(upbeat music) - Coming up next on "NewsDepth," storms on the Atlantic Ocean hit the US.

The National Women's Hall of Fame welcomes nine new inductees.

One community makes a wish come true with an accessible playground and local artists open the door to their Hispanic culture.

"NewsDepth" is now.

(upbeat music) The Atlantic Coast has been hit with heavy rain and powerful winds all the way from Puerto Rico to Canada.

Hello, everybody.

I'm Gabriel Kramer, in for Rick Jackson.

Thank you all for joining us.

Last week, Puerto Rico was affected by a Category 3 hurricane, Hurricane Fiona.

The powerful storm ravaged Puerto Rico, dumping several inches of rain, which triggered mudslides and flooding.

More than 900,000 residents of Puerto Rico are still without power, and about 27% still don't have running water.

Puerto Rico is a US territory.

Being a US territory means that it falls under the jurisdiction of the United States federal government, but does not hold the same status as one of the 50 states.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, is now assisting in Puerto Rico.

FEMA is the federal agency responsible for leading the nation's response to natural disasters.

Chris Nguyen has details of the cleanup efforts.

- [Chris] Hurricane Fiona, leaving a path of destruction and threatening even more deadly flooding as it grows to a Category 3 storm.

- It has been catastrophic rain that just won't stop.

- [Chris] Damage on this scale, not seen in the US territory since Hurricane Maria made landfall five years ago.

Some who lived through that say Fiona's flooding destruction could be even more severe.

- It's been rough.

We've been just working to get back this neighborhood, get it back from Maria when everything was destroyed.

Restaurants, houses, everything was destroyed.

- [Chris] Officials in Puerto Rico hope to restore power in a matter of days to the majority of residents, but rescue efforts continue to be impacted across the island.

Schools are also being inspected to ensure they're in working condition for students to return to class in the days ahead.

The National Hurricane Center says parts of the territory could see more than 30 inches of rain by the end of the storm.

- The first responders, the local responders, the responders of the government of Puerto Rico, are not able to get out and help those that need it or assess the damage.

- [Chris] The hurricane also leaving more than a million people without running water in the Dominican Republic.

Government officials there say first responders brought nearly 800 people to safety.

- Hurricane Fiona also swept across the Dominican Republic and Turks and Caicos and made its way north to Canada last weekend.

Florida has been under a state of emergency because of Tropical Storm Ian.

Hurricanes and tropical storms are both tropical cyclones but with different classifications.

A tropical cyclone is a rotating organized system of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical waters.

In the northern hemisphere, tropical cyclones always rotate counterclockwise.

There are three classifications for tropical cyclones.

A tropical depression has a maximum wind speed of 38 miles per hour.

A tropical storm comes with maximum sustained winds of 39 to 73 miles per hour, and a tropical cyclone with wind speeds over 74 miles per hour is classified as a hurricane.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other state officials are asking residents to take precautions and prepare for the worst as the storm strengthens.

Rick Damigella has the latest.

- It's important to point out to folks that the path of this is still uncertain.

- [Rick] Tropical Storm Ian is now forecast to become a Category 4 hurricane before weakening and is expected to hit Florida later this week.

On Sunday, Governor DeSantis expressing the degree of uncertainty of Ian's current track.

- Even if you're not necessarily right in the eye of the path of the storm, there's gonna be pretty broad impacts throughout the state.

You're gonna have wind.

You're gonna have water.

There could be flooding on the east coast of Florida.

- [Rick] Meanwhile, Floridians were out Sunday morning getting prepared.

People could be seen in stores stocking up on generators, canned goods, water and gas.

In Tampa, residents were out filling up their sandbags.

This scene all too familiar reminding many of when Hurricane Irma struck the state in 2017.

- In Hurricane Irma, we over evacuated residents by nearly 2 million people.

Please take the time.

Go to floridadisaster.org/know.

That's K-N-O-W. To find out what evacuation zone you live in.

- [Rick] Local mayors are also sending a reminder to their residents.

- We want everyone to ensure that their emergency equipment, their hurricane shutters, their battery operated radios.

- I encourage those that are not to do, to always take a storm serious, because you can never estimate where that storm might turn and we need to be prepared.

- Thank you, Rick.

