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Charles Krause narrates our update on floods in the West.

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ANNOUNCER: Okay. He's got ahold of the lady. He'll put her in the ring and take her right on up. Okay. She's in the ring.

CHARLES KRAUSE: Two people were rescued from the roof of their car this morning in Olivehurst, California. The automobile was completely submerged when a levee broke, releasing the flood waters of the Feather River and creating an eerie sea of rooftops in what used to be a neighborhood of homes.

ANNOUNCER: I can imagine some hearts are pounding pretty fast right now. That man in the back in the back of his pickup truck--

CHARLES KRAUSE: It was just one of hundreds of dramatic helicopter rescues throughout the Northwest today, as people and animals were plucked from raging rivers, swollen by the worst winter snow and rainstorms here in recent memory. In Guerneville, California, this family swam with their horses to safety.

WOMAN: It's startin' to come up now, and it's almost up to the house, so we had to get the horses and the dogs out. I still got cats over there I go to go back and get.

CHARLES KRAUSE: In Yuba City, in Maryville, California, up to 95,000 people were ordered to leave their homes for higher ground yesterday as flood waters surged up to 30 feet. Some 12,000 of them are still in shelters. Many worry about their loved ones.

WOMAN: I don't know where everybody is. And it's scary.

OTHER WOMAN: I can't get in touch with him. I don't even know if he's alive or anything, you know. It's very stressful.

WOMAN SHOUTING: Is our house still there?

OTHER WOMAN RESPONDING: It's still there, but it's got about six feet of water in it.

WOMAN SHOUTING: Six feet of water?

CHARLES KRAUSE: Throughout the West for the past week the weather has made normal life impossible for millions of residents since snow and ice storms hit the Northwest right after Christmas. Then on top of the ice and snow, warmer weather and rain created flood conditions which caused bridges and buildings throughout the region to collapse. Now five states--California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho--have been affected by the flooding, and seventy counties have been declared disaster areas. Eighteen people have died, and millions of dollars' worth of property has been damaged or destroyed. At Yosemite Park, 2200 tourists and workers were stranded when the Merced River blocked the park's three major roads. Military helicopters have begun evacuating the stranded, but the airlift is expected to take up to three days. In Reno, Nevada, the Truckee River caused the city's worst flood in 40 years. Several of the city's casinos, usually open all day and all night, have been forced to close, as has Reno's international airport and the Mustang Ranch Brothel. In Idaho, thousands of acres of farmland were destroyed, and mud slides washed away many roads, including a thousand-foot piece of U.S. 95, the state's only North-South highway.

MAN: It's been rising rather rapidly, lots of water. I mean, water's everywhere.

WOMAN: This is fun. Might as well laugh, instead of crying.

CHARLES KRAUSE: In Washington and in Oregon the storms are dying down, though flood warnings remain in many places, and thousands of homes are still without power.

JIM LEHRER: There is some good news tonight. The National Weather Service forecast said no rain was expected in the area for the next few days.

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