Catastrophic Flooding: 21 Square Miles of Iowa Farmland Flooded; Levees on the Brink
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Boy, we have to tell you, we are running as fast as we can to keep you up to date on the flooding in the Midwest. We want to get to our national correspondent, Allan Chernoff, now. He is in Oakville, Iowa. And Allan, you sent a note a while ago, just a short time ago, telling us that you're in 21 -- let me have you tell the story.</s>ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: Tony, it is simply astounding here. I'm looking out at a lake and I just got off a boat. A lake of 21 square miles of water covering corn and soybean fields. It is simply astanding. Well over 100 farms on this territory. We were on the boat, and we went to a farmer's home. He's lived here for 47 years. The only thing above water, his roof and an American flag still on the flagpole. We passed by silos, hog barns. In fact, on one barn we saw three pigs still on the roof, just trapped there. Trapped and eating some corn debris that had floated onto the top of the barn. But it is astounding here. And one of the farmers that we've spoken to, Crook Siegel (ph), he had invested over a million dollars into his crop this year. It's all gone. Just entirely gone. And to magnify the situation here, consider the fact that there's no shipping right now along the Mississippi, which means that the farmers cannot sell their grain to have it shipped down the Mississippi and exported out of New Orleans. So they're not even getting cash in. So they've lost their investment. They're looking at flooded fields that I can't even imagine how long it will take this area to dry up. We're clearly talking about months -- Tony.</s>HARRIS: Allan, is another situation where everyone did everything in their power to try to raise the height of the levee and the levee system just simply was overwhelmed?</s>CHERNOFF: That is exactly correct, Tony. The community here worked day and night on a levee right nearby. I'm seven miles from the Iowa River, three miles from the Mississippi. Water between me and those two rivers. And I'm right next to a church that had organized the levee building, but the levee broke on Saturday. Within hours these fields were filled with water.</s>HARRIS: I'm just wondering, can you even believe it? I'm sure you have, as we have, watched these pictures out of Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, and what you're talking about and describing is something as devastating as those scenes from those communities.</s>CHERNOFF: Yes. And we will have pictures for you a little bit later today. We hope to have them back to you within the hour. As I said, we've just gotten off the boat. Our satellite truck has just arrived. We'll be sending you video, so our viewers will see this for themselves very shortly.</s>HARRIS: OK. Allan Chernoff for us this morning. Allan, appreciate it. Thank you. Can't wait to see the pictures.</s>HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Wow. Levees on the brink, and certainly farmland just inches from being completely demolished, and lives at the edge of disaster. Not too far away from Allan Chernoff is our own Sean Callebs. He is standing by now in a town that has already evacuated. Wondering, Sean, what the latest is from Des Moines County, where you are in Iowa.</s>SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting, because we heard Allan talk about what happened over there. Had it not been for the breaches on the Illinois side, this out here, what you're looking at, all this corn, all this farmland here, could very well be in the same situation. The reason? Once the levees gave way on the other side, the water went down here somewhat significantly. About 30 hours ago it was at the top of these sandbags. The concern was it was going over. Now everybody in this area keeping an eye on these flags that you see every so often on the levee. These are areas that are considered at risk. And here is how one of the volunteer -- one of the farmers, a volunteer who's going up and down checking the levee, describes the situation.</s>DAVID WAGENBACH, FARMER: What we've got to watch out for now is for seeps and things like that. It's going to come up through the side of the levee. There's some places down south of here where the water is just bubbling outside of the levee. And as it goes down, we'll have less pressure. But that's our biggest concern now, or sticks or animals tearing up the berm. Right now there's trash along the levee. And if wind comes up, these sticks will come up and tear up the plastic we have on top inside them bags and then create a leak. So that's what we've got to watch for now, even though the water is about a foot down from what it was.