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CNN 10
Severe Weather Hits Several U.S. States; Israeli Spacecraft Crashes on the Moon; World`s Largest Jet Lifts Off; CNN Heroes Series
Aired April 15, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: A new week of CNN 10 starts right now. I`m Carl Azuz, explaining events from around the world. Thank you for taking 10
minutes to watch. A massive storm system welled up last week in the United States. A nation that consistently has the most violent weather in the
world. When we put this show together, there were 90 million people, more than a quarter of the entire U.S. population who were under the threat of
destructive weather. In Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, at least five people were killed as the system swept across the south on Saturday and
Sunday.
A tornado was spotted in southeast Alabama Sunday morning and that wasn`t the only threat. A CNN meteorologist said the storms also carried damaging
winds and hail. The National Weather Service warned people in the path that torrential rains could cause flash flooding in some areas. Monroe
County, in northeast Mississippi, was hit particularly hard according to its sheriff. He said the area was a mess after homes, businesses and a
fire station were destroyed.
There was also a lot of flooding there and two states east in Georgia, tee times were scheduled earlier for The Masters golf tournament on Sunday
because heavy storms were expected to pass through later that night. In fact, a tornado watch was issued for the city of Augusta, as well as parts
of South Carolina Sunday night. Knowing the difference between a watch and a warning can help you know what action you should take.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When severe weather strikes, one of the most common questions we get, what`s the difference between a watch and a warning?
Well just for comparison sake let`s take this stoplight, green light, yellow light, red light. Sometimes the National Weather Service will issue
a hazardous weather outlook, an advisory, treat this as a green light. Know that the possibility that rough weather is there but go about your day
as you would just stay alert. But as conditions tend to ripen, we may see a tornado watch issued by the National Weather Service.
Use this with more caution. This means conditions are favorable for tornado development and so you need to know what you should do in case a
tornado strikes. That`s where the warning comes in. If the radar has indicated a tornado or someone has spotted a tornado in progress, that`s
when the tornado warning is issued and you should get to your safe place immediately. Stop what you`re doing and seek shelter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. Where would you most likely find regolith? Off Iceland`s coast, In Earth`s core, On the moon or On Jupiter`s surface.
Regolith is a loose rocky covering of a planet`s surface. Scientists say Jupiter has no firm surface so the answer here is the moon.
It launched into space in February and circled the earth several times before being sling shotted away. It traveled a total of four million miles
and finally reached the moon but not in the way Israeli scientists hoped it would. Their unmanned privately funded spacecraft was supposed to make a
soft controlled landing there but communication was lost when it was about 500 feet away from the moon`s surface, and it was traveling toward it at
310 miles per hour. So, well, boom. If it had been successful, this would have been the first time a private organization made a controlled landing
with the smallest budget. Still the team and their nation`s leader have suggested this isn`t the end.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There were high hopes and high drama and in the end high disappointment for the people behind this ambitious
privately funded $100 million project. From the beginning, it was the case of the little guy shooting for the moon or more precisely a soft landing on
the moon and they nearly made it with their spacecraft Beresheet which means Genesis. There was a crowd that included the Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu watching on but the team lost contact with the spacecraft in the last moments before the planned touchdown.
Apparently engine problems and then the descent became uncontrollable and it crashed. In a moment of classic understatement, one of the project
managers saying, I`m sorry to say but our spacecraft did not make it in one piece to the moon. If they had, Israel would have been just the fourth
country to soft land on the moon after the old Soviet Union, the U.S. and China. Still though, a major achievement for an upstart group that began
eight years ago as part of a Google competition.
They didn`t make the deadline for that competition but decided to keep going with private funding and a lot of good old chutzpah and they came oh
so close to success. Still became only the seventh country to get to the moon if not successfully land on it. A lot of pride in Israel in this
project. Plenty of people watching live including school kids at the president`s home and those behind the project not letting the less than
soft landing put them off. For its part SpaceIL says quote, "Don`t stop believing. We will continue to work hard." And then the Prime Minister
Netanyahu saying quote, " We will try again. Next time it will be better." A sign perhaps of government involvement going forward quote, "I`m
seriously considering investing now in the space program." Michael Holmes, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Space investors from around the world will probably have a new option for getting their satellites into orbit. It`s called Stratolaunch
and its considered to be a mega jet. Six engines, two cockpits though only one is used to fly it. Its wing span is 385 feet which is wider than an
American football field is long. This plane is longer, wider and heavier than the H-4 Hercules, also known as the Spruce Goose. And the
Stratolaunch made history Saturday morning when it lifted off the ground, got up to speeds of 173 miles per hour and climbed 15,000 feet into the
sky.
But you and I aren`t going to fly it as passengers. This thing`s designed to carry rockets loaded with satellites so they can be launched from an
altitude of 35,000 feet into orbit. That can save money over ground based launches. Stratolaunch was funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen who
died last October. It does have competitions from other companies and it has a series of test flights and certifications to go through before it can
actually start working.
There are an estimated 1.3 million people in America who are classified as unaccompanied youths. One of them lost his mother when he was 12. His
father was incarcerated when he was 13 and he didn`t have anywhere to live. That`s a problem that Vicki Sokolik has been working to solve since 2007
when she founded Starting Right Now. It`s an organization that`s helped more than 200 young people in Tampa Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICKI SOKOLIK: A homeless, unaccompanied youth is about 15 to 19 years old who is not with their parents or guardian and not eligible for foster care
because they weren`t taken from their home but rather they made the decision to leave their dangerous situation. Most people don`t even know
these kids exist. There`s a lot of shame that goes with being a homeless unaccompanied youth. They hide what`s actually going on with them and so
they really become this very invisible population.
Hello. Hello. Hello.
We have helped 200 unaccompanied homeless youth. Our kids were just dealt bad hands and we help them reshuffle their deck.
Do you want a pescate? No. Just banana bread?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
SOKOLIK: We offer safe and stable housing, academic support, a reliable mentor in their life and all with the goal of getting each student to reach
their own full potential. We went to great lengths to build houses to make them really feel like homes. A lot of times, it`s a first time they
actually have a bed that they can call their own. We look at every single student as an individual person. If a student needs extreme academic
support? That`s what we`re going to focus on. If a student needs extreme therapy? That`s what we`re going to focus on and then we help them plan
their future.
OK. So you`re still planning on going to SPC.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
SOKOLIK: 97 percent of our kids graduate high school and go on to their next goal. The transformation of these kids is monumental. They come in
so broken. They cannot trust and I`m just one person telling them I`m going to help them. They become softer. It`s just great that they can be
happy and they`re be able to be kids again. These are kids who have been told they don`t matter and their voice does matter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Airports and waterfalls seem like two things that don`t really go together but they do at Singapore`s Changi Airport. In its new $1.3
billion shopping complex, Changi has added an indoor forest complete with an indoor waterfall. Its more than 130 feet high making it the tallest
indoor waterfall on the planet and what better place to put it than the airport that`s been ranked the best in the world.
Who needs a runway when you can have a "spillway"? Who needs a layover when you can have a "spray over"? In the "concourse" of travel, when
people get "hangered" up by delays that seem "interminable" it`s great to have a tower of water if the tower of control gets backed up. Maybe Changi
will become a destination of its own for some folks who just don`t want to "departure". This is your captain Carl Azuz landing another edition of
CNN.
END
