people sleep, where the hotels are, they can be on dry land. at this point, they re inundated and surrounded by water. there s about nine of them that line this stretch. i m in front of the gold strike casino. they re doing an unusual thing in order to keep the water out of the lobby here. these blue bags are basically big bladders and they re filled with mississippi river water and they re acting as sand bags and they re keeping a watertight seal to this river. so far, so good as long as the river doesn t crest three or four feet about what we expect, they re going to be fine. when the water recedes, you just empty those out and wheel they are on their way. but the folks who live in the tunica cutoff, that s where 200 homes have been inundated with flood waters. the people in this community are struggling not only with where they live, but financially with the bread and butter of their community being shut down right now. and according to the mayor of
shepard: i don t know exactly what will happen, but as one who comes from there, my guess they re not going to have deer season as long or the numbers are going to change, and they re not going to have turkey season, not going to have all different kinds of bird season, and that will make people angry, but that helps balance, right? absolutely, absolutely. we ll adjust to seasons, you know, the only way we can really, you know, find out what the total impact was is to go out probably a month and a half, two months after the water recedes, and look at everything, if we can do anything with night vision, thermal imaging, surveys, and get an idea of what population is left, then adjust our seasons to that. shepard: a lot of families will probably be together around thanksgiving and christmas when half the folks would normally be out hunting. we ll see how it plays. they ll recover. it s amazing how that river
shepard: and today there are more levies and spillways as well as flood insurance to help those who have it rebuild once the water recedes. little comfort to those who have already lost everything. in louisiana as we mentioned they are working to figure out who to flood and who to leave high and dry. technical problems fixed. back to kris gutierrez. kris, what a decision. these people behind me know the floodwaters are coming their way. they are lining up. all hands are on deck, shepard. you see the inmates from the local county jail have actually been called out to help this community prepare because they know they are dealing with an historic flood. heading actually the water is up north and it s heading this direction, shep. shepard: kris gutierrez. updates from him throughout the tonight. chinese officials are very interested in the u.s. helicopter that crashed on the raid during osama bin laden s compound. in fact there is word the chinese scientists have already visited p
they are gambling, but they buy things and they park their car, and the valet guy, everyone now is hurting with this. and someone who knows a lot about this is valerie moore who is the regional vp of caesars and valerie, i don t know where you are right now, but you are on the phone, and talk to me about the casinos in and around tunica and are they flooded and how it is looking? well, yes, i m in tunica today and we have three casinos the har ra harrah s and the hor and the tunica ka see no. you walk in and there is water six to seven feet high, and the tower next to the casino is the lobby area and the valet parking area, and it is completely under water, but there is no structural damage to the property at this point other than more cosmetic when the water recedes what will happen
well, folks in flood-ravaged tennessee are facing another danger. snakes are now popping up, as was predicted, but they re far from the only scary creatures out there. leeches and rats traditionally also move into flooded areas where they tend to take refuge in trees rather than inside homes, thank goodness. and wildlife experts say even the snakes usually leave on their own once the water recedes, whenever that can happen. and while today s flooding is bad, it is not the worst deluge caused by the mississippi river. that happened almost a century ago when the mississippi river reached it level of 48.7 feet. that was back in 1937. and as a direct result of the january flooding in 1937, at least 244 people were killed during the first week of the flood. 60,000 refugees poured into memphis and took up residence at the fairgrounds and 14 city