j does not stop the lighting of the world s most famous christmas tree in a star-studded and soaked celebration. rockefeller center shining bright. and the tree does not need watering today, thursday, december 1st, 2016. from nbc news, this is today, with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. live from studio 1a in rockefeller good morning, everybody. welcome to today. it s a thursday morning. now, we can celebrate. we got this gorgeous tree. it s all lit up. we got willie. you re just a lilt shorter than the tree. and you re still out here from last night. i won the coin toss. matt had to be out here in the rain last night. i get to be here now. it looked like fun. it was a beautiful night. we had a great crowd. we ll have more on the tree-lighting. we want to start with destructive weather in the south. and in tennessee, the wildfires rages on. kerry sanders is in gatlin, tennessee. good morning. good morning, willie. a good portion of gatlinburg is in evacuati