expected to go over its banks. cnn all over the story this morning. let's begin with alina machado. we have a look at the floodwaters. good morning, alina. >> reporter: missouri bracing for historic dangerous flooding, dozens of counties facing a severe threat as mississippi, missouri and merrimack rivers approaching record levels. >> the threat has changed but it is by no means over. >> reporter: the deadly floodwaters claiming more than a dozen lives. swollen rivers rise and crest in the next 48 hours, many fear this is just the beginning. >> you're talking about almost ten more vertical feet of moving

water, so the power we're talking about as well as the volume is extremely significant. >> reporter: the governor declaring a state of emergency and activating the national guard. as officials predict river levels could exceed the great flood of 1993. that claimed nearly 50 lives and damaged or destroyed some 50,000 homes. the most devastating in modern u.s. history. in the town of west alton, near st. louis, the may other urging his 500 residents to evacuate after water levels overtopped the levee. >> this is your notice, this is serious. you need to get final preparations and go. >> reporter: parts of union, missouri under water with homes, cars, restaurants completely submerge. and one photographer even capturing video of this cabin floating away. authorities urging drivers to stay off inundated roadways, fearing they'll get stuck and swept away. >> the vast majority of deaths

we've had, i can't stress this enough, is people driving into water, especially driving into water at night. >> reporter: it's the race against time as residents and volunteers sandbag their homes and prepare to evacuate. >> i am worried. i just don't know what to do. and it's still supposed to come up higher. my main concern right now is just getting our vehicle out. so that we're not -- our truck is not trapped in here. >> reporter: officials now watching and hoping that the levees hold. >> it's more just a wait and see, once it's over, then we'll have to go from there. we really done the know what's going to happen. >> reporter: this is record-breaking, record-setting, remarkable flooding you're seeing throughout the region. the mississippi river has never seen some of these levels. frankly, these are communities that are used to waterizing. you're looking at this time the year, you're looking at an awful lot of rain. it's been a pretty mild fall and winter for some of these spots. any kind of rainfall and

snowfall has been devastating. >> the rivers do get high in this part of the country but not at this time of year. this is not the season where they normally see this level of flooding. usually it's in the spring when snows melt and you see this level of inundation. this is a bill unusual. >> we're talking about 18 million people under flood warnings, 18 million in 13 states. >> think of the effort to try to evacuate all those people, to make sure they can get to higher ground, safer ground, preparing their homes to avoid getting inundated with water the best they can. >> the warning is be very careful when driving. that's where the majority of deaths and injuries come from, people driving that these waters. in some communities they're staying stay home. in others, they're saying get out. it's important here. >> this is really indicative idea of how wide of an area, when you talk about 18 million people, these are all of the state, awe the areas where there is a current u.s. flood warning right now. if you are in these areas, you've got to be listening and

watching television, listening to the television, listening to the aert erleralerts. >> some having issues with communication in the area, in st. louis. we have people on the ground. we will speak to officials in just a few minutes to get the latest on that developing situation there. >> we do have jennifer grey right now. she's there for us. she's in valley park, missouri. she's got the latest on the timing and the forecast. what can you tell us? we're talking about record-breaking water here, flooding, levees throughout the region are being monitored as these rivers are rising quickly, jennifer. >> you're exactly right, christine. we are going to see record-breaking flooding here in valley park. in fact, the river is supposed to crest about three feet above the record level. if you can see behind me, this is where 141 and interstate 44 meet. this is a main thoroughfare. you can see how high the water is. i'm not sure if you can see the overpass of the interstate over there. the water is almost to the

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

but all downstream along the mississippi river, we're going to see the potential for flooding in the coming days. so this isn't going to be over today or tomorrow. but this is going to last for several days. michaela, the river here in valley park is expected to crest around midnight tonight. so the water is going to continue to rise throughout the day today. that's why they're being pro-active in getting people to higher ground. they also were a lot of roads closed in this area. we had trouble even getting to our live shot. they're continuing to close roads as the water continues to rise. >> well, talk about that a little bit more, jennifer. you are on the ground and you've had a chance to see what reality is like for the people forced to evacuate. how people are getting out of the area? have they been able to do it in ample time before the closures happened? >> well, the good thing about -- there reallien is a good part of this but the difference between this and flash flooding, flash flooding happens so fast. with this river flooding, it

happens more gradually. we have the crest predicted which have day it's going to happen. people do have a little more time to get out. the problem is, is when water overtops levees, a levee breaches, things like that, that's when you're going to get the rushing water into some of these communities. i think they've done a really good job of being on top of that and staying ahead of the game when it comes to that and trying to get people to higher ground and keeping them safe. unfortunately we have had more than a dozen deaths because of the flooding. just like christine and you guys were saying earlier, do not drive into high water. that's how a majority of these deaths happen. you have no idea how deep the water is. i just rolled up here. this could be two feet deep when it's more like 12 to 13 feet deep. you can imagine somebody rolling here and not realizing how deep it is. >> if you see standing water, avoid it if you can. jennifer grey we'll be calling on you frequently this morning.

stan by for us, keep reporting. coming up next hour, we'll talk to the missouri governor, jay nixon, about what his state is doing to prevent a catastrophe from this historic flooding. so the-called affluenza teen is expected back in the united states today. authorities in texas awaiting the return of the 18-year-old fugitive, ethan couch and his mother. they were arrested by mexican authorities on monday. cnn's ed lavandera live in dallas, standing by with the latest. good morning, ed. >> reporter: good morning, john. us a u.s. official briefed on ls the matter, they say they expect ethan couch and his mother to start making their way back here to the united states. what awaits them is a fury of activity where officials here and authorities here in texas say that the mother of ethan couch will be arrested and charged with hindering the apprehension of a juvenile. she faces between two to ten years in prison. that is a felony charge.

and ethan couch also will be taken into custody as well. and he could face, this is where it gets complicated, john. prosecutors here in texas are trying to move ethan couch's case from the juvenile system into the adult system. but there's not a hearing scheduled on that until january 19th of next year. and based on what happens at that hearing will really determine what exactly will happen with ethan couch here in the future. for now, the most he faces in jail is up to about 120 days. if prosecutors are successful in moving his case into the adult system, and ethan couch violates his probation again, he could face up to 40 years in prison. but that is a long way off and would require a lot of things to happen between now and then. right now, the focus, really, on exactly what ethan couch and his mother did over the last several weeks that they were considered missing, a mexican immigration official tells us they crossed into mexico through tijuana,

south of san diego and made their way down to puerto vallarta. a lot of officials here and authorities here in texas still trying to figure out exactly how they were able to make it down there. officials tell us they drove their own pickup truck from the ft. worth area down there to that mexican pacific resort town before they were apprehended on monday afternoon. it was a call of sources tell us it was a cell phone, ethan couch's cell phone that authorities were able to use to track their whereabouts and pinpoint their location there in puerto vallarta and track him down. christine? >> i'll take it, ed. ed lavandera in dallas. as wed was talking about, ethan couch and his mother expected back in texas, back in the united states today. what is in store for them? what new have we learned about how they managed avoid authorities for three weeks while being on the run. thanks so much for being with us. >> morning, john. >> this kid, ethan couch, he

died his hair black. he and his mother were staying in some apartment building, not on the pristine coast of puerto vallarta but they were clearly trying to stay out of sight there. this clearly shows, doesn't it, that they were on the run, trying to evade authorities and perhaps it was just the beginning? >> yes, john, i agree. i mean, there's no doubt about it, they were on the run. i mean, they had a supposedly as been reported they had a going away party on new years -- christmas eve, basically said good-bye to their family members and friends and then took off. and probably when you look at the time frame of when their last meeting was, with probation and they used that time frame to actually get away, and then by the time the marshals -- u.s. marshals were called in, it was about 11, 12 days ago. the federal authorities, along with tarrant county jumped on this case fairly quickly.

but they could have had plans to head further south, down into central or south america. it's going to be interesting to see what the reports come back from mexican immigration and the mexican state police in the puerto vallarta area to see exactly what they were doing down there. >> yes, because, look, if you do want to get away from the united states, puerto vallarta, it's not exactly the best place to hide. this is a place with a lot of american tourists and connections with u.s. authority. if they wanted to stay away forever, you would think it was some kind of middle ground. >> exactly. it was a good place for them to temporarily hide out. it was the holidays were coming up. there's a lot of u.s. visitors down there in that area, due to the beach resort. i think it probably was a wait station for them to head further south, into some place down in south america. it will be very interesting to see not only how -- what the plans were on this particular

escape but also to see how the juggling act is going to occur here in tarrant county. once they come back, the federal law enforcement involvement ends at that particular point. >> you can see the picture of ethan couch right now with his blond hair. of course, the picture we just got from mexican authorities, you can see it clearly dyed, including his mustache, his mother on the left. we talked about the planning here. there's also perhaps a level of planning mitigating the idea of getting caught, the fact that he was in the juvenile system. even though he's been caught violating probation on run in another country, throwing the back at h-- book at him, the bok might not be that heavy. >> the book ends on april 11th, 2016 when he actually turns 19. it will be interesting to see if they'll be able to move this case into adult court and what exactly does that mean.

but looking at this kid's track record, even if they are able to move it into adult court, i think we're going to hear and see about this particular individual again very shortly. >> being in law enforcement, this has to drive you crazy, the fact that a kid like this can commit the crime that he committed, get the light sentence or nonsentence some would say, that he ultimately received, then go on the run, then get caught and then the system might only give him a maximum of 120 days in jail. that must drive you crazy. >> it does. it does drive you crazy. it would be nice to be able to charge the family for the amount of money it cost to investigate, locate and apprehend this individual, both with the mexican government put out, the what u.s. government put out in this particular case. but it doesn't work that way. it is very frustrating. but i think in the end here, there will be some justice served at some point. >> look, the kid may not end up

in jail for that long but the mother could be in serious trouble here, yes? >> yes, that's the odd twist here. the mother is looking at two to ten years for aiding and abetting this escape. so it's kind of odd that he, you know, killed four people, these poor people and their family, what they're going through right now, yet the mother who assisted in the escape is looking at a lot of possible time here. >> art roderick for us on this case, gets stranger and stranger by the day. ethan couch and his mother due back in texas within a few hours. thanks so much. >> thanks. the pentagon confirming that u.s.-led air strikes in syria have taken out top isis operative linked to the master mind of the paris terror attacks. erin mclaughlin with more. authorities say this man was planning new attacks. >> reporter: his name was

charaffe al moudan. he's believed to be 27 years old, having travelled from france to syria in 2013. now a coalition spokesperson announcing they believe he was killed in a u.s. air strike over syria on december 24th. they say that they believe he was in direct contact with abdel hamid abboud. they say french authorities believe that he was not in fact a senior isis leader but they do believe he was in contact with members of the paris attackers.

they're still trying to determine the nature of his contact with those attackers, the nature of his involvement in the paris attacks which killed 130 people earlier this year and news of his death, of course, comes as the obama administration is trying to step up its campaign to broadcast its so-called wins against isis in order to assuage the american public that its tactics against isis are working. >> erin, we'll have further analysis on this coming up on "new day." thank you for that. meantime, we're watching this flooding in the midwest. millions of people are in harm's way. we'll speak with two officials ahead trying to keep people safe in the face of a looming catastrophe. ics in the nation's largest independent study tested wireless performance across the country. verizon, won big with 153 state wins. at&t got 38, sprint got 2, and t-mobile got zero.

