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Southern States Prepare For Flooding Along Mississippi River; Morganza Spillway to be Opened to Relieve Pressure on Levees; Financial Experts Give Advice on Gifts For Grads
Aired May 14, 2011 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM where the news unfolds live this Saturday, May 14th. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
Happening right now, we're waiting for an expected announcement from the U.S. army corps of engineers that it's opening the Morganza spillway to protect New Orleans from the Mississippi floodwaters. But other areas could see disastrous flooding. We'll go live to the briefing when it gets underway.
In areas like Morgan City, Louisiana, could get major flooding once that spillway is indeed opened. Morgan City is protected by flood walls. But those walls could fail. The city's mayor talked about his concerns with our Ed Lavandera.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Are you worried about it flooding? This is the heart of the city right here.
TIM MATTE, MAYOR, MORGAN CITY, LOUISIANA: Well, it is the heart of the city and it's primarily protected, of course, by that wall right there and it would take a failure of that wall, I think, before this would really be at risk. What we're really concerned about, though, that high river stage raising the water level back where the lake is and then if that got topped because that level of protection is not nearly as high as this. That water would flow throughout the city and not be held within a particular compartment of the city.
We are an island. We have the river on one side and both our east end boundary and southern end boundary of the river and western boundaries of the lake.
LAVANDERA: So this water threat surrounds you.
MATTE: Absolutely.
Well, you can see, it's just starting to lap up under the planks of the wharf, so the water is just getting here. It will touch this wall and extend all the way to that wall over there. Those buildings right there that you see across the way, those will be under water.
LAVANDERA: It's just a staggering amount of water, isn't it? When you look at it from this perspective and, like I said, our people and nor has anyone else seen anything like this. Not here. Not in this spot.
LAVANDERA: You're confident about these walls holding up?
MATTE: I have to be, yes. Have to be.
LAVANDERA: And if for whatever reason they fail --
MATTE: Total catastrophe. There's this entire city would flood without a doubt.
LAVANDERA: Are you angry that they're opening up the Morganza spillway?
MATTE: Am I angry about it? No, I think we all live with this potential and this is what this whole floodway system is for. I wouldn't want to live any place else, but that's part of what comes with it. Certainly, this is a floodway and built as a floodway. No, there was no, that decision was made way back in 1928 and the '30s all of those after the '27 flood. This was the design. So from that perspective, that's what it is here for. It's here to provide that relieve valve for the river.
LAVANDERA: This is where the water level reached in '73.
MATTE: In '73.
LAVANDERA: This is part of the wall that held it back.
MATTE: That's correct.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Our Ed Lavandera tells us the floodwaters will be released slowly from the Morganza spillway to minimize the damage in Morgan City and other areas downstream.
Meteorologist Jennifer Delgado joins us with the latest on the flood threat. This is so frightening for so many people looking at the potential of being inundated with several feet of water.
JENNIFER DELGADO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Fredricka, this is such a tough decision to make. This is going happen, as we said, in a few hours. As I show you on our graphic, this is the Morganza floodgates. The area in red, this is the gate. If you look real closely, there is the Mississippi river. What this is going to do, of course, this is going to alleviate some of the flooding potential for baton rouge as well as New Orleans.
As I zoom in more, the area towards the west, this is the area that's potentially going to be flooded out, talking about small communities and farmland. Roughly about 25,000 people could be at risk. Interstate 10, that road may be at risk for being impassable. This area here doesn't have a floodgate. We'll likely see flooding there. It gets a little better if I show you this area of Morgan City. They have a levee there. Hopefully Morgan City is going to shape up or should I say not sustain any of the flooding.
As I close this, I want to show you the other graphic real quick. Hopefully the magic wall is going to work with me. Let's talk about more of the flooding that's going to be happening as we go through the next several days and weeks ahead. Not until the end of the month before the water is going to make it to areas including New Orleans. Right now, you can see we have a river of 12.8 meters. That's Vicksburg. That's major flood stage, the same for Natchez and Baton Rouge.
