lined up for you

today on CNN STUDENT NEWS.

One story we`ve been following this week is the historic flooding in the U.S. state of

Louisiana. A by the numbers look helps us explain how bad it

is, especially in Southern Louisiana.

Six-point-nine trillion, that`s the number of gallons of rain that started all this,

between August 8th and August 14th. Livingston Parish in

particular got more than 31 inches of rain in just one day.

Forty thousand, that`s the number of homes that had been damaged, in what Louisiana governor

calls a major disaster. Twenty thousand, the number of

people who`ve been rescued so far. Eleven deaths have been blamed on the floods across

the state.

Five hundred years, the likelihood that a flood this catastrophic would occur in the

Baton Rouge. It means once every 500 years.

And finally, 12, the number of Louisiana parishes that had been declared federal disaster areas.

That speeds up federal government assistance to

them. More than 12 other parishes may also get this declaration.

We touched on the definition of flash floods the other day. Jennifer Gray now explores

what makes this flood so dangerous.

In the U.S., flash floods kill more people than tornadoes, hurricanes or lighting. A

flash flood creates a

rush of moving water than can sweep a grown man off his feet, a car off the road and even

your entire home off its foundation.

When the ground becomes so saturated that water can no longer seep in to the soil, it

begins to run off quickly into rivers and streams and this

causes a rise in water and a flash.

Densely populated areas have an extremely high risk of flash flooding with additional

concrete than less grassy areas for the water to soak into the

soil. And they can see flash flooding very quickly. In mountainous terrain, the combination

of gravity, plus the easy runoff can lead to

catastrophic flooding when all of that water is funneled into rivers, creeks and even the

valleys.

Remember, flash flooding can happen in a blink of an eye. That`s why it`s important to stay

alert and pay attention in case a flash flood watch or

warning is issued for your area.

Next today, there are at least two historic American publications that give long range

predictions about the weather. One is the old

Farmer`s Almanac, the other is the Farmer`s Almanac. Why? Because we like to confuse you.

Not really. The old Farmer`s Almanac was founded in 1792. The younger Farmer`s Almanac was

founded in 1818. They are different publications, and

while the old one predicts the upcoming winter in the U.S. will be colder than last winter

but still pretty normal, the Farmer`s Almanac, the younger

one, says winter will be a freezing beast from the central to the eastern U.S., lots

of cold and snow.

Both publications say they`re accurate about 80 percent of the time. A CNN affiliate in

north Texas once found that the younger Farmer`s Almanac was

pretty accurate for that region. But no matter which almanac you`re talking about, modern

meteorologists predict inaccuracies.

Farmer`s Almanac: fact or fiction?

The Farmer`s Almanac has been around for about 200 years and people continue to buy it for

the forecast. Five, six,

seven months, they want to know those three-day spreads of when they have a chance of rain,

snow or ice. I can tell you, as a meteorologist, we

struggle with five, even the seven-days out.

You know, I think a lot of farmers do use it. First of all, they live by the sun. I

mean, they`re up at down. They work all day. I don`t know if

they really use it so much for a forecast.

The mystery behind the forecast is just that, it`s a mystery. The secret is actually locked

up in a vault. Some think it has to do with magnetic

fields in the atmosphere. They`ll tell you they use sun spot activity, there`s no scientific

proof that that helps forecasting long term.

Ultimately, let me just say, if you`re planning, six months from now to go on a vacation on

the beaches in Florida and the almanac says you`re going

to be rained out, don`t change your plans.

We`ve been looking at several different aspects of the ongoing Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro,

Brazil. One major and very public

challenge for the South American city, pollution, especially in the water, in places like Guanabara

Bay where sailing events are held.

In its bid to get the Olympics, Rio officials promised they`d clean up the pollution flowing

into the water. And last weekend, the communications

director for the games said the water levels at the venues were satisfactory, though there`s

still work to do.

To explain how the bay got so polluted in the first place, we`re taking you inside the

city.

