you were talking about the mississippi river near you. it s different here in the city of new orleans. this is the river behind me. we re on the west bank of the mississippi river near the french quarter, new orleans. normally the level of this river in new orleans is under 11 feet, but because of heavy rains over the past weeks and months, before the storm came, the level got to 16 1/2 feet. that s a dangerous stage. when it gets about 17.1 feet, that s flood stage. that s what it s expected to get to today, 17.1 feet. the dangerous number is if it gets over 20, because the levee system in new orleans is built to contain 20-foot floods. that was the fear as the week started. as the storm started coming, it would go over 20 feet. forecasterss say they don t anticipate at this point, we must say anticipate because this isn t over. they don t anticipate it will go over the 17.1 feet and that s good news for new orleans. behind me, this is the natvhez
authorities believe it won t go over 17.1. there s a sense of relief. this isn t over yet. everyone is wary. nobody is complacent. erica? appreciate it, my friend. i want to bring in freddie ziegler. what are you watching specifically, this morning? good morning. we re watching for louisiana and southern mississippi, tropical storm barry pulling away. we have issues across southeast louisiana with water across the post line. and heavy rain in the area.
the mississippi river, on the outskirtds of the french water. the great fear this would be over 20-foot stage. it started off and allison was talking about this. it started off before the storm came in if 15-foot vicinity. that s high. right now, it s closing in on 17 feet. when it gets over 17.1, you have a problem. there s flood walls all over the new orleans metropolitan area. it separates us from the french quarter here, the major tourist area in new orleans. this is the flood wall right here. it contains up to 20 feet of water. where i m standing, there s no wat water whatsoever. and floodgates. we call them the storm gates.
experience that we had in 2016, we do expect the komey to crest close to, if not slightly higher than the crest in 2016. that is obviously not good news here. we expect the a am amy to crest around the crest of the 1983 flood level. that s a little better than in 2016, but still a very serious flood threat. some good news is that the gauge at the carrollton the carrollton gauge, i should say, the mississippi river in new orleans is now expected to crest at 17.1 feet. as you know, as of yesterday, we were expecting that crest to be 19 feet. even at 19 feet, we didn t anticipate river overtopping lee levee s anywhere. we can say the river won t overtop the levee anywhere on
levees that split open and water came out killing hundreds in the city. this is a totally different storm. obviously not as strong with the winds, but the concern was that the river would cause immense flooding. the revised forecast the last several hours is instead of being concerned about getting to 20 feet, the thought was it would be 19 feet yesterday. now they re thinking it won t go above 17.1 feet. now it s 16.7. the feel haviis the feeling t won t go much higher. reassuring news in the city that has suffered so much for generations but nothing as bad as 14 years ago this summer when hurricane katrina came through. and some disappointing news for music fans here in new orleans. the rolling stones haven t been here in 25 years, stopped put on a show at the superdome sunday. they canceled the show. but alas, they have rescheduled for the next night, monday. hopefully it will be a celebration when mick jagger and the boys come to new orleans and the stones play the superdome.