Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Sunday
Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis Across Southeast Asia; Holiday Travelers Stranded
Aired December 26, 2004 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: It is 11:00 a.m. in Washington, 8:00 a.m. on the west coast and 11:00 p.m. in Indonesia. I'm Tony Harris at the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta. Welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. Ahead this hour, massive devastation in southeast Asia after a monster earthquake spawns tsunamis across much of the region. We will have live reports.
And another day of flight delays and holiday travelers are wondering what is going on. We'll have the latest from Ronald Reagan International Airport.
But, first, a check of the top stories at this hour. First results are expected later today as millions of people vote again in Ukraine. It is a repeat of last month's bitterly disputed presidential election. More than 12,000 observers will be looking for problems. Last month's vote was tainted by fraud and widespread protests.
Police in Iraq say at least five Iraqi officials have been killed this weekend. Among them is a high-ranking police officer. Three others were local council members. Most were hit by drive by shootings in or near Baghdad.
The two-man crew at the international space station are celebrating the holiday weekend with a fresh supply of badly need food. They were running short and resorting to rationing until a Russian space ship brought supplies of food, water and fuel arrived yesterday.
And we begin in southeast Asia with a natural disaster of epic proportions. Walls of water have literally washed on to several nations in the region. A very powerful earthquake triggered massive tsunamis killing several thousand people. The 8.9 magnitude quake struck off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island. Geologists say the earthquake is the largest to rattle the earth in more than 40 years. Sri Lanka so far appears to have suffered the worst of the tragedy. The island nation reports more than 2,400 people dead. Authorities fear the death toll could rise since several districts have not reported any casualty figures.
To the north of Sri Lanka, India is also weighing the devastation of it all. The interior minister says at least 1,800 Indians were killed by the tsunamis. Several villages along India's southeastern coast have been swept away. Meanwhile, aftershocks from the quake have been centered off two remote Indian islands. There are so far no reports of casualties from those areas because of poor communications.
And in Indonesia, near where the earthquake struck, more than 500 people have been killed. Many of those casualties were in Sumatra. Tsunamis also hit the area and officials fear the death toll also will rise there.
The tsunamis caused by the earthquake have displaced millions of people in Sri Lanka. Villagers are fleeing their water-swollen homes in search of higher and drier ground. Meanwhile, thousands of soldiers have been deployed to help with relief and rescue efforts. For the latest, CNN's Satinder Bindra joins us live by phone from Colombo, Sri Lanka, which is the capital of Sri Lanka where he was vacationing. Satinder.
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Like most other people, my vacation, too, has been interrupted by what has happened. I'm standing right outside the Hilton Hotel, Tony, here in the capital Colombo. And this is the place where evacuated people are being brought. These are western tourists. They've come to Sri Lanka to enjoy the sunshine here, but their holiday has been of course rudely interrupted.
As night falls here in Colombo, the death count is mounting. Right at the moment officials telling us 2500 people dead and in the next few hours they say this death toll is going to continue to rise. Sri Lankan authorities have now declared a state of emergency and they're appealing directly to the United States to help. Sri Lanka says it's urgently in need of blankets, food, water and medicine. An appeal has also been issued to India and India has responded.
India is sending six naval ships to Sri Lanka now to help and India is also dispatching via transport plane some eight transport helicopters. Of course, as I have been reporting, Tony, the death and destruction is at its most extensive. Along the eastern coast of Sri Lanka more than 1,500 people killed there and even here in areas surrounding the Colombo, the capital, the devastation is huge.
Hundreds and hundreds of homes have been flattened. These are, of course, wooden homes and also large-scale damage to homes that have been built with concrete. I would estimate it's going to take a long time, perhaps months for the people of Sri Lanka to try and put their lives back together. Back to you.
HARRIS: Satinder, tell us a bit of your story. We mentioned that you're there vacationing. When did you first get an indication that the situation on the ground there was bad and could potentially be even worse than imagined?
BINDRA: Well, Tony, last night I heard the seas and the seas were extremely loud and that just triggered off something in my mind. But I thought nothing was hit and then when I got up this morning, my hotel overlooked the water and I saw the waters rising suddenly and the water sort of came towards the hotel. They advanced almost 30 feet in a matter of minutes and then thousands and thousands of people descended upon the beach. They were quite curious. They were watching. But then as reports started flooding in that large numbers of people had been killed, people promptly ran indoors. They ran for cover and it's been, it's been quite moving to see these people, many of whom just don't have any insurance at all. They just sit there and stare at their houses which have been completely demolished and they're in a state of complete and other shock at the moment. Tony.
HARRIS: Goodness, Satinder Bindra from Sri Lanka. Satinder, thank you.
