i'm yunji de nies for "nightline" in butte la rose, louisiana. >> thanks to yunji for that. >>> finallyonight, the space shuttle "endeavour" lifted off on its 25th and final flight today. commanding that shuttle six-man crew, captain mark kelly, and husband of wounded congresswoman gabby gifford. congresswoman gifford was well enough to attend the liftoff. she watched in her wheelchair, and was quote as saying "good stuff, good stuff," as the ut

well, yunji de nies spent the day along the river. yunji? >> reporter: good evening, diane. it is difficult to overstate the importance of the mississippi river when it comes to this country's commerce. over 500 million tons of cargo move up and down that river each and every year. everything from grain to steel, timber and coal. all of the commodities that make this country run. it's a decision no one wanted. the mississippi river is closed at natchez to northbound traffic to protect the already strained levees from more pressure brought in by big barges. but stopping those vessels will put an economic strain on so many far from the water's only. because this mighty river carries many of the goods that ultimately wind up on our plates. already, wheat is up 28 cents a bushel. corn is up 23 cents. soybeans, up 15. and with the water still rising here, there's no telling how long the closures will last. 4,000 people in mississippi are displaced. so many of their homes already drowned. down river in krotz springs, louisiana, shirley and robbie are fortifying their house as fast

they need to alleviate pressure on those levees. >> yunji de nies, thanks. evacuations are taking place while we're on the air. cynthia is with us from louisiana in the path of these new flood waters. good evening. >> reporter: nowhere have we seen the struggle so desperate of man versus nature than right here. this neighbor building his own levee system around his house. the surrounding neighbors have chosen to already move out. many of them trying to get out of town today. this neighbor though, doing all he can, the best he can to save his belongings. it's part of a desperate struggle. his neighbors out here tried to save as much as they can ahead of the flood waters that are supposed to be here within the next two days. >> a race against time. >>> authorities have also said opening those floodgates is supposed to save refineries from flooding that can send gas prices even higher. >>> just today, news on that front too. president obama now ordering measures to speed up production of oil in this country. drilling, but will it bring gas prices down and quick

yunji de nies caught up with the 2008 vice presidential nominee on her very public bus tour today. >> reporter: the crowds are ready, the bus is waiting, and here she comes. it certainly looks like a campaign bus. if you're not running for president, why the tour? >> this isn't a campaign bus. this is a bus to be able to express to america how much we appreciate our foundation and to invite more people to be interested in all that is good about america. >> reporter: today began with a trip to the national archives to see the constitution and bill of rights. palin is playing a bit of cat and mouse with the press. with no public schedule for this very highly publicized bus tour. >> she gets complete control of her message. she doesn't have to go through the traditional channels. and personally, she gets more attention, which could mean more in her pocketbook. >> reporter: photos posted on palin's website look like a typical summer family vacation, posing at the washington monument. since palin says she's not running for president but it certainly looks like a campaign bus with images of

our yunji de nies is in morganza, louisiana. good evening. >> good evening, josh. this is the entrance to a farm in morganza. it like so many thousands of acres of farmland in louisiana is covered in water. for farmers, the land that is still dry is too dry to farm. george is a farmer facing two catastrophes at once. water gushing through the morganza spillway has destroyed thousands of acres of his soy, corn, cotton and wheat. no telling what this flooding will do to that land. >> we'll see in four or five months when the water goes down. >> is that how long it will take to be gone? >> we don't anticipate the water to be gone too quick. >> what fields he does have left are unusable, thanks to a severe drought. can you plant anything in this kind of soil? >> no, no. you need moisture. you need rain. >> what a dilemma to be praying for rain and to be watching that water. >> i never dreamed it. >> reporter: bad for farmers, but the dry land is an unexpected benefit for thousands down river. since the dry land is a better sponge, meaning the flooding is less likely to

