Flooding Hits Parts of Midwest
BLACKWELL: More than 10 million people are waking up to a flood warning this morning. The Midwest, historic flooding along the Missouri River is getting started and could last for a very long time. Meanwhile, a flash flood warning has been issued for several counties in Nebraska, and Omaha's mayor has declared a state of emergency. The eastern part of the state officials were very clear -- get to higher ground now.</s>PAUL: Wisconsin declared a state of emergency as well after melting snow led to severe floods and at least 300 people there had to be evacuated. Allison Chinchar from the CNN Weather Center, what are they dealing with now, and coming up here, say, in the next 24 to 48 hours?</s>ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, so what you're going to see is a lot of these locations, they're going to continue to rise. In many cases, these rivers really have not crested. Many of them may not even do it for another week. You have over 300 river gauges that are above flood stage. Over 50 of them are major flood stage. And about a dozen are either at a record or are expected to break an all- time record within the next few days. The cause, in many cases, it has been snow melt. It's March. Temperatures get warmer, this usually happens. But this year is a little bit different, because we've had an excessive amount of snow. Take Minneapolis, for example, they are 20 inches above average for the year. That combined with the fact that many of these areas have just been very soggy. We had a very soggy winter. So you have all of that water flow from the Midwest, well, it has to go somewhere. It eventually flows further south into the Mississippi. So here's for example, this Missouri River, Plattsmouth, is has already broken the record by three feet, and it is expected to stay above record stage for at least the next five days. Here's a look at the the Missouri River at St. Joseph getting just within about a foot and a half of record stage, but it will stay at major flood stage for, yet again, about another week. And that's going to be the problem with so many of these rivers. It is flowing from the Midwest but eventually down into the southeast. So Victor and Christi, one of the other things we're going to seeing, too, is that this is going to be something that is going to linger across much of this area, not just for days but for weeks.</s>BLACKWELL: Long fight ahead. Allison Chinchar, thanks so much. After losing her father when she was just 14 years old, this week's CNN hero struggled with depression into her late 20s. And that's when she got some help.</s>PAUL: For nearly two decades now Mary Robinson has dedicated herself to making sure other children don't lose years of their lives to unresolved grief.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name is Bella, and my dad died.</s>MARY ROBINSON, CNN HERO: Kids in grief are kids at risk. Time does not heal all wounds. Time helps, but it is what you do with that time, and what you need to do is mourn.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you hear other people's stories, it kind of brings comfort.</s>ROBINSON: So that's why a place like Imagine exists, to give children a place to mourn their loss and find out that they're not alone.</s>BLACKWELL: Important, important work. To meet some of the families that Mary is helping and to nominate someone you think should be a CNN Hero, go to CNNHeroes.com.</s>PAUL: Knowing you're not alone, that can be powerful enough to help you get over that hump. So thank you so much for spending time with us this morning. We hope you make good memories today.</s>BLACKWELL: There is much more ahead in the next hour of CNN's Newsroom after a quick break.