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Flood Victims Could Suffer PTSD; Georgia Soccer Star Faces Deportation; Morganza Spillway Opened First Time Since 1973
Aired May 14, 2011 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're going to begin with breaking news. Look at that. Water just pouring through the Morganza Spillway, that is a live picture from Louisiana. They haven't done this since the 1970s. It's been 40 years, and you know, I remember the last time they did this. This is not an exact Science. They don't know exactly where this water is going to go. Thousands of people are going to be flooded. The governor has said evacuate, evacuate, evacuate, evacuate. It is heart break in Louisiana right now. This is what they're having to do to relieve pressure on a swollen levee system, a very taxed levee system, and they don't know if that levee system is going to hold even with this. They're being inundated with water.
People who have dealt recently with tornadoes just a couple weeks ago, and then of course hurricane Katrina and Rita that hit the area and have done so much devastation to Louisiana. You can't take your eyes off these pictures. Imagine if this was happening in your community. This much water, knowing your homes, your farms, your livelihood would be flooded. We'll going to get to our players here. We've got Ed Lavandera on the ground. Ed is going to join us in a second. Look at the flooding. This is what is being flooded. This is all just moments ago. Once they started to release the pressure on the Morganza Spillway and let that water out, look at these levees. Water pouring across the levees. That's the Mississippi River there. Look at that. Unbelievable.
We're going to follow this breaking news story for you because we don't know what is going to happen here. We don't know how this is going to end up. They don't even know if this is going to actually relieve all the pressure and help that stressed levee system in Louisiana which has been inundated with so much water and so much heartache. Our Jennifer Delgado, our meteorologist is also here as well. We'll going to get to her in a moment. I'm going to go to the ground now and my colleague Ed Lavandera for this breaking news. This is historic, these flood gates have not been opened Ed since the 1970s, and as we say, heart break. Show us what's happening where you are.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, 1973, to be exact, Don. This is just one of the gates. To give you a sense of just a little while ago, we were standing down here where you see these gates on the ground here, and that water has already here in the last few minutes already taken all of that over. We just had a chance, Don to walk over on top of the Morganza Spillway structure and kind of stand over that gate and get a sense of watching that water. And I'll tell you, this vantage point is impressive, but when you stand over it and see how wide and how powerful the water is rushing through just that one gate, it really is impressive. Now, where we're standing, the water begins the long, slow process of making its way toward the Gulf of Mexico, and with it, a lot of heartache and pain for the many people who live in the communities that will be in the direct path of these flood waters downs like Beaut La Rose (ph), Steven Bill (ph) and down into Morgan City, so they'll be watching this closely.
We're about 45 miles north of Interstate 10, and officials say here that it will take about a full day for a lot of this water to make it to Interstate 10. We don't anticipate any road closings or anything to where state over that part of Louisiana's suspended over the swamps and the water over there. So, that water will going to need there, and then it will take about three days get to Morgan City. And as you mentioned off the top, this is all about the pressure on the levee system along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and Louisiana. Anything over 1.5 million cubic feet per second of water is simply too much for the levee system to handle. It can really cause problems and it could be devastating for those levees. So, they had to relieve the pressure off that. The colonel here who is in charge of the army corps engineers and made the decision of opening this up described this as an off ramp of the Mississippi River highway. And this is one of the few places where water can come off the River. And even though it has got to go through this River basin, it makes its way to the Gulf of Mexico. Yes, Don.
LEMON: Hey, Ed. Let me top in there. I don't want you to go far away because we're going to come right back to you. Ed Lavandera is right there in Louisiana, right where it's happening at Morganza. Ed, stand by because you mentioned army corps of engineers.
I want to go to the phone now to Ed Fleming of the U.S. Army Corps. Colonel, I know it's a difficult decision to open the Morganza Spillway after nearly 40 years of not having to use it and the heartbreak for people who know they're going to get flooded.
ED FLEMING, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS (on the phone): Yes, you know, the amount of water that is coming down the Mississippi River all the way from Cairo, Illinois, down through the state of Louisiana is record-setting, and we operate this as the system, and this is one of those operations that Ed just mentioned, and we operated it started today, and we're thinking this is a successful operation going on right now.
LEMON: Hey, listen, I have been telling our viewers here Colonel that this isn't an exact Science. There are about 2,500 people in direct path of the spillway and there are around 22,500 others who are threatened by the swollen backwaters. The governor has urged people remaining in these areas to begin evacuating. You really don't know how many people this is going to affect, do you?
FLEMING: Well, you know, we have a sense of how many people will be impacted, but Don, there are some of those folks that you mentioned that live behind the levee. And there are some communities that have ring levees around them, so they should be OK. We're also undertaken a flood fight with the city of Morgan City and some of the other local levee districts. So, we're doing the best we can here do relieve the pressure on the Mississippi River, but we're also down in Morgan City and Amelia and Berwick flood fighting with -- and sand bags and pumps doing the best we can to support them.