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our top story, 18 million people in over a dozen midwest states are facing historic flooding in the next 48 hours, rivers are already over their banks and are still rising. many missouri residents remember the great flood of 1993. that's when over 50,000 homes were destroyed across nine states along the missouri and the mississippi rivers. when the waters finally receded, losses totaled $15 billion, 47 people were dead. forecasters are predicting the flooding we're seeing in missouri right now could be worse than that. joining us now, two people in charge with taking care of so

many, russell ross, the city administrator and director of emergency management for union, missouri. diane becker also is with us, the director of emergency management for the city of pacific. thank you both for joining us. obviously you both have memories of where we were 22 years ago in that very area. i want to talk to you, russell, first, about what is going on in your city, what is the situation and conditions right now for you? >> well, this morning, the river crested yesterday and this morning i went on highway 50 no longer has water on it, however, it's not open again. it's still closed, waiting for bridge inspections. but we are seeing the water starting to recede but it's a very slow drop. >> what is your biggest concern right now? >> the temperatures really dropped overnight. getting my sewer system back operational. that's a big concern.

and as soon as people -- water recedes, starting the cleanup in the residential areas and the businesses. >> diane, let's talk about pacific. we understand the river is expected to crest there this evening, topping some 35 feet. it's likely to shatter records there, not records anyone wants to shatter. what is your biggest concern for area residents? >> our biggest concern right now is getting the cleanup done and, like russell said, getting our sewer system back up and running. >> sewage is a real concern. we understand sewage waters have been flooding into the merrimack river. are you concerned that residents are going to have access to clean water? >> no. we've been assured that the water is fine, that there is no problem. it's just the sewers are backing

up in some areas and, of course, we're inundated with a lot of water. >> yes. russell, obviously -- >> that the true. >> it's a little bit of delay, folks. we ask for your patients. we've seen a lot of roads and highways and freeways have been closed through that area. as you mentioned, some of the water has receded through some of those areas. talk about the closures and are folks heeding the call to stay off the roadways? >> yes. people are staying off the roadways. interstate 44 is now closed. that's a huge concern for the whole area. that's our connection to st. louis, obviously. the most direct connection. and it is closed this morning. >> we're showing you a map right now, in fact we can pull it up one more time, the dates that the mississippi river is expected to crest. you can see literally over the

next few days and even the next 48 hours or so, those waters are expected to rise. diane, let's talk about the evacuations where you are. are they happening? are they under way? and where are you evacuating folks to? >> our evacuation process, it's voluntary, of course, started -- a lot of folks started moving out on saturday. the rest of them got most of their belongings out between sunday and monday. most of them went to family and friends. then we do have a red cross shelter set up, just a few blocks from this location here. >> and the choice was made to make these evacuations voluntary. why? >> we've just -- we prepare ahead of time and give them the option to leave the area ahead of time so they have time to protect their belongings and get their precious treasures out.

>> yes. precious treasures, lives, those things are so important to protect. russell, obviously, sandbags and resources and manpower is key here. how are you doing in terms of resources? do you have enough? >> we do have enough resources right now. we're actually beginning to prepare -- obtain and prepare the resources we're going to need for the cleanup. i think we're in very good shape to begin as soon as the waters let us in. >> that's the big question, when those waters will let you in. what is your message to residents today, diane, people that are able to listen to you right now? >> well, our biggest concern is the bystanders that want to come by and just take a look at the floodwater. we're trying to encourage them, if they're not from here, they don't need to be in this area. these folks have been through enough. they don't need people standing

here gawking at them and, of course, looting. we're concern for their properties. >> yes, obviously. emergency management and personnel need to get through to those areas. they don't need extra people standing around. if you can evacuate, the best thing to do is get to higher ground. i want to thank russell ross and diane becker from union and pacific emergency management for joining us today. we'll be back in contact with you to see how things are progressing. a top aide to north korean leader kim jong-un killed in a car accident, or so we're told. another top aide in the leader's inner circle killed. sure, tv has evolved over the years.

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another top north korean official killed under mysterious circumstances. officials say he died in a car crash but there's, of course, no way of confirming those details with the secretive regime. cnn's alexandra field live in seoul, south korea for us. what do we know, alexandra? >> reporter: kim yang gon was high ranking, involved in high-level discussions. we're told that he died in a car accident. there are no details beyond that. this is raising questions for people in this region who watched north korea closely. they are quick to point out he is not the first high-ranking official, not by a long shot, to die in an unexplained is car accident. in fact, his predecessor in his role died in the same way. they are also suspicious because they site numbers put out there by the south korean government

earlier this year. the south korean government says since kim jong-un came to power in 2011, 70 high-level officials have been executed, 15 of them in 2015 alone. is there any indication at all that kim yang gon had fallen out of favor with the regime, there would be any reason to target him? nothing that's coming from north korea. in fact, their state news agency is saying the opposite, they're toeing a party line that this with a trustworthy adviser to kim jong-un. there's a state funeral and kim jong-un is expected to attend it. >> mysterious to be sure. thanks for that. back here at home, donald trump ratcheting up his attacks on bill and hillary clinton. does trump think his own personal indiscretions are fair game in the campaign? you'll hear what he says, next.

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donald trump throwing stones and a lot of other stuff. he says candidates personal lives, they're fair game. overnight trump acknowledged even his own colorful personal life is up for scrutiny. >> are your own personal indiscretions fair game in this campaign? >> yes, they would be. hillary brought up the whole thing with sexist. all i did was reverse it on her. she has a major problem, happens to be right at her house. if she wants to do that, we're going to go after the president, the expresident and see how it all comes out. i feel very confident that it will come out very well for us. >> here this morning to discuss this feud, cnn political analyst and political correspondent

maggie haber mmin and errol lou. talking about the sexual indiscretions of his friend bill clinton who came to his wedding a couple years ago. why? >> there's no better way to rally the republicans than talk about the clintons. it fits with donald trump's brand of i'm doing things differently. the president's life has largely been an issue people have been afraid to approach. republicans are afraid it would splash back on them. bill clinton remains a popular figure. he had a career rehab after the 2008 campaign. he was a coveted person to campaign with for president obama. there's been a concern, trump gets to say, again, i'm rewriting the playbook by going after him in this way. it's cost-free.

it helps hillary clinton in his own primary, too. there's a benefit to both. >> it's interesting. you mentioned that friend, the "f" word, the friend word, these guys were all chummy in new york circles, errol. it's interesting to see how this, not even that long ago, they were taking pictures together, seen at 'vents together, enjoying each other's company. >> if you're looking for consistency, that ship sailed a long time ago. they not only hung out together but there's footage of them saying nice things about each other. unlike most candidates operating at this level, they can simply dismiss that. they won't reference it, they won't blush, they won't say i changed my mine. they move on. donald trump will throw everything he can at the clintons for as long as it works. >> there's an element of theater here.

it is interesting, though, because he did open the door to the idea of looking at his own personal life. what has happened with trump over the years? it's colorful to say the least. could there be things in his past that would hurt him? >> i think that for those of us in new york, most of his past is pretty well known. the tabloid head lanes for years and years, his first marriage to ivanka, his second to marla maples, his second marriage to milonia trump. i think he's been working actually to pain the that image, the question is how much knowledge people actually care about hearing about trump and whether it affects your opinion we've seen so far with his supporters, especially but not just his supporters, some undecideds, too, they learn information about him, it doesn't change their opinion

they like what they are seeing. i don't know that he's susceptible to this or the general public is susceptible to it on the clintons. >> what trump supporters seem to like is that they like that he isn't a typical washington, d.c. representative. they feel he's more akin to they will. he speaks off the cuff. do you think all of this would just sort of play into this larger than life persona that he has with his base? >> i think it plays into the persona. i'm not sure i would call it larger than life. in some ways it's small and petty, not that he cares about the substantive issue about sexism. if they say this about me, i'll retaliate with that. purely tactical, back and forth. purely a strategy to win an election. that's not the greatest way to talk about this. i think that actually gives us a much shorter half life. people start to dare more about flooding in the midwest or the rise of isis and other important issues. >> something else interesting

that just started happening on the campaign trail, the jeb bush super pac, putting serious money in an anti-rubio commercial. let's take a quick look at that. >> days after the paris attacks, senators came together for a top secret briefing on the terrorist threat. marco rubio was missing. fund-raising in california instead. two weeks later, terror struck again in san bernardino. >> you heard this before, jeb bush tried to go after marco rubio on this subject in a debate. it didn't work. bush is not the only one. chris christie is saying, dude, marco, where are you? >> he had trouble doing this on stage and jeb bush has been a large supporter of marco rubio over the years. chris christie has his own issues with missed workdays as basically any new jersey reporter will tell you, he has essentially been living in new hampshire for most of the last year. neither one of them gets a clean kill here. that's a television ad, it's different than doing it on a debate stage or interview. it's going to reach a lot more

homes. the rubio people pushed back and said the ad is false. it's interesting to see this turn. it's something that the jeb supporters and super pac have been afraid of for a long time. there was a moment earlier this year where it looked like marco rubio was surging. you saw a lot of donors saying we don't want to see him get damaged. the jeb people have given him time to take off, he hasn't for whatever reason and they're moving in. >> last but not least, george pataki dropping out of the race. now there are 11. >> george pataki never real caught fire. they were pretty much at the same 3% in the polls, that's at the time trump announced. you have two new yorkers, one took off, in double dj its. on to an impressive showdown in iowa. the other never took off. as a three-term governor in new york, he did some extraordinary

things. in the passage of time, the flash bang of this particular campaign, he never got a chance to explain it to people. >> people are leaving here. this campaign is coming into greater focus. >> absolutely. to errol's point, the issue is george pataki. with the candidates that left so far, time has passed them by or they are the wrong people for this moment. it is a very angry outsider moment, especially weren't republican party. >> the moment does matter. >> absolutely. >> great to have you both here. errol, maggie, thanks so much. must-see video of the day. recognize this guy? here he comes. mike tyson on one of those hoverboard things. the fun ends abruptly for the boxing champ. it's an epic knockout. you don't want to miss it. that's next.

