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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports
South Asian Tsunami Kills 22,000
Aired December 27, 2004 - 17:00 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.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, a massive Tsunami claims more than 22,000 lives and the toll is expected to climb. Just how did this happen and could it happen on U.S. shores?
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: Death waves. A massive earthquake sends walls of water crashing into coastlines, tens of thousands are dead or missing.
Devastation. Entire villages disappear. Hundreds of thousands are homeless in the area ringing the Indian Ocean.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no power. There's no petrol so there's no movement. There's no like support getting through to help the injured.
MESERVE: Is America at risk? The waves struck without warning. How vulnerable are U.S. coastal communities?
Anti-election campaign. As bombers target Baghdad, is bin Laden calling for a boycott?
ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Monday, December 27th, 2004.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: Thanks for joining us, I'm Jeanne Meserve in for Wolf Blitzer. Tsunami disaster, spawned by an undersea earthquake, the most powerful in decades. Monstrous waves swept across the Indian Ocean, smashing coastlines from Southeast Asia to Africa. Only now is the scale of the catastrophe just starting to become apparent. More than 22,000 people are reported dead, half of them in Sri Lanka, a nation already wracked by civil war. Across Asia thousands more are missing and the number of those who have lost homes and livelihoods may reach into the millions.
In India, coastal villages were swept away and thousands of fishermen have never returned from the sea. Elsewhere, grieving relative organized cremations and mass burials.
Authorities are struggling to mount a relief effort in Indonesia, closest to the epicenter where a major city was devastated. And many Western tourists are among the dead and injured in Thailand where the waves slammed into popular beach resorts. The island nation of Sri Lanka may have been the hardest hit. More than 10,000 people have died there, a toll that is likely to rise. The relief needs are simply overwhelming. CNN's Satinder Bindra reports from the capital, Colombo.
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Unaware of the suffering around her, the youngest member of this relief camp sleeps fitfully. But baby Rashuda's (ph) mother worries. Her younger brother is missing. And baby Rashuda's grandmother is dead, swept out to sea by Sunday's tsunami.
"Without my mother, I just can't imagine living," she says. "The rest of the family, too, will find it hard to live without her."
This is what tens of thousands of Sri Lankan families woke up to. Their homes destroyed. Their neighborhoods and communities sucked up by a savage sea.
(on camera): More than 1,500 people are now seeking shelter in this relief camp alone. Here they're provided food, water and emotional support. It's a story that's being repeated in thousands of shelters across the country.
(voice-over): Relief efforts, too, are now slowly bearing fruit. Western tourists stranded on Sri Lanka's beaches are now being moved to the county's capital, Colombo. For some, the events of the past 48 hours have been more than they can bear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was on a big stone and I saw only water above me. I was very -- I thought, I will die.
BINDRA: More than 10,000 Sri Lankans have already been killed in this calamity. Some of the worst affected communities are in this country south and east. Tourists rescued from these areas say people there need help fast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no power. There's no petrol, so there's no movement. There's no, like, support giving through to help the injured. And I believe that there are bodies that need to be dealt with, identified and transported out of there because, soon, I guess, with this heat, the sanitation problems will arise.
BINDRA: Over the next 24 hours, officials here say the death toll is likely to rise. Sri Lankans are bracing themselves for more suffering, they're also praying they've seen the last of these killer waves.
Satinder Bindra, CNN, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: In southern India, more 6,000 are reported dead, many are more missing. CNN's Suhasini Haidar reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SUHASINI HAIDAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Laying to rest one of the tsunami's tiniest victims, residents in the small fishing village on the south Indian coast come to mourn this 8-month-old and relive the horror of all they have seen. Their homes are destroyed and they've seen family members and friends drown in the giant wave that hit the village Kalapet.
Most of the dead here were women and small children. As her relatives cremate 35-year-old Puni (ph), they can't even dwell on their grief. They must think of where to go next. Many from Kalapet have already moved to this building nearby, some exhausted by terror and grief.
Newly married Sativiti (ph) says she can't believe this is all that is left of her wedding dowry. "But at least we saved our lives," she says.
(on camera): Thousands are now pouring into schools and public buildings across the state. Many here say their huts have washed away and they can't go home. Some say they've lost loved ones and are just too traumatized to consider going back to the scene of destruction.
(voice-over): Despite his fears, Suriminyan Valentin (ph) has gone back to look for his father's body. An earth mover did find the clothes his father was wearing in the debris of his home. "I realized then that my father must have died," he says.
Many other villagers from Kalapet haven't been found. Their families sing, their anguish deepens as they can't even give their loved ones a decent burial.
Suhasini Haidar, CNN, Kalapet Beach, South India.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: The earthquake struck closest to Indonesia where the official death toll stands at 4,500, but Indonesia's vice president suggests that figure could easily double. The low-lying provincial capital of Banda Aceh was rocked by the quake and swept by the water. The streets of the city were filled with overturned cars and rotting corpses.
In southern Thailand a tourist paradise quickly turned into hell. CNN's Aneesh Raman reports from the resort island of Phuket.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The moment a tropical resort became a scene of horror. An massive wave, one of many, roaring into Patang (ph) Beach on Phuket Island. An Australian tourist on a rooftop capturing the beginning of a catastrophe. A wall of water engulfing buildings, surging into the streets, carrying people, vehicles and more; one snapshot of a disaster that has ravaged a continent.
Not far away, 26-year-old Belgian tourist Julia Lebeau was among thousands of vacationers enjoying a break in the tropics.
JULIA LEBEAU, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: And I was just trying to spend the day on the beach. And suddenly all the water went away, and everyone was just looking at it and saying, where is all the water? And then suddenly, it was all coming at us. And people just started to run and scream.
RAMAN: In seconds, pristine tranquility turned into a hellish fight to stay alive.
LEBEAU: The building was collapsing, so I had to jump to another building. And then a second wave came in, a third wave came in. People injured. I saw dead bodies floating. And so then, at that moment, we decided with a couple of people just to run for it.
RAMAN (on camera): As tsunami waves devoured the coastlines of Phuket Pipi (ph) Island, tourists like Julia desperately scrambled for higher ground. Whatever remained on the shore, now evidence of severe destruction.
(voice-over): Destruction Julia avoided. She's now at this hospital along with hundreds of other survivors from at least 20 countries all in shock.
LEBEAU: I hope to be back for a new year with my family. We'll never forget this Christmas.
RAMAN: But at least she has somewhere to go. Many who live here are still missing family members and have no home left.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Phuket, southern Thailand.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: The waves which raced across the Indian Ocean eventually reached Africa, almost 3,000 miles from the epicenter of the quake. They struck Somalia where there are unconfirmed reports of many deaths in coastal villages. Some deaths are also reported in the Seychelles.
The huge deadly waves that slammed into Asian coasts were caused by forces deep inside the Earth. CNN meteorologist Orelon Sidney is at the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta with a look at the fierce natural phenomenon known as the tsunami.
Orelon, fill us in.
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Jeanne, thank a lot. It's often really difficult to understand what's going on when you see a situation like this. But the Earth is made up of these plates. And sometimes, these plates move.
Here's a story that might help you to understand.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SIDNEY (voice-over): The Earth can seem like a solid mass of rock to us floating in space. But that's not really true at all. You can get a better picture of what the Earth actually looks like if you take a look at this sphere. You can see that it has got cracks and fractures in it. And the Earth is a lot like that.
On the Earth, these fractures are called faults. And these faults are where we find earthquakes. Take a look at this. This is an area of the Earth with extensive faulting. This is called the Pacific Rim, nicknamed the "Ring of Fire." The reason for that is we have lots of volcanoes around this area and this is the place where we find the deepest and strongest earthquakes ever recorded.
In 1960, the earthquake in Chile, 9.5 on the scale. In 1964, in the Aleutians in Alaska, 9.2. And, of course the weekend's quake in Sumatra, at 9.0.
Now, what I want to show you here is what happened in this area. Here is Sumatra. This is the location of the quake, about 100 miles off the coast. But this whole area is a fault zone between the Australian plate to the southwest and the Eurasian plate to the northeast. These two are coming together, and one of them has to win. In this case, the Australian plate dives beneath the Eurasian plate, but it gets stuck. When it unsticks, that's what unleashes an earthquake.
As one plate dives beneath the other, the elevation of the sea floor changes. Any displacement in the sea floor generates a seismic sea wave, and that's what we call a tsunami.
Tsunamis obviously aren't just modern events. They've been recorded ever since human beings have been writing them down. In fact, they go back to ancient Greece and Rome. In 365 A.D., in Alexandria, Egypt, thousands of people were killed from a tsunami from the Mediterranean Sea.
Earthquakes like the massive one that caused this disaster in Southeast Asia are the most common cause of tsunamis, but tsunamis can also be triggered by volcanoes. In 1883, the eruption of the volcano Krakatoa sparked a wave that killed over 30,000 people in Java and Sumatra.
