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CNN 10
Cyclone Fani Bears Down on India; Divers Make a Discovery in the World`s Largest Known Cave; A Spacecraft Aims to Give Tourists a Few Minutes of Weightlessness
Aired May 3, 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: Fridays are awesome! I`m Carl Azuz, your host of CNN 10, explaining events taking place worldwide.
This May 3rd, we begin in the South Asian country of India where a powerful cyclone was expected to make landfall on Friday morning. The storm was
named Fani. It had gathered strength in the Bay of Bengal the day before and as it`s headed toward India`s east coast.
Its maximum sustained winds blew at 155 miles per hour, and that would mean tropical cyclone Fani could be the most powerful storm to hit in India in
20 years. The system that struck in eastern India in 1999 killed at least 10,000 people.
The nation`s coast guard and navy prepared ships and helicopters for rescue operations. Military troops were standing by as well. Flights were
cancelled in the region. Schools were closed and around 900 shelters were set up to house people who have to evacuate their homes.
Unlike the Atlantic hurricane season, India`s cyclone season doesn`t have a specific date when it begins and ends. There are two main periods of
activity, one in spring and one in fall, right before and right after the country`s southwest monsoon season.
What`s expected from cyclone Fani is a large storm surge, a rise in sea levels along the coast where it makes landfall. Significant wind damage
was also possible and further inland, people were preparing for the possibility of flooding.
Directly in the path of the storm, when we produced the show, was the Indian coastal city of Puri.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: This is going to be in town (ph) with 240 kilometer per hour winds as the storm rolls onshore. We will see waves
somewhere in the ballpark of 15 meters. We`ll see storm surge between seven and nine meters as it comes onshore.
Everyone in this area is in grave danger, to get out of the way. They need to get away from this water, away from this wind, and into some place that
is very, very strong.
Now, eventually, it gets over toward Kolkata and up to Bangladesh, but by that time, the forward speed is moving quite fast, so the rainfall would be
more spread out. This is now going to be a devastating wind maker and storm surge maker right along the coast here of the eastern shore of India.
A lot of people on the way, 100 million people will see something from this storm, whether it`s wind damage, whether it`s surge damage, or whether it`s
flooding. This is going to be a widespread storm, significantly stronger than we`ve seen in the past.
Last thing, it was a cat 3 that made landfall in 2014. This is equivalent to a very strong category 4 Atlantic hurricane, only one or two miles per
hour really from a category five.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: There have been a lot of developments in the South American country of Venezuela. When we put this show together, its president, Nicolas
Maduro, remained in power and its opposition leader, Juan Guaido, continued to lead protests against Maduro.
In a new wave of demonstrations this week, Guaido called for the military to get involved in pushing President Maduro out of power. But afterward,
Guaido admitted there wasn`t enough support from the military to make that happen. And on Thursday, men and women in uniform marched alongside the
president to show support for him.
President Maduro also called for Venezuela`s elected officials to come together this weekend in a show of unity.
A Venezuelan human rights organization says four people have died in this week`s violent protests. And tensions have spread internationally as well.
Russia is one of the nations that support President Maduro. The U.S. is among the countries that support national assembly leader Guaido.
The Trump administration said at one point this week, Venezuela`s president was planning to leave the country when Russia told him to stay put.
President Maduro denied that. Both U.S. and Russia have told each other not to interfere in the South American nation, but the Trump administration
says U.S. military action there is possible if it`s needed.
No one knows what will happen next in the politically unstable and economically shattered country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:
In what nation would you find the world`s largest known cave?
Vietnam, China, Malaysia or United States?
The biggest cave ever discovered is located in the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: It was discovered by accident. In 1990, a farmer stumbled upon the cave while looking for shelter in the storm. Its entrance is so remote
that he forgot the way there and it wasn`t until 18 years later that he accidentally found it again while hunting. It takes two days of hiking
through the jungle just to reach the cave and explorers recently made a tremendous discovery there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUBTITLE: The world`s biggest cave is now even bigger.
Son Doong Cave in Vietnam stretches more than three miles long and reaches heights of 650 feet.
It`s as big as a New York City block with 40-floor skyscrapers.
But during a recent expedition, a trio of British divers discovered a new underwater tunnel.
The divers assisted with the rescue of the trapped soccer team in Thailand in 2018.
They were able to reach a depth of about 255 feet before turning around.
The tunnel connects Son Doong to another enormous cave called Hang Thung.
When it`s officially connected with Thung Cave, it will add 56.5 million cubic feet in volume.
The team wasn`t expecting the tunnels to be so deep, and plan to return in April 2020 with special gases for a longer, deeper dive.
Son Doong, a 3-million-year-old river cave, opened to tourists in 2013.
A guided, four-day experience traverses 15.5 miles of jungle trails and 5.6 miles through the caves.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: From the depths of the earth, we`re taking you to the heights of the sky. You`re watching the liftoff of the New Shepard rocket, a space
tourism vehicle that made a test flight over rural Texas yesterday. It was carrying dozens of research projects but no people were onboard.
Blue Origin, the American company that makes the rocket, hopes to be ferrying humans to space and back in the year ahead.
There wouldn`t be a pilot. This rocket is fully automated. Passenger would launch up, up and away inside the capsule. It would detach from the
rocket about 62 miles over the earth. People would get a few minutes of weightlessness while they were there and then the capsule and the rocket
would return separately to solid ground where they could be reused on future trips.
We don`t know yet how much ticket prices will be. Like Space-X, Blue Origin has received millions of dollars from NASA. It`s one of several
private companies hoping to bring people to space.
(MUSIC)
AZUZ: When you think of getting cows to moo, you might think of a herdsman on horseback or maybe a border collie on call.
In a city of California, it was police who got the pleasure of herding a couple of rogue cows recently, and the fun was caught on dash cam.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
SUBTITLE: Move it.
Moooooooove it.
A pair of cows on the loose in California got an early morning police escort.
The animas were reported wandering near a supermarket in Sebastopol.
Police arrived to find the animals seemingly heading home.
The officers then escorted the pair -- very slowly -- back to their field.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: It was a slow assignment right out of the gate. But what both (ph) find their way to wander into the weekend? We can call it utterly
ridiculous, say it was a milk run, tell you we know where the peep (ph) is. But before we hoof, we`ll just say we milk all the puns we cud right up
until the cows came home.
I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10.
END
