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CNN Live At Daybreak
Hour by Hour Death Toll Rises and Mass Graves Fill Up
Aired December 29, 2004 - 06:00 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hour by hour the death toll rises and the mass graves fill up. Straight ahead on DAYBREAK, disturbing images in the wake of the tsunami disaster. You're looking at new video we just got in overnight. And terrifying accounts from Americans who survived the massive waves. We'll bring you their stories, as well.
And a big airline asks for a big favor from some of its workers. Yep, it would be U.S. Air.
It is Wednesday, December 29.
You are watching DAYBREAK.
And good morning to you.
From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.
Now in the news, the number now so staggering it's difficult to comprehend. More than 67,000 people across South Asia are dead. As bad as that is, it's going to get worse as thousands of survivors continue to go without fresh food or water. We have live reports from scenes across the region for you just ahead.
We expect to hear from President Bush today about U.S. relief efforts in the wake of this disaster. He plans to make a statement at his Texas ranch. The U.S. has pledged $35 million in aid so far.
In Baghdad, a powerful explosion kills more than 20 people. Police say insurgents lured them into a house and then set off the explosives. Police officers are among the dead, but it is not clear how many.
The revolving door at the CIA keeps on spinning. This time, the deputy director for intelligence is leaving. The "New York Times" says Jami Miscik was forced out by the agency's new director, Porter Goss.
To the forecast center and Chad -- good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: We want to give you the very latest numbers we have from South Asia. In Sri Lanka, more than 23,000 now dead. In India, at least 10,000 were killed. Indonesia reports more than 32,000 dead. Thailand officials say 1,500 people died there, many of them foreign tourists. More than 200 deaths have been reported in other areas. Now, those figures include people from all over the world. This is a global tragedy. People from 40 countries, including the United States, have died in the tsunamis.
Aneesh Raman is live in Thailand this morning -- hello, Aneesh.
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning to you.
We are in the coastal province of Phang Nga. It's in southern mainland Thailand. Within the past few hours, the death toll here alone now confirmed at well over 1,000. There are expectations, though, that it could rise, it could perhaps even triple as the rescue and relief efforts get into the most affected areas that remain completely littered with debris.
That death toll here now represents about 60 percent of the total death toll in southern Thailand. The reason for that is that we're on the coastal area and it's a national park. It's very flat land and there isn't much infrastructure to mitigate any waves that are coming in. So the destruction here quite severe.
Behind me, bodies still being pulled out. In the past few hours, four to five of them have been excavated. Officials here worried, of course, about disease, contamination. They've run out of body bags. They are using plastic sheets to wrap the bodies and trying to get them to makeshift mortuaries at Buddhist temples, as well as health centers.
The situation, though, could get, as we say, much worse. There still remains some 4,000 people missing. And, Carol, we're now well over three days after those waves came crashing in. The hope of finding them and finding them alive is dwindling fast -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Aneesh Raman reporting live from Thailand this morning.
Americans who were caught up in the tsunamis are beginning to return home now and they're telling their harrowing tales of survival.
Listen to some of them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was having breakfast and the wave just came in and took everybody on the beach with it. Life kind of slows down in a split second. You can't really think during those circumstances, you just have to kind of react and go. It kind of just looked like a regular high tide wave and then it just got more intense and more intense. And then everybody started running off the beach and it was chaos. There was cars floating down the street.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The water got so high that the door would only open outward. We were unable to push the door outward. So in order to get out, he had to grab just bottles and chairs and shattered the window. And that's when the water basically pushed me all the way back. He floated his way out.
The TVs and mattresses inside the rooms were floating, you know, shoulder high. And the water was coming so quick that I couldn't get out. So I basically just held onto a bathroom door, you know, until that broke off and then I was able to just kind of get my way right out of the water. I just climbed up to a roof of the hotel and then the roof was getting high enough to where I just had to jump on a tree and just pretty much jumped up on top and stayed on top of a tree until the tsunamis died down.