Scientists are also studying how pockets of gasses beneath the sea floor could erupt and send tsunamis toward land. That's a possibility on the continental shelf off the east coast of United States.
And there's another remote but possible cause of a tsunami -- a meteor striking the Earth near a coastal area.
It may be human nature, but it took a series of deaths in the 1940s and 1960s in Hawaii to aspire the creation of a tsunami warning network spanning the ocean from the Americas to Japan. The Atlantic, where tsunamis are far more rare, has no formal network, but weather buoys and other technology can provide some warning.
The nations around the Indian Ocean have neither, and the element of surprise magnified the death toll from the massive earthquake.
It's absolutely staggering to see the human cost of this. Hopefully, in the future, we could get a warning system in that part of the Indian Ocean -- Jeanne.
MESERVE: Orelon Sidney, thanks so much.
Now, here is a question: Could this same type of national disaster happen in the United States? I'll look at how vulnerable U.S. coastlines are and what's being done to protect American citizens from such an event.
Witnesses to the destruction -- tourists trapped in the rushing waters. The survivors share their amazing stories ahead.
And coping with the crisis. The efforts in place to save thousands of people now without food, water or shelter.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MESERVE: The death wave struck without warning in Asia. The result, utter catastrophe. Could a tsunami disaster happen in this country? CNN's Brian Todd is live at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Silver Spring, Maryland. Brian, could it?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jeanne, within this facility is the National Weather Service. We came here to ask two fundamental questions. One is that question, can a tsunami of the magnitude felt in South Asia in fact hit the United States, and second, what systems are in place if tsunamis head for the American coastline?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD (voice-over): When tsunamis are triggered, experts say warning system are crucial. We asked officials at the National Weather Service what kind of warning net is in place for American shores.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The warning systems are in their infancy. We're getting better and better at informing the public all the time.
TODD: The American coastline around the northern Pacific rim is the most vulnerable to tsunamis. The Aleutian Islands range off Alaska has experienced devastating tsunamis in the past. And underwater earthquakes in that area can also place Hawaii and California in danger quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tsunamis and seismic waves that generate tsunamis and that pressure wave usually travel at about 500 to 600 miles an hour. So as fast as an airliner. So if you're living in Hawaii, you have four or five hours' notice.
TODD: For that reason, the National Weather Service has anchored five centers in the northern Pacific, one in the South Pacific, and plans to place more in that region. The buoys anchored in deep water, are able to pick up seismic activity and send it through an antenna to a satellite. National Weather Service officials say there are no censors in the Caribbean, and they admit there need to be, because of active fault zones there. There are no sensors in the Atlantic region because the likelihood of seismic activity there is much lower.
Weather service officials say to their knowledge, there are no censors in the Indian Ocean, and one official told me, that's mostly due to a lack of resources.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD: And in fact, the United States has already felt what officials here call wrap-around effects of those South Asian tsunamis. In the San Diego area this morning, the National Weather Service officials say they measured a 10-inch rise in the sea level just in the San Diego area. They say that those levels will recede -- Jeanne.
MESERVE: Brian Todd. Thank you.
Big waves and no warnings, why an alert system in the region could have made a huge difference in the loss of life.
Witness to disaster. Hear from some of the lucky people who lived to tell about the tsunami. Their stories ahead.
Plus, meddling in Iraq's elections. A new tape reportedly from Osama bin Laden, appealing to Iraqis.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MESERVE: In Iraq today, political parties and leaders became the targets of violence. A suicide bomber attacked the headquarters of a major Shiite party and a top Sunni political party announced it is pulling out of the scheduled January 30th elections, citing security concerns. CNN's Jeff Koinange has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another bloody day in Baghdad in what has become an all too familiar scene, a suicide bomber drove his car right up to the headquarters of the country's largest Shia political party, killing six and wounding at least 33.
Sources say the intended target was this man, Abdulazziz al- Hakeem (ph), leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq. He wasn't in the building at the time, but he was quick to issue a statement calling the blast an assassination attempt. And he urged his party faithful not to seek revenge against what he called "Sunni Islamists."
All this as a new audiotape, purportedly from al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, aired on the Arabic language network Al Jazeera, urging Iraqis to boycott the January election and back Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as bin Laden's deputy in Iraq. The authenticity of the tape could not be immediately verified. But some political parties are already backing out of the January 30th poll. The leading Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party announced it's pulling out of the race, citing persistent violence and security concerns.
TAREQ AL HASHAMI, SECRETARY-GENERAL, IRAQI ISLAMIC PARTY (through translator): Today the party took a very difficult decision, which was to withdraw from the elections, because it is convinced that the situation will not improve to allow conditions for credible elections within the timeframe.
KOINANGE: An election without Sunni involvement means bad news for the fragile coalition, as it would further isolate and disenfranchise the minority group, that until the fall of Saddam Hussein, ruled the country, leaving questions about the legitimacy of an election that is being touted as all-inclusive.
(on camera): Monday's assassination attempt may have been unsuccessful, but a series of attacks on Iraqi politicians and activists in recent days shows a stepped-up campaign of fear and intimidation by insurgent groups bent on making sure that the January poll doesn't take place.
Jeff Koinange, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: Late today, the CIA said its agents have analyzed the audiotape and are reasonably sure the voice on the tape is Osama bin Laden.
Can Osama bin Laden play the spoiler in the Iraqi election? Joining me now is our world affairs analyst, former Defense Secretary William Cohen. Thanks a lot for coming here today.
WILLIAM COHEN, CNN WORLD AFFAIRS ANALYST: Good to be here.
MESERVE: You have both the tape from bin Laden calling for a boycott. Also, a Sunni political party is saying they aren't going to participate. What did this portend for this election?
COHEN: Well, it's certainly not good news. On one hand, you have the Sunnis who are causing the instability, the lack of security, then citing the lack of security for reason they're not going to participate in the political process. And so it's rather circular reasoning on their part. They should be helping to contribute to stabilize the region, rather than simply sitting back and criticizing it.
But secondly, there's no choice but to go forward, because the Shia majority would see any slippage in the election itself as a cause to perhaps not participate in the future, and you then really do run the risk of a civil war under way in a major way.
What you have are the Sunnis, who are the minority party, a minority population in Iraq. It's the only Arab country where the Sunnis are in the minority. They have suppressed, tyrannized, engaged in brutal suppression of the majority under the law of rule. Now they're facing the rule of law, in which the majority will be in power, with protection for minority rights. And they have to come to accept that. They're unwilling to do so to date, but hopefully, the other Sunni leaders in the neighboring countries might be a voice of reason, encouraging them to participate and not follow the advice of bin Laden. Because that advice could lead to instability not only in Iraq, but throughout the entire region, calling into question their future and their security.
MESERVE: We also heard bin Laden today in this tape endorsing the actions of al-Zarqawi. What does that mean? Are they in cahoots? Are they one now?
COHEN: I think we should assume that to be the case. Zarqawi pledged his allegiance to bin Laden several weeks ago, and this is bin Laden apparently designating him as his right-hand man, so to speak, or his deputy, and so I think we have to assume they're now working in cahoots and collaboration. That's just the other working assumption. We'll have to go forward on that basis, and have been, as a matter of fact, in the last couple of months.
MESERVE: Absolutely. I want to turn the corner to the tsunami and the U.S. response to this. You, of course, the former secretary of defense, at this point, the U.S. response has been large in terms of money, $15 million, and a few reconnaissance planes sent, but what sort of effort eventually might we see the U.S. military make to this?
COHEN: Well, we tend to look at the military in terms of its warrior status, but they're great humanitarians. They provide relief under these kind of extraordinary circumstances. They can help with search and rescue. They can help with refugee resettlement. They can help at delivering medical supplies. They can set up field hospitals, all of which we've done in Turkey in 1999, and frankly, we've also offered this assistance to China when China suffered a major earthquake, and I myself delivered that message to Jiang Zemin, the president of China during their very tragic times.
In a time of crisis, a helping hand can be just as powerful if not more powerful than a fist of iron, and that's a lesson out here. We should be rushing with whatever resources we can to help those in need in a time of crisis. It will certainly be a humanitarian thing to do, but also in our national interest, to help under these circumstances.
MESERVE: Let's pivot again, talk about Ukraine, very briefly. The Secretary of State Colin Powell said today, "I don't expect this" -- the election and the controversy over it -- "to be a blot on U.S.- Russian relations." Would you agree with that assessment?
COHEN: Well, it doesn't have to be, certainly. There are three people who have very much a role to play in this. Yanukovych, the apparently defeated candidate. Yushchenko, the one who won the election, and also President Putin. These three individuals hold I think the future in their hands. On the one hand, we have seen in our country a so-called red state/blue state division. But the seeds of democracy are quite shallow in Ukraine. And what we have to see is both the winner, the loser, and President Putin coming forward and saying, we need to see these elections as being fair and being open and being final. And hopefully, if they can send that message, there will be an opportunity for majority rule, and with some calm and acceptance on the part of the majority, the overwhelming majority of the Ukrainian people.
