This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
这里是美国之音慢速英语新闻报道。
The Mississippi River flows down the middle of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Right now, melted snow and heavy rains from the north are moving south. The result has been what some people are calling the worst flooding in eighty years in states along the Mississippi.
密西西比河流经美国中部，注入墨西哥湾。目前，北部融雪和暴雨所产生的积水正流向南部，形成了人们所说的“沿密西西比河各州80年来最严重的洪灾”。
In Louisiana, engineers are working to keep floodwaters away from two big cities -- New Orleans and Baton Rouge. New Orleans is still recovering from the failure of its flood controls during Hurricane Katrina in two thousand five.
在路易斯安那州，工程师们正努力让洪水远离新奥尔良和巴吞鲁日这两大城市。新奥尔良市尚未从2005年卡特里娜飓风期间的洪灾中恢复过来。
A plan to direct some of the water into the Morganza Spillway means flooding rich farmlands in another part of the state. As many as twenty-five thousand people may have to leave areas that would be flooded. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has been urging them to prepare to leave.
一项将洪水引入摩根萨溢洪道的计划意味着该州另一个农田肥沃的地区将被淹没。多达2,5000人不得不撤离那片可能被淹没的地区。路易斯安那州州长博比·金达尔（Bobby Jindal）一再督促他们做好离开的准备。
The Morganza Spillway is about seventy-five kilometers upriver from Baton Rouge, the state capital. The spillway is a thirty-two-kilometer-long channel that can take waters from the Mississippi to another river system. The spillway was used only once before, in nineteen seventy-three.
摩根萨溢洪道位于该州首府巴吞鲁日上游75公里附近。该溢洪道长达32公里，可以将密西西比河的洪水引入另一河流水系。摩根萨溢洪道此前只在1973年启用过一次。
Last week, the Army Corps of Engineers exploded a three-kilometer-wide hole along an earthen levee in Missouri. They did that to protect river towns in two other states, Kentucky and Illinois. But fifty-two thousand hectares of farmland were flooded as a result.
上周，美国陆军工兵部队在密苏里州的土结构防洪堤炸开一个3公里宽的口子。他们这样做的目的是为了保护肯塔基州和伊利诺伊州的沿河城镇。但结果是5,2000公顷农田被淹。
The American insurance industry says natural disasters have already caused five billion dollars in damage this year. A record number of tornadoes struck along a path from Texas to Georgia. The storms killed more than two hundred people in six states. At the same time, states like Texas and Oklahoma are experiencing extremely dry weather and high winds that have caused wildfires.
美国保险行业表示，自然灾害今年已经造成50亿美元的损失。一场创纪录的龙卷风沿德克萨斯州席卷到乔治亚州。这场风暴造成了六个州两百多人丧生。在同一时间，德克萨斯州和俄克拉荷马州等州经历了极端干旱气候，以及由大风造成的森林火灾。
President Obama plans to inspect the flooding on Monday. He will visit Memphis, Tennessee, where the Mississippi River reached nearly record levels earlier this week.
奥巴马计划周一察看洪水灾情。他将访问田纳西州的孟菲斯市。本周早些时候，该市密西西比河水位接近历史最高水平。
The river has been setting records in places like Vicksburg in the state of Mississippi. But experts say the situation would have been far worse if not for the levees, spillways and other flood controls built along the river. These have been built since nineteen twenty-seven, when flooding killed more than one thousand people.
密西西比河已经在密西西比州维克斯堡等地区创造了历史最高水位。但专家称，如果不是沿河修建的堤坝，溢洪道和其它防洪设施，情况会更糟糕。这些防洪设施自1927年开始修建，当时洪灾造成了超过1000人丧生。
In North Vicksburg, friends and family members have been helping Joann Parks prepare to leave.
在维克斯堡北部，一些亲朋好友正在帮助乔安·帕克斯（Joann Parks）做撤离准备。
JOANN PARKS: "It is just a lot of things that have got to go. Some of the things have got to go, some of the thing I don't know where we are going to store it. It's just hard, I know there is a lot of things we are not going to be able to save."
帕克斯：“有一堆东西需要带走。有些东西需要带走，还有些东西我不知道该存放到哪。这非常困难，我知道有很多东西我们将无法保全它们了。”
Vicksburg lies where the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers meet. There was an important battle there in eighteen sixty-three during the Civil War -- which still makes it a popular stop for visitors.
维克斯堡位于密西西比河与耶珠河（Yazoo Rivers）交汇处。1863年美国内战期间的一场非常重要的战役就发生于此，使得维克斯堡成为最受游客欢迎的一个地方。
The waters at Vicksburg are expected to reach their highest levels -- seventeen and a half meters – sometime next week. Officials say one thousand homes in the area could be flooded.
预计下周某个时候，维克斯堡的水位将达到17.5米的历史最高水平。有关官员称，该地区1千多处住宅可能被淹没。
Seventy-year-old Winston Holman has lived in Vicksburg all his life.
七十岁的温斯顿·霍尔曼（Winston Holman）有生以来一直居住在维克斯堡。
WINSTON HOLMAN: "I have never seen the river as high as it is right now. And I hope I never see it get this high again. Because, it is hurting a lot of folks around here and a lot of businesses."
霍尔曼：“我从来没有见过现在这么高的水位。我希望再也不会看到这么高的水位。因为它会对周边人民和企业造成伤害。”