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CNN Saturday Morning News

Key Louisiana Spillway to Open; Conversation with Hank Aaron

Aired May 14, 2011 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Let's start this thing up at the top of the hour here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(MUSIC)

HOLMES: Well, it hasn't happened in 40 years but it could happen today. Engineers are getting set to open a spillway along the Mississippi River. Thousands of square miles downriver could be flooded. But New Orleans and Baton Rouge could be saved.

Also, a rare view interview with the man -- Hank Aaron talking about President Obama, Barry Bonds, A-Rod and who is the real home run king.

From the CNN Center, this is your CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Hello to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.

It's 7:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, Georgia, but 6:00 a.m. in Morgan City, Louisiana, and that's where we have our thoughts today.

We're starting with the floodwaters heading south. The Army Corps of Engineers now has the go-ahead to open a major spillway near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This will be the first time in 40 years they've had to open the spillway and take this drastic step.

Now, choosing to flood some homes in towns is what they're doing. They're making that choice in order to save other areas along the Mississippi River downstream. The river itself has flowed over its banks into streets and towns from Iowa, now to Louisiana. Many people have had to evacuate.

There may be no better illustration of the slow-moving disaster than what you can see from the bow of a tanker coming down the Mississippi.

Our Patrick Oppmann is along for the ride.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: T.J., take a ride on the Mississippi River and you will see flooding and destruction you won't soon forget.

(voice-over): Morning breaks on the Mississippi River. Towboat Captain Keith "Flash" Menz has been navigating these waters for over 30 years. But a flooded Mississippi means a late start to this trip for Menz and the crew of the Merrick Jones (ph).

CAPTAIN KEITH "FLASH" MENZ, TOWBOAT CAPTAIN: It's easier in the day time to tell what you're doing than it is at night. The current affects you tremendously. And you have to be able to recognize it quickly so you can react to it.

OPPMANN: Menz has to navigate through the wall of floodwater raging downstream.

Danger is a constant companion during the 24-hour journey from Vicksburg, Mississippi, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Treetops peek out where river banks once stood. A shipyard is sunk underwater. Those are people's homes sacrificed to the rising tide.

The bargemen say they no longer recognize the river they have known for years.

(on camera): These barges carry feeds for farmers and liquid petroleum for gas stations. But the currents caused massive flooding are pushing this boat so quickly downstream that it can only safely carry half the load it would usually transport -- a ripple effect that will be felt far beyond these shores.

(voice-over): Deck hand David Rhoden has seen the flood's impacts on his home state of Missouri.

DAVID RHODEN, DECK HAND: I got to within an inch of coming in my house. And my house sits up three concrete blocks high, the foundation. It looks like a lake out here when it was windy and (INAUDIBLE) just like a lake.

OPPMANN: Never underestimate the power of the Mighty Mississippi, says Captain Menz.

MENZ: If you don't respect it, it's not forgiving. And you have to be aware that, you know, it does change not daily, hourly, every minute of the day -- it's always changing.

OPPMANN: As day fades, the towboat slows. Night on the flooded river is now too dangerous to travel further. The Merrick Jones will have to wait until dawn to reach Baton Rouge. But these bargemen say they will deliver their cargo come hell or high water.

(on camera): For the crew's return trip, they have to fight the current upriver -- a longer journey for the bargemen and their goods -- T.J.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. Thanks to our Patrick Oppmann there.

And Reynolds Wolf is going to be along in a couple minutes. There's a lot happening with this flooding this weekend. It could be a big weekend and a big day, a significant development that spillway could be opened today. Other news to tell you about this morning -- we're still getting more and more new details about what was found inside Osama bin Laden's compound. Among all those thumb drives and DVDs is an unreleased audio message on the Arab uprisings. A U.S. official says it was recorded sometime in April. The message mentions the popular uprising in Tunisia and Egypt, but does not mention similar scenes in Libya or Yemen.

Pakistan now is second guessing the relationship with the United States in the wake of that bin Laden compound raid. The parliament condemned the action today and demanded an investigation. They're also demanding an end to U.S. military drone attacks. Pakistani parliament is threatening to cut off access to a key transit facility that serves as a gateway for moving NATO troops into Afghanistan.

