CNN news 2011-05-01
On Monday, the National Weather Service alert said "the levee may fail at any time." Yesterday was "any time." This is the levee we've been telling you about in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. We reported on it yesterday, in fact. It failed in at least four spots along the Black River. Levees are barriers that are designed to prevent flooding. With this one failing, officials are ramping up evacuations in the area. They already ordered some evacuations. Around a thousand more people were told to evacuate on Tuesday.
Based on the way that the levee failed, authorities think Poplar Bluff won't get hit too badly. They expect most of the flood waters to end up in a more rural area. Of course, all of this is being caused by tremendous amounts of rain that have been falling there. A police official in Poplar Bluff said the city's gotten 15 inches of rain in the last four days, and more of it is on the way. The National Weather Service says parts of Missouri could see record flooding. That's why Governor Jay Nixon has sent out the Missouri National Guard to help with relief efforts and to reinforce levees.
From Texas to Tennessee, states across the southern U.S. could face severe thunderstorms, possible tornadoes. But Arkansas, the state that's just to the south of Missouri, has already gotten slammed by severe weather. Storms tore through the state on Monday. More than a dozen homes destroyed, and at least eight people were killed. The state's governor said he was surprised there weren't more deaths given the amount of damage caused by the severe weather. He declared a state of emergency, which will free up money and government resources for the relief efforts. The winds, so powerful that they flipped over cars and ripped up trees, like you see here. The governor said normally, the wind would just snap the trees. But because the ground was so wet, the trees were just pulled right out by the wind.