yunji de nies found one of those homes, she's in vicksburg, mississippi, tonight, on the story. yunji? good evening. >> reporter: good evening, david. i'm actually standing on a levee this homeowner built himself from the ground all the way to the top. it's taller than i am. and you can see, that's his neighbor's house over there. it's under water. he didn't build a levee, obviously. beyond that is the mississippi river itself. this house really has become a bit of an island. the homeowner has been experiencing a little bit of water coming through, so he put in a pump and is pumping that water right back out. they are expecting some rain here tonight. they're not worried about the river level, but because this is all made of dirt, it is going to be a muddy mess. still, the homeowner says he believes this will hold. david? >> we're hoping, too. yunji de nies on the story again tonight, yunji, thanks to you. >>> and, there was a tense face to face meeting at the white house today. president obama hosting israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, just 24 hours after those harsh wor

yunji de nies is keeping a close eye from that part of the state and filed this report. >> reporter:hafalaya. a river rising way too fast thanks to those open floodgates. i couldn't watch very long. i watched for about five minutes and just left. >> reporter: st. martin parish president couldn't bear to watch them open because he knew it meant this town and so many others would drown. how high do you think it will be right where we are? >> you and i's heads will definitely be under the water. this water right here in the next four days will be definitely on top of us. >> reporter: the sign outside kate buchanan's bar says it all. she stands to lose her business and her home. she's shipping out her stuff but planning to stay. >> forecast the worst. the worst-case scenario and i'm just one of those -- you know -- >> reporter: optimists. >> yeah, and let's see it. >> reporter: she's got her kayak ready just in case. >> and these folks are made of much sterner stuff here. we're not going to whine and cry. >> reporter: but they are going to try just about anything to keep the water out. h

yunji de nies is there in butte la rose. >> reporter: farmland transformed from a dry field to a lake. houses and roads submerged. even wildlife swept up in the current of rising water. opening the spillway diverted massive amounts of water away from the more heavily pop lated cities of baton rouge and new orleans. >> they're going to do that to save millions of people there that devastation. i don't care if it's one person, 25,000, or 1 million, when somebody gets affected by something like this, to me, it tears my heart apart. >> reporter: people in the path of the water are urged to evacuate. many have left. some have moved valuables. others are waiting it out. >> i'm going watch it daily. if i see it coming up you know if i feel threatened, i'm going. >> reporter: others are fortifying their homes as best they can. >> i put some v-screen to block the water. and i came back to put some sand to hold it back. >> reporter: one man built his own levee. there is no doubt the water is coming. the uncertainty is how high it will get. and how bad it will be. when the river crests, the wors

>> yunji de nies. thank you for that. >>> there's new revelations about life inside osama bin laden's final hideout. he might have been watching a lot more than just himself on television. commandos say they found a big stash of x-rated videos in his terror compound. nick schifrin has the latest from islamabad, pakistan. good morning, nick. >> reporter: good morning, bianna. late last night, pakistan's powerful spy chief lashed out at the u.s. in parliament. saying we have to decide whether to stand up to america now. or have subsequent revelations to deride us. but the intelligence chief was also heavily criticized because he said he had no idea that the world's most-wanted man was living in a house just two hours from here. inside that house, navy s.e.a.l.s grabbed a treasure trove of information about al qaeda and its plots. u.s. officials say they also found a shocking stash in bin laden's own bedroom. pornographic videos and magazines. >> it's just surprising that pornography was found because he

yunji de nies is in tuscaloosa, alabama, that's where the desperate search is far from over. >> reporter: doris smith came here looking for her friend and grandchildren. their house is gone and she is losing hope. >> i believe it took her with it. i really do. >> reporter: la toya brown's family knows that agony. this is the last place she was seen alive before the monster twister tore through their town. >> it's been rough. it's been real rough, you know. just thinking about where could she be? >> reporter: they are desperate calling everyone they can and finding nothing. >> that lingering thought is always there. >> reporter: they hung her picture at red cross alongside that of rachel aldridge. herpsister has been papering the city. >> we just need to know where she is and she needs to come home. >> reporter: so far no news. throughout the south, the chaos of the storm has left an untold number of families searching for loved once. officials say hundreds are missing in alabama alone. in some places the damage is so extensive even a week later the only few allowed in are search-and-resc