Tsunamis are some of the most dangerous occurrences in nature as we've seen from this tragedy in Asia. But what causes them and is there an easy way to detect them? CNN meteorologist Brad Huffines joins us live from the weather center to explain the science behind the tsunami. Brad.
BRAD HUFFINES, METEOROLOGIST: What makes these so hard to predict Tony is that in instances like this where the earthquake is actually on the ocean bottom, on the floor of the ocean, the ripples begin there. You don't necessarily see something on the surface. All the energy is moving along the ocean bottom and as it rises up toward the land, then that's when the cause, the problems are being caused and you see the flooding across Sri Lanka in the Bay of Bengal here.
Of course the earthquake was just off the coast of Sumatra and as the earthquake shook, about an 8.9 earthquake there, 1,000 miles away to the west, that's where the energy was being transported under water. As that water, that energy went underwater, the ripples under water began to hit the land. When the ripples hit the land, the water starts to rise causing what we have for many years called tidal waves.
Of course we now call them tsunamis. And those began to of course inundate, not just the eastern shore of Sri Lanka, but the entire coastline of India and Sri Lanka as we heard Satinder mention just moments ago, he's on the west coast of Sri Lanka so it wasn't necessarily the direct tsunami. It was the overall rising of the ocean water as that water rippled through underwater again and began to rise and inundate much of the entire island.
As you've heard before, the earth is made up of plates, the science called plate tectonics and the reason why this is such an earthquake-prone area, look right there. It's at the intersection of nearly three plates, the Eurasian plate, the Indo-Australian plate and the Pacific plate. Tony, for years, seismologists calls the ring of fire. That's where you see the world's largest number of earthquakes and most devastating volcanoes as well and that's where Malaysia happens to be.
HARRIS: My goodness, OK, Brad, thank you, we appreciate it.
Last week's winter weather, huge holiday travel and a major computer system failure has tens of thousands of people trying to get somewhere but going nowhere fast. Gary Nuremberg is at Ronald Reagan National Airport where he is standing by just like a lot of other people. Gary?
GARY NUREMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony. It has been an incredibly frustrating Christmas weekend for thousands of passengers who found themselves spending Christmas in an airport, unable to get to where they wanted to go. Some this morning have simply given up on that destination and now are trying to make arrangements just to get home. Much of the problem began with Comair, a Delta subsidiary whose computers crashed on Friday night. Comair canceled all of its flights over the weekend, 1,160 each day, inconveniencing 30,000 passengers each day. The airline said today it is trying to gradually resume operations and hopes to be at full speed by the end of the week, a small consolation for passengers who had their Christmas weekends ruined.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NUREMBERG (voice-over): Comair's cancellation of 1,160 flights Saturday left 30,000 passengers scrambling to find other ways to get to their Christmas destination.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sit in line for two hours. Our flights were canceled. Then we came back on our rebooked flights today, got to Cincinnati and found out 25 minutes before the flight was supposed to board that it was canceled. Now we're driving to Columbus tomorrow to take a Northwest flight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We checked it right through from Salt Lake and I would imagine it is somewhere - it's probably in Minneapolis/St. Paul, if I was betting.
NUREMBERG: U.S. Airways was hit by several hundred sick calls from flight attendants and baggage handlers. That resulted in about 10,000 pieces of luggage sitting in Philadelphia instead of with the passengers who found them missing at baggage kiosks, throughout the U.S Airways system.
Shortly after 8:00 a.m. this morning at Reagan National, these bags were still separated from their owners. Billy Black has been without his luggage for four days.
BILLY BLACK: It's kind of sad because I had some presents for kids and so on and I couldn't give the presents to the kids, so --
NUREMBERG: U.S. Airways said at mid-morning that backlog of 10,000 pieces of luggage have been cut by about two-thirds.
CHRIS CHIAMES, U.S. AIRWAYS: We have flown special sections of cargo only aircraft or baggage only aircraft from Philadelphia to Charlotte where we have another hub and appropriate staffing so that we can sort the bags and connect them. So our employees have stepped up. Unfortunately, a few of our employees chose to call in sick, but most of our employees have been working double overtime trying to get caught up, trying to help our customers get to where they want to go and get their baggage to them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NUREMBERG: U.S. Air passengers without their bags for four days now say if you believe in Santa Claus, anything's possible. Tony?
HARRIS: Gary, thank you.
It's election day again in Ukraine. We'll take you there live for round two coming up.
Plus a family reunion in Falluja, three brothers together again after more than two years, their story coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: President Bush left his Camp David retreat this morning heading to his ranch in Crawford Texas. The president and his extended family, including former President Bush celebrated Christmas at Camp David yesterday and the president also spent time with the Marines who guard Camp David. He is expended to remain in Texas until January 2nd.
