Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Upper Midwest Experiencing Flooding
Aired April 17, 2001 - 11:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Bloated rivers and streams are keeping thousands of people on edge today in the Upper Midwest. Floodwaters now cover parts of five states in that region -- North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.
Along the Mississippi, Minnesota, and Red Rivers, there's a frantic struggle to hold back the waters. Yesterday, snow added to the misery. Showing you scenes now from Wahpeton, North Dakota, where the Red River is well above its flood stage.
But there is some good news to report. The river has started to fall in Wahpeton. That's not the case, though, along the swollen Mississippi River, which threatens to hit its highest flood crest record -- on record in the region. Here we're seeing some of the floodwaters that cover parts of Saint Paul, Minnesota. A 400-mile stretch from -- of the river from Minnesota to Iowa is closed to boat and barge traffic.
As we mentioned, a state of emergency is in effect in parts of Western Wisconsin. In the La Crosse area, the flooding is being called a catastrophe. Wisconsin Governor Scott McCallum joins us now. He's on the phone, and he's joining us from Janesville, Wisconsin.
Governor, good morning. Thanks for joining us.
GOV. SCOTT MCCALLUM, WISCONSIN: Good morning. Thank you.
KAGAN: Can you tell us the latest about the regions that are in trouble in your state?
MCCALLUM: Yeah, we're -- actually, not only the flooding, but we're following the weather reports very closely. The wind has an impact because of the effect of waves.
The other concern we have now is we may have a double crest. We're looking at the next 24 hours having the first peak of waters, the first crest, and now the forecast appears for thunderstorms later in the week. So we may have another crest over the weekend.
KAGAN: And what's the toughest part of the problem? We're showing pictures of sandbaggers.
MCCALLUM: We're doing a great deal of preparation work ahead of time. I'm hoping we can minimize damage with both the dikes -- make sure the dikes hold -- and also the sandbagging that is being done ahead of time.
KAGAN: What about evacuations in your state?
MCCALLUM: So far, there's been very little. People -- the Red Cross has opened up several different centers. They have not had a lot of people. People seem to be going to relatives' and are trying to set up sandbags around their own homes.
As I toured the area yesterday, both by air -- helicopter and on the ground, a lot of volunteers working. Students in the area. We've had a crew of 87 in from one of our programs, and now that I've declared an emergency, we have a number of other resources available to bring in manpower.
KAGAN: Are these areas that were hit back in 1997?
MCCALLUM: These are very similar areas. You've got French Island off of La Crosse, which is a lower-lying island. You'll have -- generally will have spring flooding. Of course, never to the level that we're see this time.
KAGAN: I know, in areas that were hard hit in '97, there were some lessons learned, and they were able to take some precautions that, even if they are hit this time, around, they're doing a little bit better. What are lessons that Wisconsin is learning as you go along that you might be able to prevent...
MCCALLUM: Well, one is we know in -- on a flood zone, there are steps you take, that when...
KAGAN: Yeah.
MCCALLUM: ... when you're in a flood zone. Two is you've got dikes. We've got sandbagging operations taking place ahead of time. As you tour, you can see that there are houses that are built up. As I said, it looks like the Bayou in Louisiana in some of the areas with houses up on stilts built up. But, again, we haven't seen levels this high, so it's causing a great deal of damage.
KAGAN: Governor Scott McCallum of Wisconsin. Thanks so much. I know you mentioned the weather report. You might want to stay on the phone there and listen in because we're going to have our Chad Myers check in right now and bring us the latest for the area there.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, let's go to it. Chad, what's the world?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It looks good for the next 48 hours. But then, after that, things really go downhill, and they go downhill upstream from those areas.
Rain to the north of this warm front. What's going to happen is that we've had a significant cold front push on by, push very dry and cold air in. I don't have to tell you if you live in the East Coast. But up this next system, as the winds start to turn around the next way, they'll start to come over the top of this warm front, and rain and thunderstorm activity will begin on Thursday and really get going on Friday.
And we have significant showers and thunderstorm activity right here to the north of the warm front Friday afternoon. It looks like the La Crosse area and upstream from there could pick up 1 to 2 inches of heavy rainfall really within a six- to 12-hour period. And then by Saturday, the storm system moves on by, and it's completely gone. But the new damage will have been done.
And then, just to add more fire, back out here, there's another storm system coming across which looks like it will roll across the northern plains from Monday into Tuesday.
It's kind of that feast or famine kind of thing. Absolutely no rainfall across the South where we can use it and a lot of rain across the north where they sure don't need it.
More to come on that in a few more minutes -- Leon, back to you.
HARRIS: Good deal. Thanks, Chad. We'll see you in a little bit.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