LEMON: Yes. And you just saw our Ed Lavandera. He is still there standing by. And I'm going to get back to you if you guys can stay on that picture, we would love to see this. We talked to the Colonel, and then come back and talk to you. So, Colonel, listen, people are watching from around the country here. Explain to them what you're going through and really the decision behind having to do this. Because this is a last-ditch effort. This is a decision you don't take lightly.
FLEMING: No, absolutely. I don't take this lightly at all. And, you know, when decisions get to my level, none of them are easy. And so, we fall back on our Science, our engineering. We look at the best technology that we have available. And in the end, with public safety as our number one priority, we make difficult decisions based on how we operate as a system. And so again, when we look at the flow that it's going to go fast...
LEMON: Colonel, are you there? OK, I think Colonel, are you still there? I think we have lost the Colonel, but as we said, if we try to get him back, it is unbelievable. He said this decision he does not take lightly. This happened though just about an hour ago, 3:00 p.m. local time, where is central time, 4 p.m. Eastern Time where they opened this, and they're doing one bay at a time. If you think this is a lot of water, wait until they start opening up more. That's our Ed Lavandera is actually doing a report for one of our other affiliates, and CNN in Espanol. So, we have a lot going on. Chad Myers is there. Chad, we can call your our chief meteorologist here. Hey, Chad, I want you to react to something. Stand by, listen to this, and then you and I will talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: It's worse than we thought. It's really worse than we thought. We thought maybe we might have water in our yard, and this came into our homes. This is going to take every -- everything we've got.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So this is, as we say, this is about, you think it's about land, but it's really about people. We're going to get to Chad Myers in just a bit. But again, you know, unbelievable that this is happening, and that this area has had to deal with so much. We're going to look at some new video now. This is the water as it's creeping up, begin to cover more land, more areas, more and more by the minute, really by the moment in Louisiana. We want to thank our affiliates there, they have been so great to us. WAFB and WLBT, they have been helping us out as well WDSU and a number of other affiliates because this is big news there. They don't know what's going to happen again, how many people, you heard the colonel say they have a general idea, but having dealt with the hurricanes and all the flooding and the wind and all the damage, they are really at their wits end there.
Chad Myers, you heard the lady said, you know, we thought it was just going to come in and cover a little bit of our land and the water might get up a little bit high. This is going to wipe out many people's homes there. And as I have been telling our viewers, it's not an exact Science, he have a good idea but it's not an exact Science here. Talk to me Chad Myers.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST (on the phone): Well, we had officials down in Beaut La Rose (ph) standing in a building, standing in a facility there and saying, look people, listen to me, I'm going to be standing in 15 feet of water if this gate is opened all the way, and that's what we're planning. That's what we anticipate. You absolutely must leave here. So, yes, it's not an exact Science, and yes, you know, the water may go left and then they go right at a couple of the ditches in the bayous, but they have a very good idea of what they have to do to save the levees, Don. The levees have begun to boil underneath them. I'm not alarmingly so, but boiling means that water pressure from the Mississippi River is pushing down so hard that the water is tunneling under the levees, tunneling under the levees all the way to push the water onto the dry side of the levee. And you cannot have that.
You can't have that type of boiling. Otherwise, the waters start to wash out the dirt. And, it gets the dirt to wash out, then all of a sudden, you can get a big tunnel under the levees, and then with the tunnel there, it can wash the levee itself into a complete breach because the water, of course of the water is tremendous. And it will push that dirt away, it will wash it away, and then you have areas that you thought were protected where people are scrambling because that breach is immediate and in big-time danger. They have to let some of that water out for the people that are down river. Again, anywhere from Baton Rouge down, so that these boils don't become catastrophic.
LEMON: And Chad, it says, you know, any more pressure would put the levees past their designed capacity. That past the design capacity, that was years ago. But now, those levees have been stressed so much lately, we don't even know what the design capacity is now. How much they can hold.
MYERS: Well, Don, they were made to have a 500 year flood. At some point in time, this has been called a 100 to 300-year flood. That the numbers, that's a complete gray area. Where you go from 100 to 300, do we even know because the last flood wasn't 100 years ago or 300 years ago that was this bad? The problem is, you have Army Corps, they look at these levees all the time. They look at them, they make sure that there aren't animals burrowing there. But you know, if you have literally a couple of animals that are burrowing under, making gopher holes, you can get soft spots, you can get weak spots that aren't even shown until the water guess to this pressure. The water guess to this level and all of a sudden, those weak spots, it's the weakest link in the chain. Right? The whole thing has to work. And if one part doesn't work, all of a sudden, you have flooded the other side of the levee, the levee has made to hold back. It has not been tested for a long time. Army Corps has a fantastic job of walking these, driving these levees month after month to make sure they're all good, but sometimes you can miss something.