MESERVE: Secretary Cohen, thanks. We've been doing this for a long time. Nice to do it again.
COHEN: Nice to see you again.
MESERVE: Since our days in May.
As we continue our look into the tsunami disasters, could an international warning system have helped alert those in danger? We'll examine the possibilities coming up. Plus, survivor stories, we'll hear from injured tourists trying to get home.
And the winner is, as one candidate claims victory, another refuses to concede. An update on Ukraine elections, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MESERVE: Welcome back.
Without warning, walls of water slam ashore, killing more than 22,000 people. Could an early detection system have saved lives? We'll get to that.
But first some stories now in the news.
Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko is claiming victory in Ukraine's presidential election, although his opponent is refusing to concede. International observers say the revote was closer to meeting international standards, a theme touched on by Secretary of State Colin Powell today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: All we wanted to see was a full, free, fair election, and that appears now to be what happened yesterday. And we'll wait for the official results, which should be out later this week. And I don't expect this to be a blot on U.S.- Russian relations. We'll move forward. Ukrainians chose for themselves. They did not choose for the East or for the West.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: The latest death toll from yesterday's deadly earthquake and tsunamis in Asia has risen to more than 22,000 people. Sri Lanka and India are reporting the largest number of victims. The death toll includes at least 27 non-nationals, including at least eight Americans. The U.S. is committing an initial $15 million and sending disaster relief specialists to South Asian countries struck by the tsunamis. Tonight, six U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo planes loaded with relief supplies are standing by in Japan waiting for word to fly to Thailand.
Thailand was just one of the Southeast Asian countries hit by tsunamis over the weekend.
CNN's Randi Kaye Reports on the devastation.
(Begin Videotape)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fish on land, an octopus stuck in a tree, bodies in the streets, this is the scene in Southern Asia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was one long wave right across the horizon. And it looked quite small from a distance. As it got nearer, you could tell it was quite a big wave.
KAYE: The biggest wave in 40 years on the floor of the Indian Ocean, the result, tsunami, a wall of water pounding Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. It hit without warning. Listen as this woman yells to her children at the shore.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get inside. Come on, guys.
KAYE: This British tourist, now home from Sri Lanka, was one of the lucky ones to get out alive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And all we heard was this mighty bang. And the next thing, the place was flooded. And it's up to there.
KAYE: The death toll is still rising, more than 20,000 so far. The beaches, once beautiful, now serve as sandy graveyards for those unable to reach higher ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just kept rising, rising, rising. And then everyone that was downstairs had to go upstairs to the first floor and the second floor. And eventually it just kept coming. It just destroyed the hotel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The wave then came all the way through, taking the bed, the television, side tables and what knows what. And that was it. And we all clambered up to high ground. And all the lower ground rooms were all devastated.
KAYE: Nothing stood in this water's way. It sailed through buildings in Malaysia as if they were invisible, spilling into city streets, destroying homes, cars, lives.
This man grieves for these women and children left to lay in the street. Coffins are arriving slowly. They are numbered and marked with a photograph of the body inside. Survivors are need of treatment. Some are at hospitals. Other are waiting it out at beaches for rescue and relief, so many homeless.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The devastation is unbelievable. You have to understand, there's nothing left. The place is gone.
KAYE: Horrible memories from a day at the beach.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: One reason why this weekend's tsunamis were so deadly, they came as a surprise.
CNN's Zain Verjee is looking into that. She joins us from the CNN Center in Atlanta -- Zain.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jeanne, seismic experts say, if you want to reduce loss of life, you have to get a warning system in place. The key word they say is international anticipation, not international response.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were absolutely certain that we were going to die.
VERJEE (voice-over): Despairing cries, clinging on for dear life, desperate searches for loved ones lost in one terrible and ferocious moment, where a beautiful sunny day turned into the ultimate horror show.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was so quick. It was like a movie.
VERJEE: The blow was swift, deadly and completely unexpected. A wall of water hit 10 countries in the region and took residents and tourists by surprise. Scientists say it didn't have to happen like this. There could have been a warning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The challenge was, in the case of the Indian Ocean, having a system in place to be able to get those warnings to the folks in coastal areas.
VERJEE: There is an early warning system in the Pacific Ocean, which is more vulnerable to tsunamis. Scientists say that although tsunamis are rare in the Indian Ocean, they are known to occur in oceans around the world.
The waves hit Indonesia almost immediately, an hour later, Thailand, and more than three hours later, India. Experts say an early warning system could have reduced the massive carnage by giving people more time to seek higher ground or to go further inland. In the Pacific Basin, their tsunami system uses a network of monitoring stations to detect earthquake activity.
If any abnormal change in the sea level is recorded, the network sounds evacuation alarms. But there's caution, too, that warning systems don't erase all the dangers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The problem with a tsunami is that it takes hours or minutes for this wall of water to come. And there's just very, very little time.
VERJEE: Despite the scale of this disaster in the Indian Ocean, experts concede it will still take a lot of cooperation among nations in the region to implement an effective warning system.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now we have the disaster. And you can bet that something will finally happen in the Indian Ocean area.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: Scientists say an early warning system is only really effective once it is in place if alerts can be communicated quickly to people on the ground -- Jeanne.
MESERVE: So, Zain, why isn't there an early warning system in place in the Indian Ocean?
VERJEE: Well, one the reasons, experts say, is that tsunamis don't normally happen outside the Pacific. So, Asian countries like Malaysia, like Thailand, haven't really felt the need to establish one.
And, also, it's expensive. One scientist point out that there should have been one in place a long time ago simply because of the sheer number of people who live in coastal areas in Asia -- Jeanne.
MESERVE: Zain Verjee, thanks so much.
The tragic tsunamis swept away many lives. But when we return, some heart-wrenching stories of survival out of Thailand. Plus, tsunami relief efforts, what the U.S. is doing to help those hardest hit. A live interview just ahead.
And later, a luxury hot spot known for its five-star treatment of tourists is wiped out. A tour of the lost resort town coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MESERVE: Among the places hit by the Asian tsunamis, a resort city in Thailand that's popular with international tourists. Those tourists are going home now with frightening accounts.
Adrian Britton of International Television News has a report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADRIAN BRITTON, ITN REPORTER: The waters are calm and there's a gentle breeze here in Patong Beach tonight. But all around there is evidence of that awesome attack from the sea, wreckage, rubble and human shock. And as people here try to come to terms with what happened, the death toll continues to rise. (voice-over): A mighty force rising out of the sea and crushing an idyllic resort. The tidal waves turned to torrents around the coastline of Phuket, lifting and toiling everything in their path. Crystal blue seas became muddy destructive rivers. At nighttime, with their hotel's now debris, they sought higher ground for safety, sleep and warmth.
The mortuaries were unable to accommodate the colossal toll of death. Body after body was laid out in halls. Those who escaped, like this tourist from Oxford, had amazing tales of survival.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all got out of the rooms, and then one of our friends we couldn't get out of the room. He woke up and was asleep on his bed lying on what -- woke up in water. Had to throw the TV out of the window to climb out, to escape.
BRITTON: When the morning seas struck, many became separated from relatives. But with immense relief were later reunited.
Brothers there with memories of the desperate efforts of 9/11, with families bearing photographs of their lost ones in hope they, too, would be found. At Phuket Airport this evening, holiday makers sprawled across the departure hall waiting for the next flight home. Graham Metal (ph) from Tunbridge Wells was wounded but walking with his daughter, Charlotte (ph). Their holiday cut short, he told me another incredible story of escape.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The room was full of 14 or 15 people. They were screaming as the water started coming up in through the floor. We're outside on the balcony ready to jump somewhere, and it came closer and closer. And I just said to Charlotte, Get ready, because I thought these guys were going to burst out of the room and just land on us because they were panicking so much.
BRITTON: The hospitals are inundated with more serious injuries. Others are living in relief agency tents. Their homes were swept away in furious seconds, but they are thankful they have not lost more.
Adrian Britton, ITV News, Phuket, Thailand.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: Secretary of State Colin Powell calls the earthquake and tsunamis an international tragedy. And the international community faces an unprecedented relief effort to help Asian countries recover from such massive devastation.
Joining me is Andrew Natsios with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Thanks a lot for coming in today.
ANDREW NATSIOS, USAID: Thank you for having me.
MESERVE: Given the number of casualties, the number of countries affected, the coastline, the miles of coastline affected, is this truly unprecedented?
NATSIOS: There have been other extraordinary events in the last century, but this certainly ranks as one of the top ones.
We don't know what the total death count is yet. The 23,000 I think is a low end. People have not gotten into Ache yet, which is the Indonesia area, because there's an insurrection going on, sort of a civil war. And so it's less accessible. We think there are far more casualties in that area than what has been reported.