And we were grabbing people's arms from the top of the roof so that people weren't drowning. I mean there was a lot of very old people, a lot of people that were unable to swim in these conditions. And it was just tough seeing people who weren't strong enough to get on a tree. And we did everything we could to grab people, but the water was just so powerful that you can only hold onto people so long before they either slipped out of their hands or some were strong enough to hold.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's coming again!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably three or four hours after the third tsunami, I heard him yelling my name and I was yelling his name for hours, too. And we just bumped each other and gave each other a big hug and said let's get the hell out of here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Those tsunami survivors had just arrived at the Los Angeles International Airport. That's where they were telling their stories.
Chad, you remember earlier we were talking about scuba divers who were out scuba diving in the ocean?
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: Had no idea until they surfaced that a giant tsunami had hit.
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: Well, this is a story from Faye Wachs. She was scuba diving in Ko Phi Phi Island.
MYERS: OK.
COSTELLO: And she e-mailed her mother. She said she and her husband were in the waters off of Thailand's Ko Phi Phi Island when water visibility dropped and they felt as if they were being sucked downward. So she did feel something down there, Chad.
MYERS: Yes. Obviously, it depends on where you were on the reef, if you were inside the reef or outside the reef. It also depends on your depth, Carol. You know, I'm a certified diver. If this wave literally goes over your head, you can be diving in really rough water. And the worst thing about diving is sometimes the boat ride out to the site. It can be so rough out there, you're just saying please let me get in the water before I lose my lunch. And as soon as you get in the water and get down there, it's nice and calm.
Well, if this was just a surge of water that literally went over their head, let's say down, they're down 60 feet, they never really felt very much. Obviously, the ground...
COSTELLO: Yes, but they felt that little sucking downward thing.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: It wasn't until she surfaced, along with her husband, and she saw bodies floating by that she realized anything catastrophic had happened.
MYERS: Wow. That's crazy. They probably lost some visibility as they got, you know, some of the muck got stirred up down at the bottom. But then obviously you come up, that wave had gone over their head and then obviously the return wave had gone over their head the other way and they were -- wow, what a shock.
COSTELLO: It's just unbelievable.
MYERS: A shock.
COSTELLO: And Faye said that, you know, she got out of the water, along with her husband, and they did everything they can to help the people running from this disaster.
MYERS: Right. Right. The turbulence...
COSTELLO: But there just wasn't much they could do.
MYERS: Yes, the turbulence was on top of the water, not where they were.
COSTELLO: Unbelievable.
MYERS: I wonder if their boat -- it looked like they were on that boat. I wonder if the boat was still there when they came up on the surface. That was kind of -- that would be odd -- an odd story, too, whether that boat actually got pushed away.
COSTELLO: I'm sure the boat got pushed away. But that was the picture that the mother sent us to show on television. Yes.
MYERS: That could have been from another trip.
COSTELLO: True.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: For more survivor stories, you can log on to cnn.com/quake. The site also has postings from families looking for loved ones. And we'll bring you much more on the tsunami disaster throughout the hour.
We leave you now with some images of the tsunami.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Reunions and miracle stories are in short supply in Sri Lanka. The numbers out of that country keep growing. The latest word, 23,015 people are dead.
CNN's Satinder Bindra is there -- hello, Satinder.
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.
These figures are now rising for the past 24 to 48 hours, and officials warning us that these figures will rise even further, because 4,000 people are still missing. Here on the south coast, where I am, everything has been damaged or destroyed. We're just going to pan our camera to show you how extensive the damage is.
Schools are gone. Homes are gone. Offices are gone. Nothing has been able to withstand the might of this tsunami. And now, Carol, another growing, gnawing fear. There are hundreds of unclaimed or rotting bodies everywhere and officials are concerned about the spread of disease. Relief supplies, though, are slowly getting in. International relief is slowly getting in and you can probably hear very loud music coming toward me. These are vans announcing that relief has arrived.
So the situation here in terms of relief slightly better than before -- back to you.
COSTELLO: What kind of relief is arriving, Satinder?
BINDRA: I'm sorry, say that again, please.
COSTELLO: Oh, I was just wondering what kind of relief is arriving that we're hearing.
BINDRA: Well, there are dry rations arriving. We've seen cookies being distributed. Clothes are being distributed. And the most important thing, medicine is being distributed and drinking water. Drinking water is being distributed both in plastic bottles and there are large plastic containers here set up on the back of trucks. Residents are lining up. Residents are coming in large numbers. They have been waiting for this for a long time.