It is election day in Ukraine where people are voting for president again. Polls close at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. The often raucous process that has led to thousands of people protesting in the streets again pits opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, his face scarred by mysterious dioxin poisoning against Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich. In Kiev Jill Dougherty has the latest on the repeat election. Hi, Jill.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Tony. We're back down here on Independent Square. That's where a lot of those demonstrations did take place. It's very quiet right now. There are about two hours left before the polls close and the turnout as of three hours ago, that's the last report that the central election commission gave was about 55 percent so so far it looks like a pretty decent turnout. There have been some reports of violations, but nothing like the violations that marred the previous runoff.
Both of the candidates Viktor Yanukovich, who is the prime minister, he has voted and his opponent, the opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko. Both of them have cast their ballot, as well as the president, the outgoing president of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma. We are talking with some people who are voting, asking them after three times, isn't this pretty amazing that they have to go to the polls three times but one woman actually said, Tony that she would go five times if she had to, that she feels it is a historic vote, that it's very, very important and that seems to be the mood on both sides. A lot of people very, very committed to their candidates and intent on showing up at the polling stations.
HARRIS: Jill Dougherty in Kiev for us. Jill, we appreciate it. Thank you.
Some of the bigger stories in the news this year were the people in the news business. Howard Kurtz explains in this preview of today's edition of RELIABLE SOURCES.
HOWARD KURTZ, CNN ANCHOR, RELIABLE SOURCES: Coming up, Dan Rather, Bill O'Reilly, Tom Brokaw, Tim Russert, Jayson Blair, Ted Koppel, campaign reporters, swift boat ads, journalists facing jail, John Stewart and trusting or distrusting the press, the media's poor public image, all part of our look back at 2004 ahead on RELIABLE SOURCES.
HARRIS: It was a Creole white Christmas in the big easy. Brad Huffines will have a check of the rest of your Christmas weekend forecast and a secret Santa delivers a Christmas miracle in Denver. Those stories in a bit on CNN LIVE SUNDAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK. I'm all excited here because I know what is about to happen, time for our holiday reunion of a real band of brothers, the Johnson brothers. Troy, Christopher and Adam, they're reuniting for the first time in Falluja, Iraq. They are from a fourth generation military family. The brothers Johnson, hello and how are you?
ADAM JOHNSON: Good, sir, how are you?
HARRIS: I'm well. But I think you're doing better. It's been since, what, 2000 Christmas -- Christmas of 2001 since you've all been together. What has this reunion been like?
TROY JOHNSON: It's been very exciting, very exciting. It's comforting to have the three of us together for the first time.
HARRIS: That's not enough, that's hardly enough. We want to know more about the reunion. We want to know what you've been talking about. And Troy, you're the oldest, I'm going to have you lead. What has it been like to see your brothers after all this time?
T. JOHNSON: It's been exciting. I think Chris, the middle aged one, he's aged the most in the last three years. And Adam behind me he's obviously the biggest of the three. So, it's been exciting. The last couple hours we've spent enjoying Christmas dinner, catching up. Actually planning ahead, what we're going to do when we get back.
HARRIS: Chris, what does your brother mean when he says you have grown the most. What is he talking about, taller or wider?
CHRIS JOHNSON: My younger brother, Adam, he's the biggest of the three of us but what my brother Troy had said is that I had aged the most.
HARRIS: You had aged the most.
C. JOHNSON: Quite a bit of time with the Marine Corps.
HARRIS: So what has it been like? Have you guys been able...
C. JOHNSON: Lots of gray hairs.
HARRIS: Have you guys been able to keep in contact at all, e- mail, the sort of web cam thing, have you been able to see one another at all over these years?
C. JOHNSON: Troy and Adam were able to see each other this past July. Our grandmother had passed away and I had seen Adam in the summer of 2002 when he graduated from Air Force boot camp but otherwise we hadn't seen each other as a threesome since the Christmas of 2001.
HARRIS: So, who do you miss the most? If you had the opportunity to talk to someone right now, who would you most likely like to talk to?
A. JOHNSON: I'd like to answer that question. I've got a girlfriend I've been dating for about, coming up on four years in February and if I could talk to anybody right now it would be her. Second to her would be my Siberian husky Beauty.
HARRIS: Who was that? Was that Adam?
C. JOHNSON: That is Adam.
HARRIS: Adam, you know what, I had you set up so perfectly, that is so the wrong answer. That is so the wrong answer and here is why. On the telephone with us right now your parents, your parents Larry and Louise Johnson from Hawaii. Larry, say hello to your sons.
LARRY JOHNSON: Good morning, boys. Adam, let me tell you, you're in deep trouble with your mother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good evening, dad. Hello, mom, Uncle Johnny.
HARRIS: Hey mom.
LOUISE JOHNSON: Hi, guys.