MESERVE: Would you hazard a guess at this point?
NATSIOS: Many thousands more. But we'll see. We'll see.
MESERVE: The U.S. right off the bat pledged $15 million to this relief effort. A U.N. official today called that stingy. What is your reaction to his remarks?
NATSIOS: Well, actually, I don't know who said that, but the United States leads the international effort in disaster relief generally. We always make an initial response. And then later on, we make a larger one, based on the assessments.
We never commit everything up front until we see what is needed. And our teams are now on the way in both India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia. We have regional missions in all those countries. We are sending 20 people from the United States who are disaster experts to the region. They will do an assessment. And then they will tell us what additional things are required, and we will provide the requirement.
MESERVE: It was, by the way, the U.N. emergency relief head who made that comment about the stingy donation.
But, as you say, this is just the beginning.
NATSIOS: Right.
MESERVE: The secretary of state said today that this is a multiyear effort. What you have here are people whose homes are lost, whose livelihoods are gone. How long is it going to take? How much money potentially could it take?
NATSIOS: Well, typically, in most of these responses, more money is spent on the immediate response, when, in fact, we would like more money in the longer-term reconstruction effort, because that's where the large amounts of money are needed, to reconstruct people's homes and schools and hospitals and livelihoods, people's -- the economy is destroyed in these areas. There's no income for people. We have to make sure enough food is there until the next harvest.
There's a real risk of epidemic from water being polluted and people drinking water that is not purified.
MESERVE: There's a sense of urgency here because of all of those things you just mentioned. NATSIOS: Right.
MESERVE: But the infrastructure clearly has been stressed and strained, if not wiped out. How long is it going to get your people on the ground to make the assessments in order to send what is needed?
(CROSSTALK)
NATSIOS: They're literally on the way right now. And I would guess, in a matter of hours, the initial teams will be there. The rest of the teams are leaving now from regional areas. We're sending some from Nairobi, Kenya. We're sending some from the U.S. and some from Bangkok.
MESERVE: Now, you already have some relief supplies prepositioned around the world. Is that right?
NATSIOS: That's right. That's right.
MESERVE: And so you wouldn't have to fly everything.
NATSIOS: No, no, no.
MESERVE: In those C-130 transportation planes.
(CROSSTALK)
NATSIOS: We have them in the Arabian Peninsula. We have them in Bangkok. So there's a number of areas in the region where there are large warehouses now for plastic sheeting for shelter, water purification units that purify enough water for 10,000 people per day, medical units, immunization, blankets, cooking utensils.
We've made a donation of $4 million to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society in Geneva, Switzerland, that works with the Red Cross movements around the world, for family health packs that will allow families to cook their food and put their houses back together again.
MESERVE: There are many demands for assistance around the world, Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan. Is the pie going to be sliced very, very thin?
NATSIOS: We always keep a reserve for natural disasters that are unpredictable or unpredictable.
MESERVE: This big a reserve?
NATSIOS: Well, the initial responses, we do have enough money for. But in terms of the reconstruction effort, that's something we'll have to discuss.
MESERVE: And so is donor fatigue potentially going to be an issue here?
NATSIOS: On something that's on TV and that the media covers and that is very dramatic like this, you usually get a lot of money, a lot of response, a lot of resource. It's the disasters that are distant from the public eye. The Congo, for example, has been in a civil war; 3.9 million people have died. And you don't much on TV. And so there isn't quite as much money for an emergency like that.
MESERVE: Andrew Natsios of the U.S. Agency for International Development, thanks so much for coming.
NATSIOS: Thank you.
MESERVE: More survivor stories ahead. Hear from one reporter who was vacationing on the beach in Thailand when the wall of water hit.
Plus, luxurious vacation hot spots completely destroyed. When we return, a helicopter tour of the devastation in the Maldives.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MESERVE: Some of the worst damage is being reported in the Maldives, home to me some of the world's most exclusive resorts. The Maldives are a string of tiny islands in the Indian Ocean off the southern tip of India.
Martin Geissler of International Television News has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN GEISSLER, ITN REPORTER (voice-over): Paradise shattered in a matter of minutes, the Maldives, without warning, overwhelmed by the sea.
This place is enormously vulnerable. No part of the territory sits more than eight feet above sea level. They have built fences here, but they were no match for nature's power this time. Sea planes, normally chartered to ferry rich tourists around these atolls are now being used for relief aid. We flew with one team to see the devastation for ourselves.
This is Soneva Gili, one of the world's most exclusive resorts. Guests here stay in five-star lodges on stilts in the ocean. Yesterday, they were hammered by a wall of water three meters high. Some still stand. But they're ruined. On a neighboring island, another resort, flattened by the waves.
(on camera): The Maldives is a collection of 1,200 tiny islands. Almost all of them have been affected in some way by this, many wiped out completely. It will be weeks before the people here get a real idea of how much damage has been done and the cost of repairs.
(voice-over): Tourism is the country's lifeblood. That industry has certainly been damaged. This viewer's video shows the scene moments after the tsunami hit. At the island's main airport today, hundreds of British tourists waiting to leave, some injured. Many had been incredibly lucky. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The water just came up like a gigantic wave and took the water bungalow. It took all of the deck. The deck came flying in through the windows at us. And I said, let's get out of here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Started off being able to stand up in it. hand then carpets and chairs and mattresses started coming at you. And I got out the way and ended up on some sort of like pier going out to sea. And there were people on the beach in the early morning just being rushed out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We climbed up this tree while the water was still breaking right at our feet, the waves. We head up in the tree and went higher and higher until we were right at the top and we couldn't go any higher and we just waited until the water level eventually dropped.
GEISSLER: Most of the tourists are now heading home, leaving behind a shattered country where the repair work is only just beginning.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: On the scene, as the story literally broke, hear from a reporter who was vacationing with his family in Thailand and barely escaped.
But, first, a look at some other stories you may have missed this past weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (voice-over): Pro football star Reggie White died unexpectedly at the age of 43, just four years after the end of his playing career. The NFL commissioner says White, nicknamed the minister of defense, will be remembered as one of the greatest defensive players in NFL history.
Holiday frustration. Tens of thousands of Christmas Day travelers were stranded when computer problems forced a Delta affiliate, Comair, to cancel its flights. There also were problems at U.S. Airways, where many baggage handlers, ramp workers and flight attendants called in sick.
Welcome arrival. A Russian cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station, bringing badly needed supplies, including some belated Christmas turkey. The two space station crew members, a U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut, had been running out of food.
And that's our weekend update.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MESERVE: As an international television news correspondent based in Thailand, John Irvine has reported on many major news event. But when a tsunami hit the coast of Thailand, he and his family became part of the story.
CNN spoke with him by phone and he told us about their ordeal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN IRVINE, ITN REPORTER: I'm still somewhat shocked, as are my wife, Libby , and our children, Elizabeth (ph), who is age 9, and Peter, who is age 5. We do feel fortunate to have escaped with our lives following the events of yesterday morning. I heard a commotion on the beach; I ran down and saw a wall of water coming towards us.
It was about a hundred yards off the beach at that stage. My wife, Libby, had our daughter, but she cited to me to get Peter. He was standing at the water's edge looking out to sea.
He was mesmerized by the wave that was coming towards us, a single wave on a flat, calm ocean. It was moving pretty quickly.
I ran for the boy, I grabbed him, and I could hear and feel the hiss of this wave coming -- coming behind us. We ran up the beach. The beach is only 20 -- 20 yards wide at most, and we ran through trees on to some grass.
And then I heard the bang as the wave broke on the beach and it came through the trees. And peter and I just were running as fast as we could. And we could hear the water, the onrush behind us.
It was your worst nightmare in a Hollywood disaster movie rolled into one. I glanced back and I could see coconuts and palm fronts and boulders in this water. And eventually the tidal wave caught up with us and we were washed away in it for about 50 yards, I guess.
We ended up in a rice paddy with, you know, bits and pieces of debris washing around us. We were very lucky not to be hit by any of it.
It seemed as if it lasted forever, but I guess it was probably only 30 or 40 seconds. In the immediate aftermath, I looked for my wife and daughter. And I found Elizabeth in what was left of our beach bungalow.
She had made it there. I just couldn't get there in time. And so I just ran directly away from the wave. And she was in the bungalow, and much of the furniture in there was destroyed. Most of the settings are gone. I'm amazed that she emerged unscathed.
She described it as being in a washing machine. My wife had hit several palm trees. She had gone for quite a ride on the wave as well. And she's battered and bruised. But we're OK. We spent last night on a hilltop. I think we got off quite lightly. I would estimate the wave here as being no bigger than 20 feet high. I think, in other parts of Thailand and indeed in Sri Lanka, especially, that the tsunami was much bigger.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: That was John Irvine of International Television News, not just a reporter this time, but also, luckily, a survivor.
Stay with CNN for continuing live coverage of the tsunami. Thanks for joining us.