historic flooding is leaving communities under water and forcing evacuations in missouri this morning. governor nixen activating the national guard and declaring a state of emergency. the floods have claimed the lives of more than a dozen people. the mississippi river is expected to crest at its highest level in history. that is expected to happen tomorrow. more than 18 million people are currently under flood warnings in some 13 states. another round of heavy rain will keep that threat alive for

several days. u.s. spies reportedly targeting israel and prime minister benjamin netanyahu. "the wall street journal" is intercepting this. this "wall street journal" report says despite president obama's pledge to curb such surveillance, u.s. spying on allies has continued with an emphasis on the israeli government. the white house declining to comment on this report. close call between a u.s. navy warship and iranian rockets, one coming within 1,500 yards of the "uss harry truman" in the strait of hormuz. u.s. military officials called the incident unnecessarily provocative and unsafe. >> all right. what do buster douglas and a hoverboard have in common? they both took down mike tyson. the former heavyweight champ posting this video on instagram, showing off his moves.

wait for it. here it comes. boom. boom goes tyson. boom goes tyson. ouch. safety officials say that hoverboard fails like this have sent dozens of people to the e.r. we're told tyson is okay but apparently he said i'm too old for this stuff. >> can't take them on an airplane. >> mike tiyson or hoverboard. >> mike tyson is allowed to fly. hoverboards are not. >> are there hoverboards in your home? >> no way. >> kids get thrown around without hoverboards. the latest is the tenth killed this month alone. how much damage has isis really suffered? we'll take a look at that, next.

coalition forces have taken out a top isis operative. one that was linked to the paris terror attack mastermine. that brings the total of isis leaders killed this month to ten. the question this morning is isis losing its edge with so many leaders now gone? joining us from miami is our senior counterterrorism analyst phil mudd. great to see you. hope you had a wonderful christmas with your family. >> did i. >> let's talk about this. ten isis leaders killed in the last month, the latest with a connection to the ring leader, the mastermind, if you will, of the paris attacks. take the temperature of this for us. this is how big of a deal and a get is this? >> i would say it's a step in the right direction but we got a long way to go. let's look at the characteristics of any organization you have to face. a number of recruits they have.

the amount of money they have. in this case, the effectiveness of coalition operations or u.s. operations against their leadership. and the amount of territory they control. if you look at syria, clearly we made progress against some of the leadership. if you want to look at the amount of territory isis has compared to any other terror group in history, and the prospects that the syrian government can recontrol that government territory soon, i think we'll be at this for a long time. i don't see prospects for peace in syria in 2016. >> for every one you kill, there's probably a dozen waiting to take over. >> people say that. as a former practitioner, i would be cautious about making that judgment too quickly. >> okay. >> these operators are very difficult to replace. in this case, you're talking about the key guy, a 26-year-old had been born in paris to moroccan parents. he knows the territory in paris. he was recruited a few years ago. you can't build that kind of person overnight. the question is not whether you

take the ten out, the question is whether you can maintain the pace of operations over the course of a couple years so the people that are coming up are less and less experienced and can't conduct operations like we saw in paris. >> the operative that was taken out we understand was actively planning some sort of attack against the west. was this person targeted or was this good fortune? >> my judgment would be, i don't know this for a fact, that the person was targeted. that is when you look at the breadth of the operation in paris, the number of people involved, there's one side of the coin which is that was a remarkably sophisticated operation, especially for a terror organization that just is emerging. on the other hand, the amount of information you can acquire from that kind of operation after, e-mails, phones, et cetera, for an inexperienced organization like isis could lead to exposing vulnerabilities in their communications. somebody made a mistake and my guess is this guy made a mistake that led to his identification and the killing in this

operation. >> so you don't expect peace in syria obviously in 2016. >> no. >> yet, with this amount of leadership being killed and targeted by these air strikes and operations, is it fair to say that isis is losing its edge? >> not yet. the reasons are, first i mentioned geography. we focused on the military, paramilitary operations in syria because they're interesting, good stories. the biggest story in syria is whether the diplomatic conversation that is spearheaded by secretary kerry will take hold. if there is no cease-fire in syria, the prospect that you can take control of territory and squeeze out isis is minimum. meanwhile we've seen them operate in places like libya, elsewhere in africa, heading over to afghanistan, pakistan. the longer that political instaability lasts, not only do we see isis maintain itself in syria, we see it slowly moving out into new areas. i think we have a long way to go. >> i want to turn our attention,

if you don't mind, to ramadi. the iraqi forces being able to capture that in what ha been a bit of an embarrassment to them previously. give me your sense of that. is this a bigger cut to isis? is this a splinter? how do you feel about this taking back ramadi? >> i'd say pretty significant step for two reasons. the first is we saw last year, the embarrassment in the isis advance beginning roughly in the summer of 2014. we focused on capabilities of the iraqi military. this is a question of will. what this showed is the iraqis have the will to bring the fight to the adversary. they have the numbers and equipment. if we think about what happened in mosul, this will should translate into success in mosul. the real question over time is governance, sanitation, education, medicine. clean water. are people going to see the

shia-led government which they don't trust as a better alternative to isis? before you say yes too quickly, i'd watch this show. i don't know that that's the answer. >> thank you. >> great new years message for miami. >> look out, miami, phillip mudd is there. you won't be the same. thanks for joining us, my friend. happy new year. we're following a lot of news. let's get right to it. the vast majority of deaths we've had is people driving into water. we're dealing with rising rivers all across the state of missouri. >> i didn't realize had bad the flooding had gotten. >> on the mississippi river we are expecting an all-time record crest. the affluenza teen expected back in the u.s. in just hours. >> tanya will be arrested for hindering an apprehension and faces up to ten years in prison. >> as much as i want him to go to jail for the rest of his life, his life is going to be far from simple.

>> the kid may not end up in jail for that long but the mother could be in serious trouble here. >> hillary brought up the whole thing with sexist. >> donald trump defending his personal attacks on bill clinton. >> the notion it would come back and hurt nearly 20 years later seems to me a little tone deaf. this is "new day" with chris cuomo, alisyn camerota and michaela pereira. >> that's one for three. welcome back to your "new day." chris and alisyn are obviously off today. john berman and christine romans are here at the desk with me. we begin with the historic flooding anticipated in the u.s. more than 18 million people are in harm's way in 13 states. parts of missouri are currently under mandatory evacuations with mississippi and other rivers projected to crest at record levels. >> a new round of heavy rain could make matters even worse. we have this story covered from all angles. let's begin with alina machado,

live in pacific city. good morning, alina. this is one of the cities being evacuated this morning. >> good morning, john. hundreds residents have left the town of pacific, missouri. if you look around, it's easy to see why. the merrimack river has been at flood stage since sunday. some 400 businesses and homes are already under water and relief is still days away. >> reporter: missouri bracing for historic dangerous flooding, dozens of counties facing a severe threat as mississippi, missouri and merrimack rivers approaching record levels. >> the threat has changed but it is by no means over. >> reporter: the deadly floodwaters claiming more than a dozen lives. many fear this is just the beginning as swollen rivers rise and crest in the next 48 hours. >> you're talking about almost ten more vertical feet of moving water, so the power we're talking about as well as the volume is extremely significant.

>> reporter: the governor declaring a state of emergency and activating the national guard. as officials predict river levels could exceed the great flood of 1993. that claimed nearly 50 lives and damaged or destroyed some 50,000 homes. the most devastating in modern u.s. history. in the town of west alton, near st. louis, the mayor urging his 500 residents to evacuate after water levels overtopped the levee. >> this is your notice, this is serious. you need to get final preparations and go. >> reporter: parts of union, missouri under water with homes, cars, restaurants completely submerged. and one photographer even capturing video of this cabin floating away. authorities urging drivers to stay off inundated roadways, fearing they'll get stuck and swept away. >> the vast majority of deaths we've had, i can't stress this enough, is people driving into water, especially driving into water at night. >> reporter: it's the race

against time as residents and volunteers sandbag their homes and prepare to evacuate. >> i am worried. i just don't know what to do. and it's still supposed to come up higher. my main concern right now is just getting our vehicle out. so that we're not -- our truck is not trapped in here. >> reporter: officials now watching and hoping that the levees hold. >> it's more just a wait and see, once it's over, then we'll have to go from there. we really don't know what's going to happen. >> reporter: flood wadders are expected to crest at 35 feet, that's 2 feet above the record that was setback in 1982. john? >> all right, alina machado in pacific, missouri. let's get the latest on the situation there. joining us now by phone, missouri's governor, jay nixon. governor nixon, thank you so much for being with us we know you have a full plate this morning. >> absolutely. we'll be in pacific today. you're right on.

