Unease in the Miss. Delta as floodwaters spread

Officials in a small town with no local newspaper of TV stations are trying to assure residents they are doing what they can to shore up the levee to protect them from the swollen Mississippi River.

"It's getting scary," said Rita Harris, 43, who lives in a tiny wooden house in the shadow of the levee in Rena Lara, a town of 500. "They won't let you go up there to look at the water."

The uneasiness is being felt all along the poverty-stricken Delta as oozing floodwaters from the Mississippi River and its tributaries spilled across farm fields, cut off churches, washed over roads and forced people from their homes Wednesday.

Some used boats to navigate flooded streets as the crest rolled slowly downstream, bringing misery to low-lying communities. About 600 homes have been flooded in the Delta in the past several days as the water rose toward some of the highest levels on record.

The flood crest is expected to push past the Delta by late next week.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour urged people to get out if they think there is even a chance their homes will flood. He said there is no reason to believe a levee on the Yazoo River would fail, but if it did, 107 feet of water would flow over small towns.

"More than anything else, save your life and don't put at risk other people who might have to come in and save your lives," he said.

Much farther downstream, Louisiana officials were awaiting an Army Corps of Engineers decision on whether to open the Morganza spillway to take the pressure off the levees protecting Baton Rouge and, downstream, New Orleans and the many oil refineries in between.

The Mississippi Delta, with a population of about 465,000, is a leaf-shaped expanse of rich soil between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers, extending about 200 miles from Memphis, Tenn., to Vicksburg, Miss. Along the way are towns whose names are familiar to Civil War buffs, aficionados of the blues, and scholars of the civil rights era: Clarksdale, Greenwood, Greenville and Yazoo City.

While some farms in the cotton-, rice- and corn-growing Delta are prosperous, there is also grinding poverty. Nine of the 11 counties that touch the Mississippi River in Mississippi have poverty rates at least double the national average of 13.5 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The governor said the state is asking local officials to get in touch with people who might have no electricity and phones and thus no way to get word of the flooding.

"It's a tiny number, but we have to find them," Barbour said.

Late Wednesday, President Barack Obama signed a disaster declaration for 14 counties in Mississippi because of the flooding. Housing and home repairs will be covered and low-interest loans to cover uninsured damage will be available.

In Greenville, Liz Jones, who is unemployed, lives on the second floor of a housing project and worries what might happen in the event of a levee break. She has no means of transportation.

"I got a baby and my mama. I don't know what we'd do about food and clothes and stuff," she said.

In Hollandale, one of the small rural towns in the Delta the governor warned might flood if the levee breaks, 62-year-old nursing home worker Geraldine Jackson fretted about what to do if she and her husband have to leave their red-brick house, where pieces of the roof have broken off and the white trim is peeling.

"I have relatives, but all my relatives live in the Delta, and the water's going to get them too," she said. "I'm just real messed up."

Swollen by weeks of heavy rain and snowmelt, the Mississippi River has been breaking high-water records that have stood since the 1920s and '30s. It is projected to crest at Vicksburg on May 19 and shatter the mark set there during the cataclysmic Great Flood of 1927. The crest is expected to reach New Orleans on May 23.

Even after the peak passes, water levels will remain high for weeks, and it could take months for flooded homes to dry out.

About 600,000 acres of cultivated row crops could flood, mainly winter wheat, corn, soybeans, cotton and rice, said Andy Prosser, spokesman with the Mississippi Department of Agriculture. Even if the levees hold, the state expects to lose $150 million to $200 million worth of crops, the governor said. Mississippi's catfish farmers could also be wiped out if the Yazoo floods their ponds and washes away their fish.

Many of the victims of the slowly unfolding disaster are poor people living perilously close to the water.

In the Memphis, Tenn., area, where the Mississippi crested Tuesday just inches short of the 1927 record, many of the flooded dwellings were mobile homes and one-story brick or wood buildings in low-lying, working-class neighborhoods unprotected by floodwalls or levees.