"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.
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Aired December 27, 2004 - 17:00 ET
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JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, a massive Tsunami claims more than 22,000 lives and the toll is expected to climb. Just how did this happen and could it happen on U.S. shores?
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: Death waves. A massive earthquake sends walls of water crashing into coastlines, tens of thousands are dead or missing.
Devastation. Entire villages disappear. Hundreds of thousands are homeless in the area ringing the Indian Ocean.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no power. There's no petrol so there's no movement. There's no like support getting through to help the injured.
MESERVE: Is America at risk? The waves struck without warning. How vulnerable are U.S. coastal communities?
Anti-election campaign. As bombers target Baghdad, is bin Laden calling for a boycott?
ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Monday, December 27th, 2004.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: Thanks for joining us, I'm Jeanne Meserve in for Wolf Blitzer. Tsunami disaster, spawned by an undersea earthquake, the most powerful in decades. Monstrous waves swept across the Indian Ocean, smashing coastlines from Southeast Asia to Africa. Only now is the scale of the catastrophe just starting to become apparent. More than 22,000 people are reported dead, half of them in Sri Lanka, a nation already wracked by civil war. Across Asia thousands more are missing and the number of those who have lost homes and livelihoods may reach into the millions.
In India, coastal villages were swept away and thousands of fishermen have never returned from the sea. Elsewhere, grieving relative organized cremations and mass burials.
Authorities are struggling to mount a relief effort in Indonesia, closest to the epicenter where a major city was devastated. And many Western tourists are among the dead and injured in Thailand where the waves slammed into popular beach resorts. The island nation of Sri Lanka may have been the hardest hit. More than 10,000 people have died there, a toll that is likely to rise. The relief needs are simply overwhelming. CNN's Satinder Bindra reports from the capital, Colombo.
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Unaware of the suffering around her, the youngest member of this relief camp sleeps fitfully. But baby Rashuda's (ph) mother worries. Her younger brother is missing. And baby Rashuda's grandmother is dead, swept out to sea by Sunday's tsunami.
"Without my mother, I just can't imagine living," she says. "The rest of the family, too, will find it hard to live without her."
This is what tens of thousands of Sri Lankan families woke up to. Their homes destroyed. Their neighborhoods and communities sucked up by a savage sea.
(on camera): More than 1,500 people are now seeking shelter in this relief camp alone. Here they're provided food, water and emotional support. It's a story that's being repeated in thousands of shelters across the country.
(voice-over): Relief efforts, too, are now slowly bearing fruit. Western tourists stranded on Sri Lanka's beaches are now being moved to the county's capital, Colombo. For some, the events of the past 48 hours have been more than they can bear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was on a big stone and I saw only water above me. I was very -- I thought, I will die.
BINDRA: More than 10,000 Sri Lankans have already been killed in this calamity. Some of the worst affected communities are in this country south and east. Tourists rescued from these areas say people there need help fast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no power. There's no petrol, so there's no movement. There's no, like, support giving through to help the injured. And I believe that there are bodies that need to be dealt with, identified and transported out of there because, soon, I guess, with this heat, the sanitation problems will arise.
BINDRA: Over the next 24 hours, officials here say the death toll is likely to rise. Sri Lankans are bracing themselves for more suffering, they're also praying they've seen the last of these killer waves.
Satinder Bindra, CNN, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: In southern India, more 6,000 are reported dead, many are more missing. CNN's Suhasini Haidar reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SUHASINI HAIDAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Laying to rest one of the tsunami's tiniest victims, residents in the small fishing village on the south Indian coast come to mourn this 8-month-old and relive the horror of all they have seen. Their homes are destroyed and they've seen family members and friends drown in the giant wave that hit the village Kalapet.
Most of the dead here were women and small children. As her relatives cremate 35-year-old Puni (ph), they can't even dwell on their grief. They must think of where to go next. Many from Kalapet have already moved to this building nearby, some exhausted by terror and grief.
Newly married Sativiti (ph) says she can't believe this is all that is left of her wedding dowry. "But at least we saved our lives," she says.
(on camera): Thousands are now pouring into schools and public buildings across the state. Many here say their huts have washed away and they can't go home. Some say they've lost loved ones and are just too traumatized to consider going back to the scene of destruction.
(voice-over): Despite his fears, Suriminyan Valentin (ph) has gone back to look for his father's body. An earth mover did find the clothes his father was wearing in the debris of his home. "I realized then that my father must have died," he says.
Many other villagers from Kalapet haven't been found. Their families sing, their anguish deepens as they can't even give their loved ones a decent burial.
Suhasini Haidar, CNN, Kalapet Beach, South India.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: The earthquake struck closest to Indonesia where the official death toll stands at 4,500, but Indonesia's vice president suggests that figure could easily double. The low-lying provincial capital of Banda Aceh was rocked by the quake and swept by the water. The streets of the city were filled with overturned cars and rotting corpses.
In southern Thailand a tourist paradise quickly turned into hell. CNN's Aneesh Raman reports from the resort island of Phuket.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The moment a tropical resort became a scene of horror. An massive wave, one of many, roaring into Patang (ph) Beach on Phuket Island. An Australian tourist on a rooftop capturing the beginning of a catastrophe. A wall of water engulfing buildings, surging into the streets, carrying people, vehicles and more; one snapshot of a disaster that has ravaged a continent.
Not far away, 26-year-old Belgian tourist Julia Lebeau was among thousands of vacationers enjoying a break in the tropics.
JULIA LEBEAU, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: And I was just trying to spend the day on the beach. And suddenly all the water went away, and everyone was just looking at it and saying, where is all the water? And then suddenly, it was all coming at us. And people just started to run and scream.
RAMAN: In seconds, pristine tranquility turned into a hellish fight to stay alive.
LEBEAU: The building was collapsing, so I had to jump to another building. And then a second wave came in, a third wave came in. People injured. I saw dead bodies floating. And so then, at that moment, we decided with a couple of people just to run for it.
RAMAN (on camera): As tsunami waves devoured the coastlines of Phuket Pipi (ph) Island, tourists like Julia desperately scrambled for higher ground. Whatever remained on the shore, now evidence of severe destruction.
(voice-over): Destruction Julia avoided. She's now at this hospital along with hundreds of other survivors from at least 20 countries all in shock.
LEBEAU: I hope to be back for a new year with my family. We'll never forget this Christmas.
RAMAN: But at least she has somewhere to go. Many who live here are still missing family members and have no home left.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Phuket, southern Thailand.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: The waves which raced across the Indian Ocean eventually reached Africa, almost 3,000 miles from the epicenter of the quake. They struck Somalia where there are unconfirmed reports of many deaths in coastal villages. Some deaths are also reported in the Seychelles.
The huge deadly waves that slammed into Asian coasts were caused by forces deep inside the Earth. CNN meteorologist Orelon Sidney is at the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta with a look at the fierce natural phenomenon known as the tsunami.
Orelon, fill us in.
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Jeanne, thank a lot. It's often really difficult to understand what's going on when you see a situation like this. But the Earth is made up of these plates. And sometimes, these plates move.
Here's a story that might help you to understand.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SIDNEY (voice-over): The Earth can seem like a solid mass of rock to us floating in space. But that's not really true at all. You can get a better picture of what the Earth actually looks like if you take a look at this sphere. You can see that it has got cracks and fractures in it. And the Earth is a lot like that.
On the Earth, these fractures are called faults. And these faults are where we find earthquakes. Take a look at this. This is an area of the Earth with extensive faulting. This is called the Pacific Rim, nicknamed the "Ring of Fire." The reason for that is we have lots of volcanoes around this area and this is the place where we find the deepest and strongest earthquakes ever recorded.
In 1960, the earthquake in Chile, 9.5 on the scale. In 1964, in the Aleutians in Alaska, 9.2. And, of course the weekend's quake in Sumatra, at 9.0.
Now, what I want to show you here is what happened in this area. Here is Sumatra. This is the location of the quake, about 100 miles off the coast. But this whole area is a fault zone between the Australian plate to the southwest and the Eurasian plate to the northeast. These two are coming together, and one of them has to win. In this case, the Australian plate dives beneath the Eurasian plate, but it gets stuck. When it unsticks, that's what unleashes an earthquake.
As one plate dives beneath the other, the elevation of the sea floor changes. Any displacement in the sea floor generates a seismic sea wave, and that's what we call a tsunami.
Tsunamis obviously aren't just modern events. They've been recorded ever since human beings have been writing them down. In fact, they go back to ancient Greece and Rome. In 365 A.D., in Alexandria, Egypt, thousands of people were killed from a tsunami from the Mediterranean Sea.
Earthquakes like the massive one that caused this disaster in Southeast Asia are the most common cause of tsunamis, but tsunamis can also be triggered by volcanoes. In 1883, the eruption of the volcano Krakatoa sparked a wave that killed over 30,000 people in Java and Sumatra.
