MIKE PESCA, host:
Welcome back to the Bryant Park Project from NPR News. We're on digital FM, Sirius Satellite Radio, online at npr.org/bryantpark, and if you sync us up just right to the "Wizard of Oz," it's really trippy. It's like one is commenting on the other. I'm Mike Pesca.
RACHEL MARTIN, host:
And I'm Rachel Martin. Coming up, the first interracial prom in the town of Charleston, Mississippi. But first, let's get latest news headlines from the BPP's Mark Garrison.
BILL WOLFF: This is NPR.
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MARK GARRISON: Thank you, Rachel. Days of heavy rain, means Midwesterners are thinking floods. NPR's David Schaper ha - takes a look at the situation in Wisconsin.
DAVID SCHAPER: Engineers from the National Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers used helicopters to inspect some levees and dams on flooded rivers and lakes across southern and central Wisconsin, while other engineering crews checked for damage from the ground. The inspections followed a huge breach in an embankment along Lake Delton Monday. That breach caused the lake to almost completely drain out into the already swollen Wisconsin River, and the rushing waters took down a handful of lakefront homes, too.
Outside of Milwaukee, officials are keeping a close watch on the dam holding back Phantom Lake on the Mukwonago River, and authorities evacuated much of the small town of Gays Mills, Wisconsin, along the Kickapoo River in the southwestern part of the state for the second time in 10 months.
GARRISON: NPR's David Schaper reporting. In Iowa, they're filling sandbags to beef up flood defense. Waters are high and more rain is in the forecast. So those along the Cedar River are asking for sandbag volunteers. The sandbag wall held last night, but the town of Cedar Falls needs more. If the levee is breached, downtown will flood and residents must evacuate. Parts of Indiana and Minnesota are seeing severe weather, too.
In California, they'd actually like some of that rain. Wild fires, whipped up by high winds are the problem around Sacramento, thousands of acres burnt and several communities evacuated. It may not get easier today. Fire exp - fighters expect more high winds today and tomorrow.
Bad weather contributed to a fiery plane crash with more than 200 passengers on board, several passengers still unaccounted for in Sudan. NPR's Ofibia - Ofeibea Quist-Arcton has more.
OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON: The Civil Aviation Authorities in Sudan say they believe more than 100 people survived the crash at Khartoum International Airport in the capital. Staff at a nearby police hospital counted almost 30 bodies, but others remain unaccounted for, and there's confusion over their fate. The Sudanese authorities are still trying to locate these missing passengers. The Sudan Airways Airbus 310, flying in from Amman in Jordan, was forced to land in poor weather conditions. The aircraft was reportedly taxiing on the runway when an engine caught fire and flames rapidly consumed the fuselage.
GARRISON: NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reporting. The space shuttle Discovery heads home today. It undocks from the International Space Station, snaps a few pictures, then heads back to Earth. Astronauts installed a new Japanese science lab to the Space Station on their nine-day visit, and of course, they also fixed the toilet on board. They are due back in - to Earth on Saturday.
"Sex and the City" is a hit at the box office, but it's also making waves in the book biz. Fans want the book Carrie reads while in bed with Mr. Big. In the movie, it's called "Love Letters of Great Men." Problem is, it doesn't exist. Not exactly. The closest real book is called, "Love Letters of Great Men and Women from the 18th Century to the Present Day." It's from 1920, but was actually reissued last year. All the interest from movie fans has boosted the obscure book into best-seller territory on Amazon. That is the news for the moment. It's always online at npr.org.
WOLFF: This is NPR.
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