yunji de nies is in louisiana tonight. yunji, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, david. we are here in louisiana, and this is a lot of the flood water that has come up here along this levee. it's normally dry right here. they've put in some rock to patch the problem, because erosion is a big issue. but this is just a temporary fix. it's not just the level of flooding here that's worrisome, but also how long all of this excess water may stay. >> the waters didn't come up fast and it's not going to go down fast. >> reporter: the levees have are meant to hold back a surge of water, but they're not meant to sit and soak. the longer they do, the weaker they get. >> the longer it sits, the dirk soaks it in. and of course, as you get rainfall events throughout the summer, that just, again, magnifies the problem. >> reporter: congressman jeff landry showed us a temporary fix. stone poured over sliding dirt. >> as the water started to rise, we didn't have time to put those projects together, so we just came in and feel quite certain these types of fixes will hold. for right now.

tonight, yunji de nies on the search for the missing in tuscaloosa. >> reporter: doris smith came here for her friend and grandchildren. their house is gone and she is losing hope. >> i believe it took her with it. i really do. >> reporter: la toya brown's family knows that agony. this is the last place she was seen alive before the monster twister tore through their town. >> it's been rough. it's been real rough, you know? just thinking about where could she be? >> reporter: they are desperate, calling everyone they can and finding nothing. >> that lingering througho inin always there. >> reporter: they hung her picture at the red cross, alongside that of rachel aldridge. her sister has been papering the city. >> we just need to know where she is. and she needs to come home. >> reporter: so far, no news. throughout the south, the chaos of the storm has left an untold number of families searching for loved ones. officials say hundreds are missing in alabama alone. in some places, the damage is so extensive, even a week later, the only few allowed in are search and rescue teams. >> righ

yunji de nies is in louisiana tonight with more on this. yunji? good evening. >> reporter: good evening, david. this is the front line of the flooding. you can literally see the destruction in progress. on this side, a dry soybean field. and on this side, the rest of the crop, now completely underwater and completely destroyed. this thin sliver of land is one of the few dry places on george la cour's farm. more than 2,000 acres of his crops are under water. >> it's such a sad, sinking feeling to see all the time and effort put into making a crop be washed away. >> reporter: water is now gushing through the morganza spillway. this is the land below before. and here it is today, completely submerged. how much money do you think you stand to lose this year? >> i'm not going to add it up yet. that will be another depressing moment. >> reporter: now, there is growing debate as to whether so many who farm and live along the river should be here at all. some environmentalists and state officials say that levees have constrained so much of the river that

yunji de nies is in louisiana, where she met families taking extreme measures tonight, literally wrapping their homes to save them. yunji? >> reporter: good evening, david. as you can see, this is quite a big river right here. this is one of the waterways that normally would be a lot drier. the bank is actually supposed to be right there at that tree line. but the water from that morgan spillway is now flowing here and it is rising fast. it could soon swallow this town. sunrise, with the river rising way too fast, thanks to the open flood gates. >> i couldn't watch for very long. i watched for about five minutes and i just left. >> reporter: st. martin parish's president couldn't bear to watch them open, because he knew it meant this town and so many others would drown. how high do you think it will be right where we are? >> you and i, our heads will definitely be under the water. this water right here, in the next four days, will definitely be on top of us. >> reporter: the sign outside kate buchanan's bar says it all. she stands to lose her business and her home. she's shipping out her

