general russel honore is on the phone. my family is there. i remember back in the '70s when they opened this 40 years ago when water was getting close to the interstate. talk to us about the possibility of the human element there. what's going on, general? >> what we observed today was the death of all options because if we didn't do this, we could have lost the capital city of the state of louisiana, baton rouge, and our historic commercial center of the south of new orleans. this the best of all options. the execution of the morganza bridge was by design. the way the corps did this, they played the playbook, and the playbooks worked. they released the pressure, the water will go through the ach atchafala atchafalaya. >> general, what a decision to have to make. you have to weigh -- you know, this is the best of all options, but still, a lot of people are going to be hurt by this and impacted by this. >> we're writing history. as of 3:00 today when they went into the process of opening that flood gate, we are writing history. the difference

. >> general russel honore, thank you very much. we hope for the very best those in baton rouge and all along the mississippi river and those areas that will be impacted by this ongoing flooding. >>> it has been a tough disaster year in the last nine months, 32

joining us now from baton rouge, retired general russel honore. response to hurricane katrina. general hon ray, thank you very much for joining us here. having dealt with new orleans flooding firsthand after katrina, you know the state of the levees in that area. how are they holding up? is new orleans going to see major flooding? >> everything's possible here, suzanne. a lot of work has been done on the levees in new orleans, to include the massive gates that prevent the high water from coming in to the city, as you saw on the 17th street canal and some of the other canals where the water came in from tidal surge. in this case, the water's coming from up north from extensive flooding this started in the midwest, and now is pushing its way through mississippi. but if we can get the morganza spillway open and we get the effect we need from it, and hopefully general walsh and colonel fleming will make that decision to open that morganza tomorrow. that will reduce the pressure in new orleans immediately. >> and you think those levees will hold. >> we

for the next how we'll be joined by general russel hono honore. >> reporter: in don, the first gate of the morganza spillway has been opened. you can see the water gushing out through that first gate, halfway down this morganza flood control struck purr. there are 125 gates. for now only one has been opened. officials say they will continue to open up more in the coming days. for right now they are trying to slow down this process. you can already see the water making its way into this area that was just a big grassy area. the reason they are doing it very slowly is to give the wildlife and animals a chance to adjust to the vast amount of water soon pouring through here. you can see the amount of water gushing through. all of this has to do with the amount of pressure that has been building up along the mississippi river. the trigger number that officials have been looking at is 1.5 million cubic feet of water per second. that's the amount of water building. any more is too treacherous for the levee systems between baton rouge and new orleans. it can really compromise those levee syste

i want to bring in retired general russel honore and torp marc davis, director of the tulane institutey. thanks to both of you for joining us. mark, a lot of people are upset about the flooding of the at chafalaya but what choice did the corps have? >> they didn't have a choice. the choice was made shortly after the 1927 flood. in many ways people have to understand this system is working the way it was intended to work. in 1927 we displaced more than 600,000 people, and this is a whole system, not just morganza or bonnie carey, it's the entire levee system with its control structures that have been put in place. there are some hard choices that have been made in the process and not everybody bears the same burden. right now it's working the way it was designed to work which after katrina it's nice to see a levee system do that. >> well said. general honore, the morganza can handle up to 36,000 cubic feet of water per second and the bonnie kari can handle up to 250,000 cubic feet of water per second. is it enough? >> based on current projections. things can change. if we have a failure

. >> general russel honore joins me by phone from baton rouge. general, we've just been talking about the cost of opening the morganza spillway. remind us, if you will, of the cost of not opening it? >> well, it's a worst case scenario if you don't open it. and the reason that morganza spillway is there, exactly for this reason. when the pressure gets on the mississippi river levees to open that up and go out through the spillways, randi. as a result of lessoned learned from the flood of 1927, 1912 and 1937 because baton rouge and new orleans will flood if we don't open up that spillway. >> take me through the decision process. it can't be an easy thing to decide. are there cold, hold calculations of property and population considered when making a decision like this? >> you bet, randi. the places that are now in louisiana, most of them were unprotected because they were built on the roadside of the levee, meaning they were built into the spillway or on the require side of the levee. many of those are recreational camps but the bigger risk, randi

host: where talking to lieutenant general russell honore. he headed up the effort after hurricane katrina. ron paul says he opposes flood insurance and fema's role in all of this. >> i have opposed flood insurance ever since i have been in congress for 30 years. i have a coastal district. i don't supportfema. i get more compliant aboutfema than support. because of government levies and because of the flood and no natural result in taking care of this flood, they have a decision to make. should they fled innocent farmers? this would not happen in a society that did not expect the government to solve all our problems. to expect the government and people who are not benefiting to pay for me to live on the beach, that is not morally correct and it is not in the constitution. host: how would you respond to those comments? guest: that is a pretty inflammatory comments. i would expect the rep would take that up with his colleagues in the senate. the idea about what fema does is the execution of relieving the suffering of the people. in his observat

general russell honore talks about the mississippi floods and response from army corps of engineers.shington journal, live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> policies spence "washington journal" on twitter and getting advance notice on tomorrow's guests, the question of the day, and link to political highlights. you can add your comments to the conversation. don't miss any updates from "washington journal." start your account today. >> next, a discussion on the economic impact of immigrants. after that, the weekly addresses by president obama and texas senator kay bailey hutchison. then, republican herman cain announces his candidacy for president. >> the cato institute released a study on issues concerning the current immigration policy. the panel discusses aspects of the report including the welfare system, unemployment, and u.s. culture. this is just over an hour. >> thanks so much for coming. we are going to go ahead and get started in a minute. thank you also much for coming. today we will be talking about a new paper answering the critics of comprehensive immigration reform. we

and you're right -- you might roberta lieutenant general russel honore. he has been active involving the mississippi flooding. we will talk about what is going on there with the army corps of engineers. and lots of politics this weekend as well. enjoy the rest of your saturday and we will see you back here tomorrow. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> live today on c-span, wrote to the white house, with 2012 republican presidential candidate herman cain as he kicks off his candidacy in atlanta, georgia. you can watch the former godfather's pizza ceo and chairman of the federal reserve bank of kansas live and noon eastern here on c-span. then on sunday, jon huntsman, former utah governor and former ambassador to china make remarks at a meeting agreed in franklin, new hampshire. that is live at 4:30 p.m. on c- span. both events will be live on c- span.org, c-span radio, and available at the c-span to the library. >> history, as you know, is much more than just politics and soldi

host: where talking to lieutenant general russell honore. he headed up the effort after hurricane katrina. ron paul says he opposes flood insurance and fema's role in all of this. >> i have opposed flood insurance ever since i have been in congress for 30 years. i have a coastal district. i don't supportfema. i get more compliant aboutfema than support. because of government levies and because of the flood and no natural result in taking care of this flood, they have a decision to make. should they fled innocent farmers? this would not happen in a society that did not expect the government to solve all our problems. to expect the government and people who are not benefiting to pay for me to live on the beach, that is not morally correct and it is not in the constitution. host: how would you respond to those comments? guest: that is a pretty inflammatory comments. i would expect the rep would take that up with his colleagues in the senate. the idea about what fema does is the execution of relieving the suffering of the people. in his observat