In this task, you are given news articles and you need to generate a highlight, i.e., a short summary, with a maximum length of 10 lines.

(CNN) -- Jim Shepperd was just crossing the Howard Frankland Bridge from Tampa to St. Petersburg when the winds whipped furiously and the first named storm of the hurricane season began its one-two punch on the Tampa Bay area. By the time he and his chow-shepherd mix, Aussie, made it home to Gulfport, Tropical Storm Andrea was thrashing his neighborhood. Just down the street, a tornado touched down, felling a massive 200-year-old cedar tree. "There were a lot of trees down," the hairstylist said Friday morning. "We're lucky. We're OK." By 5 p.m. ET, Andrea's heavy rain had moved on, targeting a broad swath of the East Coast. The storm, categorized as a post-tropical cyclone with sustained winds of up to 45 mph, was about 55 miles northeast of Raleigh, North Carolina, and continuing on its predicted path up the Northeast Coast. Forecasters say it's expected to drench 13 states from Georgia to Maine. Meteorologists want everyone in Andrea's path to know this: The storm's biggest danger will probably be flash floods. The National Weather Service offers tips on what to do in a flooding situation. In short, road beds may be washed out under flood waters, so never drive through flooded roadways. At 11 a.m. Friday, the National Hurricane Center said Andrea was packing 45-mph winds and was about 50 miles southwest of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and 90 miles west of Wilmington, North Carolina. Andrea is expected to produce 2 to 4 inches of rain in central and eastern North Carolina. Up to 2 inches are expected over portions of South Carolina. Farther north on Friday, a flood watch area includes Washington, which the National Weather Service predicts could get 6 inches of rain Friday, and New York, where forecasters say 1 to 2 inches of rain an hour could fall at times into Saturday. Even Maine's coast, including Portland, could see as much as 3 inches of rain by the time the weekend is done. Follow the storm on CNN.com's hurricane tracker . As of 8 a.m., Andrea's projected path is similar to that of Tropical Storm Debby nearly a year ago. Debby dumped up to 2 feet of rain onto the low-lying areas, causing extensive flooding in some coastal towns. CNN meteorologists Sean Morris and Ivan Cabrera contributed to this report.
NEW: Now a post-tropical cyclone, Andrea was near Raleigh, North Carolina, at 5 p.m.
Flash flood watches extend up the East Coast .
Washington and New York are among the cities that may see Andrea-related flooding .
Forecast warns that rains and storm surges could cause problems in coastal areas .

Yaounde, Cameroon (CNN) -- Heavily armed poachers recently killed nearly 40 endangered forest elephants for their ivory in two national parks, officials in Cameroon said Tuesday, the latest in a string of slaughters of the animals in Central Africa. "The carcasses are still fresh, indicating the killings took place probably only this month," ecologist Theophile Mbarga told CNN on Tuesday. Very young -- even newborn -- elephants were among the carcasses found in Nki and Lobeke national parks. The toll could reach 50 after a thorough search is made, Mbarga added. The dead elephants were found closely clustered -- less than 35 feet apart -- indicating the poachers used powerful, modern weapons, conservation group WWF project manager Zacharie Nzooh told journalists Tuesday. Evidence indicates that a horseback-riding band of about 300 poachers from Sudan was behind the slaughter, officials said. The same poachers were believed to be responsible for hundreds of elephant deaths over the past year. Forest elephants are distinguished from the more familiar savanna elephants by their smaller size and straighter tusks. A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of their ivory sells for hundreds of dollars on the underground market in places such as China and Thailand. Political analysts say the proceeds fund rebel groups in Sudan and the Central African Republic. A recent peer-reviewed study published at PLOS One documented a "catastrophic" 62 percent decline in Central Africa's forest elephant population over nine years. Officials estimated that 1,700 forest elephants remain in the two Cameroonian parks. It is feared they will be completely wiped out within seven years. Savanna elephant populations in the Central African Republic are believed to have plummeted from around 80,000 just 30 years ago to a few hundred today, according to WWF, formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund. The governments of three Central African nations -- Cameroon, the Central African Republic and Chad -- announced Saturday they would muster as many as 1,000 soldiers for joint military operations to protect the region's last remaining savanna elephants, as the Sudanese poachers are still active in the region. "We recommend the mobilization of all defense and security forces in the affected countries" to stop the poachers, members of the Economic Community of Central African States said in a joint statement. The communique was issued at the end of a three-day emergency anti-poaching ministerial conference held in Cameroon's capital, YaoundÃ©. The operation is estimated to cost about $2.3 million. The announcement called on other nations to contribute additional funds to sustain the effort. On the night of March 14 to 15, poachers slaughtered killed at least 89 elephants in southern Chad, WWF said. They are also believed to be behind the killing of at least 30 elephants in the Central African Republic since January 1. The poachers on horseback are also suspected of killing 300 elephants in Cameroon's Bouba N'Djida National Park in early 2012. The carnage prompted Cameroon to mobilize 600 elite troops to try to keep the poachers from crossing the border again, WWF reported. In the statement, the ECCAS states congratulated Thailand for its March 3 decision to ban its legal domestic ivory trade and urged its vigorous enforcement. Ivory consumers "need to be sensitized to the consequences" of the ivory trade, the statement said, adding that "destination countries (should) adopt measures to reduce ivory demand." Robert Jackson, the U.S. ambassador to Cameroon, said he was pleased with the meeting. "The plan is a good one. But execution is now critical." he said. "I am, however, concerned that there is no mention of corruption in the statement, because it contributes directly to the poaching and trafficking problem," he said. CNN's Jim Kavanagh contributed to this report.
Nearly 40 endangered forest elephants were killed in 2 parks .
300 Sudanese poachers on horseback are believed to be responsible .
Forest and savanna elephant populations have declined drastically .
Central African nations agree to mobilize 1,000 soldiers to fight poaching .

