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American Morning
Crest at La Crosse Four Feet Above Flood Stage
Aired April 18, 2001 - 11:08 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, as money floods the markets, let's talk now about the water that is flooding the Upper Midwest. This would have been our top story this hour, had not that news broken just moments ago. French Island, which is near La Crosse, Wisconsin, is surrounded by the swollen Mississippi Rover. It's only one town that's like that. There are many.
But joining us now on the phone Marjorie Collins who -- she's one of the folks who lives on French Island and is watching the water creep up toward her.
Marjorie, can you gives us an idea of how far the water is away from your property right now?
MARJORIE COLLINS, LA CROSSE, WISCONSIN: Oh, our property is surrounded by water.
HARRIS: You're surrounded by it?
COLLINS: We're...
HARRIS: Is it actually -- is it in the house by now?
COLLINS: No, there's a little in the basement, but we're built up quite high and, consequently, I'm the only one home because most of the others are a bit lower -- quite a bit lower.
HARRIS: Really? Now are you thinking of evacuating, or are you going to stay?
COLLINS: Oh, no. We're going to stay.
That's our -- off our back wall right now. Not that picture that's on now, but the...
HARRIS: The picture we had before.
COLLINS: That -- that one is next door.
HARRIS: OK. So the water -- give us an idea -- all right. Give us an idea then of how many feet there may be between your house and the water.
COLLINS: Straight back, my guess -- it would -- you mean the depth or the distance?
HARRIS: Distance.
COLLINS: The distance. I'm not good at that.
(LAUGHTER)
COLLINS: Probably 200 feet.
HARRIS: OK. Well, you can see it better than we can. And you're not concerned? You're not worried at all? You're going to just stay there and wait this out?
COLLINS: Oh, we're fine. We're fine. It's the other people that we worry about. We're -- we're very fortunate. We had to build high after the -- what they called the hundred-year flood in 1965. We had to build two-and-a-half feet above that. So we are way up. We are probably -- we had to build at least, I think, six or -- feet up from the...
HARRIS: Well, that's good news for you.
COLLINS: Yeah.
HARRIS: That's great news for you.
Now did you guys -- did you see the same kind of water or any water at all in '97 in that big flood?
COLLINS: Yes, but nothing like this.
HARRIS: Yeah?
COLLINS: Nothing like this.
HARRIS: This is much worse?
COLLINS: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
HARRIS: How about your neighbors? Are your neighbors still digging in, too, or are you the only one -- are you left alone?
COLLINS: No, they have gone to motels.
HARRIS: They've all gone to motels?
COLLINS: Uh-huh.
HARRIS: Have they -- have they lost any property yet? Have they lost their homes at all?
COLLINS: No, not along here, but I understand that there are some places down on some other streets that they're -- they're a little worried.
HARRIS: You're not concerned at all about losing -- losing gas or electricity or anything?
COLLINS: No. No, I'm not. I hope -- maybe -- maybe I should be, but I'm not.
HARRIS: Well, we hope you don't lose cable.
COLLINS: Yes, yes.
HARRIS: No matter what happens. You're all for food and water and everything?
COLLINS: Yes.
HARRIS: OK.
COLLINS: We can get out. We can drive through the -- now that's our back right now. That's our back.
HARRIS: That's your back.
COLLINS: That is not.
HARRIS: Marjorie, you don't need to drive. You need a boat. Do you have a boat?
COLLINS: We loaned our boat out.
HARRIS: You did!
COLLINS: Somebody else needed it worse.
HARRIS: You might need it back, Marjorie.
COLLINS: That house right there is two doors down. This is...
HARRIS: It looks to me like you need a boat, Marjorie. We'll see if we can get somebody...
(LAUGHTER)
KAGAN: Marjorie's Boat Fund.
HARRIS: Marjorie -- someone -- whoever has Marjorie's boat, bring it back.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: All right. Now, listen, we're -- we're going to try to keep an eye on and an ear out for you, OK. We hope that you stay safe and be careful out there.
COLLINS: Thank you.
HARRIS: Marjorie Collins this morning from French Island there.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We'll have to check back with Marjorie and see how she's doing.
HARRIS: Yeah, let's do that.
KAGAN: Hearty soul.
HARRIS: Yeah.
KAGAN: And I noticed, too, her cable's working.
HARRIS: That's a good sign.
KAGAN: She's getting CNN. Yeah, she's still with us.
Marjorie, you take care, and we'll definitely check back, and you might want to listen in, Marjorie, while we Jacqui Jeras tells you what is coming your way in terms of the weather.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. She's going to need that boat. Even though the river is cresting, it is going to be very, very slow to recede. We're talking maybe a half of a foot by the week's end.
So that's really something that these folks need to keep in mind, is that, even though some of the rivers are cresting now, we're going to have to deal with all the floodwaters and backwaters for probably a couple of weeks to come.
Of course, all that water going downstream, and we're going to be focusing on the Quad Cities by early next week where the river is expected to crest between 21-1/2 to 22-1/2 feet. So this is something we're going to have to deal with for sometime to come.
The good news is, in the next 24 hours, really no precip expected in the forecast. We're going to see lots of sunshine, kind of chilly temperatures, but, later in the week, we're going to start to see some showers and some thunderstorms begin to develop. We're looking at probably late on Thursday night into parts of Minnesota, and then we'll watch -- be watching for abetter chance of the heavy rainfall into parts of Iowa into the weekend.
Now this is just a very preliminary forecast, so take this with a grain of salt when we put these numbers on here. There is the potential for two-plus inches of rainfall in southern parts of Minnesota and into northern parts of Iowa right in that Mississippi River Valley, and, again, Thursday through Sunday is going to be our main focus, and then as we head down towards the Quad Cities, we're talking about potential for lesser amounts, about a half of an inch to an inch.
So a little too early to tell what kind of impact that will have exactly on the river, but it certainly looks like it's going to do something.
Back to the both of you.
HARRIS: All right. Thanks, Jacqui. KAGAN: Thank you.
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