Fighting Floods Along Mississippi River
LEMON: All right. Here's a rundown of some of the stories that we're working on for you. Lives torn apart by flooding along the Mississippi River. And we'll take a boat tour. Plus, much of the river is protected by levees. So why is there so much flooding? We'll check in with our Chad Myers with some answers in just a bit. Then, a Memphis high school does a superb job in raising its graduation rate. The payoff, a visit from President Obama. All right. CNN "In Depth" right now, "Troubled Waters." The swollen Mississippi River has flooded hundreds of homes and businesses. One of the hardest-hit areas, Tunica County, Mississippi, just south of Memphis. CNN's John King took a boat tour of a flooded neighborhood.</s>JOHN KING, HOST, "JOHN KING USA": Essentially just a string of different home sites and camps along this side of the levee, and they are just washed out.</s>CHIEF SCOTT GOFF, TUNICA COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Yes.</s>KING: Three hundred and thirty homes total? And we saw one that just barely was out of the water.</s>GOFF: That's right. You look at 99 percent are under water.</s>KING: Can you see any possibility of people coming back here? I mean, these houses are destroyed.</s>GOFF: Yes, they are destroyed.</s>KING: And the local management said of the 330, 25 had flood insurance?</s>GOFF: Correct.</s>KING: Have you seen water on these streets at all?</s>GOFF: It would be water that would make it all the way to the base of the levee, but that's as far. If there was a home here that, you know, was not built up, it might get water up to the door, but as far as destroy them like this, never before.</s>KING: Everybody was evacuated out?</s>GOFF: Yes, they had I think three people said at the time that they were going to stay and went to Mississippi</s>KING: They didn't think the water would get here?</s>GOFF: No way. They have been here 40 years and said no way it's going to get this high.</s>KING: In normal circumstances, it will be dry below us and we are in 32 feet of water.</s>GOFF: We're in 32 feet of water.</s>KING: Thirty-two feet of water.</s>GOFF: Right.</s>KING: Who lived here? What kinds of people are we talking about?</s>GOFF: Retired, a lot of retired people out there. Some young couples that, you know, working class. They work in the casinos --</s>KING: Just blue collar working people?</s>GOFF: Right.</s>KING: So the people who have the least.</s>GOOF: Exactly.</s>LEMON: It is really sad to hear those people. You know, more of the epic flooding as we go "X Country" for you. The high water is taking a huge toll on Arkansas farmers. Look at that farmland right there. More than a million acres of cropland, under water. The financial toll, at least half a billion dollars. In Kentucky, whole neighborhoods are just devastated. This couple had just gotten engaged. Right there, you see it on your screen. But they have lost everything. The water is so high, they can't even go home.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A nightmare. A big nightmare. Everything you worked hard for just got washed away.</s>LEMON: And in Illinois, those flood victims who can return home are finding a really sticky mess. Mold now covers just about everything that's been under water, as you can imagine. You know, levees line the Mississippi River to protect against flood waters, so let's check in now with our meteorologist Chad Myers for a closer look at how the levee system works. They are getting inundated. And it's sad to hear those stories.</s>CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Thousands of miles of dirt berms. Basically, that's all a levee is. And it's covered in grass, maybe some tree, trying to keep the water inside. The grass and trees have roots, kind of keeping the dirt together. So let's just kind of go -- and we're going to play this for you. Here's the Mississippi River, or at least what we think the Mississippi River was back in the '20s and '30s, when there was no levees. The water spread out. The water spread out for miles and miles to the east and west, but if wasn't that deep -- three, five -- all the way over here, just a couple of feet. What happens and while we're in such dire straits now is because of how weave' leveed this river and tried to keep it from spreading out. Well, you know what, folks? Over here is still the floodplain. It is still where the river wants to be. This levee -- I'll draw it in here, so you can see it a little bit better. Kind of hard to see it on this map with white on white. But there's the bottom of the river and there's another levee right there. But this land over here is still what I would consider floodplain. Even though the levee is here is protecting that floodplain and all of the homes and businesses here. And so far the levees doing a fantastic job. Army Corps, I have to say, is doing a fantastic job with these levees. Here's the biggest problem. Here is the issue with a sand boil, an undercut where the water is here and right here -- that's your levee. There's so much pressure, coming down on tens or 20, 30 feet of water. The pressure down here is tremendous, like three atmospheres. It can -- the water can force itself under the levee and back on to where the dry land is, calling what we call a sand boil. Literally like boiling water or boiling mud. That's where you can lose the bottom of the levee, all of a sudden it washes out, and you have a surge of water coming into this floodplain. So far, Army Corps -- they're finding sand boils but they are so far taking care of them.</s>LEMON: Concrete or steel levees would better? Yes, no, doesn't make a difference?</s>MYERS: I don't know how you make that much concrete. I mean, literally, these levees can be 100 feet here, 30 feet here, and about 20 to 30 feet this way. The yardage, the cubic yards of concrete would be enormous.</s>LEMON: Yes. You know, I grew up in Louisiana. I thought everybody had levees.</s>MYERS: Right.</s>LEMON: You're doing the explainer on levees. I said, doesn't everyone know? But not everybody, no.</s>MYERS: Yes, not everybody, no.</s>LEMON: Ah, all right. Thank you, Chad. We appreciate it. Seniors at a Memphis high school getting a star speaker at their graduation. The president of the United States. I'll talk with the principle and a senior at this Race to the Top winning school. That's next.