LEMON: Yes. Hey, Chad Myers, I want you to stand by and I want to tell our viewers, we'll going to get back to Chad. We have team, complete team coverage here. Our Jennifer Delgado, our meteorologist is here at the CNN Severe Weather Center. Chad Myers is on the phone. Look at that, Louisiana, you know the wildlife there, snakes, gators, whatever you can think of, water moccasins, all there, all there, and so that is danger to show as well. And the water is pouring out of that Morganza Spillway. You remember the man who came in and some people say, I guess everybody would say rescued New Orleans in the state of Louisiana from an even -- from a disaster that could have been much worse. I don't know how it could have been much worse but had it not been for General Russel Honore, who knows where Louisiana, and New Orleans would be right now. General Russel Honore joins us on the other side of the break. Continuing coverage of the flooding in Louisiana in just moments.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: It's worse than we thought. It's really worse than we thought. We thought maybe we might have water in our yard. This came into our homes. This is going to take everything we've got.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: We're back now with our continuing coverage of the flooding in Louisiana. The water, water, water everywhere and where is it going to go all over the state? I want to bring in now the man who saved Louisiana during the hurricane Katrina. All you can call it was a crisis. General Russel Honore is on the phone. General, my family is there. I remember back in the '70s when they opened this 40 years ago when water was getting close to the interstate. Talk to us about the possibility of the human element there. What's going on, General?
LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE (RET.), CNN CONTRIBUTOR (on the phone): Well, Don. What we observed today was the death of all options because if we didn't do this, we could have lost the capital city of the state of Louisiana, Baton Rouge, and our historic commercial center of the south of New Orleans. So, this is the best of all options. The execution of the Morganza Bridge was by design. The way the corps did this, they played the playbook, and the playbooks worked. They released that pressure, the water will go through the Atchafalaya Spillway and...
LEMON: And General, General, what a decision to have to make? You have to weigh -- you know, this is the best of all options, but still, a lot of people are going to be hurt by this and impacted by this.
HONORE: Don, we're writing history. As of 3:00 today when they went into the process of opening that flood gate, we are writing history. The difference between this flood and previous floods in 1927 and '37 and the fact that we've had numerous numbers of infrastructures such as chemical plants and now nuclear power plants that are going to be in the threat of flooding. And the fact that we opened the Morganza Spillway to reduce that threat, but those chemical plants, nuclear plants are at risk. That's the difference between today and previous floods. We are writing history.
LEMON: General Russel Honore, stand by. As we look at these pictures, that's General Russel Honore in Louisiana, I'll tell you the water is pouring right now into the Atchafalaya basin in Louisiana. It's filling up marshes. It's engorging bayous, emerging hundreds of thousands of acres there, of farmland and it's seating into thousands of homes. It's really going to be the task though for the network of federally and locally belt levees as our Chad Myers has been telling us. I want to get back to General Russel Honore in a minute. I want to bring in Chad Myers real quick and then we're going to go to Jennifer Delgado. So, Chad, listen, the general talked about the chemical plants and all of the other issues that they have there now. Things that they didn't have back in the '20s and '30s when there was record flooding as well. These are major issues.
MYERS: Well, certainly, they are. They step up just what could be a flood to something that could turn into a bigger disaster. You stepped up the game by putting something else like that in the way. Also, the people that have lived in this, the flood basin, the Morganza flood basin, they knew when they built there. They know when they live there, they knew this could happen. And let me just tell you that they're not -- this is a process. This just isn't open all the gates and let the water flow. They are letting it out so slowly so that at least originally, right now, animals are fleeing because you know, the police can't come and say evacuate, you, whatever, jaguar, you bear, whatever you might be out there, you cannot get that.
So, the animals are getting a chance. They're giving a chance for the wildlife to escape. The problem that they can't get, that you cannot make the oysters escape. The oysters are going to get all of this fresh water, and oysters don't like this freshwater down there. Although, oysters, they want to be brackish, they want to be a little salty. So, there's nothing that is a perfect solution. Something is going to be hurt one way or the other. Some industry, some property is going to be hurt and damaged at some point in time. There is no perfect option to this, but they took the path of least resistance. What could possibly happen, what is the worst case this scenario, what's the worst case this scenario and this is what they had to do.
LEMON: And Chad, you know, as we're looking at, I don't know if you can see the pictures, but this is what they starting to flood now, and as I grew up there, the only jaguars I know, the Southern University Jaguars. I hope they're -- there are a lot of alligators and crocodiles and all that down in Louisiana. Chad, you bring up a good point, but I want you to stand by. I can't believe this video. It's amazing to watch. You really can't take your eyes off it. Chad Myers is on the phone. General Russel Honore is joining us as well to help us get through this, and try to realize as we look at the impact to what this water is doing. And some of it won't be realized for days. Jennifer Delgado, tell us about how much of an area of this is being impacted here.
JENNIFER DELGADO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, we're really talking about, just to give you an idea, about half the size of the state of Connecticut. To give you an idea we're talking, 3400 square miles. Now, here is the area we're talking about. Here is Morganza flood gates. Yes. They started to open that early. And this is necessary to alleviate some of the stress that's on the Mississippi River. And here is the Mississippi River. The water is going to be pushed this way, over towards the west. And it's also going to be bringing some of that heavier water actually into the Atchafalaya River. We're going to see rise there as well.
