lived in the state, but was not in homeland security at the time.

LEMON: Yes. I hear people talking about it, comparing it. I know that was a very devastating situation back then, but this one is -- may not be as severe, but pretty much a shock to the system to the residents there?

VOORHEES: I would say that it is perhaps more severe.

LEMON: Wow.

VOORHEES: We have nine of our major city -- major rivers that are at record flood stage. So in many ways, this has the potential to be much bigger than '93.

LEMON: Oh, wow. OK.

And also, it will have a devastating effect not only on the people there, but also on the economy and businesses as well. It's going to be a ripple effect.

VOORHEES: Yes. There will be a long recovery stage.

But a couple of important things, and you folks have accurately reported. People in Iowa should listen to their local emergency managers. This is a situation where evacuations are being ordered, sometimes mandatory, sometimes voluntary. The local media and CNN are a great way to get that type of information.

We're asking people in low-lying areas to be prepared, get their medicine together, think about being gone for several days. And as that woman you interviewed, she moved some of her possessions up to the upper level of her home, that's another good idea.

LEMON: Yes. And talking about people getting out, I know we spoke to General Honore, who took charge during Hurricane Katrina. And as we know, sometimes during these natural disasters the hardest thing to do, Mr. Voorhees, is to get people to understand or to leave their possessions, because they feel that's all they have. So they want to stay there, and they're actually putting their lives in danger.

VOORHEES: That's a very good point. And it is important for people to understand their lives are much more important than property. There will be programs that we can anticipate that help with some of that, but you can't replace a life. LEMON: Yes, OK. We thank you for joining us today. And listen, any other information you want to add to the residents there before we let you go?

VOORHEES: Just we really want to thank the local volunteers. There's been thousands of them that have been sandbagging. And local responders have just performed heroic efforts.

LEMON: OK. All right, great. Thank you very much, Mr. Voorhees.

(WEATHER REPORT)

LEMON: As the Midwest copes with flooding, other parts of the country are hoping for rain to douse some big wildfires. Now, among the hardest-hit areas, northern California. Several thousand people have fled their homes in Paradise, 90 miles north of Sacramento. And all roads to the town are closed.

The flames have scorched about 30 square miles. And right now the fire is about 10 percent contained. At least two other blazes are burning in the region.

In North Carolina, an air quality advisory is in effect for Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham after smoke from a big wildfire drifted westward. Now, the blaze, sparked by lightning, has burned more than 60 square miles in a wildlife refuge. Right now it's about 40 percent contained -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, Don, in Boston, a first in 36 years. For all you shellfish lovers, listen up. Because of red tide, now public officials are closing a number of shellfish beds along the coast of Massachusetts, because, of course, red tide or any contaminants from red tide into shellfish is very dangerous for humans to eat. So all this taking place just in time for all those oyster roasts and muscles roasts that are usually about to kick in this time of year.

The ban on shellfish harvesting now extends from the New Hampshire border to the Bourne/Sandwich town line, with the exception of a small area along the Plymouth, Kingston and Duxbury areas. So, some 50 fishermen in that area harvest an average of 15,000 and 20,000 bushels of clams annually in the Boston Harbor. Will not, for now.

At least public officials are closing these shellfish beds. We don't know for how long, but of course we'll be able to keep you posted.

Meantime, back to the other big story we continue to follow, the flooding in the Midwest. All of that water has gone somewhere, right? Much of it is ending up in the Mississippi River and taking a toll on shipping there.

We'll have a live report.

And there is nothing green about the PlayStation. If you leave it on when you're not using it, it will gobble up a lot more energy than you might imagine.

We'll find out more from our energy desk in New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. We're following breaking weather news today right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. And I'm over here at the severe weather center for you. Good reason. Our Dave Hennen, the man behind the curtain, is working on what's going on here.

And also, Chad Myers, we were talking to that emergency management official in Iowa there, and he's telling us about what towns are going to be hit next, telling people to get out of there if you can.

Show us what towns are going to be hit and what's going to be next here.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, here's the rub. Even towns that didn't get any rain...

LEMON: Right?

MYERS: ... they didn't even get wet, now this bubble of water is all getting into the rivers and the bigger rivers and the bigger rivers, and eventually it's the Mississippi River.

LEMON: OK.

MYERS: That's the biggest one.

