CNN news 2012-04-14 加文本

cnn news 2012-04-14

AZUZ: A massive earthquake followed the threat of a tsunami for people in Indonesia. That combination could bring up tragic memories. In 2004, there was an earthquake off the Indonesian coast, and that triggered a tsunami, this giant wall of water. It killed more than 200,000 people --

AZUZ (voice-over): -- was absolutely catastrophic for the region. Well, yesterday, there was another major quake. This one had a magnitude of 8.6. It hit the same area, off the coast of the island of Sumatra. There was also a powerful aftershock a couple hours later.

Some residents were told to evacuate to get to higher ground, where they would be safer. Officials put out a tsunami watch, but they canceled that later in the day. Unlike the massive devastation of eight years before, there were no immediate reports of deaths or destruction from this quake.

We`ve been talking to you recently about this. It was a ship that was washed away by the tsunami that hit Japan last year. It was thought to be lost until it showed up off the coast of Canada. The thing was still intact.

It was part of this giant field of debris that the tsunami washed out into the Pacific Ocean. You see it moving across the Pacific in this simulation on your screen now.

Over the course of a year, this ship drifted all the way across the Pacific. The Japanese ship gradually drifted into U.S. waters. It was drifting at about a mile per hour, and heading toward fishing areas in the Gulf of Alaska. That`s when the U.S. Coast Guard decided to sink it. Officials said the Japanese vessel posed a threat to other ships in the area. They also said it might be an environmental hazard.

So late last week, the Coast Guard opened fire with cannons on this ship. They blew holes in its side. What`s interesting is it took more than four hours for it to sink.

On April 12th, back in 1861, Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina. That marked the beginning of the U.S. Civil War. In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the longest-serving president in U.S. history, died a few months into his fourth term in office.

In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to travel into space. His historic journey lasted just under two hours. And 20 years after that, in 1981, NASA launched the space shuttle program. The vehicle was Columbia; the program lasted for 30 years.

AZUZ: April is National Autism Awareness Month. The goal is to educate people about this medical disorder and about issues in the autism community.

AZUZ (voice-over): Autism is actually a series of developmental disorders. They usually appear before someone turns three years old. The symptoms are different from person to person, but all autism disorders affect the ability to communicate and to interact with others.

Last month, a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that about one out of every 88 of the 8-year-old children it surveyed has autism. These disorders are about five times more common among boys than among girls.

AZUZ: While autism is often diagnosed in childhood, is a lifelong disorder, there`s no cure for it, and for adults with autism, finding a job can be a very difficult struggle. Gena Somra reports on one business that`s trying to help.

GENA SOMRA, cnn REPORTER (voice-over): Tom Pinchbeck never dreamed he`d turn his family rose farm into an employment center for people with autism.

After fierce international competition forced him to close the farm started by his great-grandfather, a family friend worried about his own autistic son`s future, helped reshaped Pinchbeck`s legacy. Now Pinchbeck is working with the non-profit group, Ability Beyond Disability to put a dent in the staggering 88 percent unemployment rate among Americans with autism.

JOAN VOLPE, VICE PRESIDENT, ABILITY BEYOND DISABILITY: He likes for folks to come into our program, learn the skills that they need to learn and let us help them place them in their community where they live and find a job and hopefully a career.

SOMRA (voice-over): Will Swartzell, a 19-year old with autism, is one of Rose`s employees. He and his mother, Sondra, say potential employers should put aside stereotypes that may prevent them from hiring those with autism.

WILL SWARTZELL, ROSES FOR AUTISM EMPLOYEE: I believe that autism only -- for me, it tells me that I learn a certain way that the majority doesn`t really, you know, is used to learning.

SOMRA (voice-over): With the help of a few charitable grants, Roses for Autism is now helping young adults with autism improve their lives, and Pinchbeck`s rose farm is also back, producing close to 1 million flowers per year -- Gena Somra, cnn, Gilford, Connecticut.