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American Morning

Mississippi Expected to Crest at Davenport Tonight

Aired April 24, 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: But, first, it -- we want to update you now on that Mississippi River situation. It's heading for a near- record crest right now in Davenport, Iowa, as we've been reporting. That crest is expected to come late tonight.

The rising river has already caused a lot of problems in Davenport and surrounding areas, and our Jeff Flock is on flood watch in Davenport. He's been there for the past few days. He joins us now with the very latest this morning -- Jeff.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Leon. On Second Street here in Davenport, we expect to get a report this hour from city officials, just how high the river has risen. That crest is expected to be within an inch or two of the -- of the record crest, which was set in 1993.

Let's take a look out here. You know, we talk about the big levee that's out there that is holding so far, but some people really not buying it. Look at this brake shop. Muffler and brake shop. They have set up their own levee here. And if you move along down the levee wall, you can see that it really rings their entire building.

What they are concerned about is what perhaps you see behind me. All of this water that we have been reporting on that has been coming up through the storm sewer system. At this hour, though, continuing to hold.

You see the coffer dams they put up. What a coffer dam is -- essentially is what -- they ring an area where there is water coming through, and perhaps you can see that if -- if they do a good job of that, that keeps the water from continuing to bubble out and -- and doing more damage.

Jeffrey (ph), if you come on -- watch your step there. Come on over into the mud here.

Some of them, though -- they still have not able to plug, and if you look down into that buckle in the street right here -- we had a question earlier about how much damage is being done to infrastructure. A lot of buckling of the city streets. And, as you can see, in that buckle, a lot of water is coming through.

But if we look off into the distance there, you see these big pumps that they have got employed, and at this hour, these pumps are keeping up with the back flow and the water that's coming through the storm drains. So that is good news.

The levee out along the river -- that is continuing to hold, too. We have been -- we've got a high perspective out there. We ought to get that shot in a moment, I hope, that we've been showing you all long that shows the levee in relationship to the river.

That is the key thing that they've got to hold. If that levee continues to hold, they should be able to hold it here. The big factor, of course, is not how high the crest is going to be, but the factor is how long the water remains on that makeshift levee. If it stays on there too long, they fear that it could weaken it, and it will give way at some point.

But, at this point, everything is holding good, fairly dry, at least as dry as you can be in the middle of a flood. That's the latest from Davenport -- back to you, folks.

HARRIS: Well, Jeff, we don't see any sandbaggers out there working right now. Are they taking a break? I know they've got to be pretty exhausted.

FLOCK: You said it, and they feel like they've fortified as much as they can. If we've got that other perspective, you can -- you can see that that levee down there -- people out there watching the water, keeping an eye on that thing.

They continue to walk up and down this dike and also in boats patrolling it, looking for any signs of trouble. They'll bring those sandbags in if they have to, but, at this point, no -- not necessary to continue and keep it up.

HARRIS: All right. Good deal. Thanks much. There's some hopeful news there. Let's hope it stays that way. Jeff Flock reporting live this morning from Davenport, Iowa.

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