Rio`s sailing venue is called the dirtiest Olympic athletes have ever competed in. Floating

garbage, even a sofa seething with raw sewage. You`ve seen the pictures. We want to show

you where it`s all coming from.

Even after recent improvement, only half of homes in Rio connected to a sanitation network.

All you have to do is head uphill, that`s where you

find raw sewage and garbage flowing freely between houses.

In the sprawling favela of Rocinha, Jose Martin Rivera (ph) has been fighting for basic services

for decades.

"If we had sewage systems, we`d have good health, he says. Instead, we have tuberculosis,

rashes and gastrointestinal infections."

He takes us on a tour of some of the 23 open sewage canals he`s documented in the neighborhood.

Oh my God!

Here you can really see what this is all about. You have pipes coming straight out of people`s

bathrooms and kitchens, dripping the sewage down.

There are even rats running around. It doesn`t get worse than this.

Flushed out, untreated, families of rats and the smell that just makes you gag, flowing

past houses and along footpaths, whisking trash

along with it especially in heavy rains. Until it all ends up on Rio`s beaches, in the lagoon

where rowers are competing, Team USA armed with

anti-microbial suits, and Guanabara Bay sailors and wind surfers are warned to shut their

mouths against the toxic spray.

When you`re out shopping, watching for sales or styles, cameras might be watching you and

not just for security. Retailers want to know

what displays get the most attention, what store locations get the most foot traffic.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission says that many shoppers don`t want their movements tracked.

They`re concerned about their privacy if they`re being

electronically followed around. But for retailers, monitoring could be key to sales.

This type of shopping is becoming the old way of doing things, e-commerce is nipping

at the heels of brick and mortar retail sales.

That`s because online retailers know you better. They can track your every move, what we like,

what we buy, and how we shop.

But a new heat mapping technology called Prism is evening the playing field for brick and

mortar stores like Rachel Shachtman`s (ph).

I think we`re on the edge of retail Armageddon, which might be a little bit extreme. But I

do think, you know, what would Amazon

be without incites and analytics.

If you can`t track them while they shop, customers might as will be invisible.

Here are I am, trying those sun glasses.

Prism figured out how to use security cameras to capture shoppers` motions, what they touched,

which way they entered and which areas they like most.

Is red good or bad?

Red is busy. The same way the Amazon or all these big online guys understand their customers

to what they do and what they click

and what they go on, the retailers need to understand that as well. So, we get that same

kind of data.

There`s about 25 things on this table. How do you know what people are picking up?

So, when you`re looking at the map, that will give you a sense, right, of where the most

action is. So, kind of look at that and

pull the queues here, look at sales and say, you know what? This journal is not selling

and maybe it`s because this sign is right in front of it.

So, I think we might have to play a little bit of retail Tetris.

Prism`s clients range from supermarkets, to furniture stores, to big tech retailers.

Just to make sure that all my stores kind of conform and check on it is an action that`s

going to increase sales if everyone

executed properly or it`s going to save costs, because I didn`t need to travel around 20

stores to do that. Because retail is real life thing

that`s happening every minute. So, every minute, you don`t change something to retail, you`d

probably miss an opportunity.

Many of your teachers might remember playing Pac-Man while eating Twinkies. In this live

game, Twinkie is Pac-Man while eating balloons.

Let`s explain. The Pac-Man you see actually a Jack Russell Terrier named Twinkie. He holds

the Guinness World Record for popping balloons. In this

awesome YouTube video, he`s just doing it in a large maze with paper ghosts floating

around on sticks. No one gets hurt except the balloons, the dog

is super cute, so why not?

You can`t deny, it`s amazing. The balloons don`t have a ghost of a chance. It looks just

like the original arf-cade and that dog is Russell enough fun

Jack with no time to terrier.

That gobbles up all our time on CNN STUDENT NEWS. Play again tomorrow. It won`t cost you

a quarter.