Now, as we go down a bit more, this is Interstate 10. Now, Interstate 10 is a very heavily traveled roadway. We're talking if you go from Lafayette to Baton Rouge or -- and if you go from New Orleans into Houston, we could see the water level rising there as well. Now, for city, say, Morgan City, we actually have a pretty good levee system there, but as Ed said earlier, areas over towards the west, this potentially might see some flooding problems there. But if the levee holds up, it looks like Morgan City actually should be pretty good. Now, we talk a bit more, and on that wider view, you remember earlier this week, they opened up the Bonnet Carre floodgate. That of course the lot smaller than the Morganza one.
And as I take this down for you a bit, and we go over, and just to give you an idea of the flooding that we're expecting, we're expecting the Greenville location to actually crest as we head to Monday. We're talking about in Greenville, Mississippi. Roughly about 15 meters above flood stage. And we're talking major flooding there. As we go through the next several days and weeks ahead, I say weeks ahead because look, May 23rd, getting towards New Orleans at a moderate level. But even still, areas right near New Orleans, they need to be cautious with this because right now all the levees are holding up, but certainly this is not an exact Science, as you said earlier, Don.
LEMON: Yes. And they have had a lot of pressure on these levees for a long time. So, we're going to be watching. Thank you very much, Jennifer, 3,400 square miles. That's a lot. General Russel Honore, are you still there?
HONORE: Yes, sir.
LEMON: Chad Myers, are you still there?
MYERS: Yes, sir.
LEMON: OK. Chad Myers and General, both standing by, don't go anywhere. We'll see you on the other side of the break. And, you know, we have to tell you this, we have a story of a financially savvy and frugal teenager who could teach us all of a thing or two about how to save, how to save. Christine Romans has a segment in "Smart is the New Rich" right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (VOICE-OVER): Every other Friday, Florida High School freshman Jordan Lane-Palmer deposits at least $10 of his allowance and lunch money into one of his four, yes, four bank accounts. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JORDAN LANE-PALMER, HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMAN: Yes. It's cash. There are ten.
You can save up for something better. Don't just spend it on something that really is worthless. Just to spend money.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Sage advice for most adults, let alone teenagers. But Jordan, he got started early.
KIMBERLY LANE-PALMER, JORDAN'S MOTHER: The very first savings account was at the credit union.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: And maybe it's that financial acumen that helped him win a contest sponsored by the non-profit agency called the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. Jordan was one of 1,800 students across the country who submitted posters mapping out personal financial plans. This year's theme, be a superhero, save money. He traveled to Washington, D.C. for the award and met Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Hey, a big day for the 14-year-old who started up small.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PALMER: I saved up for action figures back then.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Now he's saving for an iPod and someday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PALMER: I know that we're definitely putting money aside for going to college.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Jordan credits his mother and grandmother.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
K. PALMER: His major account is for his college, you know, then he has a savings account and he has a checking account which is important because I want him to know what it's like to write a check.
BEA LANE, JORDAN'S GRANDMOTHER: I don't think it's too early, but you take a 2-year-old to the store and you let them know, you can only have this one thing instead of five or six other things, you know, or it's either/or. If you get this, you can't have this. If you get this, you can't have this.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Lessons passed down from generation to generation and lessons Jordan has learned well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PALMER: It's important to create a budget, first of all. So you won't overspend. Create different accounts like start saving from a young age. Make goals. Like if you start saving, what do you want to accomplish by when?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Christine Romans, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Seventy percent of the people have packed up and gone already.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: It's going to be a ghost town pretty soon.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So, you're sitting at home, you're watching this on a Saturday, enjoying your weekend, and people in Louisiana are scrambling to safety. And they don't know when they're going to come back to their homes because the army corps of engineers are voluntarily flooding their homes because they have to. They have to relieve the pressure on that already taxed levee system in Louisiana. All that water that has come from up north, this is a result of it showing up here. They're trying to relieve the pressure. The system is still under tremendous pressure, and this is going to remain for weeks, even with this opened up. We've got our Chad Myers with us. I call him our chief meet meteorologist. We also have Dr. Wendy Walsh who has a human behavior expert to talk about the human toll and how people are feeling about this, and the man who saved New Orleans during hurricane Katrina, retired General Russel Honore. To Chad Myers first, Chad, it's going to relieve some pressure but not all of it.
MYERS: Oh, absolutely not. Now, even with this, we still maybe within one foot of top of this in New Orleans, you know, we don't actually know the number of gallons that will come out yet. You know, the number is still kind of up in the air. They have permission to open them. They don't know exactly how many they're going to need. But without this opening, you're at 19.5 feet. That big levee in New Orleans, you know it Don, it's a big mound of dirt. From Jackson Square, you can't see the river for this big, giant mountain of dirt. The water will literally be a foot from topping that. And so, with this water now coming out here, a little bit farther upriver, that number may come down.