Now, let's move on to some celebratory news.

The National Women's Hall of Fame welcomed nine revolutionary women into their new forever home at their induction ceremony last Saturday.

The National Women's Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization and museum dedicated to honoring and celebrating the achievements of distinguished American women.

It was started in 1968 by activist Shirley Wood Hartley in Seneca Falls, New York.

Sam Carter has the highlights of the latest inductees.

- [Sam] From a 19th century activist to a former first lady, the nine women inducted today into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls all left their mark on history.

One of the women inducted, Rebecca Halstead, who was the first woman in US military history to command combat at a strategic level.

For her, the hall connects generations of women to what's possible.

- Young girls can come through here and they can see all the different walks of life, and they're gonna connect.

Maybe it's to art.

Maybe it's to sports.

And then they're gonna see how that path connected us all.

- [Sam] After today's ceremony, there are now 312 women in the hall of fame.

One of those receiving the honor today was former First Lady Michelle Obama.

In a recorded acceptance speech, she credited the community around her for making all she's accomplished attainable.

- From a very young age, these women taught me that I mattered, that I was never just a little girl or just a child.

I was always someone special in my own right, someone with a big heart and a big brain, someone who had value, someone limited only by her own imagination for herself.

- One of the women presenting today was former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Today, Clinton reflected on the current struggles women face and what needs to be done.

- It saddens and yes, it angers me that my granddaughter, Charlotte, may grow up in a world where she has fewer rights than my daughter, Chelsea.

But that also motivates me to keep going, keep fighting, keep speaking out and standing up, and I know I'm in good company, not only with the inductees, but with all of you.

- Ohio has been home to some revolutionary women.

Victoria Woodhull, for instance, was the first woman to run for president in 1872.

Mary Fecteau has a story on this equal rights activist for this week's "Know Ohio."

(upbeat guitar music) - Today, we're used to seeing women do all kinds of things from running at the Olympics to running businesses to running for president.

But back in the 1800s, things were much different for women.

Women were expected to be quiet and obedient.

They dressed the part in big Victorian gowns and let the men in their lives, their husbands and fathers, lead the way.

So, it's remarkable that in this time, one forward thinking lady from Ohio appeared on the presidential ballot.

Victoria Woodhull was born in 1838 in Homer, Ohio.

In many ways, Woodhull was different from her peers.

Woodhull was married at age 15, but she was divorced and was remarried, and it was her second husband who introduced her to many reform movements that hoped to change the way things were in society.

Victoria didn't have much education, but she was scrappy and found a way to make money on her own by traveling with her sister, Tennessee Claflin, telling fortunes and using untraditional methods of healing people.

This is how they met rich railroad baron Cornelius Vanderbilt, who would help Woodhull and her sister open a brokerage firm on Wall Street.

Here, they went into business buying and selling stocks, the first women to do so.

Woodhull believed in some revolutionary ideas for the time, that women should have rights, specifically, the right to love who they want and to vote.

She didn't think these ideas got enough attention, so she got to work publishing a newspaper full of them called "Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly."

By 1872, she decided to step even further into the spotlight and run for president.

Remember, this was a full 50 years before women would get the right to vote.

She was nominated by the Equal Rights Party, and her platform included equality for all people, giving women the right to vote and changing child labor laws.

Way ahead of her time, Woodhull believed no one should have to work more than eight hours each day, and she wanted to provide more help for the poor.

She said her running mate was famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass, but he wasn't actually on board.

In fact, he publicly supported her opponent, Republican President Ulysses S Grant.

With the election only a few days away, Woodhull published an article in her newspaper, making accusations against popular preacher Henry Ward Beecher.

His supporters were so outraged that Woodhull was placed in jail.

While she was locked up, Ulysses S Grant was reelected president.

Woodhull was eventually found not guilty and released from jail.

A few years later, she moved to England where she lived out the rest of her days.

We don't know how many votes Woodhull received, but she would not have been able to be president even if she had received the most votes, not because she was a woman, but because she was only 34 years old at the time, and the US Constitution says the president must be at least 35.

- Thank you, Mary.

It's great hearing about all these very impressive women.

So, for this week's poll, we wanna know, which do you find most inspiring.