So in that sense, finally and at last for them, things are beginning to move.
But one big fear, Carol, continues to remain and that's the threat of another big tsunami. Many people here are refusing to sleep in their homes. Their homes are located right next to the coast. So at night they move several miles inland. They go to relief shelters where they are provided a place to sleep. They're also given food, medication and water.
COSTELLO: And I know you're not a meteorologist, and I'll ask Chad this question, as well, but how much of a chance that there will be another tsunami is there?
BINDRA: Well, if you talk to the locals, they'll tell you that they are still very scared, though now it seems the chances are reducing. But the locals say as far as they are concerned, they really do believe, in the back of their minds, that they could be hit again.
I must tell you, Carol, this is an extremely traumatic experience when people have seen everything they own being washed away. People have seen their own kids being washed away in front of their own eyes. Their parents, everything that they own has gone. I should add, Carol, in this part of the world, very few people have insurance. So what they've lost, they have no chance of sort of going back to their insurance company and saying well, we're putting in a claim.
What they've earned for a lifetime is gone. Their family members gone. So the sense of great emotional upheaval is going to remain with them for several years to come.
COSTELLO: Satinder Bindra reporting live this morning from Sri Lanka.
Thank you.
Your news, money, weather and sports.
It's 6:14 Eastern.
Here's what's all new this morning.
In Baghdad, 22 people are dead after Iraqi police were lured into a house loaded with explosives. As police entered the house, the bombs went off. A police official says the attack looks like a coordinated plot by insurgents.
In money news, another avenue for disaster relief has opened up online. Amazon.com is giving customers a chance to donate to the tsunami relief efforts on its Web page. So far, it's collected nearly $1 million, and it did that in record time. Americans are mighty generous people.
In culture, it's been a pretty good year on Broadway. Boosted by Billy Crystal's one man show, "700 Sundays," ticket sales are up. Broadway productions grossed nearly $750 million. More than 11 million people attended shows on the Great White Way.
In sports, the Suns' streak has set. The San Antonio Spurs downed the Phoenix Suns 115-94, to end their 11 game winning streak. But the Suns still have the best record in the NBA.
To the forecast center and Chad -- good morning.
MYERS: Good morning, Carol.
Forty-one, 42, 43, 45, 46 aftershocks so far above 5.0 magnitude from the same fault line. So to answer your question that you asked Satinder a little bit ago, obviously still earthquakes shaking there across parts of -- from Sumatra all the way over to India.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you this morning.
Part of the reason why the devastation across Asia is so enormous is the continent sits on a huge tectonic plate. That's a large chunk of the Earth's crust that's subject to shifting. There are things that can be done to protect people living in the most dangerous areas. Standards here in the United States demand buildings be quake-proof, as quake-proof as possible, that is. But the same codes are not common in Asia.
Joining us now to explain just how engineering can counteract a major disaster is Doug Taylor.
He builds shock absorbers for the buildings and bridges around the world.
Good morning, Doug.
DOUG TAYLOR, CEO, TAYLOR DEVICES: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, as we know, it wasn't really the earthquake that damaged so much, it was the tsunami.
Can the technology you're talking about help in this situation, too?
TAYLOR: To some extent, yes. When an earthquake occurs, you have to worry about ground motions and you have to worry about the effects of the earthquake if it occurs offshore, causing a tsunami to form. And our company's products are large shock absorbers, giant automotive shock absorbers, if you will, that are used to reduce the mechanical damage in a building or on a bridge when it is impacted either by ground motion or by wave motion.
COSTELLO: You know, when you look at these shock absorber things on the Web site, they just look like long metal tubes. It's just difficult for, well, for me to understand how these could be effective.
TAYLOR: What happens when the earthquake occurs or when the tsunami impacts, the building or bridge will begin to move. And the shock absorbers can put out forces literally in the millions of pound range for each device. What this does is takes the mechanical energy that is being put into the structure and harmlessly converts it to heat, which, after the earthquake has occurred, is dissipated quite nicely into the atmosphere.
So it takes the damaging motion of the earthquake, converts it to heat before it can destroy the structure.
COSTELLO: We're taking a look at now some of the aftermath of the tsunamis in Southeast Asia.