Also, an autopsy being conducted today in hopes of determining what killed New York Rangers player Derek Boogard. You're seeing him there. His body was discovered yesterday in his Minneapolis apartment. Not a lot of details known right now.

He was only 28 years old. He joined the Rangers in July of last year.

Well, this weekend will be a big one for Major League Baseball, celebrating civil rights weekend. But are they actually doing enough to attract minorities to the game today? We're getting that answer from hall of famer Hank Aaron.

Getting some answers this morning as well from our Reynolds Wolf.

Reynolds, this is a busy weather weekend.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Indeed it is. We're keeping a very sharp eye on the lower half of the Mississippi River, watching the potential flooding situation from parts of Louisiana and Mississippi. Plus, your national forecast straight ahead.

You're watching CNN. Drink it in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, it's catch-22 along the Mississippi River right now. It saves some communities from flooding, but others would then be swamped. The Army Corps of Engineers set to open the huge Morganza Spillway in Louisiana today. The last time it was opened -- 1973.

Now why would they do this? Well, it would divert potential floodwaters from Baton Rouge and New Orleans. But then other communities down river will be flooded. Now, flooding could close the river to shipping as well at the New Orleans port as early as Monday, and that would add a huge economic impact on the region.

As I bring in Reynolds Wolf now -- you talked about this earlier. People have been trying for a long time to control water.

Good luck with that -- WOLF: Yes.

HOLMES: -- first of all. But, man, how do they make these decisions? Let's save this area but, man, we have to go destroy this.

WOLF: You're forced to make a decision. You've got to. And who is going to suffer the most? I mean, it's very, very difficult to make.

We're talking about potential of about 3,000 square miles being underwater. Some places deep as 25 feet. And a lot of this can be headed down stream to a place called Morgan City which is 12,000 people live there. So, really a rough time.

Let's go right to the wall. We're going to show what's going to happen. But, again, the area that we're talking about is right in southern Louisiana.

Let's get this map out of the way and pull this one forward. As we do, you see the area that's surrounded by blue. That is the place where you're going to see the waters begin to rise steadily. It's not going to happen very quickly.

I mean, it's not going to be like just a crazy rush like the running of the bulls in Pamplona, it's going to be a very steady, slow-moving thing where the water begins to pile up again, as I mentioned, at some point up to about 25 feet deep in some places, 3,000 square miles, home to roughly 25,000 people. Now, those people have been told evacuate, move to higher ground.

All this moving downstream to a place called Morgan City. Again, that's a place that has some protection from levees. Let's hope those levees hold.

Meanwhile, the last thing we need in that part of the world is some additional rainfall. Is rain in the forecast? Yes, it is. But, thankfully, not for parts of Louisiana.

In fact, as we zoom in on the Eastern half of the country, we are seeing some scattered showers developing in parts of Alabama, into the Carolinas also -- even back into parts of the Great Lakes and also into Pacific Northwest, we're seeing some rainfall moving in to that part of the world also, even a few thunderstorms possible in those locations.

All right. Well, that is a quick snapshot of what you have weather-wise. Again, we're keeping a very sharp eye on the southern end of Louisiana. Waters will be rising over the next couple of hours, days, and certainly, possibly weeks.

Let's send it back you to, T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Reynolds, appreciate you, buddy. We'll check in with you again shortly.

WOLF: You bet. (MUSIC)

HOLMES: Major League Baseball is taking a look back this weekend, a look back to the groundbreaking contributions of African Americans, people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Freedom Riders, also players like Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, and, yes, Hank Aaron.

I had a chance to sit down with Hank Aaron. We talked baseball, of course. But also how baseball is losing touch with young black men.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANK AARON, BASEBALL LEGEND: It could be better. It could be a lot better. We don't have as many African-Americans playing baseball now as we used to have. Any time we have an economic struggle in this country, we and I mean we, the blacks would are going to feel the pinch a lot quicker than anybody. And baseball is a very expensive game.

HOLMES: Kids can turn on TV and see that immediate -- that instant fame or whatnot from basketball or football.

AARON: I just don't believe baseball has sold itself as much in the black area as it should have. You know? Really, I think that somehow I think football has been a terrific job. I think basketball has done another terrific job, you know, of selling its sports in the areas.

