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Flooding Continues in Iowa; Mississippi River Surges Higher and Heads South; Wedding Rush Begins in California; President Bush Addresses Weather Crisis in Midwest

Aired June 17, 2008 - 10:00   ET

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

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: It's Tuesday, June 17. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
The mighty Mississippi and the big danger that's now heading downstream. The river is surging higher as it heads south. Tense days lie ahead in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri as the Mississippi climbs to its crest. The threat is dire. The Federal government says the river could wash over 27 levees. Armies of volunteers are stacking millions of sandbags to hold back the floodwaters. Hundreds of homes of course are at risk.

Let's head down river for just a moment where the Mississippi does continue to rise. In Burlington, Iowa, the river's level now stands at just over 25 feet, but it is expected to climb at least eight more inches and crest at more than 26 feet. Will the levees still hold? That of course is the question. Sean Callebs is joining us from near Burlington.

Hey there, Sean.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Heidi.

I really can't stress enough that this is a situation that is getting worse by the hour. There are 500 National Guard troops. We just left a command post here. We talked with them about the situation. Not only a seven mile stretch north of Burlington that is very vulnerable. There have been a number of boils, meaning water seeping through. They've actually lost some areas. They say they've had to retreat, move back and sandbag areas, but in the town of Burlington itself, there is some significant flooding already here. We're on our way to Summer and Division Streets. We know a number of downtown buildings are under water. They're trying to save a pump station.

Remember what happened in Cedar Rapids when their water supply was dramatically affected and people were asked to actually conserve water. The same thing is going to be happening here. What they're really worried about the coming hours as this river continues to rise, the mighty Mississippi. They just closed a bridge that leads from Burlington, Iowa across to Gulfport, Illinois.

We know that a while ago a levee along the Mississippi River on the Illinois side gave way. That breach allowed amount of the big muddy to flow into Lake Carthage. Then Lake Carthage overflowed and that allowed a large area of farmland, very rural to be swamped and they are very worried that's going to happen here in Burlington, a community of 25,000, big again, very tense situation here, touch and go.

COLLINS: So Sean, what's the plan? Are there emergency management officials meeting? Do they have contingency plans? What's going to happen next?

CALLEBS: Right now they are just feverishly sandbagging. They are trying to save the city. That's the bottom line. If they can hold off, if it doesn't crest -- if the crest is what they say, they believe it's going to be able to hold at least the sandbags. But if any of those areas give way, it doesn't take much because instantly then a huge area is brought up to the same level that the flood point is.

So it's -- I talked to sheriff's deputies in this town, homeland security representatives, basically, they say basically the town has come to a standstill. Everybody is working toward emergency efforts and 500 National Guard troops in a town of about 25,000 is a very visible presence here.

COLLINS: Absolutely. That's an awful lot of National Guardsmen there.

All right, well, Sean, we'll stay in touch with you of course. Let us know if we need to come back. Thanks so much.

Sean Callebs for us here in Burlington this morning.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Much of Iowa and the floodwaters are in retreat. Angry homeowners are in limbo. Health officials say it's too dangerous for them to return home to assess their losses. CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Cedar Rapids with the story.

Ed, a tough situation here. Health officials are really sort of balancing public safety and public frustration.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they are and they finally think they've figured out a way to do this so everyone is a little bit happier about what's going on. We're actually seeing it play out here on these streets. When we got here a few hours ago, there was actually a checkpoint right here. In these next few blocks behind me, these homes have been deemed opened for residents to go back and start checking out what's happened here in the floods.

This checkpoint in the last couple of hours has moved down the street about four blocks. Essentially that's the way officials here hope this will work in the coming days, that this area that is blocked off will just continue to shrink. But up until now, getting past the checkpoints has been part of reality.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mud, mud. Inch thick on everything.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): It will take more than a hose and some water to wash away Shawn Kiene pain right now.

SHAWN KIENE, FLOOD VICTIM: After just seeing my backyard, I'm not for sure I even want to go back to my house.

LAVANDERA: Shawn is in the Iowa National Guard. He and his wife Julie were allowed to go back to their home briefly but couldn't even get inside.

JULIE KIENE, FLOOD VICTIM: Piles of garbage and our backyard has 12 inches of water in it, floating garbage.

LAVANDERA: The basement filled with water and another six feet poured into the first floor, mattresses and debris strewn all over the backyard.