(CNN) -- The question of Jewish resistance to the Nazis -- or the lack of it -- has loomed large ever since the true extent of the horrors of the Holocaust became impossible to ignore. Liev Schreiber, left, and Daniel Craig play Jewish resistance fighters in the World War II drama "Defiance." As early as 1940 and 1942, Charlie Chaplin and Ernst Lubitsch fashioned satiric fantasies in which Adolf Hitler was comically humiliated by Jews (a barber in Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" and a hammy actor in Lubitsch's "To Be or Not to Be"). More recently, Steven Spielberg and Roman Polanski presented authentic stories of Jewish Holocaust survivors in "Schindler's List" and "The Pianist." In "Defiance," Edward Zwick tells the true story of the Bielski brothers, Tuvia (Daniel Craig), Zus (Liev Schreiber) and Asael (Jamie Bell). When the Germans and local collaborators started rounding up Jews in what was then Belorussia in 1941, murdering thousands -- including the Bielskis' parents -- the three men took refuge in the woods. They evaded capture, scavenged, begged or stole the food they needed; they set up a camp and saved hundreds of fellow refugees -- and they fought back.  Watch the stars of "Defiance" talk about the film » . It's a remarkable story, one that should have inspired a more exciting and original movie than this sluggish compendium of earnest debates and hackneyed battle scenes. The timing is unfortunate. For a story that has gone neglected for the best part of 60 years, this is hardly the ideal week to be extolling heroic Jewish resistance fighters. Ari Folman's angst-laden nonfiction animated film, "Waltz With Bashir," is altogether more relevant. Zwick's Hollywood liberal credentials are not in doubt, but his films have a surprisingly gung-ho undercurrent (they include such martial adventures as "The Last Samurai," "Glory," "The Siege," "Legends of the Fall" and "Courage Under Fire"). He may like a fight, but he's no great shakes when it comes to staging action. Besides, in a Zwick flick, words always speak louder. In "Defiance" those words come with a thick, guttural European inflection (Hebrew is spoken as English, though characters also break into subtitled Russian and German on occasion). The speechifying is often clumsy and long-winded. Take the backwoods intellectual who doesn't know how to handle a hammer but can sure nail a philosophical one-liner: "At least Descartes recognized the subjective nature of existence," he kvetches. Where's Lubitsch when you need him? Dour and dourer as the movie goes on, Daniel Craig looks rugged in a weathered leather jacket and cloth cap, but his Bond associations aren't exactly helpful. You have to check yourself from wondering why he doesn't just take out that battalion of Nazis single-handedly. Tuvia may be a reluctant hero, but he shoulders the burden of leadership and assumes responsibility for protecting his ever-increasing flock. Schreiber's Zus, on the other hand, joins with the Soviets to take the fight to the Germans. It takes him longer to learn who his true friends are. The movie is full of mud and muck, yet somehow Zwick sanitizes the things that matter most. In the most challenging scene, just as Tuvia turns a blind eye as his enraged fellow Jews beat a German prisoner to death, Zwick consistently pulls back from anything that might be too unpleasant or tasteless. His heroes remain fundamentally unsullied. Later Asael picks up Tuvia's mantle and leads his followers like a latter-day Moses, away from their enemies through an impenetrable swamp. "Defiance" is a hard slog, at times. But even if it's heavy-handed and old-fashioned, there's also something satisfyingly solid about it. It's always comforting to know who the good guys are, even if they're stuck in a not-so-good picture. "Defiance" is rated R and runs 137 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's take, click here.

Film tells the true story of the Bielski brothers, who fought back against Nazis in 1941 .
The brothers set up a camp in the woods and saved hundreds of fellow refugees .
Remarkable story should have inspired more exciting, original film, Tom Charity says .
Charity: "Defiance" heavy-handed, but there's something satisfyingly solid about it .