and some the heaviest gamblers. >> reporter: yunji de nies. lecrea, louisiana. >> and the overflowing water is not the only thing posing a threat to those levees in mississippi. wildlife officers are trying to round up large packs of wild hogs that are digging on those backwater levees. the hogs in yazoo county are struggling to find dry ground and food and destroying everything if their path the property owners have been given the green light to shoot them. >>> the former head of the imf is expected to be bailed out of jail later on today. dominique strauss-kahn will be freed under the condition that he remain under house arrest. his wife has rented a two-bedroom apartment which goes for about $14,000 a month. strauss-kahn has now been indicted on seven counts in connection with a sexual assault of a hotel maid. he returns to court in early june. >>> rumors have been circulating for years that the unabomber might have been responsible for chicago's deadly tylenol scare nearly 30 years ago. the cold case has burdened investigators until the fb

officials are doing this on purpose in order to save the larger cities downriver, and yunji de nies has the latest from butte larose, louisiana. good morning, yunji. >> reporter: good morning, bianna. we were standing on that spillway. and it was unbelievable to see the power of that water. it is all, as you said now, rushing downtime. it's flowing into smaller rivers and tributaries like this putting communities like here at butte larose at risk. this will be the first area to experience that flooding and there are thousands more at risk. the water came fast. a burst of energy. a liquid explosion from that single floodgate. in less than an hour, the farmland below transformed from a dry field to a lake, just a hint of what's to come. >> we want to make sure that folks have the understanding that water is coming their way, and they need to evacuate. >> reporter: in that deluge, we spotted animals. this otter, scrambling to make sense of his new surroundings. all of this, from opening just one floodgate. officials have over 100 more they could open as the river continues to rise. colonel

yunji de nies caught up with palin during a stop in d.c. >> reporter: the bus is ready. waiting. and here she comes. >> certainly looks like a campaign bus. if you are not running for president why the tour? >> this isn't a campaign bus. this is a bus to be able to express to america how much we appreciate our foundation and to invite more people to be interested in all that is good about america. >> reporter: it began with a trip to the national archives to see the constitution and bill of rights. palin is playing a bit of cat-and-mouse with the press, with no public schedule for this very highly publicized bus tour. >> she gets complete control of her message. she doesn't have to go through traditional channels. personally, she gets more attention which could mean more in her own pocketbook. >> reporter: photos posted on palin's website look like a typical family summer vacation, posing at the washington monuments. sarah palin says she is not running for president but it certainly looks like a campaign bus with images of the american flag and constitution, the imagery

yunji de nies, abc news, krotz springs, louisiana. >>> it could be a messy commute for millions in theare flood watches and warnings for much of the area through midnight tonight. some areas have already gotten more than three inches of rain and even more rain is expected through the weekend. >>> and now to the bombshell announcement that arnold schwarzenegger fathered a child outside of his marriage. we are learning this morning that the child is apparently a boy. he's about 14 years old. his mother was a housekeeper for the family. david wright reports now from los angeles. >> reporter: schwarzenegger declined to answer all of the obvious questions. and hours before he went public with the news, the paparazzi caught up with him and his 21-year-old daughter, no wonder they weren't exactly smiling. he said in a statement, "there are no excuses and i take full responsibility for the hurt i've caused. i have apologized to maria, my children, and my family. i am truly sorry." shriver, meanwhile, issued her own separate statement, "this is a painful and heartbreaking time," she said. "as a

yunji de nies is in butte larose.er: this might be one of the last glimpses of butte la rose louisiana. already it is a ghost town. the few ill-fated residents left are reluctant to making their way out of the neighborhood. >> this is the house that we raised our children in and what we would reallyic to keep. >> reporter: but time and tide are closing in. >> we have a lot of memories gone or will be gone more than likely. >> reporter: gone under a wall of water. just like that. this home, already evacuated, would be almost totally submerged, and this laundromat 13-feet tall, would disappear under water. some are leaving with heads and hopes high. >> this is all i've ever wanted and i'm here and we'll be back. >> reporter: for spillway gates were opened on top of the nine opened over the weekend. >> approximately 10,000 cubic feet per second per gate. so that's 90,000 cubic feet per second. >> reporter: the manmade flood is dissipating the natural force of the mississippi but the danger remains. >> there is still a si

