CNN 10｜Bomb Cyclone, garbage blocking dam, student rocket

COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Happy Friday Eve. I'm Coy Wire. This is CNN 10. Let's get this show on the road.

WIRE: We now go to the West Coast of the United States and parts of British Columbia and Canada, which are dealing with a bomb cyclone. What's a bomb cyclone? Also called a bombogenesis, it's the rapid intensification of a cyclone in a short period of time, and it can happen during powerful storms.

The folks are also dealing with the effects of an atmospheric river. At the same time, these two phenomena are combining to bring hurricane force winds and heavy rain. A storm of this magnitude only occurs in this region about once in a decade and can cause major flooding. It can dump feet of snow and lead to power outages. To explain what an atmospheric river is and how events like this happen, here's our Derek Van Dam.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Atmospheric rivers are long, concentrated regions in the atmosphere that can transport moisture thousands of miles.

They usually carry water vapor from the tropics to the mid-latitudes and can trigger extreme precipitation events around the world.

For example, the Pineapple Express atmospheric river carries moisture from the tropics near Hawaii to the U.S. and Canada's west coast. Atmospheric rivers can lead to extreme rainfall, flooding, and mudslides. These rivers in the sky can transport the equivalent of as much as 25 times the amount of water that flows through the actual Mississippi River. Most are weaker systems that offer beneficial rain and snow, but the stronger atmospheric river events across the western U.S. can lead to over a billion dollars a year in flood damage.

WIRE: We all know that trash and waste can pile up, and littering, well, that can just yuck a place up. We're going to go check out a place where garbage has gotten so out of hand, there's so much of it in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, that there are mounds of it floating in a lake, blocking a dam that creates electricity for the region. Now there are power outages, local businesses are being impacted.

CNN's Victoria Rubadiri explains why and how this is happening.

VICTORIA RUBADIRI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A sea of garbage atop a lake on the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. It's unsightly and a problem with a ripple effect for families and businesses alike. Plastic bottles, gas cans and other trash collect at the bottom and on the surface of the water, clogging this hydroelectric dam and keeping water from properly entering its channels.

Limiting the amount of pressure and speed needed for this electric company's machines to power the region.

LJOVY MULEMANGABO, DIRECTOR, DR CONGO'S NATIONAL ELECTRIC COMPANY SNEL (through translator): We are forced to shut down the machines and start removing the waste, clearing the grates. And when we stop the machines, power outages also occur.

RUBADIRI (voice-over): Waste management issues, intensified by heavy rainfall, cause people's abandoned trash to end up in the lake. Those mounds of garbage can have drastic consequences.

MULEMANGABO (through translator): If they leave the waste lying in a street, in the gutters, it ends up in the Rwizi Dam. And this creates a lot of difficulties for us.

RUBADIRI (voice-over): As power outages plague the region small businesses suffer, these welders feel the pressure as production slows, confused and frustrated by the sporadic electricity in their workshop.

ALEX MBILIZI, METALWORKER (through translator): People tell us the power is out because of plastic bottles, but we don't know what to do about these bottles. If only there were a way to clear out these bottles so we could have electricity.

RUBADIRI (voice-over): Officials say there could be a way. If individual homes pick up waste, authorities say waste companies could then collect it and bring it to a disposal site. But for now, it's only an idea, one that may prove crucial in tackling the region's pollution problem.


🌟 完整文本见公众号【琐简】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】