So let's go back over here. All these purple squares, this is major flood. Not exactly record flood, but major flood.

Now, many of them are, in fact, at record levels. Let's go -- let's start with Cedar Rapids. We'll zoom into Cedar Rapids.

That is the one right now that is cresting. Cresting means that the water is all the way to the top of where it's going to get. In fact, it was forecast to be 31.8. It got to about 31.1

It appears that that's the end of the bubble of water. But that bubble of water is going to go downstream toward Conesville and other places downstream.

Let's go back over to Des Moines. Des Moines still going up.

Wait until you see this map. Still going up. Right now it's not even -- quite even at a major stage. This is today. You look at the bottom, it's 700 a.m. Friday.

Still going up. It's about noon right there at 21 feet.

And here's the major problem at Des Moines. We're up to 35.25 at the other gauge, which is above record stage. They have never even seen floods like this in Des Moines. And that's -- we're talking about when there weren't even buildings there. We have records going back all the way down.

Now we're going to fly you South to Quincy, Quincy, Illinois. Major flooding going to go on here, and probably even some major flooding around St. Louis.

Don't know exactly -- it's hard to time. It's like trying to get dinner all together. You've got the carrots, you've got the peas, you've got the corn, you want to get them all done at the same time.

LEMON: Right.

MYERS: And if all done at the same time comes true, then that bubble is going to be higher in St. Louis. Rather than the corn gets through first, then the peas, and then, you know, you've got all this, bubbles of water, coming out of many rivers, all trying to get to the same place.

So, even though right now Quincy is 21, not in flood stage, really, not in major stage, it will be all the way up to 30.2, even though it hardly rained there. They didn't get any of the water really.

LEMON: Yes. Wow.

MYERS: It's all coming from the north, and eventually right down even into New Orleans.

LEMON: Hold that thought, Chad, because we've been talking about the devastation and what people are dealing with here. These are the towns that are going to be possibly hit next.

MYERS: Yes.

LEMON: We want to talk about Des Moines, Iowa, what people are dealing with.

Our affiliate KCCI, just moments ago, got this stories of people dealing with this tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, the walking bridge isn't going to be walked on for a while.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your impression of what you see now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amazing. Never thought it would come this high. I didn't see it this close in '93, but we saw them bolting these blocks of wood on the holes that were along the levee and we thought, oh, my gosh, you know, if it gets that high, that's pretty bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right. Here we go. Chad Myers, in the severe weather center, as we were talking here, just got word that there's a road closure that you need to tell us about.

Chad, tell us about that.

MYERS: Oh, many. Many, many, many road closures.

I mean, here's the map of Des Moines. You can go on and get this yourself. This is a Google map. They put it all on top of there for us to show us all of the roads that are closed.

And the number -- what's it all the way down to 34? Thirty-four separate roadways are closed. All the bridges downtown, you can't get across downtown.

Now, there are ways to get from one side of the city to the other, but not many. And so all of these roads that are in the red, if you want to go there and look at them, all of the roads that are in the red are closed at this hour, and there are, well, over three dozen, I would say.

The river comes all the way up from the north, snakes through downtown, so you see how the closures are. Yes, exactly where the water is. And then eventually exit down through the Polk County Park, down southeast of Des Moines.

You know, living in the Midwest, you get used to this, at least once in a while, but not record floods. And not hundred-year floods, and that's what we have now.

Cedar Rapids, the manager there was talking about 500-year floods. He was expecting this to be the worst flood ever. The last one was 20 feet, 1929.

LEMON: Wow.

MYERS: The one before that was 20 feet, 1851. This one's 31 feet, 11 feet over the longest record we can put into play here across parts of the Midwest.

So it's an ugly situation there in Cedar Rapids.

LEMON: Thank you very much.

Meteorologist Chad Myers.

Working right here over my shoulder and right next to me, Dave Hennen, the man behind the curtain working it as well, coming up with new information.

Actually, as we were talking about the stories of the people there in the Midwest, he yelled out to Chad and to me, "We've got some road closures we need to tell you about," so we brought it to you right here today in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Now let's get back to the Midwest flooding.

Back in the Midwest, a less evident effect of the high water is the amount of traffic on the major waterways. It may surprise you just how much grain, coal, steel, cement and fuel move up and down the Mississippi River each day. And right now hundreds of miles of that river are closed.

