CNN news 2014-05-21 加文本

cnn news 2014-05-21

CARL AZUZ, cnn ANCHOR: Thank you for kicking off a new week with cnn STUDENT NEWS. Ten minutes of current events with no commercials. I`m Carl Azuz at the cnn Center. First up today, disaster in the Balkans. This is a region of Europe, east of the Adriatic Sea. And the nation of Serbia is dealing with its worst flooding since people started keeping records 120 years ago. Rain and rising rivers are the reason why more than 24,000 people have been evacuated in Serbia. But one rescuer says, many more need to get out. They just don`t want to leave their homes. Several people have died in Serbia, as well as in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnian officials say one town got two months` worth of rain in less than two days. More than 10,000 troops have been helping with rescue efforts in the region. Other nations from Russia to Israel are sending supplies.

The West Coast of the U.S. has been dealing with another sort of disaster, but since last week, officials in California have made a lot of progress in containing wildfires. The weather shifted. Cooler winds and moist air from the Pacific Ocean helped firefighters get a handle on most of the blazes in southern California. One of them scorched the chunk of land the size of Manhattan. And fire season is just beginning, but crews have a lot of tools to deal with it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A wall of flames closing in on a Marine air strip, a military base under siege.

COL. WILL HOOPER, 3RD MARINE AIRCRAFT WING: I watched as this thing marched from about a half a mile away, almost within 200 meters of us, and I could feel the heat on my face, as this thing approached.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Enter the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and 22 helicopters ready to battle the flames. On this flight, we are headed for a lake on the base with the 300 gallon bucket in tow. Our chopper is guided by a crew chief, many (INAUDIBLE) the chopper floor. From our window, you can see the delicate balance is other choppers low toward the lake. Our pilot does the same - lowering the bucket till it submerged. Once it`s full, we head for the fire line.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now, we`re flying directly over the fire line. You can actually see how badly burned this area is after these fires.

The crew chief spots the right moment to make the drop. On his signal, the water is released. In all, these choppers made over 900 drops, at the fire`s peak, Captain Bradley Gibson pulled it off with zero visibility.

CAPTAIN BRADLEY GIBSON, PILOT: You see your lead aircraft going to smoke and it just disappears. You don`t know if it`s going straight ahead. You don`t know if it`s coming out to the left. You don`t even know if it got its bucket dropped off or not, so - the best you can do is hope.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The smoke so intense it cut off the main water supply on the base, forcing the crews to look elsewhere.

This video shows a Marine chopper hovering over the Pacific Ocean.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Actually reassuring to see my neighborhood.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These Marines don`t just fight fires on Camp Pendleton, but in nearby communities.

In some cases, water drops like this are to protect even their own homes.

ERIC LANDBLOM, PILOT: You know, you confidence. And I can - I can call home and call the wife and say, hey, (INAUDIBLE) looks good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The water drops these Marines could have make in 2003, when the massive cedar wildfire killed 20 people. Today, new policies have united the Marines with local firefighters.

AZUZ: New Smyrna Beach on Florida`s East Coast has been called the shark attack capital of the world." No one has ever been killed by a shark by there, but attacks are pretty common. There`ve been several this year including one last week. Make come as no surprise that Katharine the Great White Shark was recently tracked not too far away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This shark is named Katharine by Kat customers in honor of Katharine Lee Baits (ph).

ALINA MACHADO, cnn CORRESPONDENT: We are taking a stroll at the Sebastian Inlet Park about a 140 miles north of Miami. Researches tagged this 9300 pound great white shark all the way up in Cape Cod Massachusetts back in August. They spent about 15 minutes with her, they did an ultrasound, they measured her, they even got a blood sample, and they put this special tracking device so they can keep tabs on her not just for right now, but also for the next five years. So far, this shark has traveled more than 3600 miles.

And the reason they are doing this is because they are trying to unravel the mystery behind the great white shark in the Atlantic Ocean. They want to figure out where and when these sharks are breeding, and also where their nurseries are located so they can protect these areas.

Now, the cool thing about all of this for you and I, is that we can actually keep tabs on this research real time and we are all waiting to see where Katharine will head next.