Head online to choose between former US Army officer, Rebecca Halstead, former First Lady Michelle Obama, politician, Hillary Clinton or Ohio native Victoria Woodhull.

In last week's poll, we asked you, between consumers, producers, and decomposers, which do you think has the most important role in the food chain?

58% of you agree that they are all equally important.

19% said that producers have the most important role.

13% of you think that decomposers should get all the credit, and 10% said that consumers are at the top of the food chain.

Now, let's talk about everyone's favorite producer of honey, bees.

A college student originally from Wisconsin wants to make her campus more hospitable for bees.

Two students at Luther College in Iowa have identified seven types of bees that have not been recorded in the state before.

Grace Ulch reports.

- [Grace] Madison native Emmelyn Cullen is working to prove the huge impact of native plants through a small tool, a bee.

- We've only identified 55 so far, like, species, but we have quite a few specimen that we've collected that we haven't gone through yet.

- [Grace] Cullen and research partner, Gwen Coleman, are headed into their junior year at Luther College.

They spent their summer analyzing bee diversity on campus.

So far, they say they found seven types of bees that have never been recorded in Iowa.

- But we're hoping that this will be like a baseline for future studies that they're able to use.

- Anytime these new discoveries lead to a more robust sense of what's there, it's good because people care about those species.

- Dan Young is an entomology professor at UW Madison and the director of the Wisconsin Insect Research Collection.

Some of his work focuses on bees.

Dr. Young says there are so many different species of this pollinator that in another classroom, one of these cabinets is dedicated solely to storing bees.

- As far as that goes, a lot of people don't know how much bees do impact them.

- [Grace] Without pollination by insects.

- All you end up with is crops that are pollinated by wind, and you don't end up with a very diverse table.

You end up with some cereal crops and some bad beer.

- So, the end goal for this project is to be able to make recommendations to our college land use council when it comes to having more native plants on campus.

- [Grace] Cullen, Coleman and Young all say the best way to protect these pollinators is by preserving their natural habitat, like plants that are native to the region.

- Thank you, Grace.

In Minnesota, a young boy made a wish and donated his own money to make that wish happen.

And now, he is reaping the benefits, benefits he happily shares with others.

Susan-Elizabeth Littlefield has the story of Quinn Larson.

- Life can be full of ups and downs.

The Larson family knows it well.

Their oldest son, Quinn, fell from a window, then got meningitis.

He lost his hearing and ability to speak, but he never lost his drive.

I remember distinctly when we first met Quinn in 2019, he was a kid with a dream and a long shot goal.

He donated his own money to Make-A-Wish to make the dream of an accessible playground happen.

- I think the community raised - - $307,000.

- Just to make it happen.

- Just the community, yeah.

- [Susan] In this small town.

- Right.

- Yeah.

- [Susan] Add in Quinn's money and a grant from DNR, and voila.

What was once a cornfield is now a field of dreams.

- And then we built it and they came.

- [Susan] And boy did they ever.

About 500 people showed up at Quinn's playground.

The ground is wheelchair accessible.

There's a resting spot for kids with autism, sign language art.

The swings are accessible and the Zipline.

Oh, the Zipline.

- It means that he can hang out with us now when we're on the playground.

So, then he can be included with all the fun stuff we do.

- You did this, Quinn.

You did this.

This is yours.

This is your dream.

- Of course, the playground doesn't just serve kids with disabilities.

It's also an adventure hotspot for kids of all abilities, which brings us to this this week's question.

Why is it important to put an emphasis on accessibility?

Head online to share your thoughts.

And last week, we asked, what happens at your school library if you return a book late?

Let's see what you found by opening up our inbox.

Chase at Parkside Elementary in Painesville wrote, "Dear NewsDepth, at my school, when we don't return a book on time, we will keep getting reminders to bring it back and turn it in.

And we aren't allowed to pick out another book until we bring it back."

Soumya from Tallmadge Elementary in Tallmadge has a lot of books she can check out.

"In my school, if you don't turn in a library book, you can tell them and they'll be okay with it.

If you manage to find the book and turn it in, nothing will happen.

PS our school has 8,000 books in the school library."

Andrew from VanGorden Elementary School in Liberty Township said this about his school library.

