Scott: What is up? It is Wednesday, May 27. I am Scott Evans and Channel One News starts right now.
Let's start off with headlines and first up, the rain is relentless in Texas and Oklahoma with heavy storms turning city roads and highways into rivers.
American's fourth largest city Houston, Texas is now underwater after nearly a foot of rain fell just on Tuesday alone, with more on the way. Cars and trucks are underwater, idle and abandoned.
Authorities closed the cities' public schools and shutdown all rail and bus service.
In north Houston, drivers abandoned cars and ran for safety when flood waters started to rise. Record rainfall has also hit Oklahoma, overflowing rivers and lakes, giving that state the wettest May on record.
At least thirteen have been killed in the severe weather this week.
Next up, another city caught up in the racially charged debate over police force is making changes. This time it is Cleveland, Ohio, and it has reached a settlement with the Justice Department over police misconduct.
Cleveland must now reform its police department to address excessive force and civil rights violations found in a Department of Justice investigation. The changes will include improved officer training on the use of deadly force and eliminating racial bias.
And the new rules come as protests have continued in the city after a judge ruled a white officer was not guilty in the shooting deaths of two unarmed black motorists.
In a scathing report issued back in December, federal investigators found Cleveland officers punched and kicked unarmed people and shot people who posed no threat.
An independent agency will now track the city's progress on reform.
Alright coming up, it is the story of two sisters and a cross country trip that could change lives.
Welcome back. Arielle is here now with our next story about two sisters and a cross country trip.
Arielle: Yeah Scott, but don’t be fooled. This is not some road conquering vacation. Instead it is a lifesaving mission. Take a look.
Sisters Sam and Alex Kimura are having a blast on their year-long cross-country road trip. Five years ago, Sam was a healthy high school athlete. Now, she has a rare blood disorder called severe aplastic anemia, and a bone marrow transplant is the only cure.
Sam Kimura: As a 22-year-old, you want to have your whole life stretched out ahead of you and know that you have limitless possibilities. But it’s hard knowing that I might not have that.
Arielle: During a bone marrow transplant, doctors replace the spongy tissue inside the bone with tissue and cells from a donor. But it is hard to find someone who is a good match for the procedure.
Big sister Alex hoped to save the day, but neither she, nor anyone else in the family was a match. And Sam's name stayed on the National Bone Marrow registry for years.
So the sisters decided to take action themselves.
Sam and Alex traded in their cars and bought a van, plotting a route through all 50 states.The plan, to find a donor for Sam. But along the way, they realized something.
Alex Kimura: There are thousands of patients every year that are in the same position, that can't find a donor. There are millions and millions of people in this country that just aren't signed up yet. They could be the cure for all these patients.
Arielle: So now, they are swabbing DNA from 50,000 cheeks, and getting those people registered with the non-profit Delete Blood Cancer.
They can be seen everywhere, hosting "donor jams" at student unions, rock concerts, even just curbside.
So far, there have been no matches for Sam. But the sisters have discovered 33 DNA matches that have led to possibly lifesaving donations.
For Sam, life on the road is hard. She is already weak from the 30 pills a day that control her disorder. But for Alex, the worst part is the daily dose of rejection…
…hundreds of eyes that look right past her little sister.
Alex: It keeps me up at night, and it gets me up in the morning because we have to. We have to find a match for her.
Arielle: Despite the challenges, there are now more than 8,000 people who have swabbed up.So down the road they roll, two sisters convinced that one special hero may be just around the corner.
Arielle Hixson, Channel One News.
For more information on bone marrow donation and how you can help Sam and Alex reach their goal, just head to Channelone.com.
Alright coming up after the break, we are taking you to an underground world unlike anything you have never seen before.
In our look back over 25 years of Channel One News, the national park series is for sure one of my favorites. And so, we are revisiting the country's natural wonders.
Today, Maggie Rulli heads underground to explore a five-level massive cave system.
Maggie: This might look like a typical forest from above. But Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky is home to a unique, underground world.
With over 392 miles of underground passages, Mammoth Cave is the longest known cave system in the world. These seemingly endless miles of underground pathways were important to both Native American culture and European settlers who mined precious minerals from the cave walls.
And while it looks like nothing could live in these dark caves, I was surprised to find out that I was surrounded.
Dr. Toomey these are unlike any crickets that I have ever seen in my life.
What is going on?
Dr. Toomey: These are cave adapted crickets. These are crickets that don't actually make a sound. This is a cave adapted daddy long legs. It has no eyes.
Maggie: And he will live his entire life in the cave. He will never see the daylight?
Dr. Toomey: Correct. He will never leave the cave.
This is a cave adapted crayfish. These have no pigment, have no eyes, they're adapted for life here in the dark.
Maggie: So, how did this dark place these critters all call home come to be?
Dr. Toomey: This whole area that we're standing in was dissolved out by water. It wouldn't be here if there wasn't water flowing through this area.
Maggie: Water is the lifeblood of the caves. It created these tunnels, and it feeds the ecosystem. But today, water is also one of the biggest threats to the caves. Air pollution, sewage, chemicals, oil and gas are contaminating the water here.
Dr. Toomey: All the organism on this planet share a need for clean water, us included.
Maggie: That's why park officials are working to protect the caves' water supply by purifying it before it even gets to the caves.
One of the ways Mammoth cave protects ground water is filtration systems like this one I am standing on. And while it might not look like that much, rain water that runs off from parking lots around the park filters through this system. But where does it ultimately end up?
Two and a half hours later that filtered run off water ends up right here at the natural entrance to Mammoth Cave. Let's keep on following the water deeper in.
So Dr. Toomey, we are following the water that first tracked in the parking lot, we saw it in the entrance to the cave, and now we are deep inside the cave and there's more water.
Dr. Toomey: Yes, this is water coming from the surface, down to River Sticks and then it will go out through the spring. And here we've got the water and we are monitoring it for various quality parameters. Its temperature, PH, how much oxygen there is in the water.
Maggie: And it is not just life inside the caves that benefits from this cleaner water.
Dr. Toomey: This is where cave water flows to. It's not done here, because when it comes into the Green River, it will then flow into the Ohio River, into the Mississippi River, and ultimately in the Gulf of Mexico.
Maggie: And Dr. Toomey says, keeping water clean around the world actually starts a lot closer to home.
Dr. Toomey: Local action can really make a difference. The water we're seeing in the Gulf of Mexico, it was local water somewhere. So if every community is able to help protect the quality of the water, that will make a huge difference by the time you mix all of that water together.
Maggie: Helping preserve America's underground wonders, like Mammoth Cave, for generations to come.
Maggie Rulli, Channel One News.
Scott: And that's it for us today. But of course, we will be right back here tomorrow.
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