There may be a foot and a half or two feet of freeboard above what the levee is. But, so you still have all of this tremendous pressure. I'm also a certified scuba diving instructor. And say, you get down this deep. You're talking about 30, 40 feet worth of water. There are double atmospheres, atmospheres worth of pressure that are going, pushing down from the top of this water, from the bottom of this water and that water is trying to push itself out and down and under those levees because really all they are, in some spots, they're walls, of course, and that could be concrete. But in many spots, they're literally just hills of dirt, and those hills of dirt are not perfect. They have been damped down.
There's grass, there's a greenery, there's root systems in there to keep everything going and keep everything solid. But we know, we know from what happened in Katrina how the water can undermine those walls or those levees. It can happen. The higher the pressure, the higher the chance of that. The lower the pressure, or the lower the level, the lower the chance of that. And that's what they're doing right now. They are lowering the chance of a catastrophic failure.
LEMON: Hey, General Russel Honore. You heard Chad Myers mention Katrina. If anyone knows, you know, when you mention water or flooding, especially after Katrina, people in Louisiana get jumpy. Their nerves are on edge.
GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, sir, and all the right reasons. They should be dealing with an abundance of caution. Anyone south of Morganza including Baton Rouge, through New Orleans, and the surrounding communities that they're in a flood zone, and they need to be prepared to move on a moment's notice because anytime in (INAUDIBLE), you can go from a boiling to a blowout of a levee system. People need to stay aware and have their weather radios standing because you may have to evacuate. You need to study that map and see if they're in a potential flood zone.
LEMON: Human behavior expert, Dr. Wendy Walsh, what do you do? You don't know if it's going to hit. You know it's coming. You don't know how bad it's going to be. You heard the lady say this has the potential and probably is going to wipe out everything we have.
DR. WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST & HUMAN BEHAVIOR EXPERT: This kind of fear and anxiety, Don, can wear on someone because they don't know where it's coming, how much is coming, and how much it will destroy.
What we're seeing is a clearly well designed system of levees and spillways designed to save human lives and save larger urban areas, but at the same time, at the sacrifice of those who have livestock and farmland in their own small communities, who are having to rush to higher ground. This kind of fear and anxiety is hard to take. And I hope there's a way they can somehow find a way in themselves a way to reassure themselves that it's for there better good. It's for the bigger America and all the sates that are suffering here, not just Louisiana.
LEMON: Dr. Wendy, here is my question, because when I go back and talk to people on the phone, Katrina is just -- you know, it could be the next sentence. It's always in the back of people's minds.
WALSH: Right.
LEMON: Not even in the back of people's minds. It's on the tip of your tongue. You talk about the traffic. There's more traffic in Baton Rouge. People don't go to New Orleans as much because they're afraid of the ramifications of what happened with Hurricane Katrina. They don't have places to live anymore. My house is gone. So they're still dealing with this and now they're going to have to deal with this.
I know it sounds cliche, but how much more can people take? And what happens to people when they go through these dramas back to back to back like this?
WALSH: Yes, this is what you're talking about, are symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder. We have a couple states who are seriously affected by it. Of course, everyone deals with post traumatic stress disorder differently. But then you add a new tragedy on top of it, double the level of anxiety.
The thing I find most concerning to me about post traumatic stress disorder is it can be inter-generational. That means grandchildren not even born yet will be in a family system based on fear and anxiety about the environment.
It's a matter of pulling together as a community, talking about things. All these emotions do better when we get them out verbally and finding support groups down the road once we're past this.
LEMON: Yes. I think I can say this. As they say, (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE), let the good times roll. New Orleans is a place of happy times. A lot of drinking, a lot of drinking, a lot of eating. Usually, seriously, Dr. Wendy, people cover up when you have these sorts of -- depression and post traumatic stress, whatever. They may not realize they're going through it and they sort of anesthetize themselves and they do it through alcohol, through drugs.
WALSH: They're self-medicating.
LEMON: They self-medicate, yes.
WALSH: They're self-medicating, exactly. But hopefully, we can get back to a time of only revelry in New Orleans because I really -- it's like the history of America. It's the only American art form, jazz. Let's go there to its roots. I can't wait for New Orleans to come back. And it has been, but now we have this new tragedy to worry about.
LEMON: Yes. Listen, Dr. Wendy, I want to tell our viewers that you're looking at live pictures now. This is from our affiliate WDSU. This is right across the river from the French Quarters.
It's Jackson Square, right, Andreas? It points right across there? Andreas is my executive producer. He's from New Orleans. I'm from Baton Rouge. You used take the ferry over or the bridge. There's two sets of levees, an old levee and a new levee. It's already topped the old levee and it looks like it's going to top the new levee. This is about 90 miles downriver from the Morganza Spillway, Algiers Point, right across from the French Quarter really, from Jackson Square. That's what everyone knows.
Since we're talking about that now, let's bring in General Russel Honore again.
General, so this Algiers Point, if the water is already high here, what is going to happen when it comes down from the Morganza?