CNN's Allan Chernoff joins us now with more on that.

Allan, what can you tell us about that?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Don. A lot of the attention has been in Cedar Rapids, where everything is flooded, but 90 miles to the east, we've got another big waterway. Of course the Mississippi, and the water is filling up very rapidly.

As a result, the Army Corps of Engineers has had to shut down a lot of the river. The lochs can no longer operate. So they've been gradually shutting down the lochs. They started yesterday.

Let's have a look at the map.

We're talking about a place basically in the middle over here. This is just south of Davenport. All the way -- they're going to move all the way down to pretty close to St. Louis. Yesterday they shut down from Illinois City to Canton.

Today, three more lochs are being shut down, so they're moving down to Saverton, Missouri. And by Monday, they're going to shut down all the way down to Winfield, Missouri, which is just a little bit north of St. Louis.

In total, this is 300 miles. Really, this is just devastating to the economy in the Midwest, and the repercussions actually are worldwide.

The barges that run up and down here are massive. The typical tug is pushing about 15 barges. Consider this: that amounts to about 900 semi trucks.

So we're talking here about grain, coal, all sorts of materials. And it really does hurt the tug operators. They say they're losing an average of $10,000 a day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY DAILY, PRESIDENT, ALTER BARGE LINES: The coal that goes into power plants that generates the electricity that runs your computer or your television, all of those things are going to have an impact from this. And that's part of the story you're looking at here. People don't realize what we're doing ought here allows so much of our cost of living to be so much cheaper than it really could be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: How much coal are we talking about? Well, let's talk about 180 million tons a year moving up and down that river. A tremendous amount. I just got off the phone with Xcel Energy. They rely on coal shipments, but they say they're doing OK. They provide energy up in Minnesota. They say they're doing fine now because they do get a lot of that coal on the rail.

But consider lots of rail lines also are shutting down because of the flooding. If this continues for an extended period of time, we certainly could possibly feel an impact on the consumer level.

But other products as well, in addition to coal, the primary products are grain. We're talking about corn, soybean as well. That's the main thing that goes up and down. And the farmers are trying to export these products.

This is stuff that was harvested last year in the fall. Now it's being shipped down. They're trying to get down to New Orleans to ship it out to Asia, China. So China actually might be impacted, will be impacted, certainly, by all of this. They're going to be delayed in getting their shipments. The farmers won't be getting their payments.

We're also talking about here ethanol, gasoline. That is also shipped up and down the river. And building supplies.

Now, building supplies, well, that's not going to have such a huge impact here because who is going to be building when everybody's worrying about the floods? At least they won't be building right now.

So we're talking about delays and a real squeeze on farmers, shippers. And the list will go on and on as these floods continue to freeze basically the economy there -- Don.

LEMON: All right.

Allan Chernoff.

Thank you, Allan -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Well, has this ever happened to you? Hopefully not. You're out to lunch with a friend, all of a sudden he or she starts choking. If it were to happen, would you know what to do? Well, one kid did and he's got a friend for life now.

Antonio Castellon (ph) has the story from Kensington, California, near San Diego.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEREK HONG, SAVED FRIEND'S LIFE: So I just jumped out of my seat and then got over here fast and went like, ah, ah, and then a piece of taco meat went down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): Franklin Elementary fourth grader Derek Hong reenacts his heroic act. His best friend Frankie Engle (ph) almost choked on a taco pocket.

HONG: I saw his face turning purple and him clutching his throat like...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Derek didn't waste any time. He performed the Heimlich maneuver, a technique he learned from TV.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just took too big of a bite.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a bite Frankie will never forget.

I was really scared. I'm like, oh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joanne Ambler, a teacher, spotted Frankie grasping his throat.

JOANNE AMBLER, WITNESS: It looked like he was uncomfortable, and I think choking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before she knew it, Derek stepped up right behind his buddy.

AMBLER: It happened really fast. I was really surprised that Derek knew what to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Frankie (ph) remembers the feeling after the taco pocket flew out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I felt really, really like a burden was lifted off my shoulder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The two boys learned a lesson out of all of this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you're determined, you can do anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (on camera): And you weren't going to let your friend down, right?

HONG: No. I just had to try.

