Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Midwest Floods: Waters Still Rising

Aired April 20, 2001 - 10:05   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: Now from the shifting fire line to the flood situation up and down the Mississippi, especially in the northern parts.

Let's go to our Bob Franken, who has been covering that story for us. And he is in Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin this morning -- Bob, hello.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And the progress report, Daryn, if you want to call it that, is where we are standing now is underwater a little bit. It was not yesterday. The waters are rising here. It still hasn't crested, notwithstanding reports that it would overnight. As a matter of fact, now they're saying that the crest might not come until eight o'clock tomorrow evening, that's local time, nine o'clock Eastern.

I want to point out that this is the second worst flood ever, according to the people who keep records on this kind of thing. And we have really an interesting demonstration of it. Daryn, let me show you this. There's a telephone pole right next to where I'm standing and you can see that little plaque on the bottom of it. That was the high water mark of the April 24th, 1965 flood. It says, "April 24th, 1965, high water, Prairie Du Chien." That gives us some idea of just how far greater the flood was in 1965, although this one is certainly a character builder, too.

But this one is not one that has driven everybody out of his home. A lot of people, in fact, are still using their pumps and dikes to try and keep the water at bay. Thus far many of them successful, but others have given up the ghost.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLIFF STANDORF, FLOOD VICTIM: I'm moving out now, yes. This is going to be the last tour. I'm going to build a new house, get out. It's no fun living here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Now, that was a man who, in fact, has lived in his house just down the street there, has lived in it for 66 years. He said he's had it with the Mississippi River. He's going to move a little bit up the road a little bit and not have to go through this every once in a while. Well, it's not only Prairie Du Chien that's been going through this. The entire upper Midwest, the part along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, has been suffering the fact that the January thaws that normally get rid of some of the water did not this year.

The next concern is Davenport, Iowa, down the river a little bit, with some problems expected particularly if there is bad weather -- Daryn?

KAGAN: Bob Franken in Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin, thank you.

HARRIS: Let's check with Chad Myers now and see if the weather is going to offer any relief for people. I know that with the rains that may have been in the offing it has gotten a lot of concern.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, maybe a little bit better than the forecast for yesterday, but not much. We were talking about areas where three to five inch totals were possible all across South Dakota and into Minnesota. Now it looks like more like two to three instead of three to five, but still very heavy rainfalls here in the red area and all that water is going to have to run downhill.

There's Bob right there in Prairie Du Chien, and then all of that water from here is going to have to run down towards St. Louis as well. So there's a lot more water to come where it came from and still more storms going to put down rain again.

Back down to Florida, though, where they really could use the rainfall, here's the same map showing the same amount of time, five days worth of precip, not a drop over Florida. A little bit off to the west into Mississippi and Alabama, but that's basically it.

Here's the storm system for Sunday in the central plains, a lot of rain in the upper Mississippi River Valley. We may have Bob there for weeks now because the water is going to come back up even though it's reported that it's going to crest in a couple of hours or so in some spots. It will probably come back up again as we get more and more rainfall for Sunday into Monday and finally tapering off by Tuesday. But as you've noticed down here in Florida, not a drop in the next five days, and really, not a drop in the next seven -- Daryn, back to you. Wish I had better news.

KAGAN: All right, Chad, thank you so much. We will check back with you for the latest throughout the morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com