Almost Two Dozen Wildfires Burning In California; Typhoon Haishen Batters Japan During Pandemic
BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to you our viewers in the United States, Canada and around the world. More than 12,000 firefighters are risking their lives in California, battling almost 2 dozen major wildfires. Lightning strikes and extreme heat have led to more than 1 million acres burning. Residents who can't be evacuated are being told to shelter in place. But a group of at least 63 people in the Mammoth Pool Reservoir had to be airlifted from the area. Now this here is the view coming out from a Chinook helicopter entering the inferno to save lives. At least 12 of those rescued are hurt, some critically. And one of the fires, the Creek fire, exploded in size so fast that the surrounding area was blocked and so fast, in fact, that a group of hikers barely made it out of the woods -- literally. Take a listen to their harrowing escape.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just keep going.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My God.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just keep going.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go, go, go.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Keep going.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God. We made it, we made it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.</s>BRUNHUBER: And to make matters worse, the already high heat is also expected to get worse. Temperatures in many spots will soar well past 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That's around 38 Celsius. More than 50 million people are under excessive heat alerts and officials are warning they may have to ration electricity across the state as everyone tries to cool down. Paul Vercammen reports.</s>PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This wound up being a supreme test. People trying to beat the heat and also be socially distant and safe in the middle of a pandemic. If you look at the people that flock to Manhattan Beach, what were they fleeing from? Some record high temperatures throughout the area. We saw temperatures inland valleys up 114, 115, even more than that. The rule on Manhattan Beach was wear your mask unless you're playing a game or perhaps surfing. And we saw a lot of people on the pier, frankly, who were adhering to the mask-wearing rule.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I see a lot of people who are wearing their mask. So it's public shaming if you don't. You're out here wilding. But it's pretty easy. At least here in L.A. it is.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are just sort of doing whatever it is they have to do just to get by. I think that, you know, what's being asked of us isn't too extreme. And I think that if this is what we need to do to be able to come out and enjoy this, why not?</s>VERCAMMEN: And so the beach much cooler. But inland some interesting measures. The city of Burbank banning hiking on hiking trails after two rescues. And the National Weather Service saying this is a deadly, potentially deadly heat wave and warning people to get their pets out of cars, to get other humans out of cars, issuing other warnings, saying people need to hydrate. That this is just a rare event that is whipping through Southern California and causing so much misery on so many different fronts -- reporting from Manhattan Beach, I'm Paul Vercammen, now back to you.</s>BRUNHUBER: All right. For more on Typhoon Haishen, let's go now to James Reynolds. He's a storm chaser who was following along and took some incredible videos that we're going to show. So tell us about how bad it was out there.</s>JAMES REYNOLDS, STORM CHASER: Yes, it's been a really rough day on Amami Island. The sun came up at 1:00 in the afternoon. We had torrential rain and powerful winds ripping off the Pacific Ocean. Thankfully, in the last four hours or so, conditions have really improved as the typhoon is accelerating away to the north. Unfortunately, that means the southern mainland of Japan and Korea are in the firing line.</s>BRUNHUBER: Some of the things they can expect, you know, people are saying strong winds, enough to topple homes. Rain so fierce it would be like pouring buckets of water on your head. People have been warned about this. How are they reacting to those warnings and how is COVID complicating the evacuations?</s>REYNOLDS: Yes, people are taking this storm really seriously. Some of the most, you know, complete preparations I've ever seen in a Japanese typhoon taking place on this island yesterday, buildings boarded up. People have been flooding to the hotels on the island, taking up all the rooms. One reason for that might be because it's a more attractive option than a crowded evacuation center right now, given the problems with the coronavirus.</s>BRUNHUBER: And given how much rain is expected, what type of flooding problems are we likely to see?</s>REYNOLDS: Yes, this is my main worry for impact in Kyushu and southern mainland Japan. This area is incredibly flood prone. It's a mountainous area. They already saw a major flood disaster earlier in the summer so this just is a real big worry, just because of the history of destructive flooding in that area. This typhoon is going to bring a lot of rain.</s>BRUNHUBER: Listen, we'll be following this story throughout the next coming days. Thank you so much, James Reynolds. We appreciate it. Well, a pro-Trump boat parade in Texas went awry when several boats sank. Officials say they responded to multiple calls involving boats in distress in Lake Travis, north of Austin. There are no reports so far of any injuries. According to a Facebook posting, more than 2,600 people had been scheduled to attend the parade. Amid the race to find the coronavirus vaccine, an unusual promise from pharmaceutical companies. The goal is to calm fears about fast-track research and keep people safe. So we'll explain after the break. And soaring coronavirus case numbers in India have health officials there worried. We'll have that and more straight ahead on CNN. Stay with us.