waters. in vicksburg, mississippi they still talk about the great flood of 1927. well now a new benchmark. the latest flooding is expected to set a record. austin golding is with us from vicksburg. his family is in the barge line business. they make their living off of the river but their business is surrounded by water. austin, so good to have you. i know that you and your family are watching this situation very, very closely. how is this flooding impacting you? well, i tell you, this water is unprecedented. the level of the water has really proved to be a hindrance for our industry and our town and communities along it, for sure. it is the flood of a generation. are you actually seeing any flooding affecting the barges now? we re still operating the barges as we speak but there are quite a lot of hurdles with
9/11 would be necessary to drive u.s. forces out of the middle east. the cia is showing photos of bin laden s corpse to members of congress who sit on the stelgs and armed services committee. republican senator james inhofe says the pictures are glizly and leave no doubt that bin laden is dead. there are 15 pictures. the first 12 were taken in the compound obviously right after the incident took place. so they re pretty grueling. the other three were taken on the ship and included the burial at sea. a little later i ll talk live with florida congressman tom rooney, who is also viewing those pictures. gas prices, they re up a couple pennies today, even though oil prices have been falling. aaa says the national average for a gallon of regular is now $3.98. you ll pay $4.12 for premium. against that backdrop, congress is coming down hard on oil company execs. that s happening today. five ceos are testifying before the senate finance committee. but oil companies consistentl
thursday, may 12, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning. and welcome to the special oh, you re going to start, matt? okay. sorry. i was waiting for you, meredith. i m getting a little bit like, you know, this superstar syndrome here. starting to think i m a pretty important person, which i m not. i m at the cannes film festival. you re back in new york. first of all, it looks like you ve changed locations a bit. i m on the roof of a hotel to give you a nice panoramic view behind me. this is getting a little ridiculous. too much sun, way too much champagne, way too many super stars i m falling all over along with 4,500 other journalists. this morning we were speaking with three of the stars, angelina jolie, jack black, and dustin hoffman, for their movie, kung fu panda 2. i m going to catch up with them live later on. also ahead, new details on the disappearance of madeleine mccann who vanished from her parents hotel room in po
river right now. the worst part is ahead, according to a lot of the experts. surging, unpredictable water flowing toward the mississippi delta now. the river is taking aim at one of the most poverty stricken parts of our country, after laying waste to a big chunk of the gambling industry up river, hundreds of homes, and just about touching a record on its way through memphis, tennessee, and it s not too early to say this, new orleans and the surrounding region could be in flood trouble as this flows south, on top of all the troubles they ve had. we want to start off our coverage tonight with nbc s anne thompson in butte larose, louisiana. good evening. reporter: good evening, brian. louisianians are busy tonight, preparing for this historic flood which has already done so much damage upriver. as the mississippi river barrels south, satellite images reveal its relentless and destructive impact. this was memphis on april 21st before the flood, and this was memphis yesterday.
there is already water in the downtown area. they re having to divert some traffic. no businesses closed there, but we ve seen the pictures from the neighborhoods. entire neighborhoods washed away here, and the point that emergency managers are stressing here today is just because the river has crested, they don t want people rushing back and into their homes. they say it s still very dangerous, potentially toxic. more than 450 people in shelters right now. many more staying with family and friends, and they say they re going to be there for quite some time. it s going to take as long for this river to recede as it did for it to rise. so we re talking about a couple of weeks there, and then the forecast. it s calling for rain by the end of the week, exactly what most here don t need. absolutely. jay, you talk about the water, and that it is toxic. and there are even reports of snakes and just a dangerous situation there. reporter: yeah. i can tell you from personal experi