</s>CALLEBS: And this is what everybody is trying to avoid. Look at this gaping hole in the levee right across the river from Burlington, Iowa. This, Gulfport, Illinois. It happened yesterday. And that is what led to flooding those thousands and thousands acres of flooding of farmland. You know, Tony, we talk about this extensive levee system along the Mississippi as if everybody understands why it's here, how long it's been here. Actually, it dates back about a century and a half. In fact, I was in St. Louis during the '93 flood, and I remember looking at a picture of one of the first heads of the corps of engineers down in that area responsible for handling the river. It was Robert E. Lee, who of course went on to be the confederate general during the Civil War. But most of the levees along the Mississippi are between 10 and 20 feet high. What they're designed to do is control the flooding. Before these levees went up, hundreds of miles of farmland would be flooded basically every year. These are designed to keep the water within the channels. However, on these occasions when the levees are breached, this is what leads to this catastrophic flooding. People simply aren't prepared for it, and people have built in what was the floodplain. That's what leads to the disaster, that's what leads to the heartbreak and the financial ruin of so many -- Tony.</s>COLLINS: Yes. Well, because mainly, Sean, you know, as we've learned over the last few days, a lot of people don't have insurance, couldn't get that flood insurance. So we appreciate that story.</s>CALLEBS: Right. A lot of people...</s>COLLINS: Go ahead.</s>CALLEBS: Well, just a lot of people either didn't want to buy it because it was too expensive, or felt it wasn't worth it. One thing the federal government really drilled into us after Hurricane Katrina is everybody can buy flood insurance no matter where you live. It just isn't worth it.</s>COLLINS: All right. CNN's Sean Callebs for us in Des Moines County. Thank you, Sean.</s>HARRIS: Quincy, Illinois, south of the latest levees to be overwhelmed and directly in the path of the rising floodwaters. Most of Quincy is elevated, and that won't be impacted, but our understanding is that there was a section of Quincy along the river that is of real concern. Let's get to Reynolds Wolf. He is there. Reynolds, is that a pretty good assessment of the situation there in Quincy?</s>REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I would say this is a great assessment of the situation in Quincy. Right along Front Street, right along the river, we're having some issues. But up on the bluff, where most of the city is situated, you don't have too much of a problem. Now, this, obviously, what I'm walking in, is definitely what you would consider a problem. We've seen water actually drop a little bit just over the past couple of hours, because as you mentioned, we had those levees fail a little bit farther to the north up in Warsaw. And I believe some 12,000 acres has been inundated with water, which has actually caused the water here just to drop a little bit. Not a whole lot, but a little bit. So it kind of points out that what is one community's misery farther to the north is actually a gain here in Quincy. A little bit better for them. However, they know that they're far from over, they know that more water is on the way. Already, like in this small business here, you see they've got these pumps working here. These have been going all night long, trying to stay ahead of these floodwaters, as the Mississippi roars its way South along the Gulf. You know, Tony, we often talk about the economic impact that we're going to have in terms of the agricultural problems in parts of Missouri and Iowa and Illinois, but you've got to remember, a lot of these mom and pop industries that have been here for years and years, they're certainly in danger. This is a tremendous flood. Many people here in the community joining hands, trying to do what they can to stave off these waters. And it's not just people here in the community. Later on this afternoon, we're going to take you later to a sandbagging center where you're going to see people from all over the country coming together to work hand in hand, filling up these sandbags, doing what they can to push these floodwaters away from these communities. It's a great story, but, at the same time, just a terrifying prospect to see this water come up so quickly. Let's send it back to you -- Tony.</s>HARRIS: You're on a street. I saw the stop sign, so you're actually on a street there.</s>WOLF: This is Front Street, which on any other day would be just a beautiful...</s>HARRIS: Yes.</s>WOLF: You've got a couple of shops over here. Everything would be picture perfect. But this is what happens when the Mississippi River spills its banks.</s>HARRIS: Amazing. All right. Reynolds Wolf for us this morning in Quincy, Illinois. Reynolds, talk to you a bit later this afternoon. Thank you.</s>COLLINS: Wow, you've got to find really, really big waders. I mean, it's unbelievable, how much we've been able to see this with the reports out there.</s>HARRIS: Yes, exactly.</s>COLLINS: And wearing the waders, as strange as that sounds, but, you know, they've just been going up and up and up. And it is unbelievable for how many more days the people in the central part of this country are going to have to deal with this.</s>HARRIS: Yes.</s>HARRIS: Lift the ban. President Bush pressuring Congress on offshore oil drilling. But would that ease your pressure at the gas pump?