10.

I'm Carla Zeus, thankful to be part of your Thursday Nature plays a starring role in today's show.

First, we're getting you up to speed on Hurricane Sally, which finally made landfall on Wednesday.

While it was in the Gulf, the storm had strengthened, then weakened, then strengthened again.

It curved east as it slowly approached the U.

S Gulf Coast.

And on Wednesday morning, Sally hit Gulf Shores, Alabama, as a Category two hurricane with wind speeds of 105 MPH.

It was the same spot and the same date when Hurricane Ivan struck 16 years ago.

But even though it wasn't a strong is Ivan.

Hurricane Sally was a much slower moving storm.

The Category two system dragged ashore at two MPH slower than people walk, and that gave it more time to dump rain on Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

Between 10 and 35 inches were possible in the region.

Significant downfalls were expected in central Georgia and the Carolinas as well.

Power was knocked out for more than 500,000 customers and fallen trees, flooded streets and water rescues were all part of the scene Wednesday in Pensacola, Florida That's where CNN's Gary Tuchman made this report.

Pensacola Beach This barrier island south of the city of Pensacola, Florida, is a beautiful place to live and visit, but certainly not right now.

This feels like a hurricane that will never end.

It's now been torrential rain ing for about 15 hours straight, and now the winds are picking up.

We have hurricane force gusts, 60 MPH, sustained winds, but the winds are not the story.

Hurricane.

105 MPH.

Right now it's the rain.

Catastrophic historic flooding is expected here in this resort town.

The roads are covered.

It is an island and the bridges in our closed.

If you're here like we are, you're here for the duration.

Now you can't get often just to let you know we're safe.

We're taking the precautions necessary in this kind of situation.

We're staying away from the record that's blowing around.

But the real concern is this flooding.

There's just nowhere for this water to go and it's expected, laughed yourself form or hours.

There's no mandatory evacuation order.

It's a voluntary evacuation order hush because There's concern for some people about going into shelters in the Kobe pandemic, but people are taking it very seriously.

We haven't seen anyone walking around during daylight yesterday, and certainly no one walking around right now in the middle of this danger.

As one part of the US praise for the rain to stop, another is hoping it will start.

Weeks of hot, dry weather on the U.

S West coast have made conditions worse for the wildfires burning there.

Dozens of people have been killed, thousands of homes have been lost and more than 4.7 million acres have burned.

Dry grass and high winds have fueled the spread of the flames.

Relief may be on the way for parts of the Pacific Northwest.

Rain is in the forecast, and that could make things much easier for firefighters in Oregon and Washington.

But it comes too late for places like talent.

In southwest Oregon, one fire burned much of the city to rubble and ash covered by the red fire retardant you see in these pictures, CNN 10 contributor Tyler Mauldin shows how even in places that haven't been burned, the air tells the story of the disaster.

Tyler.

It's been a record setting wildfire season for the West Coast of the US Carl and all those fires recently made it appear as if we're now the inhabitants of Mars.

Rapid, uncontained fires caused the sky tohave an out of this world.

Orange and red hue all over.

These eerie, apocalyptic views are due to smoke and ash from fires being pulled into the air.

You could see it from space on satellite imagery.

That's how much of it was in the air.

The image on your left shows clear skies, not a cloud in sight, which is what one would see on a normal, sunny day.

Meanwhile, the image on your right shows a different view.

There's a lot of brown blanketing the region, which is the smoke and ash from the wildfires thousands of feet up.

The smoke and ash are the main ingredients for creating this aura of something only seen in sci fi acting very much like Mother Nature's own instagram or Snapchat filter.

The reason for this is the same reason as to why the sky is blue or why you see colorful sunrises or sunsets.

Remember the acronym Roy G.

Biv sure you dio.

Each letter stands for a different wavelength on the visible spectrum, which correlates with a different color.

Seen with the naked eye red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

When the sun's rays moved through the sky, it hits these particles of smoke and ash lofted in the air.

The particles then forced a smaller wavelengths, blues and greens to be scattered all about making us unable to see the colors on that side of the spectrum.

Instead, the longer wavelengths of red to yellow are able to pass through these particles and reach the surface of the earth, giving way to this haunting effect for us to see.

Unfortunately, Karl, we could Seymour events similar to this one.

There's a lot of wildfire season left to G O, and all signs point to no significant improvement in fire conditions in the months to come.

Yeah, 12th trivia.

What do tomatoes, jalapenos, eggplant and okra all have in common?

Are they all vegetables, fruits, gorge or seedless thing?

Believe it or not, these air all technically fruits, though they're often cooked and eaten as vegetables, biodiversity is our next subject today.

I told you this was all about nature.

10 years ago, the leaders of 196 countries got together in Japan.

Among the goals of their convention were to protect ecosystems and to conserve biodiversity, the many different species of animals and plants living in the world.

Their deadline was 2020.

The United Nations published a report this week that said not a single goal of the conference was reached.

But there are individuals taking steps on a small scale to do what the summit had aimed for on a larger one.

And one of those people is the subject of today's great big story.

If just over 100 years ago you went to the market and say you wanted to buy tomatoes, you would have 400 plus varieties of tomatoes.

400 plus types of squash is 300 plus types of just piece.

It would be mind boggling.

We have lost 99% off the biodiversity we've had in vegetables on The shocking thing is how few people are aware off what's happening.

You know, seed keeping was a tradition that existed for thousands of years, but in the past 100 years or so, we've lost that tradition on today.

Farmers buy seeds from the market.

There are no they see native seeds that are actually sold by commercial companies in India today.

So I felt that if I didn't start toe preserve whatever is left now, this would be a disaster.

I have probably tested about 140 varieties off indigenous vegetables on made sure that they grow in the environment suitably.

Mm.

This is a Hanneman.

Gotta gather in.

Sanskrit means a maze.

It's what God used to fight with.

We call this the Blue Tomato.

We will have to think of a better name way have more than five types off Akhras.

We have white, green, purple on.

Then we have got this painted lady.

It's like somebody took a paintbrush on nicely sort of street.

The bridges The reason why these vegetables have gone extinct.

We introduced industrial agriculture till then farmers where the producers of seeds and they were the keepers of seeds.

So if they were varieties off indigenous vegetables, they were not included in this new business model.

My greatest hope is that the urban gardeners will be the ones who will save what biodiversity is left you can grow this in your balcony or terrace on your kitchen garden, and you've saved something.

A.

Sfar.

As I am concerned, we cannot afford toe even lose out on one vegetable variety that's facing extinction.

We have to preserve them.

We don't have a choice.

Genetic biodiversity is essential for the survival of the entire planet.

This variety could have just slipped out off this planet without anybody knowing yet.

It's somehow still there on.

I have a small role to play in that.

To me, that is my biggest reward.

Monkey Accused of stealing phone taking SELFIES 10 out of 10 A Malaysian man says he lost his phone on Saturday and thought it was stolen.

He says he was still trying to call it Sunday when he heard a ringing from the jungle behind his house, not far from where a monkey had been spotted.

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, the man checked the photo gallery and said it was stocked with pictures of the possible thief along with nature shots.

Of course, the evidence might Simeon Circumstantial.

Some lawyers might not be given it much credence, especially if they can't chimpanzee their way to winning the case.

But you gotta grip it some credit because once you looked hammer into the fax, they tell a lion tale that gives a baboon to the argument over what the primate or tried to Hinkley.

Finlayson High School is in Hinckley, Minnesota.

We heard from you guys on YouTube.

You guys are awesome.

I'm Carla Zeus for CNN.