Scientists are also studying how pockets of gasses beneath the sea floor could erupt and send tsunamis toward land. That's a possibility on the continental shelf off the east coast of United States.
And there's another remote but possible cause of a tsunami -- a meteor striking the Earth near a coastal area.
It may be human nature, but it took a series of deaths in the 1940s and 1960s in Hawaii to aspire the creation of a tsunami warning network spanning the ocean from the Americas to Japan. The Atlantic, where tsunamis are far more rare, has no formal network, but weather buoys and other technology can provide some warning.
The nations around the Indian Ocean have neither, and the element of surprise magnified the death toll from the massive earthquake.
It's absolutely staggering to see the human cost of this. Hopefully, in the future, we could get a warning system in that part of the Indian Ocean -- Jeanne.
MESERVE: Orelon Sidney, thanks so much.
Now, here is a question: Could this same type of national disaster happen in the United States? I'll look at how vulnerable U.S. coastlines are and what's being done to protect American citizens from such an event.
Witnesses to the destruction -- tourists trapped in the rushing waters. The survivors share their amazing stories ahead.
And coping with the crisis. The efforts in place to save thousands of people now without food, water or shelter.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MESERVE: The death wave struck without warning in Asia. The result, utter catastrophe. Could a tsunami disaster happen in this country? CNN's Brian Todd is live at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Silver Spring, Maryland. Brian, could it?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jeanne, within this facility is the National Weather Service. We came here to ask two fundamental questions. One is that question, can a tsunami of the magnitude felt in South Asia in fact hit the United States, and second, what systems are in place if tsunamis head for the American coastline?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD (voice-over): When tsunamis are triggered, experts say warning system are crucial. We asked officials at the National Weather Service what kind of warning net is in place for American shores.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The warning systems are in their infancy. We're getting better and better at informing the public all the time.
TODD: The American coastline around the northern Pacific rim is the most vulnerable to tsunamis. The Aleutian Islands range off Alaska has experienced devastating tsunamis in the past. And underwater earthquakes in that area can also place Hawaii and California in danger quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tsunamis and seismic waves that generate tsunamis and that pressure wave usually travel at about 500 to 600 miles an hour. So as fast as an airliner. So if you're living in Hawaii, you have four or five hours' notice.
TODD: For that reason, the National Weather Service has anchored five centers in the northern Pacific, one in the South Pacific, and plans to place more in that region. The buoys anchored in deep water, are able to pick up seismic activity and send it through an antenna to a satellite. National Weather Service officials say there are no censors in the Caribbean, and they admit there need to be, because of active fault zones there. There are no sensors in the Atlantic region because the likelihood of seismic activity there is much lower.
Weather service officials say to their knowledge, there are no censors in the Indian Ocean, and one official told me, that's mostly due to a lack of resources.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD: And in fact, the United States has already felt what officials here call wrap-around effects of those South Asian tsunamis. In the San Diego area this morning, the National Weather Service officials say they measured a 10-inch rise in the sea level just in the San Diego area. They say that those levels will recede -- Jeanne.
MESERVE: Brian Todd. Thank you.
Big waves and no warnings, why an alert system in the region could have made a huge difference in the loss of life.
Witness to disaster. Hear from some of the lucky people who lived to tell about the tsunami. Their stories ahead.
Plus, meddling in Iraq's elections. A new tape reportedly from Osama bin Laden, appealing to Iraqis.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MESERVE: In Iraq today, political parties and leaders became the targets of violence. A suicide bomber attacked the headquarters of a major Shiite party and a top Sunni political party announced it is pulling out of the scheduled January 30th elections, citing security concerns. CNN's Jeff Koinange has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another bloody day in Baghdad in what has become an all too familiar scene, a suicide bomber drove his car right up to the headquarters of the country's largest Shia political party, killing six and wounding at least 33.
Sources say the intended target was this man, Abdulazziz al- Hakeem (ph), leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq. He wasn't in the building at the time, but he was quick to issue a statement calling the blast an assassination attempt. And he urged his party faithful not to seek revenge against what he called "Sunni Islamists."
All this as a new audiotape, purportedly from al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, aired on the Arabic language network Al Jazeera, urging Iraqis to boycott the January election and back Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as bin Laden's deputy in Iraq. The authenticity of the tape could not be immediately verified. But some political parties are already backing out of the January 30th poll. The leading Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party announced it's pulling out of the race, citing persistent violence and security concerns.
TAREQ AL HASHAMI, SECRETARY-GENERAL, IRAQI ISLAMIC PARTY (through translator): Today the party took a very difficult decision, which was to withdraw from the elections, because it is convinced that the situation will not improve to allow conditions for credible elections within the timeframe.
KOINANGE: An election without Sunni involvement means bad news for the fragile coalition, as it would further isolate and disenfranchise the minority group, that until the fall of Saddam Hussein, ruled the country, leaving questions about the legitimacy of an election that is being touted as all-inclusive.
(on camera): Monday's assassination attempt may have been unsuccessful, but a series of attacks on Iraqi politicians and activists in recent days shows a stepped-up campaign of fear and intimidation by insurgent groups bent on making sure that the January poll doesn't take place.
Jeff Koinange, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: Late today, the CIA said its agents have analyzed the audiotape and are reasonably sure the voice on the tape is Osama bin Laden.
Can Osama bin Laden play the spoiler in the Iraqi election? Joining me now is our world affairs analyst, former Defense Secretary William Cohen. Thanks a lot for coming here today.
WILLIAM COHEN, CNN WORLD AFFAIRS ANALYST: Good to be here.
MESERVE: You have both the tape from bin Laden calling for a boycott. Also, a Sunni political party is saying they aren't going to participate. What did this portend for this election?
COHEN: Well, it's certainly not good news. On one hand, you have the Sunnis who are causing the instability, the lack of security, then citing the lack of security for reason they're not going to participate in the political process. And so it's rather circular reasoning on their part. They should be helping to contribute to stabilize the region, rather than simply sitting back and criticizing it.
But secondly, there's no choice but to go forward, because the Shia majority would see any slippage in the election itself as a cause to perhaps not participate in the future, and you then really do run the risk of a civil war under way in a major way.
What you have are the Sunnis, who are the minority party, a minority population in Iraq. It's the only Arab country where the Sunnis are in the minority. They have suppressed, tyrannized, engaged in brutal suppression of the majority under the law of rule. Now they're facing the rule of law, in which the majority will be in power, with protection for minority rights. And they have to come to accept that. They're unwilling to do so to date, but hopefully, the other Sunni leaders in the neighboring countries might be a voice of reason, encouraging them to participate and not follow the advice of bin Laden. Because that advice could lead to instability not only in Iraq, but throughout the entire region, calling into question their future and their security.
MESERVE: We also heard bin Laden today in this tape endorsing the actions of al-Zarqawi. What does that mean? Are they in cahoots? Are they one now?
COHEN: I think we should assume that to be the case. Zarqawi pledged his allegiance to bin Laden several weeks ago, and this is bin Laden apparently designating him as his right-hand man, so to speak, or his deputy, and so I think we have to assume they're now working in cahoots and collaboration. That's just the other working assumption. We'll have to go forward on that basis, and have been, as a matter of fact, in the last couple of months.
MESERVE: Absolutely. I want to turn the corner to the tsunami and the U.S. response to this. You, of course, the former secretary of defense, at this point, the U.S. response has been large in terms of money, $15 million, and a few reconnaissance planes sent, but what sort of effort eventually might we see the U.S. military make to this?
COHEN: Well, we tend to look at the military in terms of its warrior status, but they're great humanitarians. They provide relief under these kind of extraordinary circumstances. They can help with search and rescue. They can help with refugee resettlement. They can help at delivering medical supplies. They can set up field hospitals, all of which we've done in Turkey in 1999, and frankly, we've also offered this assistance to China when China suffered a major earthquake, and I myself delivered that message to Jiang Zemin, the president of China during their very tragic times.
In a time of crisis, a helping hand can be just as powerful if not more powerful than a fist of iron, and that's a lesson out here. We should be rushing with whatever resources we can to help those in need in a time of crisis. It will certainly be a humanitarian thing to do, but also in our national interest, to help under these circumstances.
MESERVE: Let's pivot again, talk about Ukraine, very briefly. The Secretary of State Colin Powell said today, "I don't expect this" -- the election and the controversy over it -- "to be a blot on U.S.- Russian relations." Would you agree with that assessment?
COHEN: Well, it doesn't have to be, certainly. There are three people who have very much a role to play in this. Yanukovych, the apparently defeated candidate. Yushchenko, the one who won the election, and also President Putin. These three individuals hold I think the future in their hands. On the one hand, we have seen in our country a so-called red state/blue state division. But the seeds of democracy are quite shallow in Ukraine. And what we have to see is both the winner, the loser, and President Putin coming forward and saying, we need to see these elections as being fair and being open and being final. And hopefully, if they can send that message, there will be an opportunity for majority rule, and with some calm and acceptance on the part of the majority, the overwhelming majority of the Ukrainian people.
