up next here on a second look, he's brought you the news from the south bay and the world. >> at pumping station eight, fair banks alaska. >> this is a make on alaska. >> just outside the main gates is a panel along. >> lloyd lacuesta, ktvu channel two news. >> we're going to remember the career of our lloyd lacuesta,

it's all coming up next on a second look. hello everybody i'm frank somerville and this is a second look. we're going to honor the career of our own lloyd lacuesta. lloyd has been a long time advocate for minority journalists. >> channel 2 along the years has had the trust in allowing me to go out and covering stories of historical significance. in many ways the viewers out there have experiences what i've experienced through my eyes. >> over the years lloyd has covered just about every type of news story to come along. most of them in the south bay, but some as far away as japan and the philippines. back in 1992, lloyd was one of the reporters covers the violence in los angeles after the not guilty verdict in the case of those police officers

accused of beating rodney king. he and photographer roy inoway went right into the heart of the riot in korea town. and lloyd talked about it years later. >> reporter: fire, rioting, looting and all with an air of anger at police trying to restore order. police trying to move a crowd back, the crowd responded by rushing through a supermarket and looting it. >> this is sad, so sad. terrible. >> we were in korea town which as you may recall during the los angeles riots there were

some anti asian feelings. i'm philipino american, and roy is a philipino we both like asian. roy was always watching out for me as i was trying to watch out for him but he continued to get the kind of pictures that really made the newscast that night. >> reporter: police are coming in, this is a complete athat -- they've hit three stores. >> people started running, instead of running away we start running toward the gunshots. suddenly the mood turned ugly and panicky as people head gunshots. >> at one point we set up and roy turned to me and said we're in the cross fire. we quickly grabbed our equipment and ran over to the other side so we were sort of

now seeing the whole drama unfolding in front of us. >> reporter: police arrested three korean man who had apparently fired shots in the air to scare people away from the korean center. a war of rage that leaves no victors just victims. >> i'm very nervous. >> reporter: tonight thousands caught in the middle of this war are asking when will it end. >> lloyd lacuesta is standing by one of the collapses. >> an example shows you why you cannot get in or out of los angeles but highway 5. behind me you see that was highway 15. if you can imagine, if you look

up that structure all of this was some 40 feet above. when the earthquake hit it came crashing down. you see the two cars back here that came down. this is where a los angeles police officer, a motorcycle offer died, he drove off the collapsed area and came down. let me show you up here in the end. you see this green car, well it was going north on highway 5, boom it came down and somehow, somehow he was saved. he fell right short of being crushed by all of this. there were some reports that perhaps there was a van back there. but the chp says that they have checked out, there's little holes here, and there's no van they can see down here. higher up another portion of highway 5 collapsed. tonight they're going to try to dynamite, try to open that up hopefully to make some sort of passage. but this is going to take weeks, maybe even months before it's finally cleared and opened up. you can see this is a quarter mile stretch of highway 14 the

overpass that came down. this bridges back the memory of what happened in 1989. so for now, there is really no way to get in or out of los angeles and highway 5. dennis, elaine. >> what kind of activity is going on near you right now, are they working on anything, are they planning anything as you mentioned. >> not really. most of the work is going up further up. i have to tell you, you feel the aftershocks up here and it's not a very secure feeling when you're sitting up here on an already collapsed freeway and you feel the ground starting to move. >> still to come on a second look, lloyd reports from the 1989 earth quake in japan. >> looking for an escape as a wildfire sweeps over the car carrying lloyd and photographer solano. hollywood had its sunset strip, in san jose it's first street.

we're taking a second look tonight at the career of our colleague lloyd lacuesta. lloyd's reporting duties have from time to time taken him all over the world. and in 1992 it sent him to japan to report on a massive earthquake. >> reporter: day light hours bring relief from the cold but there's no relief from living in a disaster zone. the rumble is a constant reminder of those seconds of shaking last week. this house fell down on top of several cars, the car that belonged to the resident of this car was not damaged. fortunate for him because he now lives in the car. you don't have to speak japanese to understand what he went through. >> this port city is very similar to the bay area.

peter yanoff of san francisco company eqe stood with me on one street corner that he said could just as easily been market and montgomery in san francisco's financial district. >> that's a prewar building that has collapsed completely. right behind it is a five story 50s department store reenforced concrete frame building which has collapsed in the middle. one of the floors is completely pancaked. a building to the left is a steel and glass window. and i don't see a crack on the building which means it performed as well as you would have liked it to perform. >> reporter: which means buildings in san francisco have to be reevaluated. >> before police arrived and

before ambulance, i also put out the fire hose. >> reporter: jasuta's home burned down. he is an example of the spirit of community we saw in kobai. putting others before his own fortune. he saved his student's classroom records from his burning home but lost everything else. >> i still -- i am not going to front anybody but i worked so hard. and i don't want to lose their records -- they worked so hard, they worked so hard and i don't want to lose their records. >> hi, thank you very much. >> reporter: the way kobei recovers may serve as a model

for how communities cope withdisasters. this city of 1.4 million people are still operating. societal structures have not broken down. >> i think they're doing the best they can. if this happened in new york there would have been people, would have been looting but japanese i mean you go online to wait for water and nobody is losing their temper, they just wait and go wherever they need to go. >> reporter: in a disaster zone like this there are some scenes that are difficult for americans to understand. that building appears is glass yet the road remains open. across the street you see another building there the walkway has collapsed. part of the walls missing this is city hall and what has city hall become now? a shelter for the homeless.

every floor of this 25 story building is being used as living quarters for thousands of people. and they don't appear to be too concerned about structural safety. >> you can still see people walking on streets, they're passing by those buildings which are not very stable. it could just drop down at any moment. >> okay. >> i know. different time system we're talking about. >> a different system, a different culture but it's working. diane matsuta is a japanese american that has lived in japan for the last three years. >> the way japanese are doing is we're going through this together. we must all work peacefully and make sure we can put this

behind us in a peaceful manner and yes i hope americans can follow that way of thinks on a time like this. one has to be here to experience the patience, discipline and order characterizing the occasion. and when the pope came to the bay area, lloyd lacuesta was there. >> i was wondering what you guys were talking about.