"When you have an overdue book at our school library, our librarian will tell us to bring it tomorrow, and you can return it when you have time.

You can also renew books, but you have to have the book to do that."

Mackenzie from Nord Middle School in Amherst said, "At our school, it doesn't matter if you turn in a book late as long as you return it by the end of the year.

If not returned by the end of the year, then it goes on your school fee.

In the end, you don't have to return it each week, which is great!"

Sounds like you like taking your time reading books, Mackenzie.

And finally, Devansh from Whitney Elementary in Strongsville learned the return policy at his school library.

"Dear NewsDepth, at Whitney, if we return a book late, Ms. Trimper, the library manager, will send an email to parents, and she'll make them pay a certain amount of money for how many days it's been missing, or she might make the parents buy a new book.

In conclusion, this is what will happen at Whitney if a book is late!"

Thank you, of course, for writing to us.

Remember to return your books to your school library once you're done so the next student can check them out, too.

We did some research ourselves.

The Cleveland Public Library does not have fees for books that are returned late, but they do have fines for lost or damaged items.

Now, if you don't mind, I've gotta catch up on my reading.

Oh, this book, well, it's a book about four friends, one of whom goes missing.

The other three go on a daring adventure to save their friend and discover secrets along the way.

One of the coolest things about this book is that it was written by two eighth graders at Amherst Junior High School.

They are this week's A+ Award winners.

Emma Kucbel and Katelyn Banyas' journey as writers began when they were in the sixth grade.

Along with their classmates, they entered a writing contest.

The girls had so much fun, they entered a few more, and a writing career was born.

Emma said it was really motivating to participate and it inspired her and Katelyn to find more contests to compete in on their own.

From there, the two authors started to write chapter books, five of them to be exact.

Quite impressive if you ask us.

Then, one night at a sleepover party, inspiration struck.

Katelyn told us that they came up with the title of their masterpiece, "Expect the Unexpected," and they got to work.

"We really couldn't stop once we got started," Katelyn explained.

What really impressed us here at "NewsDepth" is the very organized writing process the two authors used to tell their story.

They began with a detailed outline that helped organize the flow of the story.

Then, they wrote drafts of each paper.

Once the draft was finished, they co-edited their work by collaborating on FaceTime and by using Google Docs.

Fun fact, the team here at "NewsDepth" also uses Google Docs to write this show every week.

Emma and Katelyn even asked their classmates and friends to give feedback on the story as it developed.

Once they were happy with their manuscript, they entered it into a template provided by the publisher.

A manuscript is an author's writing that has not yet been published.

Emma and Katelyn told us they even had to apply for an ISBN number.

We had no idea what that was, so we looked it up and learned that an ISBN number is a unique number that identifies a specific book.

We asked the authors for some advice to help us with our writing, and Emma told us that patience is the key.

Even when it's hard, take your time and keep working.

Katelyn told us that you should follow your dreams no matter what.

Even if people tell you your dreams aren't realistic, keep working because anything is possible.

Very wise words from the both of them.

"Expect the Unexpected ends" with a cliff hanger.

So, here at "NewsDepth," we're looking forward to getting our hands on the sequel.

This week's A+ Award winners are Emma and Katelyn for their outstanding writing.

Now, from outstanding writing, let's turn to some outstanding painting.

The Julia de Burgos Cultural Art Center started a series in 2016 that spotlights many of the talented Latinx visual artists living in this region.

A group of northeast Ohio artists continued the project by creating doors for five additional Spanish speaking countries.

Natalia Garcia opens the door to the Hispanic community in Cleveland for us.

(pencil scratches on paper) - "Doors to My Barrio" was started in 2016.

It was just an idea of, from a donation of doors that I received from a friend.

And, at first, I was, just thought, what am I gonna do with these doors?

We kind of came up with the idea behind the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitars.

We decided that each door would represent a Spanish speaking country.

(upbeat Hispanic music) (speaking Spanish) - [Interpreter] I am very honored to participate this year because I made the door of Honduras.

So, I had the idea of showing the beauty of what is Mayan and what is Lenca, and with coffee, which is very much a part of the Honduran culture.

So I painted Ixchel, who is the Mayan goddess of the moon.

She has a rabbit, and she's always carrying a rabbit.