I wanted to ask you, I know that you got a lot of phone calls at your company after the initial earthquake struck. Tell us about those.
TAYLOR: We've had inquiries from the countries that were involved, mostly through their governments, requesting literature and additional information on applications that we've done, mostly throughout the U.S. We've done more than 140 building and bridge structures, most notably along the U.S. West Coast, but also encompassing cities as far away from California as Boston. We have applications down in Georgia, down to the State of Florida, where they're worried about hurricanes.
These are all potential...
COSTELLO: Specifically, though, did you get calls from the countries affected in this disaster?
TAYLOR: Yes, we did, from India and Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
COSTELLO: Why don't these countries adopt higher standards to protect their populations?
TAYLOR: That's an important point. The U.S. earthquake codes were changed massively after the 1989 World Series earthquake in San Francisco and the 1994 Northridge earthquake in California. And at this time, the U.S. seismic codes are the most stringent in the world and they cover everything from early warning and detection. They cover damage to the structures, to prevent collapse of the structures and keep the people intact. It also covers utilities, your gas and water lines, emergency services and the eventual socioeconomic impacts.
COSTELLO: Well, Doug Taylor, thank you for joining DAYBREAK this morning.
We appreciate it.
TAYLOR: Thank you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Time for a little "Business Buzz."
An update on that airline mess from the holiday weekend. Get this, US Airways is asking some of its employees to ring in the new year by working for free.
Carrie Lee, live from the Nasdaq market site, has more.
I just find this so difficult to believe, especially when we think there was an organized sickout over Christmas because workers were asked to take such huge pay cuts.
CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol.
The big question is are people going to do this? US Airways, according to published reports, asking employees to work for free and on their day off this weekend at Philadelphia International Airport. And this comes after the carrier was forced to cancel flights over Christmas weekend because it had too few workers, blaming a worker sickout.
Now, the carrier warns that they're going to review the attendance records of those who called in sick last weekend. They will discipline those who abused the sick time system, but obviously the carrier is in a very tough position. Don't forget, US Airways is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as we speak.
Meanwhile, over at Comair, which is a unit of Delta Airlines, the carrier had its own big problems over the weekend. A computer crash forced it to cancel its entire Christmas Day schedule. We're talking about 1,100 flights here. They expect to be back on full schedule today. Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said he's going to look into both incidents.
Obviously, Carol, though, Delta, this is putting the carrier in an even tougher position. A lot of people think Delta is close to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Problems like this cost it not only its reputation, but millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, futures looking flat to slightly weak for today's session, after a very nice rally yesterday.
That's the latest -- back to you.
COSTELLO: All right, thank you.
Carrie Lee live from the NASDAQ market site.
We'll have much more on the tsunami disaster throughout the hour.
But first, here are some international hotlines for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: So many children have died in Asia. Whole generations have been wiped out. Some families losing two, three, four children. And then there are the lost children, looking for their parents.
Anderson Cooper has a heart wrenching story for you this morning.
We warn you, though, this is a hard story to watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (voice-over): Their grief is nearly too much to bear. Parents, whose precious children were suddenly pulled out to sea or crushed by the oncoming water, their young lives lost in the crash of a wave. In Thailand and India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, desperate parents search for their children on the streets and in the morgues, hoping, praying their babies are still alive.
These images are haunting. A mother searches through lifeless bodies looking for her child. A father carries the body of his dead child. Parents without children, children without parents. This boy cries out for his mother as she is laid to rest.
According to UNICEF, one third of the tens of thousands of lives lost in the tsunami are children, the littlest victims, too young to understand the wrath of nature, too small to escape the danger.
CAROL BELLAMY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNICEF: Kids are the least able to run, the least able to -- they can run, but the least able to withstand the flooding or holding on. So that's one of the reasons children have particularly been affected.
COOPER: UNICEF officials also point out that in the countries hardest hit by this disaster, where between one third and one half of the population is under 18 years of age, children could account for up to half the death toll when the final figures are tallied. And while there's little risk of another deadly wave, the danger is far from over for these families, so many already torn apart by tragedy.
CHRISTOPH GORDER, AMERICARES: The larger task at hand will be keeping the survivors alive, the millions of people who were displaced and vulnerable in these unsanitary conditions.
