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.
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
livelihoods to the ravages of nature and the decisions of well meaning humans. here s cnn ed lavendera. reporter: tucked away in the shade of louisiana cypress trees and back water creeks, you ll have a hard time fighti ining b la rose. i put that sign up about two months ago and i ve always wanted to name the camp last dance. reporter: the music has stopped and pierre don t know why i m locking it. reporter: is packing it all up before the floodwaters wash over butte la rose. i had a big table in here. i had a few ton over here. th this was cabinets. 70% of the people are packed up and gone. it is going to be a ghosttown pretty soon. yeah. reporter: it has been home to an eclectic mix of caken encaju.