MESERVE: Secretary Cohen, thanks. We've been doing this for a long time. Nice to do it again.
COHEN: Nice to see you again.
MESERVE: Since our days in May.
As we continue our look into the tsunami disasters, could an international warning system have helped alert those in danger? We'll examine the possibilities coming up. Plus, survivor stories, we'll hear from injured tourists trying to get home.
And the winner is, as one candidate claims victory, another refuses to concede. An update on Ukraine elections, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MESERVE: Welcome back.
Without warning, walls of water slam ashore, killing more than 22,000 people. Could an early detection system have saved lives? We'll get to that.
But first some stories now in the news.
Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko is claiming victory in Ukraine's presidential election, although his opponent is refusing to concede. International observers say the revote was closer to meeting international standards, a theme touched on by Secretary of State Colin Powell today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: All we wanted to see was a full, free, fair election, and that appears now to be what happened yesterday. And we'll wait for the official results, which should be out later this week. And I don't expect this to be a blot on U.S.- Russian relations. We'll move forward. Ukrainians chose for themselves. They did not choose for the East or for the West.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: The latest death toll from yesterday's deadly earthquake and tsunamis in Asia has risen to more than 22,000 people. Sri Lanka and India are reporting the largest number of victims. The death toll includes at least 27 non-nationals, including at least eight Americans. The U.S. is committing an initial $15 million and sending disaster relief specialists to South Asian countries struck by the tsunamis. Tonight, six U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo planes loaded with relief supplies are standing by in Japan waiting for word to fly to Thailand.
Thailand was just one of the Southeast Asian countries hit by tsunamis over the weekend.
CNN's Randi Kaye Reports on the devastation.
(Begin Videotape)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fish on land, an octopus stuck in a tree, bodies in the streets, this is the scene in Southern Asia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was one long wave right across the horizon. And it looked quite small from a distance. As it got nearer, you could tell it was quite a big wave.
KAYE: The biggest wave in 40 years on the floor of the Indian Ocean, the result, tsunami, a wall of water pounding Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. It hit without warning. Listen as this woman yells to her children at the shore.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get inside. Come on, guys.
KAYE: This British tourist, now home from Sri Lanka, was one of the lucky ones to get out alive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And all we heard was this mighty bang. And the next thing, the place was flooded. And it's up to there.
KAYE: The death toll is still rising, more than 20,000 so far. The beaches, once beautiful, now serve as sandy graveyards for those unable to reach higher ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just kept rising, rising, rising. And then everyone that was downstairs had to go upstairs to the first floor and the second floor. And eventually it just kept coming. It just destroyed the hotel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The wave then came all the way through, taking the bed, the television, side tables and what knows what. And that was it. And we all clambered up to high ground. And all the lower ground rooms were all devastated.
KAYE: Nothing stood in this water's way. It sailed through buildings in Malaysia as if they were invisible, spilling into city streets, destroying homes, cars, lives.
This man grieves for these women and children left to lay in the street. Coffins are arriving slowly. They are numbered and marked with a photograph of the body inside. Survivors are need of treatment. Some are at hospitals. Other are waiting it out at beaches for rescue and relief, so many homeless.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The devastation is unbelievable. You have to understand, there's nothing left. The place is gone.
KAYE: Horrible memories from a day at the beach.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: One reason why this weekend's tsunamis were so deadly, they came as a surprise.
CNN's Zain Verjee is looking into that. She joins us from the CNN Center in Atlanta -- Zain.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jeanne, seismic experts say, if you want to reduce loss of life, you have to get a warning system in place. The key word they say is international anticipation, not international response.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were absolutely certain that we were going to die.
VERJEE (voice-over): Despairing cries, clinging on for dear life, desperate searches for loved ones lost in one terrible and ferocious moment, where a beautiful sunny day turned into the ultimate horror show.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was so quick. It was like a movie.
VERJEE: The blow was swift, deadly and completely unexpected. A wall of water hit 10 countries in the region and took residents and tourists by surprise. Scientists say it didn't have to happen like this. There could have been a warning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The challenge was, in the case of the Indian Ocean, having a system in place to be able to get those warnings to the folks in coastal areas.
VERJEE: There is an early warning system in the Pacific Ocean, which is more vulnerable to tsunamis. Scientists say that although tsunamis are rare in the Indian Ocean, they are known to occur in oceans around the world.
The waves hit Indonesia almost immediately, an hour later, Thailand, and more than three hours later, India. Experts say an early warning system could have reduced the massive carnage by giving people more time to seek higher ground or to go further inland. In the Pacific Basin, their tsunami system uses a network of monitoring stations to detect earthquake activity.
If any abnormal change in the sea level is recorded, the network sounds evacuation alarms. But there's caution, too, that warning systems don't erase all the dangers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The problem with a tsunami is that it takes hours or minutes for this wall of water to come. And there's just very, very little time.
VERJEE: Despite the scale of this disaster in the Indian Ocean, experts concede it will still take a lot of cooperation among nations in the region to implement an effective warning system.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now we have the disaster. And you can bet that something will finally happen in the Indian Ocean area.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: Scientists say an early warning system is only really effective once it is in place if alerts can be communicated quickly to people on the ground -- Jeanne.
MESERVE: So, Zain, why isn't there an early warning system in place in the Indian Ocean?
VERJEE: Well, one the reasons, experts say, is that tsunamis don't normally happen outside the Pacific. So, Asian countries like Malaysia, like Thailand, haven't really felt the need to establish one.
And, also, it's expensive. One scientist point out that there should have been one in place a long time ago simply because of the sheer number of people who live in coastal areas in Asia -- Jeanne.
MESERVE: Zain Verjee, thanks so much.
The tragic tsunamis swept away many lives. But when we return, some heart-wrenching stories of survival out of Thailand. Plus, tsunami relief efforts, what the U.S. is doing to help those hardest hit. A live interview just ahead.
And later, a luxury hot spot known for its five-star treatment of tourists is wiped out. A tour of the lost resort town coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MESERVE: Among the places hit by the Asian tsunamis, a resort city in Thailand that's popular with international tourists. Those tourists are going home now with frightening accounts.
Adrian Britton of International Television News has a report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADRIAN BRITTON, ITN REPORTER: The waters are calm and there's a gentle breeze here in Patong Beach tonight. But all around there is evidence of that awesome attack from the sea, wreckage, rubble and human shock. And as people here try to come to terms with what happened, the death toll continues to rise. (voice-over): A mighty force rising out of the sea and crushing an idyllic resort. The tidal waves turned to torrents around the coastline of Phuket, lifting and toiling everything in their path. Crystal blue seas became muddy destructive rivers. At nighttime, with their hotel's now debris, they sought higher ground for safety, sleep and warmth.
The mortuaries were unable to accommodate the colossal toll of death. Body after body was laid out in halls. Those who escaped, like this tourist from Oxford, had amazing tales of survival.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all got out of the rooms, and then one of our friends we couldn't get out of the room. He woke up and was asleep on his bed lying on what -- woke up in water. Had to throw the TV out of the window to climb out, to escape.
BRITTON: When the morning seas struck, many became separated from relatives. But with immense relief were later reunited.
Brothers there with memories of the desperate efforts of 9/11, with families bearing photographs of their lost ones in hope they, too, would be found. At Phuket Airport this evening, holiday makers sprawled across the departure hall waiting for the next flight home. Graham Metal (ph) from Tunbridge Wells was wounded but walking with his daughter, Charlotte (ph). Their holiday cut short, he told me another incredible story of escape.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The room was full of 14 or 15 people. They were screaming as the water started coming up in through the floor. We're outside on the balcony ready to jump somewhere, and it came closer and closer. And I just said to Charlotte, Get ready, because I thought these guys were going to burst out of the room and just land on us because they were panicking so much.
BRITTON: The hospitals are inundated with more serious injuries. Others are living in relief agency tents. Their homes were swept away in furious seconds, but they are thankful they have not lost more.
Adrian Britton, ITV News, Phuket, Thailand.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: Secretary of State Colin Powell calls the earthquake and tsunamis an international tragedy. And the international community faces an unprecedented relief effort to help Asian countries recover from such massive devastation.
Joining me is Andrew Natsios with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Thanks a lot for coming in today.
ANDREW NATSIOS, USAID: Thank you for having me.
MESERVE: Given the number of casualties, the number of countries affected, the coastline, the miles of coastline affected, is this truly unprecedented?
NATSIOS: There have been other extraordinary events in the last century, but this certainly ranks as one of the top ones.
We don't know what the total death count is yet. The 23,000 I think is a low end. People have not gotten into Ache yet, which is the Indonesia area, because there's an insurrection going on, sort of a civil war. And so it's less accessible. We think there are far more casualties in that area than what has been reported.