J. KIENE: I wanted to go in the house. But then when I walked to the backyard and seen all that garbage and destruction --

S. KIENE: It's dangerous. Luckily, we got a quick glimpse and now I fully understand why they won't let us down there.

LAVANDERA: The Kienes and their nine-year old daughter are staying with family until they're allowed back home.

COURTNEY KIENE, FLOOD VICTIM: I miss my room and everything that was in there because there was a lot of special things down there.

LAVANDERA: Fortunately a nine-year-old is immune from the frustrations of adulthood. Shawn and Julie don't have flood insurance and the disaster cost Julie her job and filing for unemployment benefits on the Internet is frustrating.

S. KIENE: You must file an unemployment insurance application along with the appropriate disaster unemployment assistance forms. Sure, if you can find the damn thing online.

LAVANDERA: The floodwaters are receding, but they Kienes are left wondering if life as they remember it in Cedar Rapids has also dried up.

J. KIENE: We've talked about just moving and not even try to fix it or rebuild it, but we haven't been inside to see really how bad it is. We still don't know what we're going to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: And Tony, city official here acknowledge that the damage in many of these neighborhoods is much worse than what they had expected. For the rush of the floodwaters and debris moving around in these waters, they belief has knocked a lot of homes off foundations and weakened a lot of structures. So they are really worried about people going back into the houses and these buildings. Even if they are cleared, they're still urging people to be very careful when they're walking around.

HARRIS: And patience is called for but it's tough to come by in that situation.

Ed Lavandera for us this morning, thank you, sir.

COLLINS: Rob Marciano is standing by now in the severe weather center to talk more about it.

I thought you did such a great job, Rob, last time of showing us the geography here and what we're talking about with Carthage Lake right next to the Mississippi and the levee situation there.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: There are some amazing tools that we have at our disposal. This is actually virtual earth, which is a little different from Google earth. It gives us a little bit better visualization as to the lay of the land specifically. We'll go into Burlington here and parts of the lake area and like we spoke of earlier, it seems as though there was some weakness along the Mississippi that allowed water to get into Carthage Lake. And then there was a little bit of a levee right here that probably is the one that gave way. You can see there's kind of a spillway or a river that filters into mostly rural lands.

But a little bit farther to the north along highway 34, we do have some neighborhoods that are near that waterway. This is obviously an area that's suspect and probably has seen some water. On the other side of the river in Burlington, Iowa, more populated and as Sean Callebs has been reporting, some of the levees here according to the Army Corps of Engineers are weak and have been weakened. There's been boils, seepage of the water through the levees. They're worried about a seven-mile stretch up and down that area.

Might be able to zoom in a little more and show you some of these levees are flat-out cliff type of scenarios, some manmade, mostly natural made. I think the weakest part of this system along Burlington is north of the town itself. Let's give you a broader scope as to what we're looking at, obviously flood warnings and watches still in effect, Burlington, Quincy, Hannibal, Clarksville, St. Louis. These are all along the Mississippi.

This is the forecast, where that crest, that bulge of water is going to move as it heads down to the south. It'll be in Burlington, Quincy tomorrow, tomorrow night, eventually into Hannibal on Thursday, Clarksville on Friday and St. Louis, this may be an area of concern, obviously we got to take it one day at a time here.

Right now we're forecasting moderate flooding but the major flood stage in St. Louis is 40 feet. The forecast right now is for 39.8, so we're going to be very, very close to that. The good news here is nothing showing up on the radar. The only thing right now is in Oklahoma. That's not going to get into the flood zone. A relatively dry forecast for the next 48 hours or possibly longer, guys. So we're not adding much to the problem as far as more rainfall at this point. I suppose if anything that's the good news.

COLLINS: All right, Rob. Thank you. Appreciate those graphics. Really helps us to understand what we're talking about here. What we are talking about is frantic days and sleepless nights and a race against these rising waters. We're going to talk a little bit more about it.

Joining us by phone now, a community leader who is wearing sort of two different hats in this crisis. Leroy Lippert chairs an emergency management group for Des Moines County and is talking with us now about what's going to happen.

Mr. Lippert I guess the question is, is it more of if the people are going to need to leave at some point or when?

VOICE OF LEROY LIPPERT, CHMN DES MOINES CO. EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Speaking of the area that we're concerned about, which is the drainage area for agriculture land, those persons have already been evacuated with a mandatory evacuation last Saturday. We are still trying to save the farm ground at that point in time. In the city of Burlington itself, there are no mandatory evacuations.

Basically, all that's in jeopardy is part of the business district, which faces the river on Front Street. And that has been barricaded and we're using sump pumps to pump water back into the river across the levee. And that is all manmade and it's holding very well.

