agricultural land, and the rivers, because we have problems with branson, missouri, flooding, and also near the arkansas river. break it down. we should clarify a few things. some of the records from 1993 are going to hold, and some are going to break, but it is south of st. louis. back in 1993, we had massive snowle melt to the north. this is the mississippi and the missouri river valley. everything slides to the south. the meramec river did not have the snow melt problem in 1993, and that is why the records are going back to 1882, and they are breaking them now. and so if you can see little rock with moderate flooding, but the towns to the north and the south are going to have major flooding, and governor jindal in louisiana is putting out a state of emergency for louisiana as well. we are looking for the crest to stay below the record tomorrow, and now, if you will see in paducah, kentucky, and cape girardeau, the all-time record will be broken, and we will follow it from vicksburg
unprecedented, brianna, and we have never seen it before and that is why the river forecast office and the high drollists are having a tough time deciding where the crest is and what the forecast is going to be, because they have never seen this water this high and fanning out over to the banks. so many times, with a forecast for the crest, it is pushed b k back. first thursday night into friday and now thursday morn g ing to friday. and we are down into the warnings from the eastern u.s. from 41.82 to 44. and now, the worst is south of st. louis following it all of the way down to the delta in mississippi. and we are look now at the live pictures that we just got in. are these live or brand-new? ok okay. live pictures coming in from near st. louis. tom, you talked to the your relatives in eureka, and basically, they are isolated between a shutoff highway and the meramec river, right? yes, that is the case. and many of the roads such as highway 109 near eureka is
interstate. it is rushing by. this is not just standing water. there s actually fight a bit of current here. that s why we talk about how flooding can be so deadly. it is extremely dangerous. they have been doing evacuations. this is going to rival the 1993 floods, in fact, some areas south of st. louis will actually be worse than that. we re also going to see a lot of these stations south of st. louis break records. so they have been doing evacuations. of course, you have all of these different rivers that are feeding into the mississippi river. this is a very different scenario from the 1993 floods that happened in the summertime. it was after a lot of rain plus the snow melt. and so this is happening in december where we ve just had more rain than we can handle. st. louis has actually broken a record for rainfall this year. and the south has seen an incredible amount of rain. it s not only the st. louis area that s going to have problems
merrimack river to the south of st. louis, to the southwest, where you saw pictures in union. the meramec river is going to experience levels never before recorded surpassing 1993. the problems in 1993 with the missouri and mississippi. but 1982, that s the status numbers we re watching surpassed with the flood. from union to pacific. high populated areas. to fenton, arnold, that makes its way into the mississippi river. the problem is the mississippi river is so high right now, it s keeping the flow of water from making its way in, draining southward. the communities along the merrimack, along the missouri, and those in the mississippi, are going to be inundated as levels continue to rise. on the mississippi south of st. louis town of chester could see historic levels possibly getting close, if not surpassing that of 1993, getting to around 50 feet. this is just beginning. we ll continue to watch this in the days ahead. it not just about the watches
probably part of the same storm system caused flooding and power outages overnight. let s get the latest from abc s gio benitez. reporter: after 24 hours of havoc across 12 states severe storms taking aim at the northeast. threatening millions the line of storms sending trees on to power lines in mt. vernon, kentucky. those storm chasers in channing, texas, were tracking this very storm. whoo! reporter: suddenly their car pounded by massive hail. all they can do is watch. cameras rolling. whoa, coming through! reporter: hitting with the force of a big league fastball. cracking through that windshield. tornado on the ground. reporter: at least two tornadoes reported south of st. louis. debris spotted in the air. cars underwater and a state of emergency in muskogee, oklahoma. these storms bringing over half a foot of rain to parts of already hard-hit texas. in brownwood, evacuations. a man trying to escape his truck here. swept away by floodwaters. in indianapolis, the wate