USA : Obama Meeting Residents in Mississippi Flood Zone
U.S. President Barack Obama is visiting the southern state of Tennessee to speak to graduates and show support for residents affected by major flooding along the Mississippi River.
Obama arrived Monday in Memphis, Tennessee, to meet with displaced families, local officials, emergency responders and flood relief volunteers.
Later in the day, Obama delivers a commencement address to 150 graduating high school seniors. The Booker T. Washington school earned the presidential address by winning a White House contest that invited public high schools to show how they prepare seniors for college and a career.
The winning school has reported a major increase in graduation rates - from 55 percent in 2007, to almost 82 percent in 2010.
Last week, the Mississippi River crested at near record levels in Memphis. Some low-lying neighborhoods were inundated, but the city's levees largely protected other parts of the city.
As the floodwaters moved downstream, authorities opened floodgates in rural parts of Louisiana for the first time in four decades to ease the pressure on levees protecting the state's major cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
The gradual opening of the floodgates threatens to inundate thousands of homes in Louisiana's Cajun country region, where many residents were evacuating to higher ground. Waters were rising Monday in parts of the lowland.
fuente: http://www.voanews.com/
Obama arrived Monday in Memphis, Tennessee, to meet with displaced families, local officials, emergency responders and flood relief volunteers.
Later in the day, Obama delivers a commencement address to 150 graduating high school seniors. The Booker T. Washington school earned the presidential address by winning a White House contest that invited public high schools to show how they prepare seniors for college and a career.
The winning school has reported a major increase in graduation rates - from 55 percent in 2007, to almost 82 percent in 2010.
Last week, the Mississippi River crested at near record levels in Memphis. Some low-lying neighborhoods were inundated, but the city's levees largely protected other parts of the city.
As the floodwaters moved downstream, authorities opened floodgates in rural parts of Louisiana for the first time in four decades to ease the pressure on levees protecting the state's major cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
The gradual opening of the floodgates threatens to inundate thousands of homes in Louisiana's Cajun country region, where many residents were evacuating to higher ground. Waters were rising Monday in parts of the lowland.
fuente: http://www.voanews.com/
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