COOPER: The heat, exposed corpses, lack of food and clean water could lead to epidemics of cholera and other diseases. And that could double the number of child victims. The future swept away in a monumental disaster that may change the face of a continent for generations to come.
Anderson Cooper, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: And before we go to a break, we'll give you some phone numbers and Web sites if you want to help those affected by the tragedy. So grab a pen and paper now.
First, though, we want to check in with Jan Weuts, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders.
He's with us live from Brussels, Belgium.
Good morning.
JAN WEUTS, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: Hey, good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Let's talk about the tiniest survivors and what you can do specifically to help them survive.
WEUTS: Well, first of all, we arrived yesterday in Banda Aceh with a seven member team. They are already starting from this morning consultations in the displaced camps, as far as, you know, there are three displaced camps in Banda Aceh. Half of the city is destroyed. So the consultations started. They also give support to hospitals. And then the other part of the team, they're trying to set up the logistics capacity, in effect, to see that we can increase that activity, because that's absolutely insufficient.
COSTELLO: So what is the number priority as it comes to the care of these people?
WEUTS: Well, water, I guess. So a person cannot survive without clean water. That's why we are sending until now 20,000 foldable cherry cans. So they're on their way. That's OK. Well, for some people. Then the second thing is, of course, health, yes. Treat the wounded, treat people who have diseases. And then set up a surveillance system, because we expect epidemics that can happen. But in order to react appropriately, we have to have a surveillance system to see where the epidemic exactly starts. Then we can intervene on that spot directly.
COSTELLO: You know, with so many injured, it's, you know, there's not enough hospitals to handle them all.
So what do you do?
WEUTS: Well, first of all, we try to set up field hospitals. We've sent like 20 hospital tents. They're on their way. We will have also storage capacity with durables. All of this has been reconstructed because the infrastructure in Banda Aceh, half of it is destroyed. So it's very difficult to have existing buildings.
Moreover, there are still aftershocks because they're in Aceh, where the epicenter of the earthquakes and they still have a magnitude of around five or even six (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
COSTELLO: Well, good luck to you and thank you for your good work.
Jan Weuts, who is the coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, joining DAYBREAK this morning.
We've got details at cnn.com/quake about how you can help those whose lives have been devastated by this disaster. Here are the Web sites and the numbers of some organizations helping out with relief efforts. There you have it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired December 29, 2004 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hour by hour the death toll rises and the mass graves fill up. Straight ahead on DAYBREAK, disturbing images in the wake of the tsunami disaster. You're looking at new video we just got in overnight. And terrifying accounts from Americans who survived the massive waves. We'll bring you their stories, as well.
And a big airline asks for a big favor from some of its workers. Yep, it would be U.S. Air.
It is Wednesday, December 29.
You are watching DAYBREAK.
And good morning to you.
From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.
Now in the news, the number now so staggering it's difficult to comprehend. More than 67,000 people across South Asia are dead. As bad as that is, it's going to get worse as thousands of survivors continue to go without fresh food or water. We have live reports from scenes across the region for you just ahead.
We expect to hear from President Bush today about U.S. relief efforts in the wake of this disaster. He plans to make a statement at his Texas ranch. The U.S. has pledged $35 million in aid so far.
In Baghdad, a powerful explosion kills more than 20 people. Police say insurgents lured them into a house and then set off the explosives. Police officers are among the dead, but it is not clear how many.
The revolving door at the CIA keeps on spinning. This time, the deputy director for intelligence is leaving. The "New York Times" says Jami Miscik was forced out by the agency's new director, Porter Goss.
To the forecast center and Chad -- good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: We want to give you the very latest numbers we have from South Asia. In Sri Lanka, more than 23,000 now dead. In India, at least 10,000 were killed. Indonesia reports more than 32,000 dead. Thailand officials say 1,500 people died there, many of them foreign tourists. More than 200 deaths have been reported in other areas. Now, those figures include people from all over the world. This is a global tragedy. People from 40 countries, including the United States, have died in the tsunamis.
Aneesh Raman is live in Thailand this morning -- hello, Aneesh.
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning to you.