You look at it deep enough is that young kid who is 7, 10, 12 years old playing baseball, growing up, wants to play baseball. And by the time he gets to 18 where he can get to college, then here come the football coach. The football coach is telling him we got a four- year scholarship and he is looking something where else because we have not made the kind of progress in baseball that we needed to make when that black kid can look up and say -- oh, Hank Aaron is part owner of the ball club, well, this and that.

You know, we haven't done that. Basketball has done that. Basketball has owners. And this black kid and the black mother, father, can look out and see that that kid, if he makes it, he got a chance to go on to great things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And coming up next hour, you're going to hear a whole lot more from Hank Aaron. Hear what he thinks of, yes, A-Rod, Barry Bonds and steroids. That's all next here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Well, they are literally marching to the beat of their own drum.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had to go ahead and buy the equipment. It was very expensive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Students of an Oklahoma school, they didn't have the money to put together a proper drumline. But they learned how to improvise and that made them state champs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Fifteen minutes past the hour now.

No instruments, no problem. One Oklahoma school puts budget problems behind them to build an impressive drumline -- a drumline with just one drum. The rest they had to leave up to their imagination. We get the story now from our affiliate KWTV.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REPORTER: Welcome to Mulhall-Orlando schools. With 100 students, the school doesn't have a football team. But who needs one? When you have a drumline that sounds like this.

You can hear the beating to the rhythm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You get to make stuff go boom.

REPORTER: A few unlikely drummers plus a mix of trash cans and bar stools.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It surprised a lot of us how the rhythm just doesn't sound like they fit together really did.

REPORTER: The six-man drumline has been a big bang in the small town.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's pretty awesome, although my mom is kind of annoyed because I'll wake her up.

REPORTER: With little money, the school couldn't afford equipment for the students.

VERNON VINCENT, BAND DIRECTOR: We tried to go ahead and buy the equipment. It's very expensive.

REPORTER: So, they settled for the next best thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These get a perfectly good sound. It's different than a snare but it works pretty well.

VINCENT: I don't know how many other schools have anything like this. But if expense is a problem, if you have a good instructor, this works out pretty well.

REPORTER: The band director, Vernon Vincent, cheers like a proud football coach on the sidelines after every song -- and every beat is music to his ears.

VINCENT: I know what they started like. I know what they were. And just to see them how they can play right now, I just swell with pride.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. Band director says he hopes the popularity and the recent win at a statewide music competition will help them build a bigger drumline with drums. Marching in a parade is not an option right now. They haven't quite found a way to strap the bar stool on them to walk down the street.

Also, a programming note for you here: our Soledad O'Brien reporting, "Don't Fail Me: Education in America." It is a CNN documentary examining the crisis in our public education system and why America's financial future is at risk if kids can't excel in math and science. Again, "Don't Fail Me: Education in America" premiers Sunday night, 8:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

Well, you thought you had gotten rid of them. But they're back. College grads facing a tough economy -- they're coming back to the house, folks. It's coming a lot these days. And maybe it's a good idea. That's two minutes away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Twenty minutes past the hour.

Parents out there -- you raise these kids, you know, you have these kids, you raise them. You get them through high school. You get them into college.

You get them through college. You're done with them. You can wipe your hands of them. You're done paying for these kids.

Slow down. We got a financial expert I'm about to talk to now who says you may have to let your grown children move back in with you.

There's a tough economy right now. There's a high cost of living. They're trying to repay those student loans. They need a break and you might be the one to give it to them.

Our financial and business consultant Eric Amado joins me this morning.

Eric, folks don't want to hear this.

ERIC AMADO, FINANCIAL AND BUSINESS CONSULTANT: I know. I know.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: OK. They don't want to hear it. This is almost a thing that it is even a necessity because a lot of parents will tell you, hey, look, I did it. You're a grown person. You need to get out there and take responsibility and you're on your own.

Does that not work anymore? AMADO: It works but we need to look at the facts, T.J. Right now in America, we're seeing 9 percent unemployment. And right now, many of people are unemployed. So, right now, this is making it very difficult for newly college grads to come out and find a job. So, right now, it's a little tough for college graduates.