yunji de nies, abc news, natchez, mississippi. >> our thoughts and prayers with those folks in that partd in a terror plot to bomb synagogues here in new york. ahmed ferhani and mohammed mamdouh were arraigned in a manhattan court yesterday. they face life in prison fn they're convicted. the suspects are not connected to al qaeda or any other terror group. >>> meanwhile, we are learning this morning that the u.s. has now spoken to the three widows of osama bin laden. the women have been in pakistani custody ever since the deadly raid carried out by those navy s.e.a.l.s. a u.s. official says the interview did not go well. we're also learning that bin laden kept in touch with his followers via e-mail. he apparently used flash drives that were then taken to distant internet cafes by his couriers. >> quite a network. very interesting. >>> security is substantially increased this morning around the kenya home of president obama's stepgrandmother. this is in response to threats against sarah obama, issued by the somali branch of al qaeda. president obama says he will not comment on any specifi

. >>> yunji de nies now with a class field trip that took a horrific turn. >> reporter: the attack happened in an instant. a crowd of horrified zoo visitors watched a leopard mauling a little boy. >> it grabbed him by his head and clawed him. a man and a woman standing there watching it jumped in and kicked him in the head and he released the child. >> reporter: the first grader had apparently climbed over the railing and approached. with only a thin metal mesh fence between them. not enough to hold back the cat. >> this little boy was facing away from the cage. and he had, and the leopard had his head like this, in its paws. and, it was trying to bite him through the wire. >> john jumped in to save him. >> it's somebody's kid. i couldn't let that happen. it was sad. >> reporter: this is the leopard watching as rescuers rushed to the boy. the animal left deep scratches in his face and neck. he's listed in fair condition. >> we hope that he makes a full recovery. quick action. >>> coming up, the case that became a media sensation. the latest in the trial of casey anthony. will she be put to

our yunji de nies is in butte la rose with all of this. >> reporter: good morning, robin. the army corps of engineers says at its peak the flooding could reach 15 feet in this town. that would cover water above this roof top. a frightening prospect for the people that live here. the water is well on its way. the floodgates are open and there is no turning back. that torrent of water could nearly swallow up tiny butte la rose by friday. this is what 15 feet of water would do to the town's fire house. this home, whose owners have already evacuated would almost be totally submerged. this laund ro mat, 13 feet tall would disappear under water. like so many, these people are packing up. they're newly weds. married less than a year. >> she's doing great. i'm worse, think. >> reporter: why is that? >> i -- i didn't marry her to make her life harder. >> reporter: they're heading for higher ground indefinitely. >> this is all i have ever wanted. and i'm here. and we'll be back. >> reporter: it's not clear when they'll return or what they'll find. the water could sit here so long th

yunji de nies is in one of the hottest cities in the nation, our nation's capital. in washington. good morning, yunji. >> reporter: good morning, robin. the last 24 hours here have been brutally hot. and especially tough for emergency responders. today, it is expected to only get worse. >> imagine a sauna. that's close to it. >> reporter: with the official start of summer three weeks away, extreme heat has taken over the entire eastern half of the u.s., setting records in at least a dozen cities. baltimore hit 98 degrees. >> we had 90 degrees in chicago. we had 96 degrees in washington, d.c. it climbed to 94 in raleigh, north carolina. that tied a record from 1953. >> reporter: at least 20 people were rushed to the hospital here in the nation's capital, including several teenagers from ohio, who were performing in a memorial day parade. >> clear it out. got to clear it out. >> reporter: and on this beach near chicago, four people suffering from exhaustion were carried away on stretchers. police later shut the beach down. >> we just heard a lot of ruckus. it was like a riot. everybo