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among them a wildfire in malibu back in 1993. >> reporter: day two of the los angeles fires and while the hot dry santa ana winds died down some the wind did not. this time the winds swirled and shifted. yesterday the fires marched to the sea. today they moved east, south, north. helicopters and air tankers made drop after drop trying to slow the advance. by late this afternoon, the fire jumped topanga county boulevard and hit it toward the heights. earlier today we joined the strike team in tuna canyon. suddenly a wall of flames flaired up right next to us intense heat at a retreat. >> you guys getting out of here? >> yeah. >> done. >> okay. >> ready? >> smoke, a lot of fire.

just a lot of devastation. gone, nothing you can do. >> seems like you are always ready to run? >> yeah, i mean it's out of control. helicopters are dropping drop after drop and it's like, spitting on it. just not doing a thing. >> reporter: what the firefighters are trying to do is keep it from spreading to homes. for the most part it is just brush line burning here but down below where the fire did its destruction last night, quite a scene. the ramlo pacifica neighborhood is no more. last night it looked like this. a hellish inferno where home after home vanished. >> i was watching the news and watching this beautiful home burn, and i was thinking poor people. and i thought, that's my bedroom, that's my kitchen,

that's my kids room. i couldn't believe it. >> reporter: lisa says all that's left of the four-year- old home she and her husband had designed and built is it ocean view. this was her dream home. >> let me take you on a tour here. >> okay. >> okay. come in this way. watch out for the step. this is our family room. our kitchen, i would get you something to drink, but. >> reporter: like so many fires that sweep through the neighborhood, fate or the right construction leaves a few homes standing untouched with no devastation. those with no home have to decide if they want to rebuild. >> i love this neighborhood and our friends were all around here. and i don't know. i mean today it seems impossible, in a few months, maybe that will change. >> reporter: and even before this huge fire is out authorities are already worried

about what winter rains will do. mud slides and floodings. lloyd was at another wildfire this one with dave sorrano, when fire swept right over them. on carol road firefighters used air drops to keep the planes away from the cattle drive. the rancher got off his horse and walked down the site. no homes were lost in this fire but the flames continue to burn on for areas for which the alta pass is known for. wind farms. >> when i saw it comes this way i evacuated the men at this point. >> you can see we're still producing electricity even as we speak. >> reporter: suddenly the winds began gusting up to 45 miles per hour on the ridge line and we suddenly found ourselves in

front of the approaching fire line. the firefighters backed down the hill away from fast approaching flames, camera man dave serrano and i tried to do the same but suddenly our way out was gone. >> just back it up. reburst. just let it burn out. >> dave and i were caught in what is known as a blow out the fire was sweeping over us and it was getting difficult to breathe. >> so the object is stay in the car. >> yeah, just stay in the car. >> it seemed like an eternity sitting in that truck but while it was hot and smoky we didn't get hurt. the firefighters returned to the hill that five minutes earlier was untouched was now blackened and we had been baptized with fire stories to share with the professionals. >> yeah, that's what we heard

on the radio. is that it blew over. the best thing to do is to stay in the truck when it blows over like that? >> oh, yeah. if you have one. and try not to breathe too much of the smoke. >> cover your face as much as you can. >> when we come back on a second look. we're going to show you what happens when a reporter uses a roller coaster to make a point about astronauts and gravitational forces.

we're taking a second look at the long career of lloyd lacuesta who's retiring. sometimes however the events he's covered have been more peaceful. lloyd was on hand when john

pope ii came to the bay area. >> thousands were given the day off, agustin romo and would be getting ready to pick strawberries if not for the pope. >> we have great seats. >> the best seats in the house probably. >> i think so. >> this group is from the polish mission church in san jose. >> i'm catholic. i came to see him. it doesn't matter for me if she's polish or different nationality. for me it's the pope. >> reporter: not too far away we find maria cortinez, not the best seat but good enough.

>> are you cold maria? >> poquito. >> what do you think about the view that you have here. >> it's beautiful, see likes it. >> reporter: but a few moments later, cortina's view was no longer there. a fog rolled in. one diocese official says if the pope can't be seen he will be felt. but on cue as the pope's plane lands at monterey effort the fog begins rolling away. the weather still causes enough concern to cancel the pope's helicopter ride to will recollect aguna seca he arrives by pope mobile. >> and all the work of agricultural in which men of few are engaged is to be

carried out by the service of men and for the glory of god. >> reporter: is a reverent crowd that endures a hot sun is a crowd estimated at 72,000 smaller than hoped for but still those who are here are glad they came. many leaving with one of the red petunias that made up the mile long river of red. in the end a bad transportation system of low buses made it a day of endurance for thousands. but still a day that many will always remember and cherish. >> finally tonight, you know every so often for every reporter, something out of the ordinary can happen even with the most ordinary of stories. back in 1984 lloyd wanted to demonstrate the kinds of

gravitational forces that space shuttle astronauts face. so he headed out to the roller coaster at great america. >> what's 3g's like? i'm at the roller coaster at great america. when i'm downward, i'll be subjected to the same gravitational force that astronauts face during a space launch. >> the astronauts do a real good job. >> and that is it for this week's second look. i'm frank somerville. we'll see you again next week.