COLLINS: Mr. Lippert, you seem to be pretty calm at this point. It sounds like you feel confident that everything is going to be OK, specifically talking about Burlington here.

LIPPERT: Burlington itself, Burlington is going to be minimal. Contrary to what I heard on the station, I don't think our water supply is going to be affected because we're safe to 30 feet. They're predicting a crest of 26.1 at 7:00 on Wednesday morning, which is tomorrow. I think as far as our water supply, our utilities and so forth, I think we're -- we took care of those on Sunday and I think we're reasonably simply safe on all of those.

COLLINS: Is there some sort of contingency plan, though, if things change? I imagine you may have been pretty surprised about what's happened in other parts of the country because of this same type of flooding.

LIPPERT: Right. We do some have some contingency plan on the electric. What we'll do is we'll feed the electric back in from another direction. We've had briefings here about every eight hours and the utility companies have been working drastically to make sure that we will have electricity here. So, really, the city of Burlington is going to handle this thing very well.

Sure we're going to have some cleanup. We've got some municipal auditorium and so forth (INAUDIBLE) for about $2 million going to have a lot of damage (INAUDIBLE) flood country and we've been through these before however. I'm only 75 years old and I've already lived through two of them, two 500-year floods, so I don't know. Maybe I'm 1075, I don't know how old I am.

COLLINS: You have certainly lived through before that is true, but again, we continue to see the pictures that I think have certainly surprised a lot of people. Leroy Lippert, we appreciate your time this morning, emergency management, Des Moines County.

LIPPERT: Thank you.

HARRIS: He's pretty calm. But we're going to show you a scene here coming up in just a couple of moments that may change the perspective just a bit. Our Sean Callebs has made it to downtown Burlington, Iowa. We will talk to Sean in just a couple minutes. You're with the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: As promised, let's get you to Sean Callebs. Sean has made his way to downtown Burlington, Iowa. Sean, give us a sense of what you're seeing. We just had an assessment just a couple of moments ago from the chairmen of the Des County emergency management agency that was measured.

But I'm not sure it is a representative of what you're seeing on the ground there. Describe the situation as you see it.

CALLEBS: Well, we're on Third Street and the water from the Mississippi has poured all the way back to where we are. A very large portion of the riverfront area has simply been lost to the river. You can see where people have been sandbagging. It's either gone through the sandbags, over the sandbags. That noise you may be able to hear in the background is a huge pump that's pumping water out of the basement of a (INAUDIBLE) warehouse I'm standing in front of.

The river just looked like it has completely overwhelmed a large chunk of Burlington, Iowa and the disappointing news for people who live here it is going to continue to rise. Even an eight-inch rise is going to exponentially make the situation more difficult here right along the Mississippi River.

I heard them talk about the fact look, this is an area that's used to flooding. But we're talking about the historic flooding here. We're not talking about flash flooding or something that may come up and may go down very quickly. Because what they're talking about is water that is still coming down here and because so much is being released from various tributaries, this water is going to be high for some time.

I can see a bridge that leads from Burlington, Iowa, across into Illinois and the water is all the way up to the bottom of that bridge. That bridge has been closed and certainly navigation we know has been dramatically affected here on the - just wanted to note here, there's been a levee breach that is allowing -- oh, the levee breach from Illinois is actually allowing the river of water to pour into Illinois so it's actually bringing the river down a little bit in Burlington. So Illinois' disappointment, if loss, is certainly going to benefit Iowa for the time being.

Once that water stabilizes (INAUDIBLE) it's just going to be tough. They're in for a long, long, difficult day here because we know that the levee to the north of the city is very suspect, the seven-mile stretch (INAUDIBLE) that water goes through it. But the downtown area, we should be able to bring you some pictures very soon. You'll get a pretty graphic example of just how bad the flooding is here.

COLLINS: Sean, I'm not sure if you were able to hear, but the gentleman that we spoke to a few minutes ago, Leroy Lippert, the head of emergency management for Des Moines County, sounded so very calm. You mentioned historic flooding. He's lived through a couple of the other floods that we have been talking about over the past few days. He very much said that he thought that things were going to be OK in the area you are in. So I'm kind of struck by what you are seeing around you and the information that we're getting in.

CALLEBS: Their definition of OK may be a lot different from someone who's not used to seeing water up to the first floor in a building. As I mentioned, that breach across in Illinois, we're going to have to do some more checking into that, but apparently that has allowed the Mississippi, the water is being steered from the Iowa side over into Illinois. We have a crew that is trying to get across the Mississippi River, but that's a difficult row to hoe at this hour because the river is so elevated, it's difficult to run a bridge that is open to allow traffic to go across.