We are in the coastal province of Phang Nga. It's in southern mainland Thailand. Within the past few hours, the death toll here alone now confirmed at well over 1,000. There are expectations, though, that it could rise, it could perhaps even triple as the rescue and relief efforts get into the most affected areas that remain completely littered with debris.
That death toll here now represents about 60 percent of the total death toll in southern Thailand. The reason for that is that we're on the coastal area and it's a national park. It's very flat land and there isn't much infrastructure to mitigate any waves that are coming in. So the destruction here quite severe.
Behind me, bodies still being pulled out. In the past few hours, four to five of them have been excavated. Officials here worried, of course, about disease, contamination. They've run out of body bags. They are using plastic sheets to wrap the bodies and trying to get them to makeshift mortuaries at Buddhist temples, as well as health centers.
The situation, though, could get, as we say, much worse. There still remains some 4,000 people missing. And, Carol, we're now well over three days after those waves came crashing in. The hope of finding them and finding them alive is dwindling fast -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Aneesh Raman reporting live from Thailand this morning.
Americans who were caught up in the tsunamis are beginning to return home now and they're telling their harrowing tales of survival.
Listen to some of them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was having breakfast and the wave just came in and took everybody on the beach with it. Life kind of slows down in a split second. You can't really think during those circumstances, you just have to kind of react and go. It kind of just looked like a regular high tide wave and then it just got more intense and more intense. And then everybody started running off the beach and it was chaos. There was cars floating down the street.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The water got so high that the door would only open outward. We were unable to push the door outward. So in order to get out, he had to grab just bottles and chairs and shattered the window. And that's when the water basically pushed me all the way back. He floated his way out.
The TVs and mattresses inside the rooms were floating, you know, shoulder high. And the water was coming so quick that I couldn't get out. So I basically just held onto a bathroom door, you know, until that broke off and then I was able to just kind of get my way right out of the water. I just climbed up to a roof of the hotel and then the roof was getting high enough to where I just had to jump on a tree and just pretty much jumped up on top and stayed on top of a tree until the tsunamis died down.
And we were grabbing people's arms from the top of the roof so that people weren't drowning. I mean there was a lot of very old people, a lot of people that were unable to swim in these conditions. And it was just tough seeing people who weren't strong enough to get on a tree. And we did everything we could to grab people, but the water was just so powerful that you can only hold onto people so long before they either slipped out of their hands or some were strong enough to hold.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's coming again!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably three or four hours after the third tsunami, I heard him yelling my name and I was yelling his name for hours, too. And we just bumped each other and gave each other a big hug and said let's get the hell out of here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Those tsunami survivors had just arrived at the Los Angeles International Airport. That's where they were telling their stories.
Chad, you remember earlier we were talking about scuba divers who were out scuba diving in the ocean?
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: Had no idea until they surfaced that a giant tsunami had hit.
MYERS: Right.
COSTELLO: Well, this is a story from Faye Wachs. She was scuba diving in Ko Phi Phi Island.
MYERS: OK.
COSTELLO: And she e-mailed her mother. She said she and her husband were in the waters off of Thailand's Ko Phi Phi Island when water visibility dropped and they felt as if they were being sucked downward. So she did feel something down there, Chad.
MYERS: Yes. Obviously, it depends on where you were on the reef, if you were inside the reef or outside the reef. It also depends on your depth, Carol. You know, I'm a certified diver. If this wave literally goes over your head, you can be diving in really rough water. And the worst thing about diving is sometimes the boat ride out to the site. It can be so rough out there, you're just saying please let me get in the water before I lose my lunch. And as soon as you get in the water and get down there, it's nice and calm.
Well, if this was just a surge of water that literally went over their head, let's say down, they're down 60 feet, they never really felt very much. Obviously, the ground...
COSTELLO: Yes, but they felt that little sucking downward thing.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: It wasn't until she surfaced, along with her husband, and she saw bodies floating by that she realized anything catastrophic had happened.
MYERS: Wow. That's crazy. They probably lost some visibility as they got, you know, some of the muck got stirred up down at the bottom. But then obviously you come up, that wave had gone over their head and then obviously the return wave had gone over their head the other way and they were -- wow, what a shock.
COSTELLO: It's just unbelievable.
MYERS: A shock.
COSTELLO: And Faye said that, you know, she got