Maggie: Hey everyone. It is Monday, August 31. I am Maggie Rulli and Channel One
News starts right now.
Let's start off with headlines, and first up, it could be a wet one in South Florida today,
as the remnants of Tropical Storm Erika power through. And even though Erika has
been downgraded and is no longer a tropical storm, officials in the state are not letting
their guard down after what happened in the Caribbean.
Erika rolled through several countries over the weekend. It dumped 15 inches of rain on
the tiny island nation of Dominica. The storm was so destructive, in part because the
island has 365 rivers that swelled.
At least twenty people were killed, nearly 50 more missing. Residents of Haiti were also
hit hard with heavy rains that caused mudslides. One person died.
Heavy winds from the storm toppled trees and power lines in parts of the Dominican
Republic.
Back in the U.S., the remnants of the storm are expected to bring heavy downpours to
South Florida. The governor is warning residents that flooding could be a major
problem.
Next up, the Common Core test has become a hot topic. And now, the first batch of test
results is in.
Some states took the Common Core test for the first time this spring, and early results
show that overall scores are higher than expected, but still below what many parents
might be used to seeing.
More detailed results will be out soon. But the quick look shows the growing number of
students did not make the cut in reading or math.
Officials said the new test results should not be compared with old ones. But, they said
there will be a more accurate measurement of student knowledge.
The Common Core standards began as a way to define student success under a
common definition. But the tests are controversial and the standards are unraveling,
mainly because states are dropping out of the program and creating their own exams.
And because of this, even when all the results are available, it won't be possible to
compare student performance across a majority of the states, which was Common
Core's main goal.
Alright coming up, we meet one young guy who is literally mopping up a sea of plastic.
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Every year we throw out a lot of plastic, enough to circle the Earth four times. And the
average American tosses out 185 pounds of plastic every year. That’s the weight a
grown man. Much of that plastic ends up in the oceans, forming giant swirls of trash.
Well now, one young entrepreneur from the European country of the Netherlands has a
big plan to clean up this big mess. Tom Hanson has the story.
Tom: Boyan Slat was anxiously awaiting the Ocean Starr to dock. The research vessel
just finished a mission to study the amount of plastic garbage floating in the Pacific
Ocean.
Boyan Slat: The goal was to take more samples in three weeks’ time than in the past 40
years combined.
Tom: The 21-year-old has a big plan to clean up the oceans. But first, he needs to know
exactly what’s out there. The mission was a success. But the findings weren't exactly
cause for celebration.
Julia Reisser: I've never seen an oceanic area as polluted as the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch.
Tom: Plastic and other garbage clumps up into patches in the ocean. In fact, scientists
believe there are five of these "patches," where the ocean currents naturally rotate in
a circle, trapping floating debris.
In the past, that debris usually was shipwrecked wood, which decompose naturally, not
harming the environment. But today, it is plastic.
The Ocean Starr, and 25 other vessels, spent a month in the swirling whirlpool of plastic
trash between Hawaii and the West Coast over the summer. They had no trouble filling
these huge bags full of samples to help scientists better understand the size of the
problem.
Slat: Some people say there's a 100,000 tons out there. Others say there's a hundred
million tons out there.
Tom: And that's important to Boyan. He wants to anchor 60 mile-long floating barriers
that will use natural currents to funnel the floating plastic debris and push it into a
concentrated area where it can be collected and removed.
Slat: With a single system, in 10 years’ time, approximately half the Great Pacific
Garbage Patch can be cleaned up.
Tom: Tom Hanson, Channel One News.
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Maggie: And if it all goes according to plan, the cleanup of the Pacific Ocean will begin
in 2020. But in the meantime, you can start picking up your own trash so it doesn't end
up in the ocean, with our cool game over at Channelone.com.
Alright up next, we are heading back to New Orleans to check out a part of the city
that's still on the road to recovery 10 years later.
Now, we are heading back to New Orleans. Much of the city has bounced back, yet as
Arielle Hixson discovers, a decade later, there’s still work to be done.
Arielle: Today in New Orleans, the tourist hot spot of the French Quarter is a pretty lively
place. Ten years after Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast, it is back to
where it used to be, a vibrant community filled with loud jazz and plenty of tourists.
But this is only one part of New Orleans. Here's another. This neighborhood, the Lower
Ninth Ward, was right near the levees that broke when the hurricane hit. The homes
here were underwater for weeks. A decade later and there’s still a lot of work to be
done.
Lance Sumler: My heart hurts looking at different areas of the Lower Ninth Ward and
seeing that nothing has been done. But you go to other parts of the city and it’s been
completely redone and it looks beautiful.
Arielle: Lance Sumler was 13 years old when Hurricane Katrina swept away his
grandmother's home in the Lower Ninth Ward.
Why do you think we still need to fix the Lower Ninth Ward over other parts of New
Orleans?
Sumler: This is the part of the city that got hit the absolute worst.
Arielle: Walking through the neighborhood, several houses are still abandoned. And the
haunting markings of those who lived and died are still etched on the walls.
What do you think about this house right here? How does it make you feel to still see a
house like this?
Sumler: When I see abandoned houses, I feel like they either need to be torn down or
rebuilt. It makes me wonder why no one really cares enough to do anything about it.
Arielle: Even before the storm, the Lower Ninth Ward struggled with poverty and high
crime rates. But add to that the cost of rebuilding, and it is no surprise many people who
evacuated never returned.
Before Hurricane Katrina, The Lower Ninth Ward had a population of 14,000 people.
Today, it is only 3,000.
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Arielle: But Arthur Johnson is working to change that.
How would you describe the morale of people in this community?
Johnson: People in this community are very resilient. But I think the true resilience is
people who wanted to come back home, because this is home. And no matter what they
needed to do to make that happen, what they need to do to make it livable, they were
determined to do that.
Arielle: Arthur is CEO of Sustain the Nine, an organization that is working to rebuild the
Lower Ninth Ward. But one of the tough parts or re-building the community is, getting
outsiders to come in, a task restaurant owner Keisha Henry knows all too well.
She opened up the first sit-down restaurant in the Lower Ninth Ward, seven years after
the storm.
Keisha Henry: It exposes the neighborhood to people who may have said, ‘I'm not going
over there.’
Arielle: Keisha grew up in New Orleans. After Katrina, she made a risky business
decision, to open a restaurant in the struggling Lower Ninth Ward. But three years later,
and Cafe Dauphine is one of the best known restaurants in all of New Orleans.
Henry: The first day we opened our doors, I don't think we were even ready for what
was coming through the door. I mean, every seat was full.
Arielle: How has opening up this restaurant helped the entire Lower Ninth Ward
community?
Henry: It gives people that are not from this neighborhood a opportunity to see how
beautiful it is.
Arielle: The restaurant has attracted a variety of tourists and created jobs for the
residents here.
Henry: The longer we're open, it shows companies that we’re a viable neighborhood
and we can sustain business in all avenues.
Arielle: Even after natural a disaster as catastrophic as Katrina, people living in New
Orleans still have faith.
Johnson: When we talk to people here, there’re here. Maybe there’s one or two houses
on a block that had 10 house, but it’s home. It’s the place where they want to be.
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Sumler: I think it's definitely possible to progress and come back better than we have
before.
Henry: Ten years later, I think it still has the same feel. The people here that were
raised here are still here and the love doesn't change.
Arielle: Arielle Hixson, Channel One News.
Maggie: Thanks Arielle. Alright guys, we are out of time. But we will see you right back
here tomorrow.
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