Remember that one time in first grade when you broke that one guy's finger?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes. That was funny.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Childhood stories, it's a thing these two will be sharing forever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to be best friends forever.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: BFF, best friends forever.

Well, Frankie Engle's (ph) parents say they will never be able to repay Derek, but that he will always hold a special place in their hearts.

LEMON: A very cute story, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Isn't that cute?

LEMON: Yes, it is.

Well, what's playing tonight in Cedar Rapids? Want to guess? Of course it is "Water World." It is deep, it is getting deeper, sadly.

We're live in Iowa's flood disaster zone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, yet another airline is slashing jobs and cutting flights, and the nickel and diming continues as well. That cup of soda? Well, it's free no longer.

Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange with more on the latest ways that airlines are charging us.

And it's painful to fly now. They're taking all the fun out of it.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

WHITFIELD: All right. Right now, it's 2:30 p.m. Eastern. Here are three of the stories we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM.

People who live and work in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, are being urged to get out by 6:00 tonight. The Des Moines River is expected to crest two hours later and experts fear that it could spill over the levees.

And elsewhere in the Midwest, Michigan is battling floods as well, after violent storms last night and early today. Dozens of roads are closed there. It's a real mess.

And they could use some of that water in North Carolina where a two-week-old fire has burned 60 square miles in and around a wildlife refuge. The smoke is so heavy, the Raleigh-Durham area is under an air quality warning.

Well, to politics now. Senator John McCain today, called the Supreme Court's decision granting terror detainees the right to challenge their detentions in civil courts, one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.

CNN's Dana Bash, caught up with the Republican's presumptive presidential nominee today for a one-on-one interview.

She joins us now from Pemberton, New Jersey.

What else did he have to say, Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, on that issue that you're talking about on the Supreme Court's decision yesterday, you said it. That he was very strong in saying that he thought it was one of the worst decisions that the Supreme Court has ever made in its history. Again, a pretty strong statement there. But, obviously, the question isn't so much about the past for John McCain and Barack Obama. It's what about the future?

This is something, regardless of how you feel about the substance of the decision, that it has created a legal mess. So, what I asked John McCain is about that. The reality that if is president, he would have to deal with it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH (on camera): Regardless of what you think about the decision, the reality is now there's a legal mess. So, and it's going to be in the lap of the next president. If you are president, what next? What do you do?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think maybe legislation working with the Congress which would define more narrowly the Habeas Corpus rights of people who we have detained. It's very broad right now. At least try to provide some definition of that so we're not ending up in endless lawsuits. Already the detainees have brought suit on diet, on reading material, on all kinds of other things that are certainly not central to what we have detained them for. So I would hope that we could at least do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So there you heard John McCain, saying that first and foremost perhaps he would push for new legislation. This whole issue, at least from the Supreme Court's point of view, is that the detainees in Guantanamo Bay, simply did not have the proper ability to protest their detention.

And what he's saying is maybe there could be new legislation written in order to deal with that. But again, very strong and he was very clear Fredricka, on the fact that this definitely is one of those issues that makes him very different from Barack Obama. They have very different perspectives on what should or should not be done with these detainees at Guantanamo Bay and detainees in the future.

We also talked a lot of politics. Talked about the fact he is looking at his vice presidential running mate. He suggested that perhaps he could have that done in early August. And also talked about some of the mending of fences that he's been doing with one of his former rivals, Mitt Romney. That was quite interesting the way he described that.

Thanks, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: More of his straight talk from John McCain.

All right, Dana Bash, thanks so much.

And of course you can see more of Dana Bash's interview with Senator McCain in "THE SITUATION ROOM," with Wolf Blitzer. That's coming up as always, 4:00 Eastern right here on CNN. Well, they are energized and ready to cast their ballots. Cuban- Americans tell our Rick Sanchez, why they're excited to join the league of first-time voters.

LEMON: And Fredricka, people now, very simply put, being told to get out. Iowa being hit by major flooding and the worst is not over yet.

Our Chad Myers and the rest of our weather team working on it for you.

We're following breaking weather news in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. The Cedar River has taken over the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Practically the entire state is either flooded, tornado-whipped or banged up by one type of storm, a severe weather or another type.

