[Leon Harris, Cnn Anchor:] Let's get right to our top story. It's the rising water and the rising anxiety in the Midwest. The Mississippi River is expected to crest at near-record levels today in Davenport, Iowa. That's the largest major city on the upper Mississippi without a permanent flood wall. CNN's Jeff Flock is on the flood watch this morning. Let's go to Jeff now live on the phone Jeff.
[Jeff Flock, Cnn Correspondent:] And I actually am across the river this morning that's why we're on the phone in Rock Island. A lot of flap over the fact that Davenport...
[Flock:] ... wall. The FEMA director yesterday criticizing Davenport, and they didn't take it particularly well in Davenport. They are saying, that, well, you know, "You don't make people move off the Florida coast because there are hurricanes. You don't make people leave California because there are earthquakes, and you shouldn't make people leave the river because there are occasionally floods. So some flap about that, and the FEMA director will be here in Davenport later this week on Thursday. But, first, to the latest numbers. The latest numbers we have out here along the river in terms of the crest again, expected to crest at 22.5 feet sometime later today, and the latest we had from the emergency operations center in Davenport about 22.1 or so... Earlier, we reported this morning that the river levels began to drop for a time. There was a reportedly break in a levee perhaps upstream. We are not able to confirm that, however, and right now, they are still not getting a good explanation for why there was a slight drop. We expect to get more from the city a little later this morning, perhaps in about two hours. Right now, the latest is that the flood wall it is up and protecting downtown Davenport, continues to hold. They're getting some water through it as well as a little bit that comes under it, but, at this point, they're able to pump it out and, so far, so good, Leon.
[Harris:] All right. Jeff, just if we can hold the shot right there, Jeff, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but we actually do have a camera shot on you. Folks, that is Jeff Flock standing there on top of that levee. Now that that is on those is it Rock Island that's called over there where you're at right now?
[Flock:] That's right. I'm over in Rock Island and, in fact, I've got the city administrator here, John Phillips. And you folks I we're going to talk with him this morning about how you built this levee out here, John, and you're happy that you have one here, and it was at considerable expense, but you're pretty glad that we're standing in a dry area right now.
[John Phillips, Rock Island City Administrator:] We certainly are. We're really pleased that we've got it. There are tradeoffs that communities have to make about what their priorities are. We're...
[Phillips:] ... the power that it provides the Rock Island about 30 years ago decided that they should work with the Corps of Engineers to build this protection system.
[Flock:] So, as you can see, Leon, they're pretty happy they've got this right now and, as you can see, we can get another four or five feet worth of... ... would not have a problem here.
[Harris:] All right. Good deal. Thanks much, Jeff Flock. You can run, but you can't hide. We've got cameras that track you down everywhere. There we go. We've got a great- now we've got a great closeup shot of the two of you. And we'll get back to you in just a bit. All right. Take care.
[Flock:] Thank you.
[Kyra Phillips, Cnn Anchor:] Would you call him Lord of the Live Shots?
[Harris:] He is that.
[Phillips:] He makes it happen no matter where he is.
[Harris:] There you go. He proved it, didn't he?
[Phillips:] That's right.
[Harris:] But the first shot we had, folks, was from the Davenport side of the Mississippi River, and you can see where that water is starting to creep into the downtown area down there.
[Phillips:] And covering the weather from all angels, of course, Chad Myers. What's the latest, Chad?
[Harris:] Hey, Chad.
[Chad Myers, Cnn Meteorologist:] Yesterday, the wind was the problem. Today, that wind has died off for those folks and, in fact, it's turned out of the West at about nine miles per hour. Here's Davenport right here, and if you notice, why we were saying this this south wind was such a problem, because, for a while, the Mississippi River goes from east to west on this little turn, and that's where Davenport is. So that wind coming out of the South yesterday was really causing havoc with waves lapping up against the areas there. The barrier or the sandbags some of them even getting washed away because of the wave action, not even the water coming down. Here's what we have for you now. I have drawn this map of the next seven days precip potential, and we're really not seeing anything in the upper Mississippi Valley. That's some great news. From Minneapolis, we see a little bit of green in here, but that's all less than a quarter of an inch everywhere. And the good news is we're beginning to see some rain down across the South. Two-inch rainfalls across the northern sections in Canada. That will not get into the Mississippi River. But also down to the South, two-inch areas in the Everglades, and that's some better news. And we'll zoom into these areas here. For the next seven days, only a quarter inch across the Great Lakes, dry in the basin here. So what water is here is running off from the rains we had this weekend. But no more rain coming down for the next seven days, except for the folks in Miami and down in South Florida, and a lot of water potential coming in in the next 10 days. I'll have that for you coming up in the next few minutes back to you.
[Phillips:] All right, Chad. Thank you. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com