Poor suffer as Mississippi levels rise

In the American south, the Mississippi River has crested just short of record floods in 1937.

The rising river and its tributaries is now affecting those who live in low lying areas – poor people mainly without insurance, who by American standards have nothing, and who now are about to lose even that.

The US president, Barack Obama, signed a disaster declaration which will provide government funding for housing and home repairs, as well as low-interest loans to cover uninsured damage.

Al Jazeera’s John Terrett reports from the Mississippi Delta.