CARL AZUZ: Hello, and welcome to the show.
I'm Carl Azuz.
Happy to see you this Friday.
One thing many Americans didn't expect after hurricane made
landfall in the US South, was that a few days
later, it would cause states of emergency in the US Northeast.
Those have been declared in Connecticut,
New Jersey, and New York.
They'll speed up help to areas that have been dealing
with record amounts of rain and flooding,
and that was brought to the region
by what remained of Hurricane Ida.
The storm carried moisture from the Gulf of Mexico
over the Eastern United States and up North
to places like New York City, which for the first time,
was the scene of a flood emergency,
as declared by the National Weather Service.
Forecasters had warned that flash
flooding when waters rise rapidly,
was possible in this area.
What surprised even some meteorologists, was how quickly
and how severely the flooding would hit.
More than seven inches of rain fell on Central Park Wednesday.
Most of that in a matter of hours.
It wasn't the most rain that part of New York had ever seen,
but it was in Newark, New Jersey,
where almost 8 and 1/2 inches fell.
That's the highest amount on record
since officials started keeping track in 1889.
Some homes in Connecticut were 3/4 underwater on Thursday.
Emergency workers in Pennsylvania
estimate there have been thousands of water rescues,
as torrential rain caused extreme flooding there.
And state officials across Maryland,
New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania,
say at least 26 deaths have been blamed on the storm
and the flooding it caused.
That's in addition to at least five deaths reported
in Louisiana and Mississippi after Ida
made landfall in Louisiana as a category
four hurricane on Sunday.
Hurricane Ida's remnants pummeling the Northeast
and mid-Atlantic, unleashing torrential rain,
extreme flooding, strong winds, and even tornadoes
throughout the region.
Governors in New York and New Jersey
declaring states of emergency.
KATHY HOCHUL: It is always quite shocking when you literally
see the streets of New York looking
like the rivers flowing and people
just in shock of what's going on.
CARL AZUZ: Multiple sightings of tornadoes in the Garden State.
- I heard you know, this rattling.
My daughter ran out and said get in the house, quick.
CARL AZUZ: One confirmed tornado tearing through this town
just outside of Philadelphia, destroying several homes
in its path.
- We hear just a little noise and the next thing you know we
heard everything just breaking.
CARL AZUZ: The severe weather bringing
New York City to a standstill.
Heavy rains creating waterfalls rushing into subway stations
and even overflowing down the stairs and onto the tracks.
The dangerous conditions forcing the city to suspend all subway
service, leaving some riders stuck underground
in subway cars and other stranded
for hours at stations, including this one in Times Square,
with no way to leave safely.
Some service returning close to 3;00 AM, allowing
passengers to finally go home.
Record-breaking rainfall and flash
flooding causing the mayor to issue a state of emergency.
BILL DE BLASIO: What we're hearing
from different parts of the five boroughs, very troubling.
We're seeing a kind of rainfall we
almost never see, this kind of speed
with which the rain has come.
Everyone has got to get to safety.
CARL AZUZ: The unprecedented rain turning
roads and highways into rivers.
The floods filling up this baggage claim area
in New Jersey's Newark Airport, the storm forcing the facility
into a ground stop temporarily.
Homes and apartments across multiple states
filling up with water.
Fire and rescue crews finding one person dead at this
flooded complex in Maryland.
Outside Pittsburgh, rescue crews pulling 41 passengers
trapped in floodwaters on a school bus Wednesday morning.
And in New York and New Jersey, first responders
working around the clock, rescuing
people stranded in their cars.
Local leaders urging residents to continue to be careful.
- There's no way that we could have predicted
how bad this storm would get.
The intense rainfall, the concentration
of water, which could result in trees coming down.
Cars can be repaired, property could be replaced,
but the loss of life cannot.
CARL AZUZ: Ten second trivia.
Sequoya was a Cherokee Nation leader who
made it possible to do what?
Preserve forests, read and write in Cherokee,
enrich soil, or inject medicines?
(CLOCK TICKING)
Sequoya created a syllabary that made it possible to write
in the Cherokee language.
He's also the namesake of the giant sequoia trees
that tower over California's Sierra Nevada mountain range.
Part of the reason why these trees can survive for thousands
of years is that they often weather
the wildfires that flare up here during the late summer
and fall.
Despite that and the fact that fire helps prime the soil
for the growth of new sequoias, severe blazes,
like one that started with a lightning strike last year,
are still a threat.
- From their size--
- General Sherman is 275 feet tall.
Holy cow.
- --to their longevity.
CLAY JORDAN: Before ancient Rome, before Christ, I mean,
these trees were mature.
- Much about giant sequoia trees is on a grand scale.
With that distinctive red brown bark
covering their thick trunks, Sequoia trees
can only be found in California's
Sierra Nevada mountains.
SAM HODDER: This is a resilient tree.
They are tough.
Almost nothing can kill them.
A giant Sequoia that was first weakened by drought
was then subject to impacts by the bark beetle, which then
further weakened the tree and potentially
made it more susceptible to mortality from fire.
- The Stagg Tree is said to be the fifth largest
tree in the entire world.
It's lived more than 3,000 years and yet, we're
seeing that wildfire is threatening
these giant sequoias, more than ever before.
The Castle fire was a wake up call.
An estimated 7,500 to 10,600 trees were destroyed
in that one fire alone.
- Started by lightning in August 2020,
the Castles fire was part of the sequoia complex
that burned more than 174,000 acres, scorching
several sequoia groves.
CHRISTY BRIGHAM: It was devastating, heartbreaking.
Everything had been incinerated.
It was a field of the world's largest burned up toothpicks.
- After decades of suppressing forest fire,
other trees and brush have grown rapidly around the sequoias.
SAM HODDER: The fires that used to burn every five to 10 years
in the Sierra would just keep down the competition
and reduce the fuel, naturally.
- On land owned by the Save the Redwoods League,
we hiked out to see just how deadly
the Castle fire was here.
TIM BORDEN: For us to see 10 to 14%
of the total of giant sequoias alive killed
in one year in one fire, is--
there's nothing to compare that to.
- Yet fire in and of itself, is not
the enemy of the giant sequoia.
SAM HODDER: Their cones open up.
Their seeds to start to germinate after a fire.
- So near those lost giants where
the fire wasn't too intense, small shoots of hope take root.
TIM BORDEN: What I see is a lot of these little baby
giant sequoias that have sprouted
up since the fire happened.
(GUITAR MUSIC)
CARL AZUZ: The latest world record contender
for the world's tallest sand castle
isn't like other sand castles.
For one thing, it was stabilized by wooden scaffolding
during construction.
It's been coated with glue so it'll last through the winter,
and it's not on the beach.
It's not too far from the beach.
This was built in a coastal village of northern Denmark.
At almost 70 feet high, it took almost five tons of sand
to build and 30 artists worked to carve
the details into its walls.
People often inspire to build castles when they Barbican.
Towering achievement?
That depends on where you sand.
Takes a camel a lot of time and talent
to build up a sand castle.
Art history helps draw the bridge and make it all worth
the hassle.
So portcullis if you're battlement to give the trial
a go because when it comes to castles,
it's whatever floats your moat.
I heard from several people on social media
who said they missed it when I rap, so blame them.
Mililani High School is watching today from Mililani, Hawaii.
We know that because they subscribed and left
a comment at youtube.com/cnn10.
That is the only place we look for the schools we mention.
We will be off Monday for the Labor Day holiday,
So we'll look forward to see you on Tuesday for more CNN.
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