CNN 2011-05-01

On Monday, the National Weather Service alert said "the levee may fail at any time." Yesterday was "any time." This is the levee we've been telling you about in Poplar Bluff¹, Missouri. We reported on it yesterday, in fact. It failed in at least four spots along the Black River. Levees are barriers that are designed to prevent flooding. With this one failing, officials are ramping² up evacuations in the area. They already ordered some evacuations. Around a thousand more people were told to evacuate³ on Tuesday.

Based on the way that the levee failed, authorities think Poplar Bluff won't get hit too badly. They expect most of the flood waters to end up in a more rural area. Of course, all of this is being caused by tremendous amounts of rain that have been falling there. A police official in Poplar Bluff said the city's gotten 15 inches of rain in the last four days, and more of it is on the way. The National Weather Service says parts of Missouri could see record flooding. That's why Governor Jay Nixon has sent out the Missouri National Guard to help with relief efforts and to reinforce levees.

From Texas to Tennessee, states across the southern U.S. could face severe thunderstorms, possible tornadoes⁴. But Arkansas, the state that's just to the south of Missouri, has already gotten slammed by severe weather. Storms tore through the state on Monday. More than a dozen homes destroyed, and at least eight people were killed. The state's governor said he was surprised there weren't more deaths given the amount of damage caused by the severe weather. He declared a state of emergency, which will free up money and government resources for the relief efforts. The winds, so powerful that they flipped⁵ over cars and ripped up trees, like you see here. The governor said normally, the wind would just snap the trees. But because the ground was so wet, the trees were just pulled right out by the wind.

1 bluff   

v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗

参考例句：

• His threats are merely bluff.他的威胁仅仅是虚张声势。
• John is a deep card.No one can bluff him easily.约翰是个机灵鬼。谁也不容易欺骗他。

2 ramping   

土堤斜坡( ramp的现在分词 )； 斜道； 斜路； （装车或上下飞机的）活动梯

参考例句：

• The children love ramping about in the garden. 孩子们喜欢在花园里追逐嬉戏，闹着玩。
• Have you ever seen a lion ramping around? 你看到过狮子暴跳吗？

3 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。

4 tornadoes   

n.龙卷风，旋风( tornado的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Tornadoes, severe earthquakes, and plagues create wide spread havoc. 龙卷风、大地震和瘟疫成普遍的毁坏。 来自互联网
• Meteorologists are at odds over the working of tornadoes. 气象学者对龙卷风的运动方式看法不一。 来自互联网

5 flipped   

轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• The plane flipped and crashed. 飞机猛地翻转，撞毁了。
• The carter flipped at the horse with his whip. 赶大车的人扬鞭朝着马轻轻地抽打。