it's one of the real areas of concern. we'll see valley park and eureka, the two gauges above and below that the merrimack river will be four feet over its historic level and still rising. that doesn't come until sometime tomorrow. >> four feet above historic level in pacific. we're talking about 13 feet above flood levels in st. louis, expected to crest there tomorrow. how concerned are you? >> the 13 feet above flood level is one thing. the 49 feet above all-time historic level puts us in a situation of evacuating folks, that's why i called the national guard up yesterday. it's cold out there, too. this is a time in which this is not a summer flood. this is dangerous. we've had 13 deaths in the state. we have water movement. with guard members arriving literally as dawn hits us here in a number of places throughout the state, wee very concerned about how the next 35 hours is going to go. >> i heard it in your voice

yesterday, i sense it this morning, are you getting the response you feel you need given the temperatures, given the level of the threat right now? >> we've had to throw a lot of resources at it. we'll continue to work to enhance those local levels. down in the mississippi, we were in perryville that has a 30 mile levee. we have a wide range we're giting all the way from the boot hill through st. louis and west. we've already got highway 44 closed, which takes about 100,000 vehicles a day, and a major trucking route is closed. there's a lot of area. that's one of the reasons i called up the national guard. >> 100,000 people travel that

ten-mile stretch of i-44 every day. is there one area or one thing you're most concerned about this morning, governor? >> two things really. first of all, don't drive into moving water. the 12 deaths we have had are when folks drove into moving water and perished. we are going to make sure people are safe in that area, you have pacific, eureka, valley park. these are highly populated areas setting up shelters at places like francis howell senior high school, places like that. the bottom line is, if they do have to leave their homes, we'll make sure they're kept safe. we have security coming in to make sure the only people coming in and out are people who live there and people who are there to fight the flood. >> you know what happened in 1993. it was devastating this

comparison should be alarming to a lot of people. >> the levels of water, that's why you hear in my voice and the voice of other people, we've never seen water this high. when it goes above records, not by an inch but by two or three feet you really don't know how far that water is going to go. the good sign of this, it will move up relatively quickly. we have a number of dry days, cold but dry days. we should get crests sometime late tomorrow night and then be on your way to beginning recovery. if we can get it going down, then we'll be over that hump. we still have all the way to tomorrow night before we get to crest. >> you're talking 40 hours before this recedes. >> we'll be checking in with our state emergency management folks, making sure we have the guard folks in the right place, working water rescues where necessary. our water patrol, highway patrol working together.

water division has done a number of rescues. our relevant copters in the air flying to make sure we see what's going on. in areas where levees are being worked, we're providing the missouri department of transportation trucks to make sure those are shored up. if you get an evacuation, get out thereof and get to a safe place. this batter is still coming up. >> have you spoken to the president? >> i have not talked to the president. we focused all the local folks whether it's federal agencies on the ground with us, we're in the middle of a flood fight here. i'd be glad to talk to the federal folks. they've been shoulder to shoulder, pitching sandbags and helping us. we were in perryville, they were helping us reshoot, making sure we know the height of the 30-mile levees. they've been good partners on the ground. that's been our biggest focus

right now. we'll worry about the dollars that happen after this and the recovery later on right now we're in a massive flood fight across a wide swath of the state. >> a flood fight that will be brutal until tomorrow night. any last message. >> it's going to be 28 degrees. if you're out, make sure you're dressed for it. don't drive into moving water. just because the water starts going down, it doesn't mean we're leaving. we'll be back. it provides population, great workers. we'll be out there in it with folks today. >> governor nixon, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us. we know you're busy but it's an important message. you are in the middle of a flood fight. i hope the people of your state are listening.

thank you, governor. >> thank you. >> watching the levees throughout the region, they're monitoring them with water levels rises in a number of rivers. cnn meteorologist jennifer grey is right there, live in valley park, missouri. she has a look at the timing and the forecast. jennifer? >> that's right, christine. we are expected to reach that record level any minute and in fact, we are going to go about three feet above that before this part of the merrimack river is expected to crest around midnight tonight. look behind me, this tells the entire story. you can see that overpass. that's interstate 44. the governor was just talking about shut down. 141 that runs underneath it which is also a main road through here, and it is completely under water. in fact, the water is almost to the interstate bridge right there. you can see orange cones bobbing in the water. the road has been closed several hundred yards this way and so that indicates that the water has risen even more. if it's carrying away those road

closure cones. it's got to be about 12 to 13 feet deep right there under that overpass. and so incredible flooding here, we are going to see record flooding right here along the merrimack river. also this meets up with the mississippi river. not only here but we will see flooding in places like paducah, places like little rock, even memphis during the next week or so. st. louis has had the rainiest year on record. they have received about 61 inches of rain this year. normally they only receive 40. they're about 21 inches above that. they received 11 of those inches in december alone. and so you can see all of this water, too much water to handle, flows into the streams, into the rivers, several major rivers flow, of course, into the mississippi where it meets up near here and all of this water is going to flow downstream. this is different from the 1993 floods that happened during the summer months. it was due to the snow melt as well as a lot of rain.

this is happening completely different time of year. everyone here does remember those '93 floods. just as the governor was saying, this is going to rival that. it's scary, michaela for the people around st. louis. >> it certainly is. they are in for a flood fight as governor nixon just said. jennifer, thank you. joining us right now, though, st. louis district engineer from the missouri department of transportation. thank you so much for joining us. give us a sense of scope here. how prepared is your department for what is about to happen? >> we're very prepared. we've been working on this for the last week. we had record floods here the month of december. we had over 10 to 12 inches this last weekend alone. that caused flash floods right off the bat that closed a bunch of roads. now all those streams and creeks are flowing into the river, the merrimack, the mississippi river are all coming up. that's closing different roads. close right now in missouri. -

it's really been difficult. >> it has been difficult. it's a real challenge, rerouting all of those people, especially when you consider that i-44 is a major trucking route. we know there's some 100,000 vehicles that go through there per day. a ten-mile stretch of that is closed. how are you managing to route people to safety? >> that's the tricky part. it's closed in two places. one in midmissouri and last night at 2:00 it closed in st. louis. a lot of our detour routes are also closed. we're trying to find routes that can handle the trucks. some of these are 100, 150-mile detours. we are urging people to get to i-70. anybody coming through missouri, take them highway 70. >> i-70 is open. that's a good message we hope will get spread to people trying to get in and around that area. i'm curious what your message is to motorists right now.

are they heeding advisories to stay clear of those roads? >> yes. we had people drive into the flood plains, the floods and 12 people have passed away. their cars got washed away. stay out of those roads, stay away from the floods. go to the modot website. click on the travelers map. it will show you the roads that are closed. you can plan your trip. we urge people to do that, plan your trip when you're driving around missouri. >> i think it's worth reminding people, we do it often here on cnn, of the dangers of driving through standing water or moving water. remind people of this, because this is something where you said, we've already lost enough lives. >> some people when they drive through, it looks like it's a few inches. if it's flowing, it can push your car right off. other people, you can't tell how deep it is. they try to drive through. it's a dangerous situation.

we put the barricades up on purpose, to keep people out. we're working crocely with the police, the highway patrol to keep people out of those areas. >> the department of transportation relies on partners and other agencies to make sure the closures go off without a hitch and get people where they need to go. what are your biggest challenges right now? >> well, right now, since i-44 closed last night at 2:00, is trying to route those people around and trying to get them to roads -- the truckers, especially, to roads they can make it. you can't send my tractor-trailers on small roads. these detours are miles and miles away. >> that merrimack river really winds around. i was looking at it on a map. it winds around. when you see how many areas it's breached and how much water is there, it will be a challenge for you. greg horn, thank few for your time. i know it's a busy day. we'll keep making sure people are aware of closures.

thanks for joining us. >> great. thank you. >> scary situation there. meanwhile, a new day of protests expected in cleveland after a grand jury decided not to indict the police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old tamir rice. on tuesday, demonstrators formed human chains, some closed downtown streets. police say there were no arrests. rice's family has accused prosecutors of sabotaging the case. federal authorities are reviewing it. chicago mayor rahm emanuel is expected to unveil a new training plan for his embattled police department today. this is happening as dozens of protesters gathered outside calling for him to step down for allegedly covering up police misconduct. those demands have grown louder since dashcam video surfaced showing officer jason van dyke gunning down laquan mcdonald last october. for his part, van dyke pleaded not guilty. the new warning of the dangers of walking while looking at your smartphone. 10% of injuries that land people

in emergency rooms happen because of distracted walking. and some of those injuries are deadly. ohio state researchers say millennials between the ages of 21 and 25 are the most at risk. and the national safety council says about 80% of the injuries are the result of a fall, most of them happening at home. >> you want to see a journalist walking while texting? it happens in the hallways here. often times i'll say, hey, looking up with be walking while texting is dangerous. >> distracted walking. >> yes, it's a problem. it's a problem. for more us here ahead on the fugitive affluenza teen or so he's called. the punishment that he could now face after fleeing the country. ahead, we'll speak with the father of one of the victims of caused.sh that ethan couch that young man was injured in the drunk driving crash back in 2013. stay with us.

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ethan couch, the so-called affluenza teen is expected to return to the united states later today. couch and his mom were apprehended monday in the mexican resort town of puerto vallarta. that teen is wanted for violating probation from a 2013 drunk driving conviction that killed four people. joining us now is kevin mcconnell whose son was a

passenger in the car hit by couch and survived. he's joined by his attorney, greg kuntz. kevin, maybe we can get your reaction to the fact that ethan and his mom were apprehended. were you surprised, relieved? >> good morning, michaela. oddly enough my first reaction was really, puerto vallarta? you're going to flee justice into another country just to hole up in the one place in that country that you're most likely to run into somebody who's seen the news or the internet from the u.s.? i didn't understand the logic there. but my second thought was you know, merry christmas to the victims and their families. >> i imagine it provides a little bit of relief though it doesn't bring back the loss of their loved ones. how does injure son lucas feel about it all? >> we've tried to, since the civil case has been settled, we tried to shelter him from that and let him move on with that.

so we're kind of keeping him out of the loop. he knows what's going on but, you know, he's trying to move on and put this behind him. >> that's what a good parent does. kevin, you've said that you felt, you believe in redemption but you said you think the only thing that will help this situation and this troubled young man that caused all of this pain was a lengthy incarceration. i want you to listen to what the tarrant county, texas district attorney says in her press conference yesterday. >> if he stays in the juvenile court, the maximum sentence he could receive is incarceration in a juvenile facility until he turns 19 which is april 11th of 2016. that is not enough. the alternative is for his case to be transferred to the adult court. >> if he goes to the adult court, the most severe punishment he could face would be 120 days in jail.