Maria Flores, her husband, Pedro Roman, and their four children ended up in a church shelter in south Memphis — some 20 miles from their trailer in the Millington area of Shelby County. They lost a trailer in last year's flood, and it happened to them again this year.

Flores, who works as a baby sitter, and Roman, an unemployed day laborer, did not have disaster insurance and suspect their trailer is a total loss. At the shelter, they were receiving clothing and three meals a day and were sleeping on air mattresses in a room with 20 other people.

Flores said she stopped going to work because it was too far and she could not afford the gas. Roman seemed almost paralyzed by the uncertainty.

"People who have money have a better chance of getting back on their feet than poorer people," Flores said. "That's our problem."

Mississippi River Flooding: La. Braces for Wall of Water

With the Army Corps of Engineers opening two additional gates at the Mississippi River's Morganza Spillway on Monday, Louisiana residents are bracing for a wall of water to barrel down on them, which is likely to swallow up their homes, their business, and their memories.

Water is now flowing into the spillway at a rate greater than that of Niagara Falls, more than 100,000 cubic feet per second.

At that rate, it would take just over an hour and a half to cover the entire island of Manhattan in a foot of water.

So far only 11 of the 125 gates have been opened and the Corps plans to open more as the river rises.

The action is intended to be the surest way to spare cities like New Orleans from another tragic flood.

But cities like Butte La Rose, La., which sits on floodplain to the south, are being sacrificed in order to prevent larger areas from massive flooding.

The Corps began flooding the spillway on Saturday, opening the floodgates for the first time in 40 years.

The goal is to divert the record high waters of the Mississippi away from Baton Rouge and New Orleans, choosing to risk smaller communities in an attempt to avert disaster in the most populous cities.

"It's really heart wrenching, that we here are going to be sacrificed for others. And it's a numbers game I guess," said Guy Comier, Parish President at St. Martins Church in Butte La Rose.

The Mississippi River crest is not expected to arrive at the Morganza spillway for at least a week, and mandatory evacuations are already under way in many places.

Neighborhoods in the water's path have turned to ghost towns with sheriff's deputies and members of the National Guard going door to door telling residents to pack up and get out.

Kate Buchannan, another Butte La Rose resident, says that she certainly isn't going anywhere -- though she is shipping out her prized possessions. She stands to lose not only her home, but her business too -- Kate's Place is the one and only bar in town.

"Everybody is stoic, they understand, Buchannan told ABC News. "People in New Orleans got it a few years ago. There's a lot fewer people here. These folks are made of much sterner stuff here. We're not gonna whine and cry."

Some residents are attempting to protect their homes through a variety of do-it-yourself tactics.

One resident is wrapping his home in plastic, while Max Doucer is banking on a combination of sandbags, dirt and hope.

"People are strong here, they are going to rebuild better than ever. They love it. Its home for a lot of people, its camp for a lot of people. It's God's country. People love it here so they will be back, bigger and better than ever," Doucher said.

President Obama echoed his message of hope after he met privately Monday with families and local officials affected by the flooding in Memphis. He heard their stories and praised their resilience.

Following the meeting, Obama delivered a commencement address at Booker T. Washington High School where he spoke of the response to the series of natural disasters that have hit the country this spring.

"The success of our economy will depend on your skills, but the success of our community will depend on your ability to follow the Golden Rule -- to treat others as you would like to be treated," he said. "We've seen how important this is even in the past few weeks, as communities in Memphis and all across the South have banded together to deal with flood waters and to help each other in the aftermath of terrible tornadoes."

Evacuations in Cajun country after floodgates open

Renee Ledoux cried when the National Guard and sheriff's deputies showed up at her front door and warned her she needed to get out to avoid water gushing from the Mississippi River after a floodgate was opened for the first time in four decades.