Despite what the gentleman may have said, as I look at back here on Third Street, there's a host of cars and people here taking pictures. This is certainly something that's got the attention of this community of about 25,000 people.

COLLINS: What about the National Guardsmen? You were talking about there's about 500 of them or so in the area. Are you seeing them around you?

CALLEBS: Oh, yes. We've seen them out throughout the day. We've walked up and down the street. You can see there are huge piles of sand that have been placed by the guard in very places to allow sandbagging to go on as people do what they can to try to save their buildings in the downtown area. A lot of them have been dispatched, the guard, to areas where the levee is more vulnerable. But the guard, the people in the community, have really been working around the clock for the past 24 to 48 hours trying to salvage what they can of this community.

COLLINS: Wow. We're looking forward to seeing some of the pictures that you are getting right now. Again, looking at that map, Sean, of all of the areas affected by these breaches and of course, the cresting, it gives a very clear picture at this point, anyway, of what could be happening a little bit later on in the day. We certainly hope that Leroy Lippert was right, but you are there and I'm sure those pictures are unbelievable.

Sean Callebs for us in Burlington. He's actually right downtown right now in the thick of it. We'll check back with Sean as the day continues here.

Meanwhile, are the Taliban taking control? NATO forces are moving into southern Afghanistan right now to put down what may be a Taliban takeover. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The wedding rush is on in California. Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples flocking to courthouses to legally wed. The state Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriages last month. They began last night. The first couple to get married Adell Martin (ph) and Phyllis Lyon (ph). They've been together for 55 years. California is the second state to allow same-sex marriage, Massachusetts the first. But unlike Massachusetts, California doesn't require state residency.

COLLINS: A gay rights milestone in California. But what's happening around the world? Our reporters check it out for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Same-sex relationships are not met with life imprisonment here in Hong Kong as they were right after the 1990s. At least technically according to the law, and no longer are gay men executed as they were at times under Chairman Mao. But attempts in recent years to have same-sex marriages made legal through the party congresses in Beijing have failed in recent years to muster more than a handful of votes.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm David McKenzie in Nairobi.

Gay marriage in Kenya would be utterly inconceivable. In fact, gay people here are sometimes verbally and occasionally abused here. There are two separate laws on the statute books discriminating against gay people. They are rarely enforced but they are an effective threat hanging over the gay community. Activists say that attitudes have softened over the past few years, but they a long way to go.

CAL PERRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Beirut has one of the few openly gay and vibrant communities in the Middle East, but it's a community that has to walk a fine line. This is, of course, a region that's entrenched deeply in its religious values. And as one gay activist put it, Lebanon at times is a bit schizophrenic.

GEORGES AZZI, HELEM ORGANIZATION COORD: There are two communities, the liberal community and the conservative community and the government stands in the middle and does nothing about it. There's a fear from the conservative community. So it exists but we're not supposed to talk about it out loud.

PERRY: That's because, simply put, it's illegal to be gay in Lebanon, as is the case in every Arab nation, a region that only goes so far in its adoption of western cultural freedoms.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Protecting your home and your life savings. What you need to know about flood insurance. Lessons learned from the Midwest flooding.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Quickly want to check in with the big board now. Dow Jones industrial average is down about 17 points, as you see resting at 12,244 for the time being. Yesterday things down by about 38 points or so. We continue to watch those numbers and we'll let you know what more is happening today. Quite a bit of activity, actually in the stock market. We'll talk with Stephanie Elam coming up.

HARRIS: You know, there are lessons to be learned from the Midwest floods. Many homeowners didn't have flood insurance. Some were told they didn't even need it. Personal finance editor Gerri Willis has what you need to know to keep your home safe. '

Gerri, good morning.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Good morning.

HARRIS: Gerri, what is happening to the homeowners in the Midwest, particularly the one who were told, you don't even need flood insurance.

WILLIS: As you said, some folks are being turned down (INAUDIBLE) for claims even when their home was totally demolished because they didn't have flood insurance. We've seen this before. Large numbers of homeowners hit by hurricane Katrina didn't have flood insurance either. The reasons are complicated. But one factor that everybody should think about today, the Federal government flood maps are in many cases are decades old.

Some haven't been redrawn since the early 1970s and that can spell trouble for many homeowners who may live in a flood-prone area and not know it. Keep in mind, bad maps can cause insurance agents to give bad advice when it comes to buying flood insurance.