(speaking Spanish) This has been a very nice experience, and it turns out when I was looking, I came across Argentina, and guess what?

I have some friends, and one of my best friends of the soul for more than 30 years, she's Argentine.

And I concentrated on what they really are.

Sun, tango, mate.

Well, we also have to mention, right, the asados, the grill.

But we'll leave that to celebrate, okay?

- My door for a project, I was actually given Spain as my theme 'cause bullfighters are very common in Spanish artworks and everywhere.

It's a matador in a purple suit, matador suit.

And he's kind of like pulling, like, the little blanket, like, when the bull goes by him, and it's, I colored it so that it's, looks like the flag of Spain.

- So, I did Bolivia, and I wanted to include, like, the indigenous population of Bolivia 'cause a big percentage of their, the people are indigenous, so, it's the Aymara and the Quechua people.

So, I included the two women in the, kind of looking at the Andes and then I included a sunset.

So, one of the rays is the Wiphala flag, which is actually also like a national flag, and it's, represents the indigenous people, which I've never heard of that before, so.

- I got Uruguay.

Back in the colonial times, it was a place where the Africans came, and it was a place where they came for freedom and that was where they kind of dispute the distributed themselves into the, into America, essentially.

So, that's where I kind of have all these different melting pots of people in this small little door I have.

(speaking Spanish) - [Interpreter] I feel very honored because the doors are showing each country.

So, painting the door of Honduras was an honor.

You understand me?

Painting my country, representing my country, and I think it's a very nice project, and I think there's nothing else like here in Cleveland, I don't believe even in Ohio.

- Gracias, Natalia.

I think Newshound has his first story ready for us.

Let's see what he's dug up for this week's "Petting Zoo."

(mysterious music) Newshound.

Look at him go.

He must be on the trail of something good.

That nose can detect a good story from miles away.

Oh, you found a romantic story about two senior dogs getting hitched at the animal shelter.

To find out who got the wedding invite, click the Petting Zoo button on our website.

Thank you, Newshound.

I think we have time for one more story.

A young boy in Colorado has a special talent.

He's a musical genius, but it was a hidden gift for the first 10 years of his life.

Danny New has the story.

(inspirational music) - [Danny] It's really not often that a 10 year old can give keyboard lessons to himself.

- One day, I was here watching the news when I heard him play something on, there's a small keyboard down the basement.

So, I grabbed my phone and went down, and I'm like, Jude, play that again.

(inspirational music) - [Danny] This was in February of last year when Jude, who has autism, made his father realize that his youngest son could basically hear anything and then figure out how to play it immediately.

So, you can imagine the reaction from his parents.

♪ The Lord is good.

♪ - [Danny] Especially for his father, who was a musician in his home country of Ghana before moving to America.

- I had that dream of being able to play for a big, on a big stage.

But I got here, I couldn't do that.

So, I'm like, okay, then I want the kids to do it.

Yeah, so this is him.

- [Danny] But Jude's unexpected virtuosity also felt like a blessing because of his health problems early in life.

- [Isaiah] He looked tiny with all those machines going off.

- [Danny] That must have been horrible.

- [Isaiah] Yes.

- Jude was born with low oxygen levels and had to have heart surgery as a baby to repair a hole.

He even needed a feeding tube in his stomach until he was eight.

But Jude is a fighter and has thankfully mostly recovered now.

As you can tell, it's kind of hard to break his spirit.

Do you know you're doing that or it just all comes out?

- Maybe it just all comes out.

(virtuosic piano music) (Jude laughs) - [Danny] Now, at 11 years old, Jude is all over YouTube.

He plays weddings.

He's the lead keyboardist at their church in Aurora, and - - That's him.

(simple piano music) - [Danny] He'll even jam with beginners.

- Thank you, Danny.

And now, as always, we want to hear from you, and there are plenty of ways to stay in touch.

You could write to us.

We're at 1375 Euclid Avenue.

That's Cleveland, Ohio.

Zip code here is 44115.

You can email us at newsdepth@ideastream.org, or you can Tweet us.

Our handle is @NewsDepthOhio.

Thank you so much for joining us.

I'm Gabriel Kramer, and we'll see you right back here next week.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] "NewsDepth" is made possible by a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.

(upbeat music)