Nightly News   |  May 11, 2011

Losing fight against mighty Mississippi

For those who make their living off of the Mississippi River, the flooding crisis is taking its toll. NBC's Thanh Truong reports from Vicksburg, Mississippi.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>> we want to go back to the flooding halong the mississippi and the toll it's taking on the people who support their families by moving commerce up and down the waterway, the most vital in the united states . nbc's thanh truong reports tonight.

>> reporter: at the junction of the mississippi and yazoo rivers, golden barge line has been in business close to 50 years. a river company now on an iwlnd because of severe flooding.

>> we knew it was going to be bad.

>> reporter: he navigates his boat across what used to be the parking lot of his family's business in mississippi .

>> i never thought i would ever see water in town this high.

>> reporter: he's a third-generation river rider. his grandfather started a barge company in the 1960s with a handful of boats. today, golding moves thons of barrels of gas up and down the mississippi .

>> notmany people wake up and want to be a tow-boaters. you have to know what your getting into.

>> he knows what he's getting into. it has its rewards and risks.

>> it gives a lot of people their living, and this is a struggle for the people who make their living on the water, especially a family-owned business whose livelihood depends on what you see back here.

>> the record was set in 1927 . if that happened, golding said the family will have to put the faith in the levees.

>> nobody has seen water this high, and it's likely nobody will again.

>> reporter: for decades, the goldings have adopted this river. now, they hope they can live through what it's about to unleash.