HARRIS: Gerri, who should buy flood insurance?

WILLIS: You know, you have to sort of make your own decision Tony. Just because you may not live near a body of water doesn't mean you can escape flooding. Here's some rules of thumb. Think about flood insurance if you get large standing pools of water after severe rainstorms. If the land around your house has changed dramatically, maybe developers built a new big box retail store or a condo complex, you might want to think about flood insurance.

If you have a lot of dams, levees, dikes, check with your local emergency management office to find out the vulnerability of these structures. The fire department will know how to get in contact with that office. You can also go to floodsmart.gov and msc.fema.gov for the very latest info, including updated visual maps for the areas that they have.

HARRIS: Nice. All right, let's talk about the process.

How do you go about buying flood insurance?

WILLIS: The Federal government underwrites flood insurance but you buy it through an insurance company. If your insurance company doesn't offer you flood insurance, you can always contact the Federal program directly. It's called the national flood insurance program, their phone number, 888-379-9531.

If you buy a house in the designated high-risk flood zone and receive a mortgage from a regulated insured lender, your lender is going to legally ask you if they have to to maintain flood insurance.

Keep in mind though there's a 30-day waiting period when you buy this stuff for it to be effective so you have to get out in front of the curve because you know there are limits to coverage, $50,000 for the house and $100,000 for the contents. The good news Tony is that if you buy it, it's not that expensive. Most policies cost about $600 over the course of a year.

But some policies, if you buy them in what are considered low- risk areas, they're only 120 bucks. So this could be the cheapest insurance policy you ever, ever buy. Of course, if you have any questions about flood insurance or anything else, send them to us at (INAUDIBLE) CNN.com. We love to hear from you.

HARRIS: Gerri, before we let you go, give us a bit of a preview of what's coming up on "ISSUE #1," noon Eastern you'll see that.

WILLIS: That's right. We're going to take a look at the technology some folks say can lower your energy bill for years to come. And we're going to show you five ways -- yes, five ways -- to fly cheap when plane tickets are anything but cheap, as you know.

HARRIS: That's for sure.

WILLIS: Tune in, noon Eastern.

HARRIS: All right, Gerri, good to see you.

WILLIS: Good to see you.

HARRIS: See you again at noon. Thanks.

COLLINS: Good morning once again, everybody, 10:30 Eastern time now. I'm Heidi Collins.

HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris. Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM.

Want to get you to Rob Marciano in the severe weather center. And Rob, if you would, take us through some of the maps and give us an update on the situation there. We're talking about a portion of Iowa, we're talking about a portion of Illinois right now that we're watching very close.

MARCIANO: Yes, and then eventually it'll get through Missouri and the whole thing. So, here's Illinois, Iowa, obviously eastern Iowa really hammered with a lot of this flooding. The smaller rivers, the Cedar River, the Iowa River, they are receding but still well above flood stage. What has happened today, now everything is coming down the Mississippi so this is the area of water that's beginning to swell. And where we had some issues is some water getting into this Carthage Lake area, which then, probably right through here, there's a levee that breached and let more water go into this stillway here. Fairly rural, a lot of farm land in here. But there are some populated areas around Highway 34 and through here, some subdivisions, probably, that are being inundated with some water as well.

On the Iowa side of the river, in Burlington where Sean Callebs is, there's concerns there because some parts of that levee system there are some boils, meaning the water is kind of seeping through in spots. So, they're sandbagging, they're doing what they can. Obviously, Burlington a lot more populated, there's a lot more people that would be affected by this. And from reports we're getting over the phone from Sean Callebs, there is some flooding going on in spots of that city.

So, all of this water has to get down, we'll go back to the weather maps to show you the counties mostly along the Mississippi and the tributaries. Obviously, in flood zones and flood warnings. Where are these warnings going to really peak? Major flooding forecasts in these particular towns, Mississippi north to south, water's got to flow down hill towards the Gulf of Mexico, so Burlington and through Quincy, this is where we expect the crests to occur, really tomorrow morning and through tomorrow afternoon. As then as the water continues to make its way down, Thursday and Friday into Clarksville, Saturday into St. Louis.

Right now, the forecast crests in St. Louis 39.8 feet. Major flooding would be at 40 feet. So, we could very -- you know, and these flood forecasts, sometimes difficult to predict. You never know how much runoff rain gets down into the river system. Also, any time there's a levee break, that will affect the actual cresting of the water. So, these always change.

