CNN news 2015-02-28 加文本

cnn news 2015-02-28

CARL AZUZ, HOST: Hi, everyone.

I`m Carl Azuz for cnn STUDENT NEWS.

We are your commercial-free source of current events for middle and high school classrooms.

General Beauregard Lee is a famous groundhog here in the South. On Groundhog Day, he predicted an early spring. Failed. After four winter

storms in two weeks and states of emergency in Tennessee and Alabama, Southerners are saying never put your trust in the groundhog.

The snowfall, a couple inches here, a few more there, might not be much compared to what folks in the Northeast have been through.

But in states that are generally not used to it, it`s enough to shut down schools, delay or cancel hundreds of flights and leave grocery stores

completely out of milk and bread.

There were winter storm warnings in 11 states yesterday, some of them taking no chances with the memory still fresh of ice storms that shut down

traffic in Atlanta and the Carolinas last year.

A very different natural disaster is drying out part of part of South America. Sao Paolo is the largest city in Brazil. About 20 million people

live in and around Sao Paolo and they`re running dangerously low on water.

The city has seen its lowest amount of rainfall since 1930. The reservoir that provides its main water source is down to 6 percent of its

total capacity.

Officials are now warning people they may have to ration water.

What could be worse news is that some experts expect this crisis to last for years.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, ATS METEOROLOGIST: It`s a pretty incredible story when it comes to the country that has the largest fresh water supply in the

world, 12 percent of the world`s fresh water supply comes right out of here, Brazil.

Unfortunately, that water is distributed among the Amazon Basin to the north and unfortunately, as well, is that only 4 percent of Brazil`s

population lives along the Amazon Basin. You`ve got to come all the way to the south. That`s where about 21 million people live, in the most densely

populated region. Very little water to work with, in fact, some of the driest weather they`ve seen in some 80 years across this region.

In 2014, the only months that were even close to average in the rainfall department were the months of March and also the months of

November. So this is what we`re dealing with right now, exceptional drought taking place.

Some people having to literally have no access to water after 1:00 p.m. every single day. Some reports even saying that doctors having to cut

short dialysis for kidney patients because of the lack of water across areas of Sao Paolo in Brazil.

You take a look at some of the reservoirs. This particular one houses and provides water for some nine million people in Brazil.

Here`s the perspective, as we saw in back in August, 2013, a healthy year. And very quickly, with a lack of rainfall in about a 12 month span,

we come back down to reality. And this is what we`re seeing with the exposed banks across some of these areas.

Again, go back to August 2013, compare it to August 2014, a dire situation taking place across portions of Brazil.

And here is the perspective, an aerial view of what`s happening here. And unfortunately, the bad news is when you take a look at the

climatological norms, we are in the wet season. We`ve had some decent rainfall in recent months, but over the next several months, we do head

into the dry season, where little to no rainfall is typically expected.

So the problems could continue for the long haul.