your idea of a lengthy incarceration not looking likely, kevin. how does that sit with you? >> well, i'm no judge but he's had four chances without incarceration and his recidivism has continued. the d.a. was originally asking for 0 years. i've seen nothing that has happened so far that would make me change my mind that the 20 years wasn't a warranted sentence. >> as an attorney, how does this sit with you? we understand they're bound by the original sentence. >> hi, michaela. that's the problem is their hands are tied to some extent. many times if you're talking about a minor juvenile crime, this would make sense. when you're talking something this substantial, nobody thinks the laws are set up correctly and this should be the result. >> do you both think the laws need to change? >> you know, it's always hard to

take one case and use that to change the laws across the board. so that's a tough question. i think the question -- the issue here more is the way it was done initially and the judge's decision, ruling and keeping it in juvenile court. >> i'm curious giving all of what your family has gone through and all of the other families of the victims that weren't as lucky as your son, do you still have faith in the legal system? >> i do have faith in the legal system. i think actually, i think the tarrant county justice system will get to have a do-over. i think in the beginning the first part of this situation, i think all the moving parts functioned properly minus one weak link. i think that we have a chance now to do this again minus that weak link. >> well, part of this is also the role that his mother played in this, kevin. you're a parent.

you know that parents will do almost anything for their kids. but you also have to face the consequences of that. his mother was apprehended along with him in mexico. how much blame do you think she deserves in all of this? >> i think she deserves a great deal of blame. i think she has never let him make decisions on his own. i think she has made decisions for him. they've all been bad ones, including where to run to when you try to escape justice. >> what i think -- >> another bad decision. >> -- amazing, kevin, you've demonstrated each time you've been with us on our air, you have a great deal of forgiveness. i think a lot of people would have a hard time having that kind of forgiveness for somebody that had done all of this. >> well, you can't harbor bitterness. i mean, i'm a christian and we've all sinned. we've all received forgiveness. i can quote shawna jennings on

this, who am i not to forgive ethan couch? >> have you talked to some of the other families recently since his apprehension? >> yes, we're in very close contact with the jennings family on a weekly basis. we speak with eric boyles from time to time. >> what did they say about ethan being captured? >> i think everyone is relieved a little bit. it's my hope that this will bring some peace to them and to my family as well. it's also my hope that now that the tarrant county justice system does have another shot that we cannot worry about this rule or that rule and what the precedence is. somehow common sense would prevail and proper decisions would be made. >> i think we could wish common sense for a new year's wish for all of america. i think it would probably be well received. greg and kevin, thank you so much for joining us. our best to your family, kevin,

and to the families who are still struggling with the loss of their loved ones. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. coming up in the next hour, we'll speak with the tarrant county sheriff dee anderson. donald trump versus the clintons. it is getting personal if it wasn't already. trump says his own personal life is fair game as well. does he mean it? we'll discuss, next. bring your family and friends together

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♪ watching in a winter watchlist land! ♪ xfinity's winter watchlist. watch now with xfinity on demand- your home for the best entertainment this holiday season. house torque flooding leaving communities under water, forcing evacuations in missouri this morning. the governor declaring a state of emergency, activating the national guard. these devastating floods have claimed more than a dozen lives. the mississippi river is expected to crest at its highest level tomorrow, surpassing the great flood of 1993. more than 18 million people under flood warnings in 13 states. another round of heavy rain will keep the threat alive for several days. at least 26 people have been killed and 45 ear others wounde a suicide bombing in pakistan.

that happened in the town of mardon. the pakistani taliban has claimed responsibility. this attack is one of the deadliest since last december's massacre of 150 students and teachers in peshmar. rescuers have now made contact with eight trapped miners in china. they are still alive, 720 feet below the surface. rescuers drilling a relief hole in order to deliver food and provisions. at least one person has died. nine others missing, 11 made it out alive. the mine collapse was so violent it registered as a seismic event. this baby you're about to meet is going bonkers for bacon. take a look at little easton, reacting to his very first taste of the crispy, greasy goodness.

>> eat some more. >> it's genetic, folks. it's an imperative. bacon is a moral imperative. >> he's going to chase that high for the rest of his life. >> so says the bacon addict christine romans. i hear that scream of joy from her having bacon in the morning. >> i'm trying to cut back. >> berman, i can't never get john berman -- >> it's 4:00 in the morning when you're ordering it. it is safe to say that donald trump once again brought up the president's former president's affair on the campaign trail or past discretions. so far, the clintons showing no evidence that the republican front-runner is getting under their skin. why does donald trump continue to push the issue? here to discuss this morning, tea party activist, trump supporter and chief political

correspondent for usa radio network scottie nell hughes. also with us, matt schlapp. you've been running campaigns again the clintons for a lot of years. is there fertile ground for donald trump when he brings this up? >> it's a strange case where it helps both candidates. it helps donald trump to be taking on hillary clinton. it's no surprise that republicans don't like hillary clinton. they really don't it the like bill clinton because he did such an effective job of beating them two times. it also helps hillary clinton within the democratic contest because anybody on the democratic side who's being vilified by donald trump is just going to do even better with those voters. interesting case where it helps both. >> scottie, it is interesting. donald trump, among other things last night said his own personal life is fair game now also. you were on the ground. you've been on the ground in the states where there are voters

that have different interests. say iowa. i don't know how much they know about donald trump's past. >> well, that's the thing. everybody knows it. just take a quick google search. donald trump's life has been in the public eye for the last 20 years. there's a major difference between bill clinton's donald trump's relationships. bill clinton did it on the taxpayer dollar. he did it in the governor's house, the white house. >> even as you describe that there and even if you agree with your depiction, it's not hillary clinton. it's bill clinton. hillary clinton is the one rung for president, right, scottie? >> absolutely. that's the one thing people are not talking about, the idea she always stood by her man which in some cases is honorable but she never took up for the repeated cases, the women that were underneath bill clinton as governor and president that were basically a version of assaulted or involved in these

relationships. she never showed sympathy for them. they attacked those women instead of maybe standing up for them and having sympathy for what they went through, being accosted by her husband. >> this is where it gets complicated. you're talking about a marriage, the marriage between bill and hillary clinton which a lot of people think what happens inside a marriage should stay inside a marriage and shouldn't be political. this is where hillary clinton has been able to engender some sympathy over time. >> hillary clinton is given a wide berth here by people. she loves her husband but clearly her husband has done some things that are just horrible. we'll hear all about it. let me tell you one thing, donald trump has proven in politics that he will go places and talk about things in a very clear manner that other politicians tend to shy away. the rules of politics tell you, boy, avoid certain areas because you could get stuck.

donald trump goes there. he's going to go there with bill clinton. he seems to get away with it because people appreciate his candor. if you start talking about bill clinton and his moral decisions and his life, there's a lot of material. >> as you say, it may help hillary clinton in the democratic primary at the same time it helps donald trump. >> that's right. >> let's stay on the republican race for a second, scottie. there's something else interesting happening just now, a new ad from jeb bush's right to rise super pac directly targeting marco rubio talking about his voting record in the senate. let's listen quickly. >> days after the paris attacks, senators came together for a top secret briefing on the terrorist threat. marco rubio was missing, fund-raising -- >> you get the idea. it goes on like this for a little bit, scottie. chris christie also going after marco rubio on his voting record. you're a donald trump supporter, you tend to support people outside the establishment here. you're seeing now a lot of the establishment candidates go after each other.

>> exactly. it's fun to watch. but this is basically, what you're seeing is the division between chris christie and marco rubio and where jeb will put his power house of american. that's all he's got, behind. if you look at this ad, here's one interesting part of it. yes, it could be damaging to senator rubio's campaign. i found it funny that they left out two things, the absentee on the iran vote as well as the omni bus from last week. the jeb bush campaign doesn't even mention this within the ad. which shows how off-target they've been as to why jeb went from the front-runner to the absolute bottom. >> any potential to bruise marco rubio here? >> i have to say i agree with scottie on this. it's not about missing votes. there are thousands of votes. it's about being absent when something that's critical to the country's future is taking place on the floor of the senate. when you're a senator or congressman and you're not there

for that vote, you're allowing your adversaries and opponents to characterize what you would have done and what your priorities are. when you have ted cruz voting for something and marco rubio absent for that very same vote, it creates a political problem for marco rubio. it's not deadly. he's can explain it but he's going to have to explain it. >> no candidate wants to have a million dollars up against him in the weeks leading up to iowa. that's happening right now. i want both your takes on something that happened overnight. george pataki suspended his campaign. a lot of people are going, so what, he was an asterisk in the polls. he was a three-term governor of new york. it's significant that a three-term governor of a democratic state can't register at all in a primary. >> if you put three terms in front of any candidate, they are probably not going to be popular this year or next year.

if you talk about somebody who governed in a purple state or, in this case, a blue state, they might be out of tone with where the republican electorate is. they are ready to nominate somebody who will stand boldly and proudly for conservative principles. which is why you see such an upheaval here. >> a lot of candidates are running, trying to figure out how they'll get the 84 votes that he left behind. >> 79 votes, i think. >> all right. >> 79. okay. i'm a little bit less conservative. >> i think anyone who gets in the presidential race and run deserves some respect. george pataki, we appreciate your effort. >> scottie nell hughes, matt schlapp, thank you. the mother of the so-called affluenza teen could face a decade behind bars what drove her to do it? a psychiatrist will help us dig deeper, next.

