that was hank williams jr. performing for the victims of the recent tornadoes and flooding. it airs sunday night on our sister network, hln 9:00 eastern time. dangerous flooding along the mississippi river today led to the opening of a spillway in morgan zarqawi louisiana, a move not seen since the early 1970s. army corps of engineers says more gates will be opened and will probably stay open for weeks. it is a desperate action to reduce the river level now threatening the cities of baton rouge and new orleans. i want to bring in retired general russel honore and attorney mark davis, directover tulane institute of water resource law and policy. thanks to boston you for joining us. mark, a lot of people are upset of flooding the atchafalaya but what choice did the corps have? they didn t have a choice. the choice was made shortly after the 1927 flood. in many ways people have to understand this system is working the way it was intended
university professor and russel honore the decision to flood businesses and homes to save the state s two largest cities. what s this option? that s new.
by general russel hono honore. reporter: in don, the first gate of the morganza spillway has been opened. you can see the water gushing out through that first gate, halfway down this morganza flood control struck purr. there are 125 gates. for now only one has been opened. officials say they will continue to open up more in the coming days. for right now they are trying to slow down this process. you can already see the water making its way into this area that was just a big grassy area. the reason they are doing it very slowly is to give the wildlife and animals a chance to adjust to the vast amount of water soon pouring through here. you can see the amount of water gushing through. all of this has to do with the amount of pressure that has been building up along the mississippi river. the trigger number that officials have been looking at is 1.5 million cubic feet of water per second.
before all that plastic surgery. we ll show you the photos that michael jackson wanted to have destroyed. good evening everyone i m don lemon. the news starts right now. the legendary mississippi river is rewriting history tonight for the first time in nearly 40 years the morganza spillway was opened today to divert the swollen river into the atchafalaya basin. in they communities in the basin could be under many feet of water and force many people from their homes. this is what it looked like back in 1973. the one and only time this spillway had to be opened. this underscores how serious this situation has become. for the next how we ll be joined by general russel hono honore. reporter: in don, the first gate of the morganza spillway has been opened. you can see the water gushing out through that first gate, halfway down this morganza flood control struck purr. there are 125 gates. for now only one has been opened. officials say they will continue to open up more in the