Notice right now we're dealing with moderate flooding for New Orleans. That's good news with the area being so low, they need all the protection they can get.
WHITFIELD: My goodness, still talking about potentially two more weeks of agony, being on the edge of your seat?
DELGADO: Absolutely. May 22nd.
WHITFIELD: Jennifer, thanks so much.
Other stories making news right now. Two Islamic leaders in south Florida and one of their relatives in California arrested today, charged with providing support to the Pakistani Taliban. That's a terrorist group with close ties to Al Qaeda, responsible for carrying out attacks on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Three other people in Pakistan were also indicted. A federal indictment says all six conspired to kill, injure or kidnap people abroad.
And thousands of people who thought they won a green card to stay in this country are now out of luck. The U.S. State Department is invalidating results posted on its Web site because of a computer glitch. Every year millions apply for 50,000 green cards. A new lottery will be held in July.
Welcome news for motorists struggling with high gas prices. Who isn't? President Barack Obama plans to speed up domestic oil drilling. He made the announcement in his weekly address to the nation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm directing the department of interior to conduct annual lease sales in Alaska's national petroleum reserve while protecting sensitive areas and to speed up the oil and gas exploration in the mid and south Atlantic. We plan to lease new areas in the Gulf of Mexico as well and work to create new incentives to industry to develop their unused leases both on and offshore.
(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: The president's announcement follows similar moves by the GOP controlled House. They have recently passed several bills opening up coastal areas for drilling.
House Speaker John Boehner gave the commencement address at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. today. But there was a cloud of controversy over that event more than 70,000 Catholic scholars wrote him criticizing his voting record. They say the budget pushed by the Republican goes against Catholic teachings on the needs of the poor.
And Major League Baseball is celebrating the civil rights era in a city that was a cradle for that movement, Atlanta, playing host to Sunday's civil rights game. Right now at Centennial Olympic Park, pre-game activities are take place. MLB will also play tribute to Hammering Hank Aaron. T.J. Holmes spoke with Aaron and asked him about the state of the game.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANK AARON, FORMER MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYER: It could be better. It could be a lot better. We don't have as many African- American baseballs playing baseball now as we used to. Every time we have an economic struggle in this country we - and I mean we, the blacks are going to feel the pinch a lot quicker than anybody. And baseball is a very expensive game.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Next hour, we'll look at how baseball is also using this weekend to focus on young people.
Here is a quiz for you. The United States once had a booming textile industry. Well, not so much now. Which country produces the most bales of cotton? Is it China, India, Brazil, or is it the U.S. still?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Before the break, we asked if you know which country produce it is most cotton, China, India, Brazil or the U.S.? The answer is China according to the National Cotton Council of America.
One state is hoping to boost cotton production in the U.S. Tom Foreman takes us to North Carolina in this "Building up America" report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tommy Burleson is laying in another crop of Carolina cotton just as his family has for years. But this is much more than a job these days.
RONNIE BURLESON, THURMAN, BURLESON & SONS FARM: It's a thrill.
FOREMAN: Because a portion of his crop is going to Cotton of the Carolinas. That's an innovative program to build up the hard-hit textile industry here by turning locally grown cotton into locally made clothing creating locally need jobs at places like TS Designs.
ERIC MICHEL, TS DESIGNS: Our shirts go from dirt to shirt in 700 miles or less.
FOREMAN: That matters because company officials like Eric Michelle stress green production, using less fuel which is difficult when cotton and cotton products are shipped back and forth to China, India, Pakistan.
MICHEL: We're a triple bottom line business. We like to look after the P's -- people, planet, and profit.
FOREMAN: What crushed the textile industry was lower labor costs abroad. These shirts still generally cost more than imports. But they have found fans in people who support local production, and a competitive edge may be coming.