LARRY JOHNSON: You guys are looking great. How you doing?
C. JOHNSON: We're doing well, dad. We had a really nice dinner last night here at the mess hall at Camp Falluja. It's great to see that both the generals were serving as well as the sergeant majors, the command master chief and it's just great to have dinner. If we can't be with mom and dad and Uncle Johnny, it's great to be with the Marines, sailors and soldiers over here at Camp Falluja, taking the fight to the enemy.
A. JOHNSON: There's also airmen here in Camp Falluja taking the fight to the enemy.
LARRY JOHNSON: We are so happy that the three of you, if you couldn't be here with us, that at least the three of you are there together in Iraq. It means so much to mom and I, you don't know.
LOUSE JOHNSON: We're so proud of you, so very proud of you.
T. JOHNSON: Again, dad, it's very comforting for the three of us to be here together.
HARRIS: Larry, let me have you put your wife on the phone. And Louise, if you would, before we run out of time here, what would you like to say to the brothers Johnson?
LOUISE JOHNSON: Be safe, watch your backs and never forget the reason that you're there. Be proud of your country. And I love you.
C. JOHNSON: We love you, too, mom and dad.
T. JOHNSON: Uncle Johnny, we love you also.
HARRIS: Very good.
JOHN JOHNSON?: Can you guys hear me? This is Uncle John. Can you hear Uncle John?
A. JOHNSON: We can hear Uncle John.
JOHNSON: ... if you guys come home and you guys stay safe, have a great new year. We're going to Pax River, have a reunion.
C. JOHNSON: That's easy. There's only six Johnsons left.
HARRIS: Well, guys, we've got to wrap it up there. It's been great. Adam, boy, are you in jail. Thank you, Troy, thank you, Christopher, thank you, Adam and thank you to Larry and Louise Johnson in Hawaii. That's what we do here it seems on this -- and Uncle Johnny. Let me not forget Uncle Johnny. Merry Christmas to all of you and happy holidays.
It was a cool yule in the big easy where snow fell on Christmas day for the first time in 50 years. Not everyone in New Orleans was jazzed. Many flights were delayed, roads closed and mass transit except for those famous street cars came to a halt. Brad Huffines will have your forecast when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Well, this has to be worth seeing a second time. It hasn't happened in 50 years. Snow in New Orleans caused some problems, delayed flights, roads closed. Street cars pretty much came to a halt. But, Brad, it is warming up in New Orleans and I understand, as we look ahead to the work week, it may be warming up in other places around the country.
BRAD HUFFINES, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, you were just a teenager when that happened last time.
HARRIS: Thank you, thank you, thank you, you're a kind man.
HUFFINES: Thank you very much and by the way, Rob Marciano is off today and even Rob deserves time off. Don't you think so?
HARRIS: Absolutely.
HUFFINES: After a comment like that, I'll have a few days off, too.
HARRIS: Coming quickly.
HUFFINES: I'll call my agent. Let me show you what's happening outside around the east coast right now. What we have been seeing is a developing nor'easter moving up the shoreline of the east coast and that has left behind rain showers mostly along the immediate shoreline inland. Then the rain changed to some freezing rain and some icing across parts of South Carolina. And in fact the morning icing problems are still in existence across some of the minor roadways.
I-95 no major problems except into North Carolina, two to four inches of snow causing some traffic slowdowns on the major interstates and minor roadways as well in the eastern parts of North Carolina with another two to four inches expected from Newport News and Williamsburg to right around the Delmarva Peninsula.
Good news is in New York only a light dusting expected but by tomorrow night, this storm will bring four to eight inches of snow to Boston and the good news as well, the only airport delays are volume related in Titaborough (ph) and in Newark. And the good news is as the shoreline, as that storm continues to hug the shoreline, most of the worst weather stays off shore, so travelers shouldn't have many major problems.
Around the southeast, cool temperatures, plenty of sunshine returns across the northern plains, some clouds, cold weather a few snow flurries across the great lakes, light snow, as well and some light snow across the Dakotas. Through the inner mountain west, some high elevation snows in sections of Washington, Oregon and then the south outside of some rain showers along the California coast, the southwest looks very, very warm. Sunny from Dallas/Ft. Worth all the way through Phoenix. In fact, looking at the high temperature we'll see warming weather in the 70s by the mid-week across the southern plains. What, just a couple days ago, Tony, they had a pretty good ice storm and some snow there, getting better quickly.
HARRIS: Thirty inches of snow in the Midwest. Oh, it was a mess. Brad, thank you.
HUFFINES: Good day.