We're live with overwhelmed Cedar Rapids today and all the folks in the Midwest. We want to throw it now to our very own Brianna Keilar. She's standing by in Cedar Rapids, with the very latest. Really knee-deep in water there -- Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, you know, this river, the Cedar River crested earlier this morning at 32 feet above its normal level. I can tell just looking at the ground that it's receded a little. It's receding very slowly.

But you know, that's really no comfort to people who live on this street. People whose homes are under water. People like Shawn and Courtney Keine. Now you live -- before actually we start chatting, I want to actually turn the camera down the street, because you live six blocks down. It is actually past a stop sign where the water has come up all the way to the stop sign.

On Wednesday, you went to the house to move stuff from the basement to the first floor. But you had to go back again, yesterday. Tell me about that.

SHAWN KEINE, CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA RESIDENT: Yes, yesterday -- or Wednesday, we tried to upload everything from the basement to the first floor in preparation for the basement to flood. Yesterday morning, about 8:30 a.m., I went back into the house and the basement was slowly starting to flood. About 1:00 yesterday afternoon, my wife and I waded through chest-deep water back to the house just to save pictures, wedding pictures, school pictures. We got those placed into the attic, but as we were there, the water started coming through onto the first floor and that's when I made Julie leave.

KEILAR: And I bet most of our viewers at this point maybe know the answer to this next question. Flood insurance?

KEINE: That's a negative. We were not in the flood plain, didn't expect for this to even happen. Weren't even close. KEILAR: So Courtney, where are you guys staying while you're out of your house?

COURTNEY KIENE, CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA RESIDENT: My grandpa's.

KEILAR: And tell me about what you're expecting to go back to when you are able to go back to your house.

C. KEINE: We're probably going to have to buy a new house or otherwise, we're going to have a lot of cleaning up to do.

KEILAR: Yes, a lot of cleaning up to do, right?

C. KEINE: Yes.

KEILAR: So, you said that you've seen a lot of the flooding. And -- you live in the Midwest. Flooding isn't something new certainly to the region. You saw the coverage of hurricane Katrina but you said that you don't really understand it.

S. KEINE: You don't fully understand it until it's your own house and it's your own belongings and you're watching them just get flushed away.

KEILAR: But you are, hopefully you've preserved a lot of your things?

S. KEINE: Hopefully the mementos we saved, the things that are irreplaceable like my wedding pictures in Jamaica. But items like the TV and couch I know are gone and can be replaced. At least we are all safe.

KEILAR: Certainly. And you guys -- you're doing a pretty good job of keeping upbeat. I know it's difficult.

Sean and Courtney Keine, thanks so much for talking with us and for being with us on CNN today.

You know, so many people are in the same situation as the Keines. Just -- we've seen so many people come by. Some people are just coming to look and take pictures, this isn't their neighborhood. But we've seen a lot of people come by and just sort of stare down to see where their home is. Water all the way up through the first floor, Don.

LEMON: There are evacuations, voluntary evacuations for much of Iowa, today.

Hey, Brianna, thank you very much.

We have Dave Hennon (ph). We know we're working on some stuff. Dave, I think, is working on a hospital that may have to be evacuated. He's giving it all to our Chad Myers. We're going to go over here and to talk to Chad, a little bit.

Chad, we've got those bridges -- I see those bridges behind you in Cedar Rapids there today. And the hospital not far from that, that has to be evacuated as well.

MYERS: It's way from that. It's way inland. Here's the Cedar River. Here's Cedar Rapids. We just showed you the pictures on the -- you can stay in here. Come on, come on, come one.

LEMON: All right.

MYERS: Water at least about eight feet deep here. And we're going to fly you back out to the hospital that they are now evacuating. It is way inland.

LEMON: Oh, my gosh.

MYERS: So, it is the Mercy Medical Center, right here. I mean, so think about if that water is all the way through the city and it's all the way back here, that means it's all the way through the town.

LEMON: That's a big hospital, too.

MYERS: It's a giant hospital. Yes. And you know you got -- it's critical patients in there. You have to -- it's hard to move them. Then you have to move them farther away but they don't want to lose power. See this is -- you've got a lot of things that are running on power. And the generators have to run. You have to have all the ICU people have to be on power. Ventilating and all that other, they need to have all those people out of there.

LEMON: This is all filled with water?

MYERS: This entire downtown is filled with water.

LEMON: Are you're kidding me?

