NBC晚间新闻 美国强降雨影响快递运输和节日出行

It's already started. High surf and heavy rains pounding the Pacific Coast, the first of several storms this week. Notice that widespread rain starts to push in during the evening commute¹. By midweek just as a hundred 10 million Americans start the holiday getaway. More rain will drench² everything east of the Mississippi. Potential rain delay is expected at Atlanta's Airport Thursday and Friday. Along with just about every Airport to the north south and east.

On the highways, that heavy rain could make for a slow crawl on nearly all the arteries³ running east-west and north-south, with snow expected in the Upper Midwest. Volatile⁴ weather, a top concern for the nation shippers. Now in an all-out push to deliver those holiday packages to guarantee a Christmas arrival. The big three say give it to them, no later than Friday. There are a lot of procrastinators, 53% of people are expected to wait until Saturday to try to ship their Christmas packages. In Los Angeles the crush is now. We hire a bunch of people we hire hundreds of people during the holiday season just to compensate⁵ for that extra volume. Huge volume and a hope of Mother Nature doesn't get in the way.

暴风雨已经来了。巨浪和大雨猛烈冲击着太平洋海岸，这是本周的暴风雨的第一波。在晚高峰时候将会出现大面积降雨。周三时候正值1亿1000万美国人开启假日出游。在密西西比州东部会有滂沱大雨。预计周四和周五亚特兰大机场可能因雨水导致航班延误。其南北部、东部的机场同样可能产生航班延误。高速公路方面，强降雨可能会逐渐影响几乎所有的东西、南北的主干线，上中西部地区可能有降水。反复无常的天气给全国的快递人员造成了重大困扰，现在他们正全力以赴地投递那些节日包裹,以确保在圣诞节到来前送到人们手中。三巨头说要在周五之前将包裹送至人们手中。有很多人将会延迟收货，53%的人的圣诞包裹要等到周六才能发货。在洛杉矶，紧急发货已经开始了，在节日期间，我们特意雇佣了数百人，就是为了把比平日更多的货发出去。假日货多，希望大自然母亲不要阻碍发货。

1 commute   

vi.乘车上下班；vt.减(刑)；折合；n.上下班交通

参考例句：

• I spend much less time on my commute to work now.我现在工作的往返时间要节省好多。
• Most office workers commute from the suburbs.很多公司的职员都是从郊外来上班的。

2 drench   

v.使淋透，使湿透

参考例句：

• He met a drench of rain.他遇上一场倾盆大雨。
• They turned fire hoses on the people and drenched them.他们将消防水管对着人们，把他们浇了个透。

3 arteries   

n.动脉( artery的名词复数 )；干线，要道

参考例句：

• Even grafting new blood vessels in place of the diseased coronary arteries has been tried. 甚至移植新血管代替不健康的冠状动脉的方法都已经试过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This is the place where the three main arteries of West London traffic met. 这就是伦敦西部三条主要交通干线的交汇处。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 volatile   

adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质

参考例句：

• With the markets being so volatile,investments are at great risk.由于市场那么变化不定，投资冒着很大的风险。
• His character was weak and volatile.他这个人意志薄弱，喜怒无常。

5 compensate   

vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消

参考例句：

• She used her good looks to compensate her lack of intelligence. 她利用她漂亮的外表来弥补智力的不足。
• Nothing can compensate for the loss of one's health. 一个人失去了键康是不可弥补的。