GENERAL RUSSEL HONORE: You know, that crest will have less than a foot to spare as the projecting stress. And the Corps of Engineers have done a superb job to this point. But remember, they're working with nature. And they have engineered systems that help nature move the strength, like the event today in Morganza. If that spillway wasn't there, that would have been a natural event. That would have already happened. The events down in New Orleans, if the Bonnet Carre (ph) blocks weren't there, the water would already be flowing through Lake Pontchartrain. So the corps is trying to control and work with nature. The impact you see in New Orleans, it's a low-lying area, heavy flooding. Mother Nature is going to have its way, and the corps is still fighting that because they have reinforced those levees in New Orleans. Everybody needs to know that.
LEMON: OK. General, stand by.
Do we still have Chad there?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, still here.
LEMON: Hey, Chad, you're looking at the pictures now, you see Algiers Point, the old levee, the new levee. The new levee is holding. It's dry on the other side, but that's pretty close to the top. I'm going to be honest here. Can we expect, since these levees have had to deal with so much, since they're so taxed and stressed --
MYERS: Right.
LEMON: -- can we expect some breaching, some topping, some sort of something that's not expected here?
MYERS: So far, we're doing OK. There are some areas where levees are being topped. But the Army Corps knew that. In fact, they put down sheeting, they put down plastic sheeting on top of the levees so that when the water did go over the top of the levee, it didn't wash away, it didn't erode all the dirt. They said we're going to lose a half a foot of water, half a foot of water is going over it. It will eventually come back down, and we're not going -- we don't want to lose the entire levee, so let's cover it up and not have a washout. That's already happening.
And we knew that General Honore had talked significantly about some of these boils. And it looks like boiling water. Because it literally is coming in from the river under the levee, and then it boils up, like a boiling pot of water on the other side, the dry side, which you don't want. And they're putting sand bags around it. All these things so far, all of the catastrophic events, have been savable. There's nothing so far that we have seen that can't be fixed.
Now that's not saying -- the problem is that this isn't going to go down for weeks, Don. I know we're talking about the pressure that we're seeing right now. It's the same pressure that's going to be there for seven days. Sure, something can hold that's made of dirt for 24 hours, but can it hold for 124 hours? Can it hold for 240 hours before something lets go? I think we're going to have some events. But hopefully, the Army Corps will be able to take care of those events and not have catastrophic failures and people scrambling at 3:00 in the morning with sirens going off and police driving through the towns saying you must evacuate now, the levee is broken. You can't have that. That's the panic. That's the -- could you just think of the people on the other side of the levee, what they have to think about every night when they go to bed? You can't have that.
The Army Corps is in control right now. And so far, this is a controlled disaster. And this is what they're doing right now. They're making another disaster for the people down the floodway right now here, but they hopefully are relieving a disaster for the bigger population in bigger cities downriver.
LEMON: And, Chad Myers, you have summed it up, while we're following this breaking news, because how long can just a big piece of dirt hold this? We know this is just the beginning now, but this is going to going on, as Chad said, for weeks and weeks and weeks.
And here is what I find interesting. Think about all this. All of this water, millions and millions and millions of gallons of water, all of it has to go to New Orleans, past Baton Rouge to New Orleans, down to the Gulf of Mexico. What is going to happen when that water starts to reach New Orleans, 120 miles downstream? We don't know. In an area that has already been taxed. The old levee, the water has gone above that. The new levee is holding.
There, you're looking at pictures now from the Morganza Spillway as those gallons of water rush, really, thousands of cubic feet per minute, rush into the waterways and bayous in Louisiana, causing them to surge as well.
Heartbreak in Louisiana. It's flooding.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're flying over Lake Providence, Louisiana. This is the old levee, not the new one, where water is flowing out of the Mississippi, over the top of the levee. This is the kind of things you would have seen in 1927 had you been here because this is what happened. As a matter of fact, this levee was probably the levee that was here in 1927.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: They opened one, just one of 125 flood gates in Louisiana at the Morganza Spillway, spilling out at thousands and thousands of cubic gallons per second there.
You're looking at a live picture from our affiliate, WGSU down in New Orleans. This is at Algiers Point right across from the French Quarter. The old levee has been topped, the new one is holding, the water is getting close to it. This is 125 miles downriver from the Morganza Spillway. And that water is all going towards New Orleans and then it will end up in the Gulf of Mexico. And hopefully, there won't be any big-time damage and there won't be much human toll. We're keeping our fingers crossed on that. And the people in Louisiana are in our thoughts and prays.
As General Russel Honore said, we're writing history here. This hasn't been done since 1973. And they don't know if it's going to be entirely successful. The Army Corps of Engineers made this decision.
I want to go to our meteorologist, Jennifer Delgado, with new images and new information about this, as we say, disaster, that's being caused on purpose -- Jennifer.
JENNIFER DELGADO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right. And you really have to weigh the area that is actually going to be flooded, because potentially it could be worse, say, if they didn't alleviate some of that flooding along the Mississippi River.
Let's give you a look at the new image. This coming in from the Army Corps of Engineer. This is their forecast. We talked about how they opened up the Morganza Spillway. We're starting to see the water rushing in. And here is the Morganza Spillway. Here is the Mississippi River, where we're seeing all that flooding and really the high levels. With the water coming over towards the west and down towards the south, of course, that is going to cause the flooding. We're talking about thousands of structures being damaged and thousands of people being evacuated.
