it is not just the african-americans. we re talking about perhaps newly registered immigrants. there are programs, we can certainly insure that they have every access to voting and we should make sure of that but we can also insure the integrity of elections. heather: i have to wrap-up and kirsten that has to be final word. thanks for joining us this day after christmas and hope you had a great holiday. thanks. gregg: very extreme weather in the south creating tough travel conditions for parts of the country. today s post-holiday rush but the worst stuff could still be still on the way. meteorologist, maria molina in the news weather center. what is it like down there? gregg, unfortunately we re seeing a lot of roehm out a storm system in the lower mississippi valley producing heavy rainfall. we re seeing rainfall rates up to an inch per hour and that s where we have flooding concerns that is state the mississippi,
should sink in, what widespread damage is possible. where are those people going to go? it s extraordinary, the weather the large few months. meteorologist jim dickey at accuweathehehas the latest flood warnings. good morning, jim. good morning, rob and tanya. historic flooding going on here. especially into eastern-central pennsylvania, southern new york state into maryland. you can see rainfall rates here since sunday. many spots over 10 inches of rain. that on what s already been saturated soil here. right in the basin of the susquehanna river here, the most significant flooding is ongoing. we ll watch rivers continue to rise here through many spots on the day, including harrisburg in pennsylvania, the capital of pennsylvania expected to crest late today into early saturday. when it does, nearing record levels. so big-time flooding ongoing here. unfortunately we are looking for some more rain. upper level lolopressure system what s left of lee continuing to pump in moisture,
into the pier. eventually punching a giant hole into the hull. you see guys trying to save it. they are okay. you are in the cnn newsroom this saturday. i m in for don lemon. good to see you. we are following a massive storm stalled off the coast of new orleans. this ireport sent to us by andrew caylee from a suburb of new orleans. doesn t look too bad now. already power has been knocked out to about 30,000 people in louisiana. the governors of louisiana and mississippi have drayeclared sts of emergency for areas, parishes are under mandatory evacuation orders because of the threat of flooding. the mayor of new orleans today warned residents to brace for a long ordeal from this storm. up to 20 inches of rain could overwhelm the area. cnn s ed lavandera has been tracking the impact of the tropical storm all day today. tropical storm lee. he joins us now from waveland, mississippi, east of new orleans. how s it looking? reporter: well, you know, i think a lot of people reme
back out over the water. sunday morning right here just off the jersey coast towards the delaware. see a lot of water being pushed in across the coastal areas and a lot of river across the hudson river. that s some of the concern. some the water overlapping into battery park and could that get into the subways. that s why they are closing that if the storm does track to the west at all and a couple of our models dial doo that that s worse news. more water pushing up in the hudson and storm surge. tracks off to the east more storm surge. such a big storm we will see storm surge down along long island and long island sound and even in up towards the bay. a lot of people dealing with a rise of water that s going to be somewhere around 6 to 8 feet and throw in the waves on top of that there is also the very heavy rain. where you see these colors, that blue very heavy rainfall rates. 6:00 to 7:00. probably about the next hour we will be seeing a landfall
here. there s hardly any rain. we re on the back side of the storm, getting dumped on now in areas. about one to two inches an hour. this is the highest rainfall total so far. wilmington had 6.5 inches. you re done. elizabeth city up to five. look at the cutoff. raleigh only had .37. that s hardly anything. barely enough to make puddles in the road. this was a coastal event for eastern north carolina. it hooks like we ll have a new it looks like we ll have a new leader soon. williamsburg, virginia, 5 1/2 inches. it is pouring. you ll probably end up with ten inches of rain. as far north as delaware, georgetown, about two inches, almost getting up to three inches. wildwood, new jersey. these incredible rainfall rates are going to head northwards. our computers are estimating by the time the storm s said and done, most of the big cities will get between four seven inches, maybe as high as eight inches up there, even northern new england. that s why you haven t heard much about this. ar