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
excess of 17 feet in red river landing. baton rouge, expected may 22nd, 12.5 feet and 2.5 in new orleans. the water, the river and some of the water expected to fall from the skies. we have today a moderate risk of strong storms developing, at least i m sorry a slight risk for parts of the ohio valley and mid-mississippi valley. we expect most of those storms to form into the late afternoon hours. some possibly severe thunderstorms, maybe some hail and flash flooding expected for parts of the ohio valley all due to this area of low pressure and frontal boundary moving from west to east and places like atlanta, birmingham could see rainfall. high temperatures, 72. expected high in chicago. 58 in minneapolis. 68 in denver. 89 in el paso. new york, highs into the upper 60s. that s the latest in the forecast. let s kick it back to you in new york. reynolds if there wasn t this issue of the flooding going on, that nation s map looks fall, little cool in some points but no other major ha
smaller cities in the united states. he wanted operatives to take note of prominent american hol i had days. a major disaster declared in 14 mississippi counties as historic flood waters surge south this morning. louisiana already bracing. it may open a floodway that hasn t been used in 1973. that move could wash out 3 million acres of land. reynolds wolf is following all the extreme weather this morning. you know how we re used to see so much weather phenomenon strike quickly, say, for example, tornadoes. this is a slow moving process that will affect so many living along the mississippi river. we re looking at numbers where we can see record flooding. many places and we re looking at this really getting under way in some spots south of memphis like in vicksburg on may 19th, which should be 14.5 feet above the normal stage. natchez, red river landing in baton rouge 12.5.
george shepherd. he joins me on the front. od morning to you. the critical question right now is, are the levees going to hold? good morning. and thank you for having us on. i just want to make it perfectly clear that public safety is our number one concern and we are evaluating and monitoring it up and down the area. the system is under tremendous pressure. this is an enormous flood. predicted records all the way down to red river landing and baton rouge. so with this system in place and
in red river landing as well as into baton rouge, louisiana, and it all continues to roll into the delta. may 22ened on done noldsonville and may 23rd in reserve, louisiana. they re trying to open up some of the spillways, opening the bonnet carre spillway to end up relieving some of the pressure on the levees but that will spill out into the agriculture areas which will impact some homes here. it s not all agriculture. there will be more evacuations as a result of this added water that s going to be released out of the mississippi through these spillways. so we re going to have to watch this carefully. it s definitely going to be impacting many lives as we head into the weeks ahead. samantha mohr, thank you very much. now to new developments out of pakistan. the prime minister addressing the nation for the if irs time since the u.s. raid. he defended pakistan s intelligence agency and vowed the country would retaliate with