But by the 5 p.m. deadline Sunday, the 44-year-old Ledoux and her boyfriend Billy Hanchett decided to ride it out one more night on air mattresses inside the empty home in Krotz Springs. They have a camper they plan to stay in on a friend's property outside the flood zone.

"We really don't want to go," Hanchett said. Ledoux added that she felt blessed that they had the camper because a lot of others have nowhere to go except shelters.

Deputies all over Louisiana Cajun country were warning residents to head for higher ground and most heeded it, even in places where there hasn't been so much as a trickle, hopeful that the flooding engineered to protect heavily populated New Orleans and Baton Rouge would be merciful to their way of life.

Days ago, many of the towns known for their Cajun culture bustled with activity as people filled sandbags and cleared out belongings. By Sunday, some areas were virtually empty as the water from the Mississippi River, swollen by snowmelt and heavy rains, slowly rolled across the Atchafalaya River basin. It first started to come, in small amounts, into people's yards in Melville on Sunday. But it still had yet to move farther downstream.

The floodwaters could reach depths of 20 feet in the coming weeks, though levels were nowhere close to that yet in the towns about 50 miles west of Baton Rouge.

About 11 miles north of Krotz Springs in the town of Melville, Mary Ryder, her fiance and her fiance's father were loading up a trailer with as many belongings as they could fit to drive over the levee to stay with relatives on the other side of town. Ryder lives in a mandatory evacuation area, where water is starting to creep into backyards. They worried about what might happen if a broader evacuation is ordered.

"They say we have to leave town. We have nowhere to go," she said. "What are we going to do? I have no idea. We need help up here."

The spillway's opening diverted water from the two major Louisiana cities — along with chemical plants and oil refineries along the Mississippi's lower reaches — easing pressure on the levees there in the hope of avoiding potentially catastrophic floods.

That choice angers John Muse, who drove from Lafayette to Melville to help his 86-year-old father-in-law Clovis Cole move his belongs. He said officials seem to be paying more attention to the concerns of Baton Rouge and New Orleans than people who live in the basin.

"They hurt a lot of feelings by putting that water in here like they did," he said. "What's happening here, I'll tell ya, it's not fair."

In Butte LaRose, some 50 miles downstream from where the Morganza spillway was opened, Chalmers Wheat, 54, was among the few left — and even he was headed for his father's home in Baton Rouge outside the flood zone. He and his twin brother, Chandler, were making a few final preparations to protect his home with plastic lining and sandbags.

"It's almost like a ghost town," said Wheat.

It will be at least a week before the Mississippi River crest arrives at the Morganza spillway, where officials opened two massive gates on Saturday and another two Sunday. There are 125 in all. The Mississippi has broken river-level records that had held since the 1920s in some places.

The Army Corps of Engineers has taken drastic steps to prevent flooding. Engineers blew up a levee in Missouri — inundating an estimated 200 square miles of farmland and damaging or destroying about 100 homes — to take the pressure off floodwalls protecting the town of Cairo, Ill., population 2,800.

The Morganza flooding is more controlled, however, and residents are warned each year that the spillway could be opened. A spillway at the 7,000-foot Bonnet Carre structure in Louisiana also has been opened.

Just outside Krotz Springs, 23-year-old Jake Nolan said National Guard troops knocked on the door of his home in a subdivision to tell his mother of the evacuation order. He said they advised her to have white towels and have access to the roof if they planned to ride it out — presumably in case of a rescue — though that didn't appear to be part of any official instructions. And besides, he didn't need an order to leave with his wife and three children.

"I don't want to be stuck here if the water does get bad," said Nolan, who planned to stay with a sister in Port Barre.

It seemed animals didn't want to be stuck anywhere: Deer, hogs and rabbits have started running from the water flowing near the floodgates, said Lt. Col. Joey Broussard of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. An electronic sign on Interstate 10 warned of a possible animal exodus: "Wildlife crossing possible. Use caution," it read.

