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Hurricane Sandy`s Aftermath

Aired October 31, 2012 - 04:00:00   ET


CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: I`m Carl Azuz. It is October, 31st and this is CNN STUDENT NEWS. No tricks, but we will treat you to ten minutes of commercial free headlines. It all starts right now.

Catastrophic, historic, unthinkable -- those are some of the words being used to describe the impact of the storm named Sandy that hit the U.S. on Monday. Now, when that happened, when it made landfall, it wasn`t a hurricane, it was technically a post tropical storm, because its energy was coming from a different source. Whatever you want to call it, Sandy was very, very dangerous. Flooding brought on by Sandy`s wind and rain and the storm surge, the waves that were created along the coast. Some towns in New Jersey were under four or five feet of water. Floodwaters rushed into New York City subway tunnels as well. Sandy is being blamed for at least 30 deaths across the U.S. And this -- that`s a power transformer that blew in New York. Nearly 8 million people lost power because of Sandy, and some officials said it could be out for days.

That kind of gives you an idea about how strong Sandy`s winds were. And so does this -- the smoke you are seeing there, the front of the building just collapsed, apparently from the wind. You might wonder how wind can be that strong. It could have something to do with where this thing hit. Tom Foreman breaks down the science.


TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the winds of Hurricane Sandy have spread out over hundreds of miles, the estimate of how much damage they can do has also grown to $7 billion. How is that possible from wind alone? Well, we`ve sliced up Hurricane Erin (ph) here into layers to show you what -- look at the bottom down there. You see all that red -- that`s where the wind is the most intense. As you move up in the storm, it becomes less intense once you get several miles in the air, but all of the tallest buildings on the East Coast fit right down in that red zone, and in a strange way, they actually make the storm more ferocious for the people who are living there.

Let me show you why. If you have an air flow passing over an empty field or perhaps low buildings, it can do so largely unimpeded. But once you introduce something like New York City to the equation here, you change everything, because now the air has to speed up to get around all those buildings and maintain its air flow to go over those buildings, and that magnifies three things that are very dangerous about hurricane winds. First of all, it makes them more explosive. In aerospace terms, whenever an airflow hit`s a square or rectangular object, it creates what`s called turbulent flow. In simple layman`s terms, that means the air becomes all roiled up and it starts pounding against itself and against other objects, and it simply becomes more violent.

Secondly, in hurricanes, you are always talking about sustained winds, winds that will continue not for a few minutes, but for hour after hour, grinding away, looking for weak spots around doors or windows or the cornices of roofs. And thirdly, you are talking about directional wind. That means it`s always going to be attacking from the same direction. So if it finds that weak spot, it`s going to exploit it, because it just keeps yanking away at it without letting up. All of that comes together in this terrible witch`s brew for the cities of the East Coast in the winds of Sandy.


AZUZ: With storms like Sandy, you expect strong winds and heavy rain, but the different effects of this storm are almost unbelievable. Water. We mentioned flooding in New York subway. This is what it looked like. And those water levels won`t go down on their own. That water is going to have to be pumped out.

Fire. This one broke out in a neighborhood in New York. Sandy`s winds helped it spread. At least 80 homes were destroyed by the flames.

Snow. Sandy spawned a blizzard in West Virginia. Parts of Maryland and North Carolina were hit with heavy snow as well. This is what part of the Jersey shore looked like yesterday. Rows of houses damaged or destroyed by the storm. And along flooded roads, rescue crews are out in boats and trucks. Some people had to wait on their roof for rescuers to arrive. Relief organizations are working to get help to the victims of this storm. You can help them too. Go to the Spotlight section at cnnstudentnews.com and look for the "impact your world" link to find out how.


MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want you to be able to get a job. I know what it takes to get this economy going.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The most important thing we can do is to make sure that we are creating job in this country, but not just jobs, good paying jobs.


AZUZ: You`ve heard Governor Romney and President Obama talk a lot about the economy in this presidential campaign. There is a good reason for that. For many voters, it is the most important issue in the election. It`s also what we are looking at today as we continue our series on the candidates positions.

Part of Governor Romney`s plan is to cut taxes for all Americans. He would also lower the tax rate for businesses. The governor`s campaign site says that cutting taxes will help the economy grow. For example, companies will have more money to hire workers. Romney`s also talked about making the federal government smaller in order to reduce government spending.

President Obama also wants to lower the tax rate for businesses. For most individual Americans, he said that he wants to keep the tax rate where it is. But he wants to raise taxes on wealthy Americans in order to help generate more revenue for the federal government. The president also wants to create incentives, rewards for companies that bring jobs back to America.


UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today`s "Shoutout" goes out to Mr. Butler`s social studies classes at Atlantis Academy in Coral Springs, Florida. Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and Yu Darvish are known for playing what sport? Here we go, it is basketball, badminton, billiards or baseball? You`ve got three seconds, go!

They are all Major League Baseball players who were born in Japan. That`s your answer, and that`s your "Shoutout."


AZUZ: All right, so in the majors they are probably used to playing in front of sell-out crowds or near cell out crowds, but back in their home country, some Japanese teams are struggling with half empty stadiums. So how do you get people to come out and fill the seats and to root, root, root for the home team? Well, the Yokohama Bay Stars have some unique ideas. Alex Zolbert steps up to the plate with details.


ALEX ZOLBERT, CNN ANCHOR: It is arguably Japan`s most popular sport, a national pastime. And this is the league`s least successful team this year. In fact, the Bay Stars, who hail from Yokohama just south of Tokyo, have sat in the league`s basement for the past four years. Which helps explain all the empty seats at one of their final home games this season.

But the team has been testing some clever ideas to try to change that. But in the tough Japanese economy, how about discounts for fans who are trying to pay off their mortgage? Or offering refunds if you weren`t satisfied with the team`s performance? A few fans lined up after a game even though the Bay Starts won. Some of the gimmicks are the idea of team president, June Ikeida (ph), a 36-year old with a background in advertising and marketing.

He tells me, it`s all in effort to entice folks who aren`t die hard baseball fans. How about a side show of pro-wrestling?

This stadium holds about 30,000 people. The average attendance this year was just over half of that. And while the boss recognizes the gimmicks might help, what will help the most is to win more games.

Alex Zolbert, CNN, Yokohama, Japan.


AZUZ: Well, next stop today, we have a story about Chy Johnson. She is a sophomore at Quinn Creek High in Arizona. She was born with a brain disorder, and she said she was bullied because of that. One day, Chy`s mother emailed a family friend to ask for help. That friend was Carson Jones. He`s the starting quarterback in the school`s undefeated football team. Carson heard what was happening and decided to tackle the bullying head on. Now from the first bell to the last one, Carson and some of his team mates hang out with Chy. They keep an eye on her, they make sure she is not getting bullied. One of the players says, it feels good to know that they can help make someone else`s high school experience a positive one. Great stuff.

Finally today, we are checking out some of your I Report pumpkin projects. Bats on Halloween? Sure. Bat-man? Well, he can symbolize a dark knight. How about this ghoul climbing out of the grave? Scary enough to make anyone bury his head under a blanket? Old-time truck, piles of pumpkins, perfect symbol of the season, but hey, let`s bail on that, so we can check out these class`s pet project. Seriously, it`s their pet. That`s the tooth. And Becca (ph) High gets special prays because they love carving pumpkins. And we love that they do.

That was awesome. Big thanks to everybody who`s sent in I Reports. Goodness gracious, ghost (ph), we`re out of time for today, so we`ll look forward to seeing you tomorrow on CNN STUDENT NEWS.