Fire Crews Roll in California; Inside Myanmar: Death & Misery Hidden Form the World
KAYE: A somber marker in the ongoing struggle against the California wildfires. A body was found in a burned home in the town of Concow yesterday. It's believed to be the first civilian death directly related to this year's wildfires. Fifty homes were destroyed in Concow. The town had been under a mandatory evacuation order. That Concow fire one of 41 fires that have burned through one county alone.</s>SIMON: More than 320 fires still active in the state. Our Reynolds Wolf in Chico, California, where firefighters are heading out for another grueling day on the lines. Is it already hot there, Reynolds?</s>WOLF: Yes, it is. It's starting to warm up quite a bit. The sun is getting a little bit higher in the sky, the heat is going to start coming down, although not quite as hot as it has been over the last couple of days. Today, one of the big battles is going to be near the town of Paradise. Not too far from Highway 70, where the town of Paradise is kind of situated sort of on a bluff. Then you have sides all around the town that actually lead up to the high spot. Kind of this little maze if you will. The problem is, heat tends to rise, and they are trying to keep those flames from rising up and affecting the town. Now, if you look behind me, you see all kinds of fire trucks. Some 300 fire trucks have been here. Nearly 3,000 firefighters. You see them there. They're getting the ice chest ready. Water certainly the best choice. You also see a couple of school buses. You see these fellows coming here. A lot of these guys from out of state bringing the water. Good work, guys. And you'll notice that they've got a lot of dirt on the clothes. It is a very, very dirty job, no question about that. That smoke is going to be just relentless for them today, as well as the heat. The wind though not quite as strong. Certainly working in their favor. Plus, the humidity going up will certainly make that job fighting that fire just a little bit of an easier task. Back to you guys.</s>SIMON: That must be a welcome sight to the crews out there seeing all those water bottles and the ice packs, but I have to ask you, you know, when I was there up in Big Sur, the problem was the bulldozers. They couldn't get the bulldozers up in the mountains because it's just so steep, so they were fighting the fire really with helicopters and, you know, aircraft dropping retardant. Have you seen those aircraft there in Chico?</s>WOLF: We have seen the aircraft in Chico. They were allowed to fly just yesterday because sky conditions were just perfect. At the same time, the smoke, thankfully, was not quite as severe around -- I'd say around 2,000 to 3,000 feet, that inversion layer. That compressing effect of the air wasn't quite as extreme, so the visibility was better, they were able to use that. You were talking about bulldozers. Obviously, you can't see them here, but they were out. They have been out along parts of Highway 70. Those machines not necessarily built for speed. They only move around 8 miles per hour. But what a great job they do of making those fire breaks back in the woods and kind of cutting off that fuel for that fire to spread. These trucks obviously, these are the fire trucks. You see them in the yellow. You see them -- again, some white trucks in. They're also -- you see the one saying Butte County from the local guys. We were talking earlier -- local guys. We have got some guys here in just the area. But keep in mind, there are some that are from around the world. We were talking earlier about New Zealand, about Australia, from Mexico, from Canada. They're all here helping out. It's kind of a brotherhood and a sisterhood of the firefighters. Let's send it back to you.</s>SIMON: All right, Reynolds. We'll talk to you later. Thanks a lot. Well, as you may have noticed, you've got a couple guests here in the anchor chairs this morning, and over the past couple of weeks many of you have been wondering, just where is Betty? Well, we can tell you she has been on a difficult and treacherous assignment in Myanmar. That country, it has banned all foreign reporters to keep them from reporting on the grim reality two months after the deadly cyclone killed tens of thousands of people. Well, Betty went in search of what the Myanmar government does not want the world to see. She is now safely in Bangkok, but with a harrowing tale to tell.</s>NGUYEN: Hi, Dan. I can tell you that the Myanmar government has made it nearly impossible for us to reach the cyclone devastation. They have set up checkpoints in every city leading to the Irrawaddy Delta. So, after some careful planning, we went in search to find out why the military government is trying to keep the rest of the world out. I'll warn you, the pictures you're about to see are graphic.</s>NGUYEN (voice over): The landscape is still littered with the remnants of lives swept away by Cyclone Nargis. This is not what Myanmar wants reported some two months after the storm. The only way for us to capture these images was to sneak into the Irrawaddy Delta under the cover of darkness. (on camera): This is really the only way to get down there and bypass the checkpoints. (voice over): I can't reveal how we made this journey because it would jeopardize the safety of the locals who helped us. And once we arrived, it's easy to see why the Junta government doesn't want us here. Devastation is everywhere. This slab is all that's left off a monastery. (on camera): The water was this high? (voice over): The village's only monk says the tidal surge was up to his neck and he barely made it out alive. But many did not. This farmer forces back tears, describing how he lost his wife and only daughter. He says if it weren't for his two surviving sons, he would have no reason to live.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I have nothing. No food, no property, no companion.</s>NGUYEN: It's a place where the living still walk among the dead. In the thick vegetation that lines the narrow canals, the cyclone's horror is hard to ignore. (on camera): This is what the Myanmar government doesn't want you to see -- bodies still rotting along the delta some two months after the cyclone hit. And you can still smell the stench of death. (voice over): Villagers say there were simply too many bodies to bury. They believe this was a child. No one knows for sure. In fact, most are trying their best to forget the painful past. Perhaps that's why rice was planted in fields just a few feet away. These poor farming communities don't have time to linger over the loss, especially when cyclone survivors are still struggling to stay alive.</s>NGUYEN: Now, very little aid had reached the villages where we were able to get to. Just a little more than some rice, roofing materials, tarp, really not enough to make a difference for the villagers who were suffering, and really just struggling to stay alive. I can tell you, though, the situation may be different in larger cities where aid organizations have set up camp. The problem is, we weren't able to get into those cities without running into the Junta military government -- Dan.</s>SIMON: And I know, Betty, you literally risked your life to go in there. Just incredible, the mere fact you got into that country. I know you can't talk about the specifics about how you got in, but I wanted to ask you, the impressions that you got from being in that country, we obviously saw the video of the skulls and I know you saw a lot of bodies. What left an imprint?</s>NGUYEN: You know, it was the hardest assignment that I've ever taken on. And in fact, it was very difficult not only for us, because we faced a lot of danger in the sense that we really needed to protect the locals who were helping us. They faced imprisonment or worse had they been caught. We faced deportation and who knows what because we're not allowed in that country. But looking at the situation there, it was just simply devastating. Yes, we went through a lot to get into the country and to get down to the delta, sleeping on rice bags, not showering for days, wading in water near dead bodies. But when you think about our temporary misery, it really pales in comparison to what the people in the delta face on a daily basis. And the problem now is the aid is not being distributed evenly. Again, the villages where we toured, aid was just barely trickling in. And hopefully with time they'll get a little bit more, but in the meantime, they're left with their own devices and trying to survive just the best way they can -- Dan.</s>SIMON: Betty Nguyen coming to us from Bangkok. Betty, safe travels. Thanks so much.</s>KAYE: Growing up in the shadows of a legend. A conversation with the daughters of Martin Luther King, Jr., Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X.