Good news here, radar not showing a whole lot of rain in the flood zone. There's not a whole lot of rain forecast in the flood zone. So, the water that's in the system now should be all that mother nature is providing, at least for the next 48 hours. So ...

COLLINS: Boy.

MARCIANO: ...we'll try to get it out in as orderly fashion as possible. In spots, guys, like we've been saying all morning long, it's going to be as bad if not worse in spots as 1993.

COLLINS: All right, Rob. Thank you.

MARCIANO: All right, guys. See you later.

HARRIS: Want to get the very latest on the situation in Henderson County, Illinois. Chief Deputy Donnie Seitz is on the line with us. And Chief Deputy, if you would, give us a sense of the towns that you're concerned about. I'm supposing Carthage Lake is an area that you're particularly concerned about. I'm wondering if Gulfport is also within your -- oh -- and Deputy, if you would hang on, we want to get to President Bush. He's been briefed on the situation and he's making a statement right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ...domestic policy team to discuss the current flooding in the Midwest.

First, our hearts and thoughts go to those who lost life. Of course, we're concerned about those who have lost their homes or lost their businesses. I've been briefed by Secretary Chertoff and Secretary Shaver and Director Paulison about the response.

First task at hand is to deal with the floodwaters, to anticipate where the flooding may next occur and to work with the state and local authorities to deal with the response.

For example, in the case of Iowa, one of the issues is the need for fresh drinking water, or drinking water. And so, Director Paulison informed that we've provided about two million liters of drinking water. When I was overseas, I spoke to the governor and he said, listen, I -- we need federal help on drinking water. So, I've sent the word to David and he responded well.

The only point to this is that we're in constant contact with people on the ground to help make sure that we save lives. Now that the water is beginning to recede, the question is, how do we help with the recovery? And Secretary Chertoff briefed me on plans, particularly when it comes to housing. A lot of people are going to be wondering, is there short-term help for housing? And there is and we'll provide that help.

Secondly, what's going to happen in the long-term to the homes? And so, Michael is going to send up a housing task force similar to the kind we set up in California for the wildfires to work with state and local authorities, to have an orderly strategy to help people get back in their homes.

I fully understand people are upset when they lose their home. A person's home is their most valued possession. And we want to work with state and local folks to have a clear strategy to help people get back into a place where they can live.

Secondly, we're worried about farmers and ranchers. The country has been affected by these floods, got a lot of flood country, a lot of people raising livestock. And the Secretary of Agriculture has briefed me on the conditions. We're still assessing how widespread the damage is on the farmlands and assures me that his team is in place to help farmers and ranchers with the federal aid available.

And, finally, Director Nussle is here from the Budget Office. We've got what we call a Disaster Relief Fund. There's enough money in that fund to take care of this disaster, but what we're concerned about is future disasters this year. And therefore, we're going to work with the Congress, Jim Nussle's going to go up to work with Congress to get enough money in the upcoming supplemental to make sure that fund has got enough money to deal with the potential disaster, another disaster this year.

Congress doesn't need to worry about working with the White House on this because we think this supplemental is the way to go. What they do need to worry about is making sure that there's enough but not too much money in the fund so we can say we've done our job.

I want to thank the members of my administration for working hard on this issue. I want to thank the governors in the affected states for being so compassionate and caring for their citizens. I want to thank the folks at the local level for loving their neighbor like they'd like to be loved themselves.

This Thursday, I'm going to take our team down there to meet with the folks in Iowa and unfortunately, I've been to too many disasters as president. And one thing I've always learned is that the American citizen can overcome these disasters. In life, while it may seem dim at this point in time, it can always be better because of the resiliency and care of our citizens. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Well, I think the news there is that the president is planning a trip to Iowa on Thursday. And boy, you can imagine that that would maybe buck up the spirits of so many people there in Iowa who have been so hard hit by the flooding we have watched over the last, seems the last week or so. The president outlining efforts by his team to assist the people in Iowa, get back on their feet again.

But as we continue to follow this story this morning, an amazing situation developing along the Mississippi River. A number of communities in the way of the Mississippi that could be impacted by floodwaters. We're going to check in with Sean Callebs in just a couple of moments. He is in Burlington, Iowa. He will give us a first look at pictures of the flooding there.

For that and more in just a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: We are keeping a very close eye on the flooding situation across several different states in the midsection of the country, specifically we are watching this. Burlington, Iowa, because of levee break and obviously what could happen with the Mississippi River as you see in the center of that picture.