HARRIS: There is much more ahead on CNN SUNDAY. In a few moments at the bottom of the hour, RELIABLE SOURCES. At noon Eastern, it's LATE EDITION with Wolf Blitzer. Among Wolf's guests, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 26, 2004 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: It is 11:00 a.m. in Washington, 8:00 a.m. on the west coast and 11:00 p.m. in Indonesia. I'm Tony Harris at the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta. Welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. Ahead this hour, massive devastation in southeast Asia after a monster earthquake spawns tsunamis across much of the region. We will have live reports.
And another day of flight delays and holiday travelers are wondering what is going on. We'll have the latest from Ronald Reagan International Airport.
But, first, a check of the top stories at this hour. First results are expected later today as millions of people vote again in Ukraine. It is a repeat of last month's bitterly disputed presidential election. More than 12,000 observers will be looking for problems. Last month's vote was tainted by fraud and widespread protests.
Police in Iraq say at least five Iraqi officials have been killed this weekend. Among them is a high-ranking police officer. Three others were local council members. Most were hit by drive by shootings in or near Baghdad.
The two-man crew at the international space station are celebrating the holiday weekend with a fresh supply of badly need food. They were running short and resorting to rationing until a Russian space ship brought supplies of food, water and fuel arrived yesterday.
And we begin in southeast Asia with a natural disaster of epic proportions. Walls of water have literally washed on to several nations in the region. A very powerful earthquake triggered massive tsunamis killing several thousand people. The 8.9 magnitude quake struck off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island. Geologists say the earthquake is the largest to rattle the earth in more than 40 years. Sri Lanka so far appears to have suffered the worst of the tragedy. The island nation reports more than 2,400 people dead. Authorities fear the death toll could rise since several districts have not reported any casualty figures.
To the north of Sri Lanka, India is also weighing the devastation of it all. The interior minister says at least 1,800 Indians were killed by the tsunamis. Several villages along India's southeastern coast have been swept away. Meanwhile, aftershocks from the quake have been centered off two remote Indian islands. There are so far no reports of casualties from those areas because of poor communications.
And in Indonesia, near where the earthquake struck, more than 500 people have been killed. Many of those casualties were in Sumatra. Tsunamis also hit the area and officials fear the death toll also will rise there.
The tsunamis caused by the earthquake have displaced millions of people in Sri Lanka. Villagers are fleeing their water-swollen homes in search of higher and drier ground. Meanwhile, thousands of soldiers have been deployed to help with relief and rescue efforts. For the latest, CNN's Satinder Bindra joins us live by phone from Colombo, Sri Lanka, which is the capital of Sri Lanka where he was vacationing. Satinder.
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Like most other people, my vacation, too, has been interrupted by what has happened. I'm standing right outside the Hilton Hotel, Tony, here in the capital Colombo. And this is the place where evacuated people are being brought. These are western tourists. They've come to Sri Lanka to enjoy the sunshine here, but their holiday has been of course rudely interrupted.
As night falls here in Colombo, the death count is mounting. Right at the moment officials telling us 2500 people dead and in the next few hours they say this death toll is going to continue to rise. Sri Lankan authorities have now declared a state of emergency and they're appealing directly to the United States to help. Sri Lanka says it's urgently in need of blankets, food, water and medicine. An appeal has also been issued to India and India has responded.
India is sending six naval ships to Sri Lanka now to help and India is also dispatching via transport plane some eight transport helicopters. Of course, as I have been reporting, Tony, the death and destruction is at its most extensive. Along the eastern coast of Sri Lanka more than 1,500 people killed there and even here in areas surrounding the Colombo, the capital, the devastation is huge.
Hundreds and hundreds of homes have been flattened. These are, of course, wooden homes and also large-scale damage to homes that have been built with concrete. I would estimate it's going to take a long time, perhaps months for the people of Sri Lanka to try and put their lives back together. Back to you.
HARRIS: Satinder, tell us a bit of your story. We mentioned that you're there vacationing. When did you first get an indication that the situation on the ground there was bad and could potentially be even worse than imagined?
BINDRA: Well, Tony, last night I heard the seas and the seas were extremely loud and that just triggered off something in my mind. But I thought nothing was hit and then when I got up this morning, my hotel overlooked the water and I saw the waters rising suddenly and the water sort of came towards the hotel. They advanced almost 30 feet in a matter of minutes and then thousands and thousands of people descended upon the beach. They were quite curious. They were watching. But then as reports started flooding in that large numbers of people had been killed, people promptly ran indoors. They ran for cover and it's been, it's been quite moving to see these people, many of whom just don't have any insurance at all. They just sit there and stare at their houses which have been completely demolished and they're in a state of complete and other shock at the moment. Tony.
HARRIS: Goodness, Satinder Bindra from Sri Lanka. Satinder, thank you.