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that's why i switched from u-verse to xfinity. now i can download my dvr recordings and take them anywhere. ready or not, here i come! (whispers) now hide-and-seek time can also be catch-up-on-my-shows time. here i come! can't find you anywhere! don't settle for u-verse. x1 from xfinity will change the way you experience tv. welcome back to "new day." ethan couch and his mother tanya expected to return to the u.s. today, within hours. they were captured in mexico on

monday after nearly three weeks on the run. the teen's mother, she now faces significant jail time for helping her son flee the country. what motivated her to help her child evade police? i want to bring in dr. jodi gold, a psychiatrist and author of "screen smart parenting." this case, twists and turns for pains and people who believe in raising children with accountability, it's mind boggling. everyone loves their child unconditionally. but what is this? what is in the mindset of this mother? >> this is an example of absolutely terrible parenting. this mother was completely amesh with her child. i think it started when he was much younger. she didn't have a sense of where she ended and he started. she called him her protector,

she adultfied him, treated him like an adult. this led to incredibly poor parenting and she used poor judgment. it's almost hard to imagine the kind of judgment she used own countrying him to flee. >> sometimes when people have a newborn baby, for example, there's almost a oneness of the mortgage and baby. it's almost as if she and this kid are one identity. >> absolutely. so it's very normal when you have a baby that there's a oneness, it's natural. with each year as your child gets older, your child develops its own sense of self and there's more measured independence until the mother has her own sense of self and the child has his own sense of self. he was about 9 when she got divorced for the first time. he may have taken on the role of being her partner instead of her son. >> in it this deposition after he killed four people and terribly wounded two others in one of the depositions, the mother said on video she was

asked when was the last time you reprimanded your child or told the child no? she could not remember a time that she had reprimand or put any kind of restrictions on the child. and in fact, the sheriff remarkably says talking about how this mother even sort of threw a going away party for the two of them before they went to mexico. listen to what the sheriff said. >> what we suspected all along had happened, that they planned to disappear. that they even had something that was almost akin to a going away party before they left town. our suspicion that his mother was assisting him and helping him has proven true, we believe. we followed those leads and eventually led to puerto vallarta, mexico, where they were taken into custody. >> healthy parenting revolves around accountability and teaching lessons. i'm not seeing that here.

>> no, not at all. this is an extreme example of parenting for entitlement. if you look at this child's history, this child from a young age could do sort of no wrong. the parents -- when you're parenting a wealthy child, as in in child, it's important that there's consequences for actions, that you teach good citizenship. the message they sent to this child was, you're above the law, you're unique. when he was 13 he drove to scho school, he was allowed to drive. when the school confronted the family about it, they pulled him out of the school. but certainly this child grew up in a family where there were no consequences. you see what happens. it's the responsibility of parents for there to be consequences for actions to teach empathy, teach how to give back. this did not happen in this case clearly, to the point even where

he broke the law the mother was involved with helping him flee the law. >> so much has been made of the affluenza term. even the psychiatrist who testified in court using the word affluenza, he later told us he regretted using that term. in the old days those were called spoiled rotten brats. affluenza, he regretted using it. people who have money and people don't have money raise spoiled rotten brats. what happens now? what happens now to her? do you think this there can be a change in behavior for this mother and child and their relationship with each other? >> that's hard to say at this point. what i do think is it sends a message to people watching this, how important there is for ther important there are for consequences and to think about the idea of raising spoiled wealthy brats. i don't think she's responsible for his actions. she's certainly responsible for -- her and the father are responsible for being poor parents. it is something to think about.

we are such an affluent country and it is really important to think about how to raise thoughtful kind empathetic kids and it is not always so easy. >> and parents are managing everything and now everyone is their best friend. interesting to take a look at that. doctor, thank you so much. nice to see you. what's your take? tweet us at "new day" or e post your comment. >> anger growing in chicago after a grandmother was accidentally gunned down by police. now calls growing louder for mayor rahm emanuel to resign. up next we're going to speak to a pastor who new the grandmother killed, betty jones. what does he think should happen? that's next. es that you can book on our app to make sure your little animal, enjoys her first trip to the kingdom. expedia, technology connecting you to what matters.

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welcome back to "new day." outrage growing stronger in chicago over a series of deadly police shootings. the latest, a weekend shooting that left a teenager and 55-year-old grandmother, betty jones, dead. she was accidentally shot at the scene of a domestic dispute. pastor, thank you for being with us. betty jones, a grandmother, tell me about her. >> well, she of course must be seen in context of her family. a very strong family. and like all families, they, you know, have been sharing their faith with each other. she has family members that attended our church.

she's attended our church. and tragically they just had had a profound discussion on christmas, she and her oldest daughter on how they were going to come to church and renew their faith just would have been this past sunday and tragically that sunday never came for her. but i think most of her family members feel good about the fact she was in a good spiritual place. but of course we feel very bad about what happened to betty jones who was simply being a good neighbor. she really was going to the door to let the police in because her neighbor lived on a second floor was having problems with his son and called down and asked her to let the police in because the bell was not working and tragically she becomes the victim of a police shooting. >> obviously this happens in the context of so much concern, so much anxiety, so much anger over what's been happening in chicago between the communty and between the police.

so in that context, what was your reaction when you heard that betty jones had been killed? >> to tell you the truth, i was mystified, john. having had all of the scrutiny on the chicago police department, we have the department of justice in town. i could not understand how the police could have apparently behaved so recklessly that an innocent person would lose their lives simply trying to aid the police. i think it points to the deep problem that we have on how police behave in certain communities. you know, we -- to have an innocent person in a line of fire given what we know about the laquan mcdonald case and other cases where people really feel that their excessive force was used unnecessarily. to have this happen in the middle of all of that, i was

really incredulous to tell you the truth. >> let's bring people up to speed on exactly what happened here. the teenager, the kid killed s quintonio legrier who was concerned because his father was coming after him with a metal bat. listen to what his father told cnn zpli called the police department because i wanted someone to try to help him with whatever he was going through because i was not trained. but i never once thought that once he entered that staircase that his life would be ended by someone who didn't know what to do. >> someone who didn't know what to do. mayor rahm emanuel back in chicago holding a news conference. he's going to say that the police will refocus their training, to try to figure out how to deal better with mental

health issues if that is in fact what was involved right here. >> yeah i mean we have of course many layers to the problem. the point is this was a family in distress that was calling for help. obviously they did not expect son to end up dead. but in the case of betty jones this was a case simply trying to assist the police, to open the door for the police. and when you go to that house, apparently there is a bullet hole in the door while the door was closed. the indication is that perhaps there was shots fired before there was any confrontation with the young man who was coming down the vestibule. so, you know, there are just a lot of questions that need to be asked and answered on how policing is done in our community. the problem is now we have this tremendous crisis of confidence

in the administration and in the conduct of police. in the case of laquan mcdonald we had police who collaborated with falsified reports on the scene, whose reports did not fit what we all saw in the video. and so now every time we have these kind of crises the level of confidence and the conduct of the police, the report that we're seeing, the way that these incidents are investigated, that is going to be a continual political problem for us in the city and for the mayor. >> yeah. >> i've challenged the mayor and others have challenged him that we need a full airing of this case of laquan mcdonald, which is really the overlay of all of this crisis to find out what happened in the case of that young man who was a ward of the state and were there political implications or maybe even

obstruction of justice. >> more than just a political problem, something that needs to be discussed. trust that needs to be reestablished. not just in chicago but around the country. pastor hatch thank you for being with us. appreciate your time. >> thank you so much. >> we are following a lot of news. let's get right to it. this is insanity. all of this water. 6>> the kid may not end up in jail that long but the mother could be in serious trouble

here. >> air strikes killed isis leader al mouadan. >> it's a step in the right direction but we've got a long ways to go. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo, alisyn camerota and michaela pereira. >> good morning to you. welcome back to your new day. it is wednesday the 30th of december. 8:00 in the's. chris and alisyn obviously off today. christine romans and john berman alongside me on this wednesday. we turn to historic flooding in the midwest. more than 18 million people are under flood warnings in 13 states. mandatory evacuations under way in parts of missouri. we're showing live images from one of our affiliate's helicopters. rivers including the mississippi are expected to crest several feet above their record highs. >> missouri's governor offering a very sobering assessment of what might lay ahead in the next 24 to 48 hours.

governor nixon activated the national guard, declared state of emergency there. we have the story covered from every angle. let's begin with elena machado. good morning. >> reporter: well the river here continues to inch higher and higher. you can see the scene behind me here. some 400 businesses and homes have already been effected by the flood and it is going to be a while before things get better. >> missouri bracing for serious flooding as the mississippi and mira miramac river breaching flood levels. swollen rivers rise and crest in

the next 48 hours. >> almost ten more vertical feet of moving water. so the power we're talking about as well as the volume is extremely significant. >> the governor declaring a state of emergency and act vague the national guard. as officials predict river levels could exceed the great flood of 1993 that claimed nearly 50 lifes and damaged or destroyed some 50 thousand homes the most devastating in modern u.s. history. near st. louis, the mayor urging his 500 residents to evacuate after water tops the levee. >> this is your notice this is serious you need to get final preparations and go. >> reporter: parts of missouri under water, homes, cars restaurants completely submerged. and one photographer even captured video of this cabin floating away. authorities urging drivers stay off inundated roadways fearing

they will get stuck and swept away. >> the vast majority of fatalities is people driving into the water. and at night. >> i am worried. i just don't know what to do. it is still supposed to come up higher. >> my main concern right now is just getting our vehicle out just so we're not -- our truck is not trapped in here. >> reporter: officials now watching and hoping that the levees hold. >> it is more just wait and see. once it is over then we'll have to go from there. because we really don't know what's going to happen. >> reporter: the record here was set back in 1982 when the river reached 33.6 feet. flood waters are expected to surpass that by at least two feet. >> thank you. these river levels reaching record highs. levees are being closely

monitored. you are looking at one of our affiliate helicopters taking pictures here. you can see how inundated that town is. they have their eyes on all of those levees. >> reporter: christine, the chopper is flying directly above our head, that little corner in the bottom left screen is where i'm standing and you can see that bridge right there. the water is almost touching it. that is actually interstate 44. and the road underneath it is highway 151. these are serious roads. this is disrupting travel. and not to mention the historic flooding that you are seeing across st. louis. we've actually hit the record here in valley park just in the last hour or so.