Now, to give you an idea of the levels that we're expecting the water to actually climb down towards parts of Louisiana, I want to show you this legend. This is coming in. And again, this is an estimate. This is not an exact science. But you can see in the Atchafalaya basin, we're talking somewhere between10 to 15 feet, 15 to 20. Anywhere you're seeing in the gold, that's the Mississippi River. We're talking anywhere between 20 and 30 feet in some locations. Down towards the south, a little less amount of water, zero to 5 feet, but none the less, this is going to certainly really cause havoc on homeowners down there.
As I zoom out for you, and I also want to give you an idea of the size of this. This area equates to about half the size of the state of Connecticut. A wide area that is going to be affected by this flooding that is being done intentionally.
As I go to this graphic right here, we are expecting the river to crest in Greenville, Mississippi, as we head to early Monday. We're talking about 15 feet above flood stage. That's major flooding. We're also talking about major areas as well. For Vicksburg, we're going to see that about 12.8 feet, and for areas, including Red River, 14.1. So many areas up and down the Mississippi, under the gun for major flooding. Many areas affected by this.
And, Don, as Chad mentioned earlier, with all that fresh water coming in from areas right in that basin, that is going to cause problems for the oysters, the farmers there, because they're used to that saltwater. That's the other part of the story.
LEMON: Let's see, Katrina, Rita, the oil disaster, and now this.
DELGADO: Can't get a break.
LEMON: The oysterman and fishermen in Louisiana can't get a break.
DELGADO: Yes.
LEMON: Thank you very much, Jennifer Delgado.
Look at this new video into CNN of water just pouring into Louisiana, and just ruining people's lives, many people's lives. Unbelievable stuff here. And all of this is done, as General Russel Honore said, to save the capital city of Louisiana, my hometown, Baton Rouge, and to save New Orleans, the biggest city in Louisiana, from an even bigger disaster. But who knows, once all this water starts to reach there, what is going to happen.
The governor also weighing in on this. Of course, it is his state. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said the problem will linger for a while.
Listen to him just moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOBBY JINDAL, (R), GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA: This isn't going to be over this weekend. We're going to be facing weeks of elevated water. Some part of the state, the water is going to be higher than normal through July and even August.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So even August.
Our Chad Myers has said it. Our General Russel Honore has said it. This is just the beginning. Who knows what is going to happen from here? That's the reason we're covering this here. Breaking news on the heartbreak in Louisiana. The flooding that's going on. It's so far a purposeful disaster. Let's hope it stays at that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, we're following breaking news here on CNN. Just about an hour and a half ago, they opened the Morganza Spillway, really the biggest sort of release mechanism to relieve the flow and pressure on the levee system, that taxed levee system in Louisiana. These are new pictures in of the water just pouring onto land and pouring onto property. Look at that, unbelievable. You can't take your eyes off it. And no one knows what is going to happen once it starts to flood and to hit more ground in Louisiana.
We're going to continue to follow this breaking news story here on CNN because we know what the people here have been dealing with for so long, since Katrina and even before, as a matter of fact.
First, we want to update you on another important story and it involved immigration. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JINDAL: This isn't going to blow over this weekend. We're going to be facing weeks of elevated water. Some parts of our state, the water is going to be higher than normal through July and August.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Obviously, that is not what we wanted to talk about. But we want to talk about a soccer star from Georgia, leaving the country, from Mexico, tomorrow, preempting his deportation. 18-year-old Bernabe Rangel's parents brought him to the country illegally when he was just 6 years old. He joins us here on the couch.
Then last year, a friend gave him a stolen video game that led federal officials to his door.
You probably wish that had never happened.
So to avoid being asked to leave, Rangel has decided to go own his own terms.
You're leave on his own terms.
So Bernabe Rangel joins me with his coach, Jamieson Griffin, and the attorney is Brad Davis.
Bernabe, why did you decide to do this? Most people would think you'd want to stay. You want to do it the right way, you say?
BERNABE RANGEL, HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER STAR SET FOR DEPORTATION: Yes, I want to do it the right way. It would be better because -- it would be better for me to come back. That's why I did it the right way.
LEMON: Did you ever think that you could maybe run and try to stay in the country instead of going and trying to do it the right way?
RANGEL: Oh, no. I'd take a look at the consequences and stuff like that. So I wouldn't do that. That's not the right thing to do.
LEMON: What are you going be doing now in the final hours?
RANGEL: Hanging out with the family and friends. Yes, family and friends. LEMON: You thought about when you were detained and you were detained for some time. Tell us about where you were detained and what you thought about. I know you said you were grateful for your education. What did you think about in those hours when you were detained?
RANGEL: I was detained in Stewart. All that could go through my mind is when I was going to go and stuff like that. It brought me closer to go and the people that were there for me and stuff, the people that I would talk to and stuff. It brought me closer to them.