SAM MOORE, COTC ADVISER: Ultimately with fuel costs and other things going way up, we're going to have a more sustainable supply chain and a consistent quality here that other people may not have.
FOREMAN: For Ronnie Burleson, it's simpler.
BURLESON: We're going to church with people that worked in the cotton mills all their life. All that industry is gone. I feel proud to be part of what can try to bring back some of those jobs and help my neighbor.
FOREMAN: Building up the fabric of his hometown.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Burlington, North Carolina.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: As promised, we want to take you to Morganza, Louisiana, where a the Morganza spill, the U.S. army corps of engineers, talking about the potential of opening up the spillway in order to protect New Orleans and baton rouge. Let's listen in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- drains into this area and comes by the Mississippi. The key items we're looking at here are those items in red, and that's the Mississippi River tributaries project, and that's what we're working on right now.
Next slide. On this slide here, this is what guys thought about 30 years ago and what we've been constructing for the last -- since 1928, to put a system together where we meet certain gauges an certain requirements where we take water off of the main stem of the Mississippi and we move them around to different areas and stage that water so we can continue to protect lives as we move downriver.
You know we opened up the flood way at Bird's Point, New Madrid. We opened that up last week. We also opened up the Bonnet Carre spillway. And now there's discussions about opening up Morganza. I'll get to that in just a moment.
The gauges are still at historic highs. I was at Caro, Illinois, two days ago. While folks are coming back to that city even after it was evacuated, the gauge levels are still as high as they've ever been. They've dropped three feet, but they're still as high as they've ever been. We need to remain vigilant.
We still have our engineers walking the levees looking for sand boils and other things in regard to weaknesses. The crest is still up in Arkansas, hats on the yet come down here. This is certainly going to be a marathon and not a sprint as we go through this tremendous amount, huge amount of water as it comes down.
It's, again, putting tremendous pressure on the entire system as we try and work this amount of water through the Mississippi River tributaries project.
The next question is when do we open the Morganza floodway. And I just took a brief from the district commander. He recommends that we continue with the opening of Morganza spillway, and I directed him, the Mississippi River Commission directed him to open those bays today. I'll have Colonel Fleming talk to you about that in just a moment.
WHITFIELD: We're going to continue to monitor what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is saying, that they will be opening up the Morganza spillway later on today. That's to try to prevent severe flooding in Baton Rouge or New Orleans. But that doesn't mean that there won't be other communities that may bear the brunt of flooding as a result of the swelling Mississippi River. We'll continue to monitor the developments there. Ed Lavandera is there as well. He'll be joining us later on.
Meantime, it is graduation season. And hundreds of thousands of students are actually getting their diplomas. Can you guess how much they paid for their cap and gown? Just a quick quiz. The answer when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Before the break, we asked you if you knew how much a cap and gown cost. Depending on your school's requirements, you can spend anywhere from $45 to $185. And that's without the tassels, the honor cord, and the stoles.
So what is the perfect gift for the graduate in your life? Ken and Daria Dolan joining us now with some suggestions, our financial dynamic duo. Good to see you all.
KEN DOLAN, DOLANS.COM: Hi, Fredricka. I'm so old I forget what I got for my graduation.
(LAUGHTER)
WHITFIELD: Oh, stop it.
DARIA DOLAN, DOLANS.COM: You know what, I remember having a close encounter with a beer bottle in my gown.
WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness, we're revealing a lot. Is there more?
KEN DOLAN: No, no, no.
WHITFIELD: I must say, it is a struggle. I always struggle with what's the perfect gift for a graduating high school senior, even college senior. You say, you know what, let's keep it simple. Off the bat they'll appreciate gift cards and, oh, my gosh, that can be so easy to give.
DARIA DOLAN: You know, it sounds easy. But when you think about it, the average college graduate, unless you're very close with them and you know exactly what they like to do, you probably don't know that much about them. You're better off doing things where they can do it themselves, buy it themselves, such as gift cards.
