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CNN 10
Joplin, Missouri Marks 10 Years Since Devastating Tornado; China Successfully Lands Rover On Mars; CNN Hero Helps Former Inmates. Aired 4- 4:10a ET
Aired May 24, 2021 - 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: Hey, everyone. Thanks for watching CNN 10 this Monday. This is our last week on the air for our Spring season. So after
this Friday, our show will be on hiatus until this August.
We start today with a celebration. In a central U.S. city of about 50,000 people, folks are going to work. High school and college students recently
graduated. A memorial run was held over the weekend.
That sounds like a slice of life in any American city but it`s particularly meaningful here. This is Joplin, Missouri. A community that has been
rebuilt after being hit by the deadliest tornado this century. It struck 10 years ago on May 22nd.
Its wind speeds were greater than 200 miles per hour making it an EF-5 tornado, the strongest classification on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. In some
places the twister was a mile wide. So big that one witness said it looked like a thunderstorm.
Some people in Joplin might not have taken shelter immediately because false alarms had sounded over the years. Many others didn`t really have a
safe place to go. Affiliate WDRB reports that 82 percent of the homes in Joplin didn`t have basements or storm shelters when the tornado struck and
the bathrooms and closets people went to didn`t provide enough protection.
The tornado was on the ground for 22 miles. It destroyed almost 30 percent of Joplin, 161 people were killed, more than 1,000 were injured, 7,500
homes and 500 businesses were either damaged or destroyed. With damage estimates exceeding $3 billion, this was the costliest tornado to hit the
U.S. since record keeping began in 1950.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I specifically spoke to many people the next day in dirty clothes, a dirty t-shirt, a dirty pair of shorts, maybe sandals,
maybe tennis shoes. Most of them said, this is all I own.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Stories of heroism followed. The Pizza Hut worker who ushered people into a freezer saving many of their lives before losing his own. The
friends and first responders who rushed in from miles away to help those who were hurt. Joplin has held numerous events celebrating the progress
it`s made since the storm.
It`s had to rebuild both physically and emotionally and the memorial run held on Saturday not only honored those who were lost, it celebrated the
rebirth of the city.
10 Second Trivia. Where would you find Mariner Valley, Tarsis and Utopia Planitia? Homer`s Odyssey, Mariana Trench, Mars or Star Wars Phantom
Menace. These are all features of the red planet, aka, Mars.
Whether we`re talking about space stations, moon missions or moves on Mars, the United States often teams up with other countries on its research but
China isn`t one of them. In 2011, Congress passed a law that says NASA`s not allowed to cooperate with China in space.
The reasons, the U.S. government`s concerned that China would take advantage of the space program to spy on America or to steal U.S.
technology but the communist nation is going its own way and building a space station, shooting for the moon and landing vehicles on the red
planet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fresh tracks on the red planet mean new in roads for China in the latest space race. The Zhurong Rover went out for
a drive on Saturday making China the second country after the United States to land and operate such a vehicle on Mars.
The probe carrying Zhurong touched down on Mars on May 15th. China`s top space official says it`s a huge leap forward for the program. China`s rover
will now tread across the Martian terrain to learn what it can about the planet in hopes that humans can one day land there too.
BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: The Chinese rover that has now landed on Mars --
HOLMES: NASA`s Administrator Bill Nelson, sworn in earlier this month congratulated China`s Space Agency but also warned Congress that China has
ambitious plans for both Mars and the moon.
NELSON: They`re going to be landing humans on the moon. That should tell us something about our need to get off our duff.
HOLMES: China is one of three countries that launched missions to the red planet last summer with NASA`s Perseverance landing on Mars in February.
The Hope Spacecraft launched by the UAE is orbiting the planet but not designed to land. In addition, NASA`s Curiosity rover has been on the
ground since 2012 making for a lot of competition in this next frontier. Michael Holmes, CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, a government agency that sets guidelines when it comes to crime penalties. Between 40 and 60 percent
of Federal inmates commit new crimes after they`re released from prison. For former inmates who participate in a program called "Second U", that
recidivism rate is less than two percent.
It`s thanks in large part to the efforts of Hector Guadalupe, a personal trainer who changed his own life when he was in prison and the lives of
hundreds of others afterward. He`s using fitness to get people`s bodies in shape and their lives back on track.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HECTOR GUADALUPE, CNN HERO, FOUNDER OF SECOND U: When people get out of prison, society thinks oh, you should just go get a job and it`s not that
easy. Once you have a record, nothing is set up for them to win. Growing up in Brooklyn without, I would say it was just challenging. Both my parents
were deceased.
I had love in my family but I didn`t have guidance and the narcotics trade was my way of surviving. You get so deep in it, you can`t find a way out
and my only way out was when I got incarcerated. Working out is like everything when you`re in prison. It puts you in a healthy mindset, washes
away troubles.
It makes you feel like you`re not there. I just became obsessed with fitness. Lost 90 pounds and then that translated to me getting certified,
getting a job in the gym in the prison and it let me know, oh, I actually, I have a shot at a career. When I got out of prison, I`m literally at every
cooperate health club trying to get a job, filling out applications and nobody was calling me back and I knew why, but I didn`t give up.
Eight, nine months later I then got a job and that was, like, everything to me. I spent my first four years home with no day off and it felt great. I
felt like I was part of society which is something that we all should have an opportunity to do. Right?
I started doing time shortly after my mother passed away, when I was, like, 15. By the time I came home I gave the system half my life. The people that
are home, like, taking care of their family, making a living. Those are the people I wanted to try to be like.
You`re going to snap up, one, two. At a "Second U Foundation" we give formally incarcerated men and women national certifications and job
placements in boutique gyms and corporate health clubs throughout New York City. We want to give you your second chance at life.
You have to give yourself a chance at this. You can`t be scared to fail. We now have an eight-week training program, six days a week. Each participant
enrolled gets a $1,300 stipend, free transportation, software training. Everyone gets a free tablet.
So these men and women are taught by coaches. Everything you could think on bone structure, kinesiology -- pepsin breaks down proteins into smaller
protein. It`s like learning a new language.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fitness, it got me through my time in prison. I knew how to work out but I didn`t know the science behind everything.
GUADALUPE: It just gave me the foundation to where I could come successful.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hect`s whole approach with us is to maximize our potential.
GUADALUPE: That`s not what you got convicted for. That`s not you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: For 10 out of 10, a star is born? Well, this is a simulation of what that might look like. It was created using a model of gas dynamics,
gravity, magnetic fields, heating and cooling and stellar activity and then mixing all that up in a super computer and colorizing it.
The result are what researchers are calling "star forge", short for star formation in gaseous environments and they hope it will help them better
understand just how stars are formed.
Now to some of us it might seem "nebulous" and that`s the whole "zenyth". There are a "black hole" lot of theories. A "newton" of things we don`t
know about the universe. Our understanding is so "ort cloudy".
So if you have a "progade simulation" that solar "flares" at the imagination, "loop" in and open "cluster" of scientists because there is
"nova way" they`re going to miss it. Newwark High School is in Newark, Delaware. Thank you for your shout out request on our You Tube Channel.
That`s the only place we look for the schools we mention. With four shows left to go, I`m Carl Azuz for CNN.
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