it s really been difficult. it has been difficult. it s a real challenge, rerouting all of those people, especially when you consider that i-44 is a major trucking route. we know there s some 100,000 vehicles that go through there per day. a ten-mile stretch of that is closed. how are you managing to route people to safety? that s the tricky part. it s closed in two places. one in midmissouri and last night at 2:00 it closed in st. louis. a lot of our detour routes are also closed. we re trying to find routes that can handle the trucks. some of these are 100, 150-mile detours. we are urging people to get to i-70. anybody coming through missouri, take them highway 70. i-70 is open. that s a good message we hope will get spread to people trying to get in and around that area. i m curious what your message is to motorists right now.
water, so the power we re talking about as well as the volume is extremely significant. reporter: the governor declaring a state of emergency and activating the national guard. as officials predict river levels could exceed the great flood of 1993. that claimed nearly 50 lives and damaged or destroyed some 50,000 homes. the most devastating in modern u.s. history. in the town of west alton, near st. louis, the may other urging his 500 residents to evacuate after water levels overtopped the levee. this is your notice, this is serious. you need to get final preparations and go. reporter: parts of union, missouri under water with homes, cars, restaurants completely submerge. and one photographer even capturing video of this cabin floating away. authorities urging drivers to stay off inundated roadways, fearing they ll get stuck and swept away. the vast majority of deaths
we are such an affluent country and it is really important to think about how to raise thoughtful kind empathetic kids and it is not always so easy. and parents are managing everything and now everyone is their best friend. interesting to take a look at that. doctor, thank you so much. nice to see you. what s your take? tweet us at new day or e post your comment. anger growing in chicago after a grandmother was accidentally gunned down by police. now calls growing louder for mayor rahm emanuel to resign. up next we re going to speak to a pastor who new the grandmother killed, betty jones. what does he think should happen? that s next. es that you can book on our app to make sure your little animal, enjoys her first trip to the kingdom. expedia, technology connecting you to what matters.
closure cones. it s got to be about 12 to 13 feet deep right there under that overpass. and so incredible flooding here, we are going to see record flooding right here along the merrimack river. also this meets up with the mississippi river. not only here but we will see flooding in places like paducah, places like little rock, even memphis during the next week or so. st. louis has had the rainiest year on record. they have received about 61 inches of rain this year. normally they only receive 40. they re about 21 inches above that. they received 11 of those inches in december alone. and so you can see all of this water, too much water to handle, flows into the streams, into the rivers, several major rivers flow, of course, into the mississippi where it meets up near here and all of this water is going to flow downstream. this is different from the 1993 floods that happened during the summer months. it was due to the snow melt as well as a lot of rain.