Tsunamis are some of the most dangerous occurrences in nature as we've seen from this tragedy in Asia. But what causes them and is there an easy way to detect them? CNN meteorologist Brad Huffines joins us live from the weather center to explain the science behind the tsunami. Brad.
BRAD HUFFINES, METEOROLOGIST: What makes these so hard to predict Tony is that in instances like this where the earthquake is actually on the ocean bottom, on the floor of the ocean, the ripples begin there. You don't necessarily see something on the surface. All the energy is moving along the ocean bottom and as it rises up toward the land, then that's when the cause, the problems are being caused and you see the flooding across Sri Lanka in the Bay of Bengal here.
Of course the earthquake was just off the coast of Sumatra and as the earthquake shook, about an 8.9 earthquake there, 1,000 miles away to the west, that's where the energy was being transported under water. As that water, that energy went underwater, the ripples under water began to hit the land. When the ripples hit the land, the water starts to rise causing what we have for many years called tidal waves.
Of course we now call them tsunamis. And those began to of course inundate, not just the eastern shore of Sri Lanka, but the entire coastline of India and Sri Lanka as we heard Satinder mention just moments ago, he's on the west coast of Sri Lanka so it wasn't necessarily the direct tsunami. It was the overall rising of the ocean water as that water rippled through underwater again and began to rise and inundate much of the entire island.
As you've heard before, the earth is made up of plates, the science called plate tectonics and the reason why this is such an earthquake-prone area, look right there. It's at the intersection of nearly three plates, the Eurasian plate, the Indo-Australian plate and the Pacific plate. Tony, for years, seismologists calls the ring of fire. That's where you see the world's largest number of earthquakes and most devastating volcanoes as well and that's where Malaysia happens to be.
HARRIS: My goodness, OK, Brad, thank you, we appreciate it.
Last week's winter weather, huge holiday travel and a major computer system failure has tens of thousands of people trying to get somewhere but going nowhere fast. Gary Nuremberg is at Ronald Reagan National Airport where he is standing by just like a lot of other people. Gary?
GARY NUREMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony. It has been an incredibly frustrating Christmas weekend for thousands of passengers who found themselves spending Christmas in an airport, unable to get to where they wanted to go. Some this morning have simply given up on that destination and now are trying to make arrangements just to get home. Much of the problem began with Comair, a Delta subsidiary whose computers crashed on Friday night. Comair canceled all of its flights over the weekend, 1,160 each day, inconveniencing 30,000 passengers each day. The airline said today it is trying to gradually resume operations and hopes to be at full speed by the end of the week, a small consolation for passengers who had their Christmas weekends ruined.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NUREMBERG (voice-over): Comair's cancellation of 1,160 flights Saturday left 30,000 passengers scrambling to find other ways to get to their Christmas destination.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sit in line for two hours. Our flights were canceled. Then we came back on our rebooked flights today, got to Cincinnati and found out 25 minutes before the flight was supposed to board that it was canceled. Now we're driving to Columbus tomorrow to take a Northwest flight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We checked it right through from Salt Lake and I would imagine it is somewhere - it's probably in Minneapolis/St. Paul, if I was betting.
NUREMBERG: U.S. Airways was hit by several hundred sick calls from flight attendants and baggage handlers. That resulted in about 10,000 pieces of luggage sitting in Philadelphia instead of with the passengers who found them missing at baggage kiosks, throughout the U.S Airways system.
Shortly after 8:00 a.m. this morning at Reagan National, these bags were still separated from their owners. Billy Black has been without his luggage for four days.
BILLY BLACK: It's kind of sad because I had some presents for kids and so on and I couldn't give the presents to the kids, so --
NUREMBERG: U.S. Airways said at mid-morning that backlog of 10,000 pieces of luggage have been cut by about two-thirds.
CHRIS CHIAMES, U.S. AIRWAYS: We have flown special sections of cargo only aircraft or baggage only aircraft from Philadelphia to Charlotte where we have another hub and appropriate staffing so that we can sort the bags and connect them. So our employees have stepped up. Unfortunately, a few of our employees chose to call in sick, but most of our employees have been working double overtime trying to get caught up, trying to help our customers get to where they want to go and get their baggage to them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NUREMBERG: U.S. Air passengers without their bags for four days now say if you believe in Santa Claus, anything's possible. Tony?
HARRIS: Gary, thank you.
It's election day again in Ukraine. We'll take you there live for round two coming up.
Plus a family reunion in Falluja, three brothers together again after more than two years, their story coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: President Bush left his Camp David retreat this morning heading to his ranch in Crawford Texas. The president and his extended family, including former President Bush celebrated Christmas at Camp David yesterday and the president also spent time with the Marines who guard Camp David. He is expended to remain in Texas until January 2nd.