MYERS: I am not kidding you. Well Don, we're talking about 12 feet over the old record. I mean we're not talking about a record flood, we're talking about an epic flood. Something that may be a 500-or 1,000-year flood.

The water in Cedar Rapids right now, may never have been that deep before. Certainly not as long as anyone's lived there. Because the old reported was set in 1851, clearly somebody was there. The first gauge that they had actually was swept away at 22 feet. That was ten feet ago. They had to get another gauge in there to figure out what the real level was.

LEMON: And we're hearing that over 100 people, close to 200 people are being evacuated from the hospital.

MYERS: Just from the hospital.

LEMON: What did you say?

176 according to Dave.

All right. Chad Myers, Dave Hennon, thank you very much. Of course, CNN is your weather central today. Keep it right here. We want to you stay out of harm's way, but send our pictures. Go to iReport.com or go the CNN Web site and click on the iReport logo -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Images, thanks so much. All right, well they're energized and ready to cast their ballots. Cuban-Americans tell our Rick Sanchez, why they're excited to join the league of first-time voters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The Midwest being hammered today with flooding. We have breaking weather news into the CNN NEWSROOM. our affiliate KCCI, in Des Moines, reporting now. We want to get to a reporter on the ground who has the very latest news for us. Let's listen in.

JEFF GREENWOOD (PH), KCCI REPORTER: ... some of these manhole covers out, pump out some of the sewers to make sure they don't get to the level they were at yesterday, where we saw them gushing with water.

We also see to the left, to your screen, left, there are Des Moines City public work crews that have pumps. They are constantly pumping the water out of that system. Because what happens is, the areas to the west of here are a little bit higher as you get toward the courthouse. And all that sewer water flows down this way. And they're trying to make sure it doesn't back up and start flooding Court Avenue.

I mean, we've already lost some businesses here. I know that yesterday, Buzzard Billies Flying Card Cafe, right here at the corner, became submerged. Of course, it's an underground restaurant. A couple of days ago they were able to keep it down to a trickle but it just became a wall of water yesterday as the door opened in that building and that fight was lost. So, they're trying to prevent that from happening to more businesses.

And the -- just to the north here. That's the Polk County Administration building. Those employees have left the building. Many cases have been reassigned to essential tasks. And they are just trying to keep these employees out of this area. As you heard earlier, the Des Moines mayor and Public Safety people from Polk County are asking anybody who doesn't have to be here to leave this area.

Jeff Greenwood, thank you for keeping us updated. We'll be checking back in with you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, there is a need and it's been touched on by many people and many of our reporters over the past couple of house. There is a need for volunteers. And one of the way that's being coordinated is with the United Way.

Shirley Burgess, from the United Way, joins us on the phone.

Shirley, the need for volunteers is still pretty critical, is it not?

LEMON: Obviously it is pretty critical in that area to get volunteers and to get as much assistance as they can. You're listening in to our affiliate in Des Moines, KCCI and a reporter on the ground and their anchor team, as well.

We're following breaking weather news throughout the day here in the CNN NEWSROOM. We'll have more in just a bit -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. And we're going to continue to watch that.

Thanks so much, Don.

In the meantime we're going to talk about presidential politics. What to expect come November.

CNN's Rick Sanchez, has been traveling across the country this election season to hear from groups of people from across the political spectrum. Part of our ongoing CNN initiative called the League of First-Time Voters.

Rick joins me now to talk a little bit about a very invigorated electorate from our old stomping grounds of Miami.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Something that really surprised you as well, figuring that you feel like you knew the community and how the patterns of votings have been, historically.

SANCHEZ: I think it's safe to say when you and I covered that town, and we covered it as well as anybody I should add, wink, wink.

WHITFIELD: Of course. Sure.

SANCHEZ: It was monolithic, right?

WHITFIELD: Yes, in some, sectors, yes.

SANCHEZ: That's probably the best way to say it. If you were to go to Miami and you would ask a Cuban-American at that time, nine out of ten would say they're for the embargo, they're pro-Republican, they love Ronald Reagan and they would never, never vote for a liberal Democrat. Right?

I mean, for the most part.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SANCHEZ: So have things changed?

And I guess, as I look at the camera, let me ask this question: Is it time to lift the embargo on Cuba? Is it overstayed its welcome? Is it still working?

