Mississippi River Continue To Rise & Destroy Homes

Flooding continues to put people out of their homes and living in shelters. People losing their homes and all of their possessions leave shelters full and supplies low.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Getting the word out through TV and online isn't enough for Memphis officials who were going door-to-door warning a couple hundred people

that they should abandon their homes before they are swamped by waters from the rising Mississippi River.

Memphis residents have been abandoning low-lying homes for days as the dangerously surging river threatened to crest at 48 feet (14.63 meters) on Tuesday, just shy of the 48.7-foot (14.84-meter) record, set by a devastating 1937 flood.

Still others like Shirley Woods are watching the river just feet from her single-story home but still continuing her life as normal, including a backyard barbecue Sunday.

When she woke up at first light, she was prepared to leave if the Mississippi had gotten high enough, but she decided she had time to at least celebrate Mother's Day with relatives.

"I'll give it another day, and if it comes up much higher, we're getting out of here," Woods said.

The swollen river has swamped houses in Memphis and threatens to consume many more, but its rise has been slow enough that some people were clinging to their normal lives just a bit longer.

In all, residents in more than 1,300 homes have been told to go, and some 370 people were staying in shelters.

But while some evacuated, others came as spectators. At Beale Street, the famous thoroughfare known for blues music, dozens gawked and snapped photos as water pooled at the end of the road. Traffic was heavy downtown on a day the streets would normally be quiet.