KEN DOLAN: Like a Visa card with a limit on it, with an amount of money on it, maybe AmEx. Maybe if they're going to stay at home, maybe they'll help with home improvements instead of paying rent. Maybe Lowe's or one of the home improvement places.
DARIA DOLAN: That was one of his ideas, not mine.
KEN DOLAN: And also, maybe a nice retail card where they can get their first business suit if they're going to be working right away.
WHITFIELD: That's a great idea. Once someone graduates from college especially, and maybe even high school, they're going to need a computer when they go off to college, the high school graduation. That's a fantastic but high-end kind of gift to give.
KEN DOLAN: It is high end, Fred, but keep in mind there are good deals on computers now because obviously they know a lot of people are look at computers as gifts. We were looking around before the subject. Daria got one.
DARIA DOLAN: On my iPad, I got the one just as the twos were coming out and saved $100. It's probably a little difficult to find the iPad one now. Give it a try. You never know.
And depending on your closeness to the graduate will also depend on whether you can fork over that kind of money or hey, mom and dad, if you've been helping subsidize this college education, this will be the last big money you have to give away.
WHITFIELD: That's a good way to look at it.
KEN DOLAN: I can't live with my Blackberry, which is a lot less. I think I played $99 for a calling plan. It's a wonderful gift, a Blackberry, whether working right away or taking time off, it's nice to stay in touch with the kids.
WHITFIELD: Good message to send. DARIA DOLAN: Another great gift idea which you don't think about is to pay for resume-writing service for that graduate who still hasn't been able to find a job.
KEN DOLAN: Exactly right. We're information maniacs, I suppose, but a nice gift of a magazine or newsletter on something that they're either interested in or, in fact, will help their career would be very good, and well within anybody's budget. They're practically giving away magazines.
WHITFIELD: A perfectly smart eye, keeping them informed and helping them be very equipped as they head on to the real world, right?
KEN DOLAN: Yes.
DARIA DOLAN: My favorite one, if I have a minute to put in the one I think is very important.
WHITFIELD: OK.
DARIA DOLAN: You can get together with a lot of people. The average college graduate is leaving college now with over $20,000 in student loan debt. And it might be the best gift of al to pool a whole group of people's money and give them a payment to get rid of some of that student loan debt.
WHITFIELD: Talk about stress relieving.
DARIA DOLAN: That's a big choker for these kids.
WHITFIELD: Nothing is worse, you're excited about getting out into the world and you're saddled with giant debt. A student loan can be considered good debt because you did get through college. That's another subject.
DARIA DOLAN: As long as you're working to pay it off.
WHITFIELD: Ken and Daria --
KEN DOLAN: When in doubt, cash doesn't hurt whether student loan, first month's rent or something like that.
WHITFIELD: Ken and Daria Dolan, thanks so much. And, as always, people can keep tabs on you at www.thedolans.com. Did I get that right?
KEN DOLAN: Just Dolans.com.
WHITFIELD: All right, Ken and Daria, good to see you.
A country music superstar is moved to action after seeing devastated Alabama and wants you to join him. A challenge from Hank Williams Junior next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: The biggest stars of country music are doing what they do best, performing to raise money for the families of the tornado-ravaged south. One of those stars wants you to join him and CNN. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANK WILLIAMS, MUSICIAN: Hi, I'm Hank Williams junior. You can make an impact to help the people of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi that have been totally devastated by the worst disaster in the history of the state. You have to be here. You just can't describe it. It's absolutely unbelievable.
These cities need not millions. They need billions. Help is on the way. American's can survive and Alabama can survive.
So please join the movement, "Impact your World." Go to CNN.com/impact.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Meantime, as it pertains to the flood-ravaged area, the army corps of engineers is making the decision on levees along the Mississippi River. Coming up at the top of the hour, we take an in- depth look at this organization and why it has so many critics.
And straight ahead for now, a CNN special, "FASHION BACKSTAGE."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
