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CNN 10
A Severe, Record-Breaking Storm Carves Its Path Through California and Nevada; Nationwide Shortage That`s Complicating The Back-To-School Season; Inspiring Story of a CNN Hero Doing Off-Road Outreach. Aired 4- 4:10a ET
Aired August 22, 2023 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hello beautiful people. Welcome to another episode of CNN 10, the best 10 minutes in news. And it`s the best because
of you. Bonus shout out to start today`s show Mr. Neves in the history class at Cumberland High School in Cumberland Rhode Island. You rock. Let`s
get this show rocking and rolling, shall we?
We start with an update on Hurricane Hilary. By the time Hilary made landfall early Sunday, it had downgraded to a tropical storm, that means
the maximum winds drop below 74 miles per hour. This Tropical Storm tore into the Mexican Peninsula of Baja California, killing at least one person
before crossing the border to California.
There, Hilary continued a destructive path setting records along the way. Sunday morning Death Valley received a month`s worth of rain in one hour.
Downtown Los Angeles was hit with nearly two and a half inches of rain, breaking a record for a rainy summer day that goes back nearly 150 years.
Palm Springs saw about half a year`s worth of rain only in just a six hours` time. As of Monday morning, Hilary had lost its tropical status and
was reclass to a post tropical cyclone, a rotating storm that can still carry heavy rain and strong winds. And it did Hilary traveled north hitting
central Nevada with 35 mile per hour winds triggering multiple warnings of life-threatening floods across Southern California and Nevada. More than 25
million people were placed under flood watches as a result. If you`re joining us from out west we hope you, your families and friends are safe
and well.
WIRE: 10 second trivia. American educator, Frank Cyr, is best known for contributions to what?
Mathematics, Physical fitness, School buses or Whiteboards?
Frank Cyr is known as the father of the yellow school bus for helping to set its standards.
Fun fact about those yellow buses. Did you know that about 25 million students riding the bus to school each year but this year, there`s an added
challenge. There`s a nationwide shortage of bus drivers and that is making it tough for some students to get back to school. CNN`s Athena Jones has
more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are about 58 bus drivers short.
ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From North Carolina to Louisiana, a rough start to the school year as districts across the
country face a shortage of bus drivers. Each year about half a million buses transport some 25 million children but low pay odd hours and
increased competition from companies like FedEx and Amazon are some of the factors making it harder to find drivers.
Albemarle County, Virginia getting rid of some bus stops.
CHARMANE WHITE, DIR. OF TRANSPORTATION, VA PUBLIC SCHOOLS: It breaks my heart that we had to do that. Right now, it is a driver shortage.
JONES: Jefferson County Colorado creating what it calls bus hubs, combining stops in a central location. Some districts using staggered
schedules.
IRANETTA WRIGHT, SUPERINTENDENT CINCINNATI, OHIO: We have four start times, an early start school is paired with a later start school.
JONES: Facing a driver shortage, Kentucky`s largest school district contracted with a company to map out new routes. But the plan failed,
leading to a disastrous first day of kindergarten for Bethany and Ryan Baumann`s daughter and forcing officials to cancel school for more than a
week.
BETHANY BAUMANN, PARENT: It`s like they couldn`t get a hold of any of the bus drivers.
JONES: That morning Bethany says they waited 40 minutes for the bus before she gave up and made the 10-minute drive herself. That evening, they waited
more than two hours for the bus before calling the police, frantic. The superintendent vowing to do better when school restarts.
DR. MARTY POLLIO, SUPERINTENDENT, KY PUBLIC SCHOOLS: We made mistakes, but we`ve owned up to them and we`re going to fix them.
JONES: But any long-term solution may have to address drivers paychecks.
MOLLY MCGEE-HEWITT, NATIONAL ASSOC. FOR PUPIL TRANSPORTATION: One of the key components of this shortage is compensation for drivers and that isn`t
in salaries and fringe benefits. It`s in the workday that they`re having. It`s in training and assistance that they get to do their jobs. It`s trying
to expand out hours so that they have a full-time job.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: From buses to jeeps, we`re about to meet Stacey Buckner, who modified her Jeep Wrangler to take community outreach off road and talk
about a sweet ride. Stacy supports homeless veterans in North Carolina with showers, laundry and fresh meals, all from our souped-up Jeep. Our CNN Hero
has helped more than 1000 veterans.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STACEY BUCKNER, CNN HERO: There should be no homeless vets period, none. Right now there`s over 30,000 homeless veterans in the United States. The
number is probably greater than that. A lot of these veterans they`re deep in the woods. We`re going down to one of our homeless encampments. I have
several veterans that I`ve actually been looking for that got displaced.
It`s not that they don`t want to be found, they don`t want to be in the public eye.
(On camera): Hey, what`s up Mary, how you doing?
(Voice-over): Gaining trust is really, really important.
(On camera): Now y`all got to let me know sizes. So some of them we didn`t have the half sizes, so we got the fun next full size.
(Voice-over): It takes boots on the ground to get back there, find them and meet their needs.
(On camera): All right, you`re welcome. We`ll get the shower set up on that side. If you guys need a shower today.
(Voice-over): I am, to a lot of them their only family. I grew up here in Fayetteville. Fayetteville is home to Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg,
home of the Special Operations Command, 82nd Airborne. I think that having a base right next to your town, the passion for veterans runs really,
really deep.
My stepdad is a staff sergeant, had been military. I saw, you know, things that he struggled with. I saw a gap in services for homeless veterans. And
I just thought, you know, I can do something about that. And then it just kind of went on from there. I wanted to fill that gap in services that. And
that`s why I created offering outreach.
(On camera): These are for Sam too. The study for short.
(Voice-over): We provide clothing, food. There`s a full kitchen in the back. We also do laundry.
(On camera): Your pants are almost done spinning baby.
(Voice-over): For veterans, we do wraparound services.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like this establishment visit set up.
BUCKNER (on camera): Because this is my brick and mortar.
(Voice-over): But obviously our services are offered to anyone at the encampment. It`s just filling a basic human need.
(On camera): You need a widely --
(Voice-over): We also like to do pop up events, outreach events, where we will actually bring in our homeless vets, give them new socks, new shoes.
(On camera): Let`s get a brigade line going man.
(Voice-over): I get vegetables from different veteran owned farms. And we deliver fresh presents to our veterans.
(On camera): Hey man, thanks for today. Thank you for your service. Those boxes are going to go a long way guys. So thank you. You have my number. My
name is Stacey.
What are you guys in need of? It`s important to show veterans that there are organizations out there that want to be your family, want to help you
get through life`s trials and tribulations and really provide support to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Today`s story getting a 10 out of 10 is turtley awesome, dude.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s a turtle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: A gopher tortoise rolled into a gym in Florida to get it swollen. Or maybe it was just looking for some shelter. The gym manager though not
having it. She thought the turtle might try to snap at her so she didn`t want to grab it. Instead, she`s just it with a towel. We sped the video up
but as you can see, she got quite the workout before finally getting the little fella out of there, shell abrasion time.
And now one of my favorite part of the day special shout out to Lava Heights Academy in Tocqueville, Utah, rise up. Did you know Tocqueville is
named for the black lava rock found on the top of a nearby mountain and it`s derived from the language of the Native American Paiute Tribe that
lived in the region before settlers arrived.
So follow me @coywire and submit your unique vocabulary word into the comment section of my most recent posts and we`re going to choose one fun
one to work into tomorrow show, bring it. I`m Cory Wire. And we are CNN 10.
END