It is election day in Ukraine where people are voting for president again. Polls close at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. The often raucous process that has led to thousands of people protesting in the streets again pits opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, his face scarred by mysterious dioxin poisoning against Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich. In Kiev Jill Dougherty has the latest on the repeat election. Hi, Jill.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Tony. We're back down here on Independent Square. That's where a lot of those demonstrations did take place. It's very quiet right now. There are about two hours left before the polls close and the turnout as of three hours ago, that's the last report that the central election commission gave was about 55 percent so so far it looks like a pretty decent turnout. There have been some reports of violations, but nothing like the violations that marred the previous runoff.
Both of the candidates Viktor Yanukovich, who is the prime minister, he has voted and his opponent, the opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko. Both of them have cast their ballot, as well as the president, the outgoing president of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma. We are talking with some people who are voting, asking them after three times, isn't this pretty amazing that they have to go to the polls three times but one woman actually said, Tony that she would go five times if she had to, that she feels it is a historic vote, that it's very, very important and that seems to be the mood on both sides. A lot of people very, very committed to their candidates and intent on showing up at the polling stations.
HARRIS: Jill Dougherty in Kiev for us. Jill, we appreciate it. Thank you.
Some of the bigger stories in the news this year were the people in the news business. Howard Kurtz explains in this preview of today's edition of RELIABLE SOURCES.
HOWARD KURTZ, CNN ANCHOR, RELIABLE SOURCES: Coming up, Dan Rather, Bill O'Reilly, Tom Brokaw, Tim Russert, Jayson Blair, Ted Koppel, campaign reporters, swift boat ads, journalists facing jail, John Stewart and trusting or distrusting the press, the media's poor public image, all part of our look back at 2004 ahead on RELIABLE SOURCES.
HARRIS: It was a Creole white Christmas in the big easy. Brad Huffines will have a check of the rest of your Christmas weekend forecast and a secret Santa delivers a Christmas miracle in Denver. Those stories in a bit on CNN LIVE SUNDAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK. I'm all excited here because I know what is about to happen, time for our holiday reunion of a real band of brothers, the Johnson brothers. Troy, Christopher and Adam, they're reuniting for the first time in Falluja, Iraq. They are from a fourth generation military family. The brothers Johnson, hello and how are you?
ADAM JOHNSON: Good, sir, how are you?
HARRIS: I'm well. But I think you're doing better. It's been since, what, 2000 Christmas -- Christmas of 2001 since you've all been together. What has this reunion been like?
TROY JOHNSON: It's been very exciting, very exciting. It's comforting to have the three of us together for the first time.
HARRIS: That's not enough, that's hardly enough. We want to know more about the reunion. We want to know what you've been talking about. And Troy, you're the oldest, I'm going to have you lead. What has it been like to see your brothers after all this time?
T. JOHNSON: It's been exciting. I think Chris, the middle aged one, he's aged the most in the last three years. And Adam behind me he's obviously the biggest of the three. So, it's been exciting. The last couple hours we've spent enjoying Christmas dinner, catching up. Actually planning ahead, what we're going to do when we get back.
HARRIS: Chris, what does your brother mean when he says you have grown the most. What is he talking about, taller or wider?
CHRIS JOHNSON: My younger brother, Adam, he's the biggest of the three of us but what my brother Troy had said is that I had aged the most.
HARRIS: You had aged the most.
C. JOHNSON: Quite a bit of time with the Marine Corps.
HARRIS: So what has it been like? Have you guys been able...
C. JOHNSON: Lots of gray hairs.
HARRIS: Have you guys been able to keep in contact at all, e- mail, the sort of web cam thing, have you been able to see one another at all over these years?
C. JOHNSON: Troy and Adam were able to see each other this past July. Our grandmother had passed away and I had seen Adam in the summer of 2002 when he graduated from Air Force boot camp but otherwise we hadn't seen each other as a threesome since the Christmas of 2001.
HARRIS: So, who do you miss the most? If you had the opportunity to talk to someone right now, who would you most likely like to talk to?
A. JOHNSON: I'd like to answer that question. I've got a girlfriend I've been dating for about, coming up on four years in February and if I could talk to anybody right now it would be her. Second to her would be my Siberian husky Beauty.
HARRIS: Who was that? Was that Adam?
C. JOHNSON: That is Adam.
HARRIS: Adam, you know what, I had you set up so perfectly, that is so the wrong answer. That is so the wrong answer and here is why. On the telephone with us right now your parents, your parents Larry and Louise Johnson from Hawaii. Larry, say hello to your sons.
LARRY JOHNSON: Good morning, boys. Adam, let me tell you, you're in deep trouble with your mother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good evening, dad. Hello, mom, Uncle Johnny.
HARRIS: Hey mom.
LOUISE JOHNSON: Hi, guys.
LARRY JOHNSON: You guys are looking great. How you doing?
