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Hurricane Ian Makes Landfall As A Monster Category 4 Storm In Florida; Ancient Shipwreck Off The Coast Of Israel; Scientists Help Alleviate Human-Elephant Conflict. Aired 4-4:10a ET

Aired September 29, 2022 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Hope your Thursday is off to a fantastic start. Happy Friday eve. I`m Coy Wire, here for you on CNN 10.

Hurricane Ian, a powerful storm that hit Cuba earlier this week, grew to a category 4 storm before making landfall on Florida`s west coast.

When we recorded this show, Ian was just shy of a category 5 hurricane. This level of storm brings winds of over 150 miles per hour and can cause

catastrophic storm surges, creating an abnormal rise of water levels. The scale for hurricanes as seen in this animation is based on a one to five

rating dependent on a hurricane`s maximum sustained wind speed.

Officials warned it was too late to evacuate in some places. Ian already caused severe flooding in the Florida Keys and widespread power outages

were expected across the state. Boats in some areas are ready to deliver supplies and make rescues if necessary.

Hurricane Ian is one of the most powerful storms to threaten the United States in decades. Only two category five storms have ever made landfall in

the U.S. in the last 30 years, both in Florida. Millions of residents are under evacuation orders or advisories in parts of coastal Florida. We`ll

have reporters there for you all week long to keep you updated on the storm and recovery efforts.

CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray now explaining more about these powerful forces of nature.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Tropical systems come in all shapes and sizes. You have tropical depressions, tropical storms.

And once it is strong enough to become a hurricane, you have five categories, with category five being the strongest.

SUBTITLE: Hurricanes: What you should know.

GRAY: The states most frequently hit by a hurricane, Florida, Louisiana and Texas.

But as much as we know about hurricanes, forecasting them is still a challenge. Just as we name each storm, each storm has its own personality,

like Katrina in 2005, which intensified rapidly overnight, going from a category three to a category five. It became the fourth most intense

hurricane on record as of that time.

And the forecast track can change dramatically, like Erica in 2015, or a system that can be viewed as relatively weak, like a tropical storm could

end up like Tropical Storm Allison in 2001. The remnants of the storm stalled over Southeast Texas, dumping 35 inches of rain over Houston in

just five days. The storm became the first non-hurricane to have its name retired.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Ten-second trivia time:

What sea separates northern Africa and Europe?

North, Mediterranean, Caspian or Baltic?

The Mediterranean Sea is your correct answer. Let`s go there now where researchers are rummaging through some really cool stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUBTITLE: An ancient shipwreck was found off the coast of Israel more than 1,200 years after it sank.

DEVORAH CVIKEL, NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST: We have a fish sauce. We have grapes or resins, we don`t know. Olives, different kinds of olives, dates,

figs, all the Mediterranean diets stored and well-preserved.

SUBTITLE: Artifacts found on the ship show it had docked in Cyprus, Egypt, and possibly as far as the North African coast.

CVIKEL: It`s unique because -- first, because of its size. It is about 20 meters long and five meters big, which is the largest shipwreck we`ve ever

excavated and also because of its dating. It`s dated between the 7th and the 8th century CE, which is the shift between the Byzantine and Islamic

rule in the area.

SUBTITLE: The ship snake after the Islamic conquest of the Holy Land, which historians previously believed ended trade with the rest of the

Mediterranean.

CVIKEL: If we look at the history books, they usually tell us that in this shift after the decline of the Byzantine rule in this area and the rise of

the Islamic rule, then commerce almost stopped.

SUBTITLE: If researchers cannot find a place to display the entire ship to the public, they will cover it with sand and leave it at the bottom of the

sea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: In the emerging field of bioacoustics, scientists are looking at how to protect and conserve our planet by listening to it.

Today, "The Call to Earth" series is headed to a biodiversity hot spot in India where a local researcher has developed a device to alleviate the

growing issue of human elephant conflict.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sunset on the border of Kaziranga National Park in northeast India. And former computer engineer

Seema Lokhandwala stands in the field of a neighboring village scanning the edge of the forest for one of her favorite animals.

SEEMA LOKHANDWALA, FOUNDER, ELEPHANT ACCOUNTICS PROJECT: I went to Nepal as a very young kid, along with my uncle on, and saw elephants for the

first time, we interacted with them, saw them.

That itself fascinated me that there is this huge, intelligent animal and that we know very little about.

I started watching documentaries and what fascinated me about elephants is just the way they communicate.

WEIR: That childhood passion never went away. And now as a conservation scientist, she`s less interested in getting closer to the animal as she

isn`t keeping them away.

LOKHANDWALA: Human elephant conflict is a big issue in India.

WEIR: India has the largest population of wild Asian elephants around 26,000. They are an endangered species and each year, approximately 500

people and 80 to 100 elephants die and the ongoing struggle to coexist.

Here in Assam, deforestation has led to a staggering loss of habitat, driving the elephants out of the forest more often just looking for a meal.

LOKHANDWALA: Eighty percent of the people in this area have agriculture as their primary occupation. And because of this, there is a lot of human

elephant conflict.

WEIR: Determined to find a solution for people and pachyderms to live in harmony, Seema founded the Elephant Acoustics Project.

LOKHANDWALA: The idea is to understand Asian elephant communications.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are capable of high frequency record.

LOKHANDWALA: And use acoustics as a medium to mitigate human elephant conflict.

WEIR: Her teams of likeminded engineers are currently developing the elephant call detector.

LOKHANDWALA: What is the frequency that you know about these microphones?

WEIR: Using a combination of hardware, a vocalization database, artificial intelligence and local cell networks, the devices designed to detect an

elephant sound, alert local officials of its presence and then make the right kind of noise to hopefully send the animal in a different direction.

LOKHANDWALA: We`re trying to use a combination of all the natural sounds that are occurring in the elephant landscape. We are trying to use bee

sounds, tiger calls and leopard calls which the elephants don`t like.

And we will try to do it in a round robin fashion that so that the elephants don`t get adapted to the sounds. In Assam, there are about 229

human deaths that happened in last three years because of some reasons related to elephants. So we are trying to reduce these deaths.

WEIR: She has conducted an estimated 500 interviews and finds that the majority of people are eager for a solution like the elephant call

detector.

LOKHANDWALA: I have been working in the Kaziranga Karbi Anglong landscape since 2015. And with any technology, most of the people are a little

apprehensive in the beginning, but then they started working with the community understanding the language speaking in the language, I think

they`ve been very, very accepting of new ideas and how they can implement it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WEIR: All right. Today`s "10 out of 10", it`s like Halloween come early in the French Alps -- no treats, just tricks. Hang gliders, paragliders and

all kinds of high flyers went soaring through the air for a wide range of prizes.

Thousands of people gathering for La Coupe Icare free-flying festival. Pilots try to outdo each other by wearing the wackiest costumes they can.

One contestant said though the goal isn`t to win we`re just trying to make a beautiful structure, make the kids laugh and make the elderly people

dream.

From the French Alps to Ohio. Oxford, Ohio, and Talawanda High School, you get our shout out for the day.

And you bring us our fun fact for the day. Did you know Ohio is sometimes called the mother of modern presidents? Ohio is the birthplace of seven

U.S. presidents.

Ohio, we hope you and everyone watching around the world have a wonderful one.

I`m Coy Wire. Thanks for watching CNN 10.

END