stir up waves jones says has been doing damage, pounding away fragile dirt from the levees. it calls it a battle of attrition because this water is going to stay high for weeks. the coast guard stepped in, slowing boats down to a crawl, keeping them to the middle of the channel and spacing them far apart. a small bit of comfort for a family with dpooiv generations of success and a proud legacy at the heart of a river. very humbling. very humbling, and i think about this all the time. and that s why we re doing everything we can to find it. and if we fail, we ll just say, well, we tried. reporter: so far, a half million dollars of company cash has gone into the levee. if it fails, the jones lumber company probably will not be able to recover, so there s nothing left to do but work, watch, and worry. david mattingly, cnn, natchez, mississippi. coming up next, a man
five generations at the jm jones lumber company, but i find him strictly in the business of surviving. building up and trying to hold together a levee that keeps his family s business from being swept away. are you confident you can hold the river back? absolutely not. no, i mean, i m confident that it s not going to go over my levees, but i m not confident that enough of this is going to cave off and i m going to have a breach. i would say it s 50/50. reporter: it s been four weeks since lumber operation ceased and all resources went into building up the company s existing levee. up to eight feet higher in some places. now they re constantly plugging, bag, and patching what the river gouges away. you can tell this is a patch deal here. our primary tarp was ripped. reporter: confounding the problem, river traffic. boats pushing barges upstream
event, and peter handy who is on the trail with mitt romney. shannon, cain may not have the name recognition others have. give us the lowdown on him. some of the things you mentioned, he has solid business experience, a financial background. he was the former ceo of godfather s pizza. he had other experience in other profile executive experience in restaurants. he s going to run on that, don. he s going to run on the fact he has solid business credentials, and he s got immense tea party support. he hopes that will help differentiate him from the more well known names like mitt romney and newt gingrich. part of the announcement was to drum up support, but part was also like a reintroduction. i m herman cain, the business guy, and if you re worried about where the economy is going, i m the one you have to support. this is romney s first trip. tell us what he s doing and why the state is so important. this is the state, mitt romney is the front runner for the republican no