5 things you need to know for Thursday, September 2

Good morning southern Colorado and here's what you need to know on your Thursday, September 2.

If you'd like to read the full story, be sure to click on the story headline.
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Remnants of Hurricane Ida cause major flooding in Northeast, killing 8

The remnants of Ida slammed the northeast producing historic rainfall amounts that left millions under a flash flooding emergency and triggered multiple tornado warnings throughout the night.

A confirmed tornado touched down in southern New Jersey.

There are reports of 7 deaths in New York City and 1 in New Jersey. New York City Mayor Bill Deblasio has declared a state of emergency.

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Multiple resources help Fort Carson soldiers relieve military stressors

Fort Carson has many resources that help soldiers, their families, even people in the community who want to offer support.

An important resource on post is Army Community Service which offers 13 distinct programs like family and relationship counseling, financial readiness programs, and peer support groups.

For more information on the services Fort Carson offers, click here.
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D11 announces mask mandate for staff

Colorado Springs Schools D-11 announced all staff members will have to wear masks in schools regardless of vaccine status, effective Tuesday, September 7.

And as cases go up in the county they anticipate they'll have the same mandate for elementary students starting that day too.

According to the district's COVID-19 policy, if a mask mandate is enacted it will last for at least 30 days.

Click the headline above for the full announcement.
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KOAA News5's "If You Give a Child a Book" campaign

KOAA and the Scripps Howard Foundation recognize that an impoverished environment often leads to children receiving a lack of access to reading resources, a lower reading proficiency, and a struggle to adequately complete courses needed to transition into the world.

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The "If You Give a Child a Book" literacy program focuses on under-served children between the grades of kindergarten to third grade as this age range is often overlooked by other efforts.

According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, children who do not read at grade level by the end of third grade are four times less likely to graduate from high school, and these numbers more than triple for children who experience poverty.

The best way to curb these numbers is to make reading fun for children. Per Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report, a child's frequency of reading books for fun begins to drop from 55% at age 8 to just 35% by the time a child reaches 9-years-old.

In partnering with Scholastic Book Programs, the If You Give A Child A Book campaign allows children to choose their own personal reading materials that they can take home to start their home libraries.

Since its inception, "If You Give a Child a Book" has distributed over 500,000 books, generating more than 90 million reading minutes. Every $5 you donate will result in one free book for a student hoping to have a bright future.

If you're interested in helping out the children of Southern Colorado, you can donate here.

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Get your latest First Alert 5 Weather forecast

The forecast is going to stay cool and a little rainy over the next few days, but not with as much widespread rain as we saw on Wednesday.

We'll see more storms begin over the mountains and push east into the I-25 corridor. Most of the daytime rain will hang out around the Pikes Peak Region and northern Fremont County.

A cold front in the afternoon and evening could help kick up a few more storms down near the Pueblo area and east overnight but no severe weather is expected.

Temperatures will be in the lower 80s in Colorado Springs and upper 80s in Pueblo.

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