MESERVE: Would you hazard a guess at this point?
NATSIOS: Many thousands more. But we'll see. We'll see.
MESERVE: The U.S. right off the bat pledged $15 million to this relief effort. A U.N. official today called that stingy. What is your reaction to his remarks?
NATSIOS: Well, actually, I don't know who said that, but the United States leads the international effort in disaster relief generally. We always make an initial response. And then later on, we make a larger one, based on the assessments.
We never commit everything up front until we see what is needed. And our teams are now on the way in both India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia. We have regional missions in all those countries. We are sending 20 people from the United States who are disaster experts to the region. They will do an assessment. And then they will tell us what additional things are required, and we will provide the requirement.
MESERVE: It was, by the way, the U.N. emergency relief head who made that comment about the stingy donation.
But, as you say, this is just the beginning.
NATSIOS: Right.
MESERVE: The secretary of state said today that this is a multiyear effort. What you have here are people whose homes are lost, whose livelihoods are gone. How long is it going to take? How much money potentially could it take?
NATSIOS: Well, typically, in most of these responses, more money is spent on the immediate response, when, in fact, we would like more money in the longer-term reconstruction effort, because that's where the large amounts of money are needed, to reconstruct people's homes and schools and hospitals and livelihoods, people's -- the economy is destroyed in these areas. There's no income for people. We have to make sure enough food is there until the next harvest.
There's a real risk of epidemic from water being polluted and people drinking water that is not purified.
MESERVE: There's a sense of urgency here because of all of those things you just mentioned. NATSIOS: Right.
MESERVE: But the infrastructure clearly has been stressed and strained, if not wiped out. How long is it going to get your people on the ground to make the assessments in order to send what is needed?
(CROSSTALK)
NATSIOS: They're literally on the way right now. And I would guess, in a matter of hours, the initial teams will be there. The rest of the teams are leaving now from regional areas. We're sending some from Nairobi, Kenya. We're sending some from the U.S. and some from Bangkok.
MESERVE: Now, you already have some relief supplies prepositioned around the world. Is that right?
NATSIOS: That's right. That's right.
MESERVE: And so you wouldn't have to fly everything.
NATSIOS: No, no, no.
MESERVE: In those C-130 transportation planes.
(CROSSTALK)
NATSIOS: We have them in the Arabian Peninsula. We have them in Bangkok. So there's a number of areas in the region where there are large warehouses now for plastic sheeting for shelter, water purification units that purify enough water for 10,000 people per day, medical units, immunization, blankets, cooking utensils.
We've made a donation of $4 million to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society in Geneva, Switzerland, that works with the Red Cross movements around the world, for family health packs that will allow families to cook their food and put their houses back together again.
MESERVE: There are many demands for assistance around the world, Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan. Is the pie going to be sliced very, very thin?
NATSIOS: We always keep a reserve for natural disasters that are unpredictable or unpredictable.
MESERVE: This big a reserve?
NATSIOS: Well, the initial responses, we do have enough money for. But in terms of the reconstruction effort, that's something we'll have to discuss.
MESERVE: And so is donor fatigue potentially going to be an issue here?
NATSIOS: On something that's on TV and that the media covers and that is very dramatic like this, you usually get a lot of money, a lot of response, a lot of resource. It's the disasters that are distant from the public eye. The Congo, for example, has been in a civil war; 3.9 million people have died. And you don't much on TV. And so there isn't quite as much money for an emergency like that.
MESERVE: Andrew Natsios of the U.S. Agency for International Development, thanks so much for coming.
NATSIOS: Thank you.
MESERVE: More survivor stories ahead. Hear from one reporter who was vacationing on the beach in Thailand when the wall of water hit.
Plus, luxurious vacation hot spots completely destroyed. When we return, a helicopter tour of the devastation in the Maldives.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MESERVE: Some of the worst damage is being reported in the Maldives, home to me some of the world's most exclusive resorts. The Maldives are a string of tiny islands in the Indian Ocean off the southern tip of India.
Martin Geissler of International Television News has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN GEISSLER, ITN REPORTER (voice-over): Paradise shattered in a matter of minutes, the Maldives, without warning, overwhelmed by the sea.
This place is enormously vulnerable. No part of the territory sits more than eight feet above sea level. They have built fences here, but they were no match for nature's power this time. Sea planes, normally chartered to ferry rich tourists around these atolls are now being used for relief aid. We flew with one team to see the devastation for ourselves.
This is Soneva Gili, one of the world's most exclusive resorts. Guests here stay in five-star lodges on stilts in the ocean. Yesterday, they were hammered by a wall of water three meters high. Some still stand. But they're ruined. On a neighboring island, another resort, flattened by the waves.
(on camera): The Maldives is a collection of 1,200 tiny islands. Almost all of them have been affected in some way by this, many wiped out completely. It will be weeks before the people here get a real idea of how much damage has been done and the cost of repairs.
(voice-over): Tourism is the country's lifeblood. That industry has certainly been damaged. This viewer's video shows the scene moments after the tsunami hit. At the island's main airport today, hundreds of British tourists waiting to leave, some injured. Many had been incredibly lucky. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The water just came up like a gigantic wave and took the water bungalow. It took all of the deck. The deck came flying in through the windows at us. And I said, let's get out of here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Started off being able to stand up in it. hand then carpets and chairs and mattresses started coming at you. And I got out the way and ended up on some sort of like pier going out to sea. And there were people on the beach in the early morning just being rushed out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We climbed up this tree while the water was still breaking right at our feet, the waves. We head up in the tree and went higher and higher until we were right at the top and we couldn't go any higher and we just waited until the water level eventually dropped.
GEISSLER: Most of the tourists are now heading home, leaving behind a shattered country where the repair work is only just beginning.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: On the scene, as the story literally broke, hear from a reporter who was vacationing with his family in Thailand and barely escaped.
But, first, a look at some other stories you may have missed this past weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (voice-over): Pro football star Reggie White died unexpectedly at the age of 43, just four years after the end of his playing career. The NFL commissioner says White, nicknamed the minister of defense, will be remembered as one of the greatest defensive players in NFL history.
Holiday frustration. Tens of thousands of Christmas Day travelers were stranded when computer problems forced a Delta affiliate, Comair, to cancel its flights. There also were problems at U.S. Airways, where many baggage handlers, ramp workers and flight attendants called in sick.
Welcome arrival. A Russian cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station, bringing badly needed supplies, including some belated Christmas turkey. The two space station crew members, a U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut, had been running out of food.
And that's our weekend update.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MESERVE: As an international television news correspondent based in Thailand, John Irvine has reported on many major news event. But when a tsunami hit the coast of Thailand, he and his family became part of the story.
CNN spoke with him by phone and he told us about their ordeal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN IRVINE, ITN REPORTER: I'm still somewhat shocked, as are my wife, Libby , and our children, Elizabeth (ph), who is age 9, and Peter, who is age 5. We do feel fortunate to have escaped with our lives following the events of yesterday morning. I heard a commotion on the beach; I ran down and saw a wall of water coming towards us.
It was about a hundred yards off the beach at that stage. My wife, Libby, had our daughter, but she cited to me to get Peter. He was standing at the water's edge looking out to sea.
He was mesmerized by the wave that was coming towards us, a single wave on a flat, calm ocean. It was moving pretty quickly.
I ran for the boy, I grabbed him, and I could hear and feel the hiss of this wave coming -- coming behind us. We ran up the beach. The beach is only 20 -- 20 yards wide at most, and we ran through trees on to some grass.
And then I heard the bang as the wave broke on the beach and it came through the trees. And peter and I just were running as fast as we could. And we could hear the water, the onrush behind us.
It was your worst nightmare in a Hollywood disaster movie rolled into one. I glanced back and I could see coconuts and palm fronts and boulders in this water. And eventually the tidal wave caught up with us and we were washed away in it for about 50 yards, I guess.
We ended up in a rice paddy with, you know, bits and pieces of debris washing around us. We were very lucky not to be hit by any of it.
It seemed as if it lasted forever, but I guess it was probably only 30 or 40 seconds. In the immediate aftermath, I looked for my wife and daughter. And I found Elizabeth in what was left of our beach bungalow.
She had made it there. I just couldn't get there in time. And so I just ran directly away from the wave. And she was in the bungalow, and much of the furniture in there was destroyed. Most of the settings are gone. I'm amazed that she emerged unscathed.
She described it as being in a washing machine. My wife had hit several palm trees. She had gone for quite a ride on the wave as well. And she's battered and bruised. But we're OK. We spent last night on a hilltop. I think we got off quite lightly. I would estimate the wave here as being no bigger than 20 feet high. I think, in other parts of Thailand and indeed in Sri Lanka, especially, that the tsunami was much bigger.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: That was John Irvine of International Television News, not just a reporter this time, but also, luckily, a survivor.
Stay with CNN for continuing live coverage of the tsunami. Thanks for joining us.
"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.
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