hitting 40 feet. flood stage is 16 feet and we are now at 40. we're expected to go about three feet higher by midnight tonight when it is supposed to crest. so that is why the city officials have been proactive, trying to get people to evacuate in the areas that are going to be impacted. the miriamic runs just to the north and it is speeding all of this way. and not only in the st. louis area but in the coming days in places like little rock, memphis, paducah, kentucky and that is going to continue to flow downstream in the mississippi river. this is rivaling the 1993 floods that everyone talks about which was devastating for this area. so we are going to see a lot of the river gauges around this area even higher than they were in 93. this is an historic year for

rainfall in the st. louis area. they have received about 60 inches, 21 inches above normal. they have received 10 or 11 of those in decembr alone. so much rain water. nowhere to go. it flows into the streams, the rivers, they flow into the mississippi and all meet here around the st. louis area. and that is where you are getting this major flooding. the good news is it looks like we are going to be staying dry for the short-term so these rivers can crest and then they will slowly recede. this is different from flash flooding where they come and go quickly. the waters are going to rise and then slowly fall around the mississippi. >> several more hours of concern tonight for you. tomorrow tonight in st. louis, so much concern in that region. thaungs so much. i spoke with the governor of new jersey jay nixon about the outlook for his state. he says everything possible is

being done to prevent a catastrophe. >> we'll be in pacific today. you are right on in one of the real areas of concern. we're going to see at valley park and eureka, that the miramac is going to be four feet over its historic level and still rising. >> four feet above the historic level in pacific. 13 feet above in st. louis. expected to crest there tomorrow. how concerned are you? >> 13 feet above flood level is one thing. four feet above all time historic level. that's why i called the national guard. why we have a state of emergency and why we work with the red cross and others. it's cold too. it is not a summer flood. it's dangerous. we've already had 13 deaths in the state. so we are on -- you know, with guard members arriving literally

as dawn hits and a number of places around the state we're very concerned in the next 35 hours. >> i heard in your voice. i sense it this morning. are you getting the response you field you need given the level of the threat right now? >> we've had to throw a lot of resources and we're working to enhance those local levels. periville mississippi looks like you are going to see historic high there too which puts an industrial park and thousands of jobs at play. we've got a wide range we're fiting. from the boot heel all up to st. louis and west. highway 44 closed which takes about a hundred thousand vehicles a day on a major trucking route. closed both ways and a 40 mile detail. so there is a lot of area. we're trying to focus our attention on. one of the reasons i called up

the national guard to make sure we had the forces necessary to deal with this challenge. >> hundred thousand travel that every day. this will effect millions of people across the country, including in your state. is there one area or one thing you are most concerned about this guilty or not guilty? >> two things first of all. don't drive into moving water. the 12 deaths we've had are ones in which folks drove into moving water and perished. two is we're going to make sure the people are safe in that st. louis area there. you have pacific, eureka, valley park. area where is the water is rising and these are highly populated. so setting up shelters at the shool and places like that so they are warm and safe. and we're bringing in patrols to make sure we keep security tight and make sure the people coming in and out are either people working to fight the flood or folks who live there.

>> we keep tossing around the term historic and this is being compared to what happened there in 1993. you know what happened in 1993. was devastating. so this comparison should be alarming to a lot of people. >> the levels of water, that is why you hear in my voice and others out there. we've never seen water this high. when it goes above record not by an inch but by two or three feet? you don't know far exactly the water is going to go. the good news is we have a number of dry day, cold but dry. so we should get crests some time late tomorrow night and be on our way to recovery. if we can get it going down then we'll be over that hump. but we still have a while. >> that's 40 hours or so right now before this starts to recede. what will you be doing to monitor? >> we'll be checking in with state emergency management, making sure we got the guard

folks working the right place. working water rescues, where necessary. water patrol and highway patrol working together. helicopters in the air flying. and in airs where levees are being worked we're providing transportation and trucks to make sure if they have to be shored up, that they will. and working with the red cross to make sure there are warming shelters but also evacuations. because this water is still coming up. >> have you spoken to the president? >> i have not talked to the president. we focused at all the local folks. whether the corps of engineers or other federal agencies. we're in the middle of a flood fight and certainly i'd be glad. they have been shoulder to shoulder with us. pitching sandbags. and they were helping us reshoot with making sure that we knew

the height of all the levees. you have to have it within a few inches so they have been good partners on the ground. that's our biggest focus. we'll worry about the dollars after and the recovery later on but right now we're in a massive flood fight. >> a flood fight. and it is going to be a brutal one until midnight tomorrow night. any last message you want to give? >> it's 28 degrees right now. so it's going to be cold. if you are out, dress for ift. two, don't drive into water. and we're going to get people out. but just because wii -- doesn't mean we're leaving. we're going to be there to rebuild all of these areas to make sure they are back. it is an important part of our state to provides a great level of concentration and great workers. i'm from some of these areas so we'll be out there in wit folks today. >> governor jay nixon calling it

a flood fight. one they will be in until tomorrow at midnight when they expect it to crest. a long way to go. >> you talk about many feet above 1993 levels. it is terrifying. these are communities it is going to take a long time go goat this water out of the way. and a strange time of year. >> and difficult considering so many people are on the roads. we've been hearing about road closures. we were told by the department of transportation that i-70 is open. it is one of the few thorough fairs that is going to remain open at least as long as the waters stay back from it. we want to thank our affiliate ktvi for the video we were showing. and we'll get a sense of the levees and how they are holding because that is paramount to the situation there. we'll get back to our top news in a moment. back to another story that's been concerning us the so called affluenza teen returning to the u.s. today along with his

mother. do you think couch and his mother were arrested monday in mexico. the couches had been fugitives for three weeks after violating his probation for killing four people while driving drunk. live in dallas and the story keep developing by the day. >> reporter: yeah and the frustration and anger towards these two has been growing as well. ethan couch and his mother tonya couch, as you mentioned, we're told expected to arrive back in the united states some point today. and obviously they will come back to a mess of troubles for themselves. ethan couch however, for those wonderi wondering, technically hasn't committed a new crime. he's simply violated the terms of his probation. because of that he could be sent to jail until he turns 19, which is in april of 11th i believe was the date. the maximum he could actually face in jail is 120 days. right now what prosecutors are trying to do is move his case

from the juvenile system into the adult system and prosecutors want to do that because they feel that they can be much tougher on him if there are other violations of his probation. if he is transferred into the adult system and he violates his probation again, he could face the maximum sentence of up to 40 years in prison. as far as his mother, she also faces legal troubles herself. she will be arrested and charged with interfering with the apprehension of a juvenile. that is a felony charge that could make her face between 2 and 10 years in prison. so a great deal of legal trouble complicated for the couch family even more so than they had already found themselves in. and investigators and authorities here in texas also still trying to piece together the timeline how the couches moved from the fort worth, texas area all the way to puerta vallarta. a mexican immigration official tells they crossed in tijuana

just south of san diego and drove into puerta vallarta where they were found by ethan couch's use of his cell phone on monday afternoon. >> we're following breaking news this morning. four secret service agents rushed to the hospital after a fatal head on crash in new hampshire. the agents suffered serious non life threatening injuries. police say the car they were in collided with another vehicle that crossed over a double yellow line tuesday night. the driver of that car identified as 45-year-old bruce danforth died at the seasons. his two passengers were hospitalized. >> close call between a u.s. navy warship and iranian rockets. one rocket came within 1500 yards of the u.s.s. harry truman. u.s. military officials called the incident unnecessarily provocative and unsafe.

one of the stars of "glee" has been arrested on suspicion of possessing child pornography. los angeles place took mark salling into custody on tuesday being held on 20 thousand bail. he played puck on glee. that series ended earlier this year. >> you are looking at live pictures right now. that is dry. one of the few areas in that region dry right now. flood waters rising around the region. there you see right there water flowing. the river not expected to crest until midnight tomorrow. the very latest on the threat coming up.

about their arrival. what time? what will the process be? >> the u.s. marshals will bring them back into the country and here into our custody. for security reasons we don't talk about how or when that is going to occur. we expect them within the next 24-48 hours to be brought back. the transport is completely in the hands of the marshal service and they have several ways they can kploish that. so we counwon't be talking publ

about that. but we will certainly let everyone know when we have them back here in custody. >> are they both going behind bars immediately? >> that is true. ethan will be put back in the juvenile facility to be held for the detention hearing and we have a warrant for tonya couch's arrest that will be served as soon as her feet hit u.s. soil. and she is charged with hindering and apprehension which is a third-degree felony. she'll be arrested and arraigned when he bring her to our jail. >> and sheriff you have been involved with this case for years now. a lot longer than i know you wish. and frankly you have been upset about the way this case had been handled through the years through the legal system. and now the latest twist, is even after violating probation. even after going on the run, going into hiding, disguising himgs in mexico for weeks, it

may be that ethan couch might face nothing more than 120 days maximum behind bars. that's got to be infuriating. >> it is. and that's just welcome to juvenile law in texas. you know, it is designed obviously in most cases for juveniles to be rehabilitated and to think of the well-being of the child. and it doesn't really take into account a terrible crime like was committed here with the loss of life of four innocent people. the way the law is written and designed which obviously we have no control over, he will be put back into the juvenile system. he can be remanded back into the adult probation system, which is what we're hoping for. but you are right, if that happens the judge with only order 120 days of jail time. then if that occurs he'll be put on a far more intense adult

probation system. and then i don't think he's last long under that amount of scrutiny unless he completely changes his ways and thought process. because to this point. and again they have thumbed their nose at law enforcement and left the country. he doesn't believe the rules apply to him and doesn't believe the laws apply to him. is unless he changes that. again aisle say it. we haven't seen the last of him in our legal system here. >> we are finding new details out how they left the country. they have made some going away party themselves throwing a party before they went on the run. what can you tell us about that? >> during our investigation we received some -- talk to some people who said there was a gathering, which was likened to -- akin to a going away party before they fled the country. again, it just to me shows the arrogance of the family they don't believe the law apply. they thumb their nose at authority again and hold a

party, if you will, before they decide to leave the country and bid everyone farewell on their -- like they were leaving on a cruise or something before they left the country. >> at this point are you convinced it is just the two of them ethan and tonya who were involved with this? if they throw a going away party, its seems like other people knew they were about to go on the run. >> and that is very difficult for us to prove that people there knew exactly what was going on. i don't know at this point if anyone else was involved. we certainly are investigating that possibility. the investigation is certainly not over. we're looking at every aspect that we can. it's been a very detailed, large multi state multi country now investigation. so we've got a lot of work still to do on it. i'm not ruling out the possibility. but i will say at this point we don't have any indication that anyone else assisted them in a

real substantial way. we haven't been able to uncover any information about that if it occurred. we're still investigating and talking to people. so more things could develop in the future. >> do you have any estimate how much money has been spent over the last month in the search of these two? >> i couldn't even estimate when you look at all of the agencies involved. ours? the fbi, the u.s. marbshals deserve a tremendous amount of credit in this. it would be impossible to calculate because you have so many agencies involved. i can tell you it's been a huge expense for our taxpayers here alone skpmplt sadly money that didn't ever need to be spent. had justice been served two years ago we wouldn't have gone through this? >> and lastly what do you want to see happen to the mother here. >> i hope she's prosecuted to

the fullest extent of the law and i would love to see her do some prison time. the maximum sentence she can serve in this case is 10 years in prison. i'd love to see her do some actual prison time and maybe just maybe they would understand that they too are accountable and answerable to the laws here in texas. >> sheriff dee anderson, thanks so much for being with us. we know this has been an issue for you some time. michaela. >> we're showing you live pictures of the historic flood in the historic west. whether they are having to do swift water rescues we're now. our affiliate is providing these aerial vogt phophotos for us. you can see how much water. they are saying this is going to surpass the great flood of 1993. they haven't seen this much

