but the controlled flood plan could swamp smaller communities. some pretty desperate times for a lot of people along that mississippi, residents of one small bayou town have been told to evacuate. ed lavendera when they learned the reasons why, 15 feet of water bearing down on their community. tucked away in the shade of louisiana cypress trees and back water creeks, you ll have a hard time finding butte la rose, but it s pierre water myers dance floor. i put that sign up about two months ago, i have always wanted to name is camp last dance. the music has stopped and pierre i don t know why i m locking it. reporter: is packing up before the floodwaters wash over butte la rose.
goes for three to five miles and there are about 100 homes out there. these are not just lake houses or cottages, these are full-time residential houses people live in all the time. only they re not there now. they ve all managed to make it out but the flooding was really significant. over the rooftops in many cases and in other cases right up to the very front door. but those houses where the water came to the front door are on stilts, up 15 feet in the air. it s quite a remarkable thing to see. as waters diverted into the atchafalaya basin it will inundate small communities, ed lavandera visited with some heartbroken residents as they got the bad news they had to evacuate. reporter: tucked away in the shade of louisiana cypress trees and backwater creeks you ll have a hard time finding butte larose. but it s his dance floor. i put that sign up two months
biggest cities in louisiana. but it means tiny communities could soon be under many feet of water. this is what it looked like in 1973. the one and only time the morganza spillway had to be opened. there s no guarantee it will even work. the mississippi river is already dangerously high in new orleans. the army corps of engineers is hoping that by diverting water through two spillways will lower the river level and spare the city. so far, the corps says opening the morganza spillway appears to be having the desired effect. the biggest test is still days away, the highest water, hundreds of miles up river. this is greenville, mississippi, that you re looking at right now. a live report from there, and it is being inundated, straight ahead on cnn. let s get right to ed lavandera who was there when the morganza spillway was opened just about three hours ago. ed, tell us about it. ed lavandera is joining us on the phone. ed, can you hear us? reporter: just a while ago, this is
new orleans and baton rouge would be saved. also mirroring arizona, the second state with some stiff immigration laws. the governor nathan beale signed that law yesterday. the author will be here with me in the studio live and also someone who s against it. you want to hear the conversation. also another conversation you ll be interested to hear, a rare interview with hank aaron, talking about baseball, how it s letting down the black community. also talking about who the real home run king should be. from the cnn center, this is your cnn saturday morning. glad you could spend part of your day here with us. it s 7:00 a.m. in morgan city, louisiana. all eyes on morgan city today. let s talk about this flooding, major flooding has swamped the upper mississippi and ohio river valley is now making aim at lower mississippi. later today the army corps of engineers could open the morganza spill way in louisiana. it has not been opened in more than 40 years. w450i why would they
mississippi river. our hearts go out to everybody downstream. this is monumental water. never been seen before. that man flilives in morganz louisiana, home of the morganza spillway. it now seems likely that sometime over the weekend the army corp of engineers will open that structure for the first time since 1973 lessening the force and volume of the mighty mississippi, thus lessening the flood risks to the downstream cities of baton rouge and new orleans. but the water s got to go somewhere, and that somewhere is farmland and swamps. bayous and hamlets to the west and south. talking thousands of homes, maybe 25,000 people at the mercy of a no-win situation. river is still rising everywhere you see an the crest is really taking its time, still almost a week away from vicksburg. it is supposed to crest may 19th. also we have new orleans here. that s about ten days away. may 23rd it is supposed to crest. and here is the morganza spillway. all right? right there. here s tha