HOLMES: OK. How -- are we in a position where mom and dads should feel almost guilty or obligated? I heard what you just said there. But are we to that point where they should feel obligated to let that child come back into the house?

AMADO: Well, you know, it's a personal decision. You don't have to feel obligated to do anything like this. You know, it's a personal decision between you and your child.

But anything that we talk about today can be great for your kid. If you give them an opportunity to save extra money to pay off debt and pay off student loans -- it's going to be wonderful for them long term.

HOLMES: OK. Let's talk about how much money they could possibly save, because a kid in the house is essentially not having to pay rent. You're not paying for a lot of electricity -- all this stuff.

So, a kid graduates -- we're just using this example of $25,000 a year after they graduate. Now, how much are they going to actually save? How much can they save if they go back to the house with mom and dad?

AMADO: That's a great question. Let's take that example. Let's say a kid makes $25,000. After tax, they're going to make about 20 grand a year, which is about $1,600 a month.

HOLMES: OK.

AMADO: So, if you're living on your own, let's say you get an apartment for 750 bucks a month. Also, you have utilities and expenses of about 250 bucks. That's going to put you about $600 for living expenses, you know, food, clothing, entertainment.

But if you live at home, this is the kicker, you have ability to take that $1,600 a month and put it directly towards, you know, student loans, put it towards emergency fund, put it towards saving. This is the benefit of living at home. And this is a great thing to do if the parents can let you do it.

HOLMES: OK. What -- do there need to be ground rules here? You can't just leave this as an open invitation.

AMADO: That's a great question. There has to be some ground rules. There has to be a criterion.

For example, the parents should say, you know what? You have a good game plan. I like what you're trying to do. But you're going to stay at home for six to 12 months, all right? Also, you're going to do some chores around the house. You got to make sure the yard is cut. You're going to make sure you take your little sister to the soccer game every week, and you're going to do some things around the house.

And this is to make sure the kid doesn't stay home and don't want to leave ever again. But this is a great way to let them save and get prepared for the real world because it's tough out there.

HOLMES: Any other quick little financial tips as far as, I guess, what parents are probably watching now. The kids are still sleeping. What can they tell those kids, pass on to them that post- graduation, dilemma they might be in with this economy?

AMADO: Absolutely. There's a couple of phases (ph) I want to talk about.

First of all, teach your kids the basics of budgeting. It's important to learn how budget, to create a budget, and also to implement a budget as you go throughout your life. You know, a lot of times, they don't teach this in college and people learn the hard way.

Also, allow them to stay out of debt. It's very, very important that you stay out of debt, stay away from the credit cards, try to pay cash as much as you can.

And also, just teach them how to make good life decisions. You know, this will help them financially, emotionally, and this is a really helpful in life.

Some great things can you do.

HOLMES: All right. Good life decisions. And one of those might be, you need to be knocking on mommy and daddy's door and getting back into your old bedroom.

Eric Amado, good stuff this morning. Maybe people don't want to hear, but it is a reality. We have some fun here and we talk about it. But still, it's a reality for a lot of folks out there.

Good to see you. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, buddy.

AMADO: Thank you. Thank you very much.

HOLMES: All right. We got some health news for you now: a new study that suggests a link between a skin ailment and high blood pressure. We'll tell about the research and the surprising thing that the two conditions have in common. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, 28 minutes past the hour here now.

I got a new study to tell you about, that suggests that people with psoriasis and high blood pressure are more likely to have serious hypertension. Researchers at the University of California-Davis, in a study, suggest that people with psoriasis are more likely to have constricted blood vessels, a condition that contributes to high blood pressure. Four percent of Americans suffer from psoriasis, a skin condition that causes dry and itchy red skin.

Well, the countdown is back on for NASA's last scheduled launch of the space shuttle Endeavour. It's set for Monday morning now. It's supposed to takeoff just before 9:00 Eastern Time. That's a reset from last month's planned liftoff which was delayed by technical glitches.

Also, as you know, Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords, she's the wife of the shuttle commander, Mark Kelly -- she is one of the thousands expected to attend Monday's launch.

Well, I will be back with you at the top of the hour with more live news on CNN SATURDAY MORNING. But right now, we can hand it over to the good doctor.