Despite the mandatory evacuation order, Krotz Springs town clerk Suzanne Bellau said it was unlikely the sheriff's office would force people to leave. For most, the worst part was wondering what may happen. National Guardsmen were building a second levee to bolster protection for the town.

"It's the unknown, that's the problem," Bellau said. "Is it going to come into their homes or not? And the people who are leaving, what are they coming back to?"

Memphis and New Orleans brace for historic flooding

Residents in Memphis, Tennessee, are bracing for potentially historic floods Tuesday when the Mississippi River is expected to crest at a near-record level and Louisiana appears to be next in the path of the bloated river.

One of the Memphis residents in peril was Latisha Bowles. Her neighborhood had been swallowed by flood waters but so far but her home was the last one at the waters' edge.

"It wants to come up here, but I've been praying every day it don't," Bowles told CNN affiliate WMC Monday. "I got three kids and I'm not ready to move out of my house over this."

Memphis is one of the many cities now menaced by the Mississippi River. The river level stood at 47.8 feet Monday evening and is expected to crest at 48 feet, forecasters said.

President Barack Obama signed a disaster declaration for the state of Tennessee Monday, which will help direct federal aid toward recovery efforts in areas hit by severe storms, flooding and tornadoes since early April.

The Mississippi is the highest it's been at Memphis since 1937, when it crested at 48.7 feet -- 14.7 feet above flood stage. That flood killed 500 people and inundated 20 million acres of land, said Col. Vernie Reichling, the Corps' Memphis District commander.

The river covered the lowest parts of the city's historic Beale Street and had already forced about 400 people from their homes Monday, Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton Jr. said. Another 1,300 remained in low-lying areas, he said.

Many others know what Tennesseans are going through as eight Midwestern and Southern states were dealing with or bracing for historic flooding.

The latest flooding in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys is largely the byproduct of torrential rains throughout the region. Over one two-week stretch, there was about 600% more precipitation than usual, forecasters said.

In Louisiana, the river's crest was expected to begin arriving next week. So far, 21 parishes have issued emergency declarations ahead of expected flooding, said Gov. Bobby Jindal. He said 400 National Guard troops were active helping prepare for the flood.

In Missouri and southern Illinois, flooding continued even though the Mississippi and Ohio river crests have moved south and despite efforts by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Last week, the Corps intentionally breached a levee in Missouri as part of its effort to reduce the pressure on other levees, flooding 130,000 acres of agricultural land over the objection of state officials and some farmers.

"I'm very sad. I look at that and I don't have a home," Marilynn Nally said, pointing to her flooded family farm. "I feel like we're having to suffer for somebody else."

The Corps also opened a spillway north of New Orleans on Monday in an effort to calm the rising Mississippi River.

The weather appears to be working in the flood fighters' favor. Only minimal rain is expected over the coming days, with daytime temperatures forecast to be in the upper 80s and 90s through Thursday, at which point the water levels should begin to creep back down.

But for some, especially in Louisiana, the threat of the floods was frightening.

"I went through Katrina," said Lynn Magnuson, a New Orleans resident who submitted footage of the flooding to CNN iReport. "I would not wish flooding on anyone, and this city is the last place on Earth that needs any more high water."

More evacuations in Memphis as Mississippi rises, but some still hang on

As the Mississippi River continues to rise slowly toward possible record crests from Memphis to Louisiana, some people are trying to hang on to normalcy just a bit longer.

With the river just feet from her single-story Memphis home, Shirley Woods had the grill going in the backyard Sunday, cooking ribs, pork chops, chicken and hot dogs. She decided there was time to at least celebrate Mother's Day at home with relatives.

But Woods says if the water gets any higher, they're on their way.

Then there are those who are coming in to have a look. One man says the river is probably the biggest tourist attraction in Memphis right now.

The river threatens to crest at 48 feet, just shy of the record, set by a devastating 1937 flood. It's expected to reach its peak Tuesday in the Memphis area.