Sean Callebs has been following the story for us all morning long. He has now made his way in front of the cameras and is standing, Sean, in downtown Burlington.

CALLEBS: Heidi, we're actually on a loading dock of a warehouse that has bedding supplies. If you can think of anything worse getting soaked than a warehouse full of sheets and mattresses. If you look out this way, you get a pretty good visual of just how much the water has encroached upon this town. The river is usually so far out there it's very difficult to see.

This is the battle right now. They have a number of pumps working down because there are some parts of the warehouse that are actually well below the water line. So, they're working feverishly trying to keep it down.

Now, if you look directly across from where we are, that is where the levee gave way a short while ago. What happened? All the water from the Mississippi is now being pumped or actually flowing toward that breach. So, the water's actually gone down about seven inches or so over the last several hours here in the town of Burlington. That's the good news. The bad news is, as soon as it levels off, it's going to start going up again because the crest is still sometime away.

I want to bring in Pete Wilson (ph). Pete, you're the manager here at this warehouse. You were here -- just step up just a little bit -- you were here back in 1993.

PETE WILSON, WAREHOUSE MANAGER: Yes.

CALLEBS: Tell me first about the flooding here. Did you think it would get this bad? And we've heard some people say with the county and emergency operations, well, it's not as bad as we thought. But it looks pretty bad.

WILSON: We started sandbagging last Thursday when they were still having the carnival up front there. And I said, this is crazy. All these people over -- and we're out here, all our people are sandbagging and they're up there playing at. And I'm thinking I don't know what everybody's thinking, but it's coming. And at 25 feet, it was up to six inches below our dock in '93.

CALLEBS: And right now, what are you worried about over the next 10 to 12 hours?

WILSON: If this river comes up to 26 feet, it's going to be clear to the top of our levee here, and I don't know if we're going to be able to hold it. It was up to 25 '7 earlier this morning, and we were -- I'd just about gave up on it. This is going to give us a little reprieve because that levee broke over there and I'm going to hopefully get some more pumps ready now to prepare a little bit farther for that.

CALLEBS: I want to point the camera out across this water because I mean, the river is so wide right now. Where is it usually? It's usually well out past those last telephone poles.

WILSON: You can see the last telephone poles over there. It's probably another 200, 300 yards past those telephone poles before you get to the edge of that river out in there. Back over there, it's on the other side of those trees over there. I don't know if you can see the tree out there. There's a loading -- there's a dock over there that they back their boats down in.

CALLEBS: Pete, one thing about this, in 1993, the historic flooding really made people think differently about getting flood insurance. And we're told a lot of people felt they were priced out of flood insurance after that flood. What about this area, what about you, your neighbors, your business associates? Is there enough insurance to handle this disaster?

WILSON: No, and the flood -- I don't think so. I mean, we don't currently have any flood insurance here. So, I mean, if we lose it, we lose it. So, it's just up to us.

CALLEBS: It begs the question, living this close to the river, why don't you have flood insurance?

WILSON: I'm not really sure how good the flood insurance is. You know, they'll pay for part of it. But I don't think they're going to -- they're not going to pay for all the stuff that we've got here. They just won't cover it all. And I think it'd be way priced out of the earnings (ph) that we could afford to do it anyway.

CALLEBS: We saw FEMA so overwhelmed after Hurricane Katrina down the Gulf Coast area. Now, they're talking about hundreds of miles of farmland, hundreds of miles of communities that need to come in and help. Are you worried about government assistance coming to this area?

WILSON: I think there's going to be such a disaster up, especially on up in the Des Moines/Cedar Rapids/Cedar Falls area, that it's -- it's going to be very little trickle down into this area. I just -- I think it'll be hard for them to get here. I don't think we'll get as much down in here. It's going to be a disaster. Everybody is losing homes bad up along this river right now and ...

CALLEBS: Well, it's pretty bad in your neck of the woods, too, right here.

WILSON: Well, when I say this area, I'm talking just a few miles right here, Burlington right here.

CALLEBS: But this is a very rural area, a lot of farmland in this area.

WILSON: A lot of farmland.

CALLEBS: Once a levee gives, there's nothing to hold it back. We saw that in '93, so you could see hundreds of mile of square acres inundated.

WILSON: We've got another levee right down here, they've got a levee called the big ditch which is a few miles down the road. They're saying that that's going to hold. And if that holds, it should not flood this -- the lower part of Burlington here any worse than what this -- this is the river that's flooding right now. If that big ditch goes, then there's a small levee out here that I don't know if it hold it back or not.

