Fighting Floods in Fargo; Blizzard Leaves Mark on Denver Area
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Crazy weather across the country. Flood, blizzards, storm conditions affecting millions of people. The Red River in Fargo, North Dakota, rising to a level never seen in recorded history. One level is already cracked, prompting evacuations. Meantime, Colorado is under a state of emergency after a blizzard roared through. The storm is now heading into Oklahoma and Kansas. And in the Deep South, expect heavy rain and possibly more tornadoes. Several twisters slammed into Mississippi yesterday, injuring more than two dozen people in the town of McGee.</s>LEMON: Let's go back to Fargo, North Dakota, where the mayor is vowing to go down swinging, if they even go down. I spoke with Mayor Dennis Walaker last hour about the effort to save his city.</s>MAYOR DENNIS WALAKER, FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA: Another phrase of the day is if we're going to go down, we're going to go down swinging. And what I mean by that is we're going to continue to provide all of the possible support that we can. So -- and we appreciate everybody's efforts. We've never had more support than we have this year, and we've never needed more support.</s>LEMON: It is truly a race again time in Fargo. And we're told three million sandbags are needed to hold back the rising water. Live now to our Susan Roesgen, who is following that effort. Where are they so far, Susan?</s>SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Don. You know, no rest for the weary here in Fargo. They're going to keep going. I want to show you how this works. They've got the conveyor belt, they're bringing in dump loads of sand. They bring the sand in, run it up the conveyor belt. Then they come over here to what they call the spider. They've got guys up at the top making sure that the sand goes smoothly through the eight legs of the spider, as they've nicknamed it. And then at the bottom of each leg are the sandbags. So they can fill about eight sandbags in about 60 seconds. Each rotation at the top will fill all eight sandbags. So it's a lot faster than doing it just by hand, though they're still doing that, too. They realize now that -- they're pretty sure -- I'm watching out for the pallet truck here -- they're pretty sure now that the very coal weather here, Don, has slowed the movement of the river. They know that the river is already at its historic high level, but they don't think that it will get as far in the crest as 43 feet or 44 feet, some of the worst predictions. They think now it may stabilize at 42 feet tomorrow. And if that happens, then they believe the dikes, the levees and everything will be OK -- Don.</s>LEMON: Let's hope, Susan. Thank you very much for that reporting. Very busy where Susan is standing, and they're trying to get those sandbags filled to hold that water back. Susan, again, we appreciate it. Our iReporters are sending in some striking images of the severe weather affecting them, from sandbagging to blizzards, to golf ball- sized hail. Josh Levs here with a look. It's a bit of everything, Josh.</s>JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is. They're coming in from all over the country, people facing severe weather. Obviously, a lot of what we're getting is about Fargo and about that area. This one here is from Kevin Johnson, who is showing some of the sandbags being put out. But I want to take you this video now. Let's bring it full from Amelia Felz. I think it's interesting because, you know, Don, we're seeing the preparations a lot, but here, she's showing these things lined up behind homes which, in many cases, are going to have to be vacated now anyway.</s>LEMON: Wow.</s>LEVS: She's actually right outside a brand-new home that was being built that no one's even been able to live in yet. And you're going to see this -- check it out, Don. She's going to pan to the left, and you're going to see what it is like on this street. It's homes, mostly, apparently, vacated now, just protected pretty much by that massive pile of these sandbags in the hope that -- there you go.</s>LEMON: Oh my gosh.</s>LEVS: All sandbags, in the hopes that it will make a difference. Quickly, you mentioned that golf ball-sized hail. Let's go to that video.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>LEVS: I don't even know about this. This is from Pflugerville in Texas. Listen in. So, Don, they've been facing some rough stuff there. They're saying they were at leaf the size of golf balls. And you can tell from the pictures...</s>LEMON: Yes. It looks bigger than golf balls to me.</s>LEVS: It looks like a baseball to me.</s>LEMON: Yes. That's pretty big. We always say golf ball-sized hail, but that truly is, huh?</s>LEVS: They're huge. I mean, you had to take shelter. And they were just falling down, these massive clumps down there. So thanks to J.K. Washington. I'm going to emphasize again, we only use iReports where people did not go to danger. He did not go to danger, he was protected inside. So don't go to any danger to take these. And now I want to end by showing you Denver, because we're getting some interesting shots of the blizzard out there, Don. Check it out here. Tom Harrip (ph) sending us these from outside his home, where there was more than a foot of snow, basically caked onto everything he was able -- look at that. See those cars?</s>LEMON: Oh gosh.</s>LEVS: Yes. I mean, it's incredible, what's going on in different parts of the country right now. And I'll remind everyone, if you want to help anyone facing any difficulties right now, CNN.com/impact. Lots of ways to help, particularly there in Fargo and the rest of the region. They'll be facing those floods -- Don.</s>LEMON: You know, all of it's amazing video, but I'm particularly impressed -- not in a good way, you know -- with the sandbags. I mean, they're going to need three million of those sandbags, and just lined up and lined up down the street.</s>LEVS: And let's hope that those sandbags end up making enough of a difference, yes.</s>LEMON: Boy oh boy. Josh Levs, thank you, sir.</s>LEVS: Thank you.</s>LEMON: Let's get more now on the blizzard and its effects on the Denver area. A blizzard warning was canceled earlier today, but not before several inches of snow fell, making travel very difficult. Seventeen inches of snow was recorded across the metro area, forcing schools and businesses to close. And you can see how tough it is to get around just from that video. Maybe easier to walk, in some cases. You know our Jim Spellman filed a report for us earlier this morning, just a bit ago. Take a look.</s>JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The blizzard has passed here in the Denver area, and the roads are starting to reopen again. Plows have been out all night clearing off the roads, laying down sand and chemicals to stop the ice from forming. Truckers here at this truck stop, just north of Denver, have been overnighting here in their rigs, waiting for the highways to reopen, the roads to be cleared, so they can get out and make their way. It was clear here today, but yesterday, during the storm, it was really treacherous. Here's what one trucker told us about it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's one of the worst I've seen. One of the worst, because it was all at once. I came up yesterday, there was no snow in Pueblo. Got over to Colorado Springs, and it was a whiteout, so it's one of the worst I've had this year. I heard about some bad ones. This is the worst one I've been in this year.</s>SPELLMAN: And it's not just on the roads where there's been problems. At Denver International Airport, 300 to 400 people had to spend the night there. Flights canceled, of course, because of the blizzard. They've had crews there at the airport, out all night, plowing the runways, getting ready to get all those people in the air and off to their destinations -- Don.</s>LEMON: All right. Thank you very much. CNN's Jim Spellman reporting for us. We have some new details, and you're looking at live pictures there at the top of your screen. This is about those two NFL players missing off the coast of Florida and are presumed dead. NFL players Cory Smith an Marquis Cooper disappeared February 28th after their boat capsized. The players were fishing in the Gulf of Mexico with two other men off Tampa. Well, today, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission released its findings. And there you go. You see the press conference happening there. That's what they're doing. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation holding a press in Tampa, releasing the boating accident report from that. The accident report says that the boat capsized after the anchor got stuck on the bottom of the gulf. Cooper throttled the motor to free it, causing the boat to flip. It flipped over, and the next two days it just stayed there in the water. The only survivor says his three fishing buddies lost consciousness and died, apparently from hypothermia. A very sad story there. A new war strategy in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama unveils a future of U.S. troops there.