WHITFIELD:: It depend on who you asked.

SANCHEZ: Well, here's what's interesting.

WHITFIELD: Among those in the community.

SANCHEZ: The younger you ask, the folks, the younger they are, I should say, then the bigger chance that they're going to say to you, well, maybe we should consider lifting the embargo. And maybe -- you ready for this -- this almost sounds like heresy in the old days -- maybe Barack Obama is right when he says that we should talk to Raul or Fidel Castro.

Take a listen to my League of First Time Voters conversation with some young Cuban-Americans. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: You like John McCain's Cuba policy?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do. I do.

SANCHEZ: It sounds a lot like the Cuba policy that we had with Ronald Reagan and that we have with George Bush.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's similar, but at least on his Web site, and he said in person, that he would be in favor of supporting dissidents on the island and change on the island through dissidents. I like that stance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Obama does not want to loosen the embargo, he just wants free travel for family. He wants families to be allowed to give money to their family to help dissidents there as well and families can visit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And families can visit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And families can visit, right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But that's a change in policy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Well there you go. It continues, it gets actually even more interesting as they argue back and forth. But the upshot is, no, Miami, at least from a Cuban-American perspective, is certainly no longer as monolithic as it once was.

And don't be surprised. Let me say it here for the very first time. Hopefully it will happen then I'll be able to brag about it. Don't be surprised if this voting cycle -- there isn't a little bit of a trend, a little more to the left, even among the Cuban voters.

WHITFIELD: Interesting.

SANCHEZ: Which would be very unique. By the way League of First-Time Voters, we love doing this. We go all over the country, we talk to people from Jewish-American students in Chicago, Mennonites in Indiana, young African-Americans in Atlanta who are very into the system in Atlanta, all over the place. And this time it was Cuban-Americans. It could be your backyard. It's CNN/league --CNN.com/league.

WHITFIELD: And very revealing because the -- I guess the real take away here is these young people are voting differently from their patients and grandparents, and particularly in the Miami community. In the Cuban-American community, there was family tradition, and what your parents and grandparents likely did is what you did.

SANCHEZ: They're breaking away. And not just among Cubans, but all over the country.

WHITFIELD: Right.

SANCHEZ: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Rick Sanchez, thanks so much.

We'll watch much more of Rick's entire interview these first time voters this weekend, in prime time, "CNN NEWSROOM with Rick Sanchez" airs Saturday and Sunday nights at 10:00 Eastern right here at CNN. But of course, that's after watching me on the weekend during the afternoon.

So there.

SANCHEZ: Team effort.

WHITFIELD: All right.

Well, there's nothing green about the Playstation. If you leave it on when you're not using it, you know you do, it will gobble up a lot more energy than you might imagine. Find out more from our energy desk in New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: With gas prices hitting record highs, many of us are looking for other places to cut back, including the electric bill. You may be surprised what is running up that bill, in fact. CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow has been checking it all for us.

And so a hint, we talked about these Playstations, people leave these home video games on all day, but guess what, it's costing you money.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Hey, Fredricka.

It's costing them a lot of money. You can't do much about the record price of gas, but we're here to help you with your electricity bill. Fredricka, pop quiz for you, what uses more electricity -- a refrigerator or a Playstation when it's on all the time? WHITFIELD: Well, I would want to say refrigerator, but because someone already gave me the answer, I'd be cheating by telling you the real answer -- which is the Playstation.

HARLOW: But out there thinks that the refrigerator, right? It's so much bigger, but it's not; it's not even close.

According to a study by the Australian consumer Web site, choice(ph), it is the Playstation by far. In fact, if you leave your Playstation on year-round, it's going to use five times the amount of energy of a medium-sized refrigerator. It's hard to believe, considering the size difference there.

The site also says the Xbox 360, that's not far behind. It uses nearly as much as the Playstation. So you want to keep it off. It could save you 200 bucks or so per year. So try and keep it off.

CNNMoney.com, we're following the energy fix for you from every angle. Logon to our Web site, CNNMoney.com -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Poppy. Thanks, we could all use all the help that we can get. Thank you -- Don.

LEMON: Absolutely, all the help we can get.

Also Fredricka and Poppy, we're heading back to the Midwest next. We're live in Iowa's flood disaster zone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)