C. JOHNSON: We're doing well, dad. We had a really nice dinner last night here at the mess hall at Camp Falluja. It's great to see that both the generals were serving as well as the sergeant majors, the command master chief and it's just great to have dinner. If we can't be with mom and dad and Uncle Johnny, it's great to be with the Marines, sailors and soldiers over here at Camp Falluja, taking the fight to the enemy.
A. JOHNSON: There's also airmen here in Camp Falluja taking the fight to the enemy.
LARRY JOHNSON: We are so happy that the three of you, if you couldn't be here with us, that at least the three of you are there together in Iraq. It means so much to mom and I, you don't know.
LOUSE JOHNSON: We're so proud of you, so very proud of you.
T. JOHNSON: Again, dad, it's very comforting for the three of us to be here together.
HARRIS: Larry, let me have you put your wife on the phone. And Louise, if you would, before we run out of time here, what would you like to say to the brothers Johnson?
LOUISE JOHNSON: Be safe, watch your backs and never forget the reason that you're there. Be proud of your country. And I love you.
C. JOHNSON: We love you, too, mom and dad.
T. JOHNSON: Uncle Johnny, we love you also.
HARRIS: Very good.
JOHN JOHNSON?: Can you guys hear me? This is Uncle John. Can you hear Uncle John?
A. JOHNSON: We can hear Uncle John.
JOHNSON: ... if you guys come home and you guys stay safe, have a great new year. We're going to Pax River, have a reunion.
C. JOHNSON: That's easy. There's only six Johnsons left.
HARRIS: Well, guys, we've got to wrap it up there. It's been great. Adam, boy, are you in jail. Thank you, Troy, thank you, Christopher, thank you, Adam and thank you to Larry and Louise Johnson in Hawaii. That's what we do here it seems on this -- and Uncle Johnny. Let me not forget Uncle Johnny. Merry Christmas to all of you and happy holidays.
It was a cool yule in the big easy where snow fell on Christmas day for the first time in 50 years. Not everyone in New Orleans was jazzed. Many flights were delayed, roads closed and mass transit except for those famous street cars came to a halt. Brad Huffines will have your forecast when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Well, this has to be worth seeing a second time. It hasn't happened in 50 years. Snow in New Orleans caused some problems, delayed flights, roads closed. Street cars pretty much came to a halt. But, Brad, it is warming up in New Orleans and I understand, as we look ahead to the work week, it may be warming up in other places around the country.
BRAD HUFFINES, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, you were just a teenager when that happened last time.
HARRIS: Thank you, thank you, thank you, you're a kind man.
HUFFINES: Thank you very much and by the way, Rob Marciano is off today and even Rob deserves time off. Don't you think so?
HARRIS: Absolutely.
HUFFINES: After a comment like that, I'll have a few days off, too.
HARRIS: Coming quickly.
HUFFINES: I'll call my agent. Let me show you what's happening outside around the east coast right now. What we have been seeing is a developing nor'easter moving up the shoreline of the east coast and that has left behind rain showers mostly along the immediate shoreline inland. Then the rain changed to some freezing rain and some icing across parts of South Carolina. And in fact the morning icing problems are still in existence across some of the minor roadways.
I-95 no major problems except into North Carolina, two to four inches of snow causing some traffic slowdowns on the major interstates and minor roadways as well in the eastern parts of North Carolina with another two to four inches expected from Newport News and Williamsburg to right around the Delmarva Peninsula.
Good news is in New York only a light dusting expected but by tomorrow night, this storm will bring four to eight inches of snow to Boston and the good news as well, the only airport delays are volume related in Titaborough (ph) and in Newark. And the good news is as the shoreline, as that storm continues to hug the shoreline, most of the worst weather stays off shore, so travelers shouldn't have many major problems.
Around the southeast, cool temperatures, plenty of sunshine returns across the northern plains, some clouds, cold weather a few snow flurries across the great lakes, light snow, as well and some light snow across the Dakotas. Through the inner mountain west, some high elevation snows in sections of Washington, Oregon and then the south outside of some rain showers along the California coast, the southwest looks very, very warm. Sunny from Dallas/Ft. Worth all the way through Phoenix. In fact, looking at the high temperature we'll see warming weather in the 70s by the mid-week across the southern plains. What, just a couple days ago, Tony, they had a pretty good ice storm and some snow there, getting better quickly.
HARRIS: Thirty inches of snow in the Midwest. Oh, it was a mess. Brad, thank you.
HUFFINES: Good day.
HARRIS: There is much more ahead on CNN SUNDAY. In a few moments at the bottom of the hour, RELIABLE SOURCES. At noon Eastern, it's LATE EDITION with Wolf Blitzer. Among Wolf's guests, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