CALLEBS: You know, Pete, it's like driving through a ghost town. Everybody's out doing what they can to try and salvage this city. WILSON: Here, I mean, it's just been totally amazing. Our people just came out and worked. I mean -- and I think the whole town has been doing the same thing. We've had people walk in and that just volunteer to help. And it's just been awesome. I just can't believe it.

CALLEBS: Good luck to you, Pete. We appreciate your time.

WILSON: Well, I really appreciate it. Thank you.

CALLEBS: And Heidi and Tony, boy, that's the story here. You heard about the Amtrak that's been swamped, disrupting traffic. It's only a couple of blocks that way. So, the pictures tell the story. People can say what they want about the flooding, but it's pretty significant. And according to the locals who here in '93, it's going to get worse.

COLLINS: Yes, unfortunately, obviously, that looks like it's going to be the case there. Sean, thanks so much. Some great pictures coming in to get a better sense of what's happening on there, specifically in Burlington, Iowa.

Sean Callebs, thanks.

HARRIS: Let's get you to the other side of the Mississippi right now. Chief Deputy Donnie Seitz, he is in Henderson County, Illinois.

Deputy, thanks for your time this morning. Sorry we couldn't talk just a couple of moments ago. We had to get to the president, but thanks for your time and thanks staying on the line with us.

VOICE OF DEP. DONNIE SEITZ, HANCOCK CO., ILLINOIS, SHERIFF'S DEPT.: That's fine.

HARRIS: Well, I know you've got a real situation on your hands in Carthage Lake. Can you describe what you're dealing with?

SEITZ: Well, it's more the actual Mississippi than the Carthage Lake. That's where the levee actually breached, within the Carthage Lake area which is levee district No. 1. That's where the breach was about 5:00 this morning. And now, we're looking at thousands acres going to be under water. We have a small village of Gulfport that will be under water and all the residents who's in the bottom area.

As of right now, you know, U.S. 34, which is a main throughway in the United States, is going to be under water. It could be under 10 foot of water within 15, 20 hours. That's the main issue right now, is trying to let -- get the traffic, get the word out for the traffic.

HARRIS: Yes.

SEITZ: You know, they have to turn around and go the other way.

HARRIS: And Deputy, how do you do that? How do you get the word out to folks? SEITZ: Well, right now we're working with IEMA, and the Department of Transportation, and getting signs up, the military, National Guard's here, which is a real big assist for us. We're a real small county. Our resources are very limited. And we're -- the Illinois State Police and the other agencies are really assisting in that. Other county agencies are also assisting us. And it's been an uphill battle from the start, and the levee just broke loose.

And now, we have plans that we're putting in effect right now trying to save other towns. They're battling in our county seat in Oquawka, that battle's still going on. The levee this morning at about 1:30 was really close to going over, but they was able to stop it again. So, we have several things going on at once.

HARRIS: Deputy, how many towns, just listening to you a moment ago, how many towns in -- not just your area, but the immediate area are you concerned about right now?

SEITZ: We're concerned about Oquawka, we're concerned about the Cameron Village area, we're concerned about the Wallmax (ph) area, we still have Dallas City to contend with and on down the line. So, there's -- like I say, there's several things that were still up in the air that we -- they're still predicting the crest isn't going to be here until later this evening. So, that's just something else we have to deal with.

HARRIS: OK, Chief Deputy Donnie Seitz with us. Boy, sounds like you really do have your hands full. And thanks for taking the time to talk to us this morning.

COLLINS: Yes, another thing we want to tell you more about, we're going to take a quick break here, but let you know what's happening with Amtrak because even train service is disrupted now because of the flooding. We're back in a moment.

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COLLINS: Because of the severe weather across the center of the country, there's another interesting aspect to all of this, and it is an unfortunate one. Amtrak service has been disrupted obviously because of the water that is just piling up in the center of the country. Disrupted at specifically Ft. Madison and Burlington, Iowa.

We've been talking about Burlington all morning long and south of St. Paul, Minnesota, there are several different lines specifically that are disrupted, Los Angeles and Chicago through Kansas City, Amtrak California, zephyr (ph) route, that one between San Francisco Bay and Chicago through Denver and Omaha and then, of course, the Amtrak Empire Builder, that route between Seattle, Portland and Chicago through St. Paul.

The suggestion is from Amtrak, if you have travel plans, to please call their passenger information line. You see it in front you, 1-800-USA-RAIL. A quick break. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: Levees at the breaking point, residents working around the clock to save their communities. A live report from one threatened city just minutes away.

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