LEMON: You said it brought you closer to God. What do you think about your parents bringing you here? Do you have any animosity? Are you upset they brought you here? Do you wish they had done things differently?
RANGEL: No. I can't blame them, you know. Better place, better education, free country, you know. I believe that they brought me over here for a reason. For me, it was better education.
LEMON: Brad, you're the attorney. I'll bring you in.
Why is it better that he leave the country rather than just stay? If he leaves, doesn't he face a possibility of not being able to come back or it's going to be a long time before he's allowed back into the country?
BRAD DAVIS, ATTORNEY: Don, you're definitely right about that. All along, the strategy here for us has been to follow the law as it stands, written right now. And as part of the policy we've been working with in the existing framework of the law, and it doesn't provide a whole lot of good options for Bernabe. On that very short, unappetizing list of menu options, voluntary departure will put Bernabe in the best position to start -- to go back to Mexico, start the process to re-enter the United States with appropriate status.
LEMON: Coach, you've done a lot to help him stay in the country.
JAMIESON GRIFFIN, COACH TO RANGEL: A lot of people have done a lot.
LEMON: Why?
GRIFFIN: I've been only the facilitator to ask for favors, to ask people to help bear this burden. I wouldn't say that I've done a lot. I've just asked for a lot of favors. There's a lot of people involved in this. We just happen to be here today.
LEMON: I just want to ask you -- we have to run here.
GRIFFIN: Sure.
LEMON: But do you think he's going to be a role model and set an example? He's trying to do it the right way. You know -- here people -- you don't hear it that often. Most people just want to stay. But he says he wants to do it --role model?
GRIFFIN: He's already a role model obviously. As he's here today, he's sacrificing time with his family to create awareness and exposure to this issue.
LEMON: To change the face of immigration, how people look at immigrants. Do you think he has the possibility of doing that?
GRIFFIN: That's certainly possible. Ultimately, we want to show people that Bernabe is doing this the right way.
LEMON: You're confident you're going to come back, right?
RANGEL: I have a lot of faith.
LEMON: Bernabe --
RANGEL: This is the first chapter. Second chapter is coming later.
LEMON: Thank you, Bernabe.
Thank you, Coach.
Thank you, Attorney.
We really appreciate it.
RANGEL: Sure.
LEMON: So we want to get back to our breaking news on CNN.
Let's show the pictures of what's happening in Louisiana.
We're following it every single moment here. This new video is coming in. We also had video of when it first occurred. It came in from the Army Corps of Engineers. They're on pins and needles in Louisiana, not only the officials there, but also the people who live there, of course, because they don't know where all this water is going to go exactly.
More of our breaking news after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Welcome back to our breaking news coverage of the flooding in Louisiana. There you see the Morganza Spillway. The water that is flowing out of that and going onto thousands and thousands of acres of farmland and homes, residential areas in Louisiana. They're trying to save Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the state's two largest cities.
CNN's Ed Lavandera was there when they opened the spillway. Ed joins us now.
Ed, you're trying to get ahead of the water to see where it's going and how people are reacting. How far have you gotten?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's going to be a slow-moving process. We're still at the spillway area. We've seen that that wide open space of grass land that was just on the dry side of the Morganza Spillway here in the last two hours has really filled up. That water continues to gush through the one bay that has been opened. They will open up more bays here in the next 24 hours, all in the effort to diminish the pressure on the Mississippi River and the levee system that keep Baton Rouge and New Orleans dry. That's the focus.
And it will take some time for this water to make its way downstream. We're told it would take about a day to get down to Interstate 10 which is about 40 -- we're about 45 miles north of. It will take about three days to get down to Morgan City.
LEMON: Ed Lavandera, thank you very much.
I want to bring in Sunny Hostin, our legal expert on this network and HLN, and our sister network, TruTV, as well.
Sunny, I want to ask you about the legal ramifications for this. Did Illinois set a precedent when they opened the levee to relieve pressure and they flooded land?
SUNNY HOSTIN, LEGAL ANALYST, TRUTV: Remember that those 25 farmers in Missouri did attempt to sue the federal government, saying their property rights were taken without just compensation. The Army Corps responded to that, Don, and they said, no, when you have farming property abutting these levees, there's something called the flowage easement that allows the Army Corps to do this for the greater good. But there are -- I don't think civil liability for the Army Corps but there are programs, the corps is saying, insurance programs that will reimburse farmers for the loss of their livelihood. There are other government insurance policies and programs available to them. So I don't think you can sue the federal government over this, but there hopefully will be some sort of recourse for these farmers. It's just such a tragedy.
LEMON: Sunny Hostin, we appreciate you coming in. We're sorry your time has cut short, because this is breaking news, and you understand because you do it every day.
We have much more to talk to Sunny about.
HOSTIN: Absolutely.
LEMON: We'll get to it next time.
Thank you, Sunny.
Make sure you stay tuned to CNN for continuing coverage of the floods in Louisiana. We'll have it all coverage for you. We're back here at 7:00 p.m., in just one hour on CNN. So stick with us.
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