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our breaking news is obviously the situation in missouri. a lot of water. you can see the roadways there flooded. this is complements of our affiliate ktvi. the affiliate helicopter showing us some of these swift water rescue teams trying to get to this vehicle. we don't know exactly what happened if this person tried to get through this flooded roadway, if there is a passenger there or not. obviously all of the authorities have been on our air telling people stay off the roads, follow the closures. stay on only the open roadways. there are so many areas completely inundated and it is simply unsafe. >> sir thanks so much for joining us.

since you are the top guy in the st. louis area, i want to get from you what is your most imminent concern? what area? >> good morning. this morning i would say it is addressing the needs, the areas throughout the missouri the illinois and mississippi river. it is all about protecting life safety and property. so areas such as valley park right now with the crest of about -- with anticipated crest about 42 and right now we're looking at 40. right now we have focused attention and support of valley park. we have a national geotech expert on the ground providing expertise to help identifying low areas to which we can assist in the effort. >> give us an idea what that assistance looks like. >> well what we do is we put out a lot of plans and profiles providing the landscape of the levee where we can identify critical areas we can flood

fight and support by placing rock or sandbags. and inches are critical right now and we're trying to support in the prioritization of effort. >> give us your game plan for not only the immediate future but for say the next 24 hours. >> no ma'am, there are not areas that are projected to breech. there are some areas along the river where there is projected overtopping. and that is because of the water is rising so high in comparison to the height of the levee, that there may be not enough what we call free board available space so therefore the water may be coming over the levee. and that is critical right now. the flood fighting efforts to identify the critical areas where we can put rock, we can

put sandbags to bind down -- to buy inches and time. >> colonel were watching looks like live rescue of a motorist not able to get through the flood zone where the water has overtaken the roadway there. let's talk about the levee system. how many are you watching and concerned about? >> overall they are performing as designed. there's been one area consolidated north county where the levee overtopped. that is a known location. agriculture behind that levee. there are other levees further down south. which we identified that are projected to overtop. and we've been working with the districts to buy the time. to provide the additional

protection necessary to ensure that overtopping may not occur. >> and we're watching at this official is putting a life jacket on this motorist who was not able to get through because of the standing water. just taking extra precautions. we know that all of these agencies are working in con certainty with one another and working in conjunction with the information that you and the army corps of engineers are able to provide them. can you tell us any residents that would have been close to those levee systems, would they have been evacuated? >> what we do is provide the information that informs the decisions of local government and law enforcement. and from that they determine the best solutions to identify what is the appropriate measure that they will take, whether it be the flood fight or to evacuate. >> so many are recalling that great and terrible flood of '93

saying the flood waters here could surpass that. give us an idea though. you probably have vivid memories of all o that. how dangerous is this one compared to that? >> i wasn't here for the '93 flood but i can speak to the flood we had this past summer and the flood we're undergoing right now. important is that we reduce risk. and we're working with the communities and we're doing all we can to ensure public safety. >> fair enough. last question, there are several cities south of st. louis along the mississippi river basin. are you concerned about cities like new orleans and memphis that that could be an issue for them? >> we're all engaged. the mississippi valley division and the arm corps of engineers is fully activated the flood fighting emergency management

operations and those operations expand from rock island all the way down to new orleans. so we're all committed to the effort. >> thanks for joining us today. >> thank you. rescues like the one you are seeing live right now are taking place all over missouri. up next we're talking with a resident of pacific missouri. talking about her being rescued from her home. much more of our continuing kovrjt next. thought about chevy they and their year end deals. i'm buying this. the back is hot. ohhh my god. that seals the deal. you can have like a thousand gadgets. it really can't get any better than that. wrap up the deals and wrap up the year in a new chevy. current qualified competitive lessees can get this chevy equinox lt for around $243 a month. and get five hundred lease cash on select equinox vehicles in stock. now you're gonna make me go buy a chevy.

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you are looking at live pictures of rescues in eureka missouri. 18 people in the midwest facing historic and potentially deadly flooding in the next few hours. the rivers expected to crest feet -- feet -- above the highest levels from back in 1993. you have officials there in infatables picking people up out of their cars as they have driven that far, the fatalities we've seen in missouri, 12 of them. all from driving into water. water rescues under way for more

than 12 hours now and the governor urging people stay out of the water. do not drive in the war. stay home when you can. be off the roads and in case where is they can't fight the flood they are going to have you evacuate. you have people in lots of different shelters now. people who are out of their homes. you have got businesses closed and again all of these rescues still under way. i want to bring in gene scott who lives in fenton, missouri. she and her sister were rescued. thanks for telling us your story. what exactly happened? you had the water rising into your backyard and you had tab taken out of there by boat. tell us about it. >> hello? >> hi gene. tell us about your water rescue yesterday. they took you out of your backyard by boat i'm told?

>> yes, ma'am, we was. we was gonna wait till today to call the rescue to come get us. but the water had really came up to fast for us. and i was about ready to lay down and the rescue people came and knocked on our door. and i had already packed a few things but they came and got us and put us in a raft and took us across the railroad tracks and brought us here to the senior citizens place. >> now, so you have not been allowed. you can't go back to your home just yet. there's too much water. >> right. >> tell me about that trip in the raft. >> that was neat. >> must have been cold out there though. >> oh yes. it was real chilly. i gave my sister the jacket. and i wrapped around with a blanket for right now. i didn't grab a coat.

>> you didn't have much time to pack up very much then did you? >> no ma'am, i sure didn't. >> did you live through the floods of '93? everyone is talking how this could surpass 93. >> it did overdo 93. i was living out in the trailer court then too. >> tell me how the water is coming up. >> it happened fast. we was watching it come up. and it came fast. it had already got the first four trailers in front of us already wiped out. and it had already god to our skirtings and was coming i up our porch steps when the rescues came out. >> do you expect that your place is flooded out? do you expect you will be able to go back in the next day or two? or do you think there is high water there now?

>> they haven't told us juan on or another. i'm hoping it didn't get in the trailer but i got a feeling it did. >> tell me what the mood is like at the senior center where you are? what is the mood there right now? >> oh everybody's real friendly. they're real nice and friendly here. and we're talking and all that. we're talking to some people that's really sometimes worse off than we are. some of them have lost more than we have. >> nice to know that people are kind of pulling t together. and this is still happening jean. you are going to have another day, another 24 hours before the river maybe crests. this is life on the river i know but when you look at these pictures jean you have a lot of homes under water. what are you thinking and feeling for the people here?

>> i really feel for the people. i really do. my heart goes out to them. it's really horrible. some of the people on the highway now trying to drive through that stuff, they are very stupid. >> yeah and jay nixon, your governor said, he said please don't do that. that is why they have to go in and help people. they need to go into houses and not on the roads. jean, thank you so much. wish you and your sister the best. please give our best to all of the people there at the senior center with you. hopefully you don't have too much damage back at your place. >> jean scott knows what schooes been talking about with people driving through these flood waters. just plain stupid. looking live at the greater st. louis area inundated with water. as many as three rivers rising. the mississippi, the meramec,

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elena machado is in pacific. jennifer gray from valley park. both suburbs of st. louis. and jennifer gray, valley park is one of the areas governor nixon said was the area of most concern. how are things looking there now? >> reporter: you know, we actually hit the record earlier this morning at 40 feet. flood stage is 14 feet. a -- 16 feet. and we're at 40. and we are expected to rise another three feet today. we've already risen a couple of feet since i've been out here. and you can see the water what looks like a river behind me is actually highway 141 running perpendicular to interstate 44 and the overpass there. you can see the water coming up. a huge section of 44 has been shut down. and you mentioned there are

evacuatio evacuations ongoing. and just watching those and seeing the people trying to drive through the water, it is incredibly frustrating. because that is one of the most simple ways you can save your life and protect yourself is just simply don't drive. and people somehow still do it. the governor has been on the air talking about it. we have city officials saying there are evacuations under way and they have a safe way to do it and designated routes. so heed the warnings and go with what they are saying. because not only do you put yourself in danger but you put the rescue workers in danger as well. it is not over yet. the waters are still rising. and they will for another day or two. so seek higher ground and do as you are told by the authorities and that is really all you can do at this point.

i. >> jennifer standby i want to bring in elena machado. the governor says tomorrow night at midnight where the waters are expected to crest. >> the situation not going to get better at least any time soon. i want to show you what we're seeing now that we have daylight. you can get a sense of how deep the water is. look at the opera house building. we estimate at least several feet of water surrounding that building. panning over to the left you see a bunch of houses, dozens of houses that are surrounded by water. this is all water from the meramec river. and this river still has not crested. the river continues to rise. it is expected to crest some point tomorrow. when it does it is going to be at least two feet above the record of 33.6 feet. that was set back in 1982.

just so you get a sense of how high that is? the level for major flooding here is 15 feet, john. >> unbelievable. and our thanks to elena machado and jennifer gray who are going to be putting some long hours in today. as we show you live aerials of the flood ravaged river. the mississippi and meramec are definitely the highest levels they have seen in a long time. cnn's coverage will continue with poppy harlow after a quick break.

good morning everyone. i'm poppy harlow in for carol costello. 9:00 a.m. on the east coast. and we have historic deadly flooding. more than 16 million americans under flood warnings right now. take a look at this. this is a rescue unfolding live on our air right now. it is all happening in eureka, missouri. if you pan in we see crews trying to get a stranded driver out of a truck that is nearly submerged in flood waters there. you have entire neighborhoods under water this morning. flood waters killing at least 13 in missouri alone. roads completely impassable, the waterxp