weather channel meteorologist mike seidel is there. he's in nearby metropolis, illinois. hey, mike. >> reporter: hey, brian. good evening. yes, the situation got worse today as finally the corps of engineers did what they said they were going to do. they blew a two-mile hole in a levee on the missouri side of the mississippi river. this to ease the pressure on the levee on the ohio river side and save the town of cairo, illinois. and this decision went all the way to the supreme court on sunday night. the first explosion went off last night, sending at least four feet of water across 130,000 acres of missouri farmland. this flooded 100 homes and left 200 residents homeless. now, there was a second explosion this afternoon, and a final one goes off this evening. now, so far the corps's plan has worked out like a charm. it's paid off. the ohio river has dropped a foot and a half from last night's record crest in cairo and they're expecting it to drop four more feet by wednesday morning. and brian, despite that the sun is out and there's no more significant rain in the foreca

mike seidel from the weather channel. we learned a new one tonight. p.d.s., particularly dangerous situation. mike, you and the crew stay safe. we'll take a break here in joplin. when we come back, some of the day's other news including a conversation with israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, a man at the center of the news today, hundreds of miles from here. >>> back from joplin, missouri. as promised we have to get to some of the other news of this day. halfway across the country specifically. on capitol hill, israel's prime minister was cheered over and over again during a speech to a joint session of congress today. benjamin netanyahu said israel is prepared to make painful compromises for peace with palestinians but will not, as president obama has called for, return to its borders before the '67 mideast war. nor he said will israel negotiate with terrorists by which he meant hamas. >> i believe we can fashion a brilliant future for our children, but israel will not negotiate with the palestinian government backed by the palestinian version

the weather channel's mike seidel has the latest from metropolis, illinois. >> reporter: good afternoony corps did that last night was to bring the water level down on the ohio river and thus lower the pressure against that levee and save that town of 3,000. and it has worked, as you mentioned. the levee there goes up to 64 feet. the water last night, an all time crest, beating out the 1937 crest by more than two feet at just under 62 feet. it still, this morning, more than 20 feet above flood stage and will be a week or long brother it gets back below flood stage. it will take a while for the rivers to back off. but the sun is out. and the rain has ended. the river is back. there is that debris line, you can see some leaves and stikz and the water is back to here. horizontally it has gone down seven or eight feet. vertically a few inches. that's in the right direction. there is the river. it has come in three and a half city blocks. the ohio in the distance, you can see the bay monte hotel there, the harris casino, which has been close since last week, is literally sitting out there it

. >>> the weather channel's mike seidel is in kentucky.ustrating situation for so many people. >> reporter: the fact this water is not going to go down very quickly it going to be a slow, methodical drawndown but still come up here. came up about another inch this morning. the ohio river, you can't see it, it is way back there behind the trees, behind the plants, but it has come up into the subdivision and these homes are getting water at least into the first floors. look over here, this is peach orchard road. we came here this morning, it was dark. the road goes off into the woods. in the distance, i don't know if you can see that, those are the very tops of mobile homes. there is about six or seven mobile homes back there that are underwater and are total losses. we don't have any significant rain in the forecast. the thing is all this water has to drain downstream. we already had seven records, six records set in 12 states. record high crests. and over the next three weeks, contessa, we're going to be setting records down the mississipp

matt, back to you. >> mike seidel in piedmont, oklahoma, this morning. mix, thanks for your reporting. al is just back from joplin, missouri. heels upstairs with more on the latest round of severe weather and what we can expect today. al, good morning to you. welcome back. >> thanks a lot, matt. sthanks, matt.ing at another strong low level jet stream. moisture from the gulf. you combine the two and we have a big risk area to show you right now from little rock, memphis into central indiana. the potential for large tornado tornadoes, widespread damage and hail in the area. we have a slight risk from texas to buffalo, new york and up to chicago. we've got a wide area today under the gun for severe weather. you can see the rotation around ane system. upper level low. we have a tornado watch from missouri into illinois. rainfall amounts anywhere from one to three inches of rain out of this system. yesterday i got a chance to go into a blackhawk helicopter. to give you a sense, this is a seven-mile-long stretch of hurricane -- i should say tornado damage. if

the weather channel's mike seidel is in piedmont, oklahoma, with more. >> reporter: it was another deadly day yesterday and last night another tornado outbreak. the preliminary counting is 36 twisters and at least nine people have been killed by these tornados. we're in piedmont northwest of oklahoma city where the tragedy unfolded live on tv yesterday. not only here locally but on the weather channel. we can show you some of the damage this morning at first light. here's one of the brick homes. you can see it's been hit pretty hard. the car port there, the roof covering up the suv, but you can see piles of bricks here. look down the street here, now all these homes brick. so we're thinking this is going to be at least ef-3 if not ef-4 damage. basically nothing is standing. we've got a few trees that have been debarked, cars flipped over, cars just in piles of rubble. so this is going to be at least ef-3 or ef-4 damage winds, easily over 150 miles an hour. no more severe weather here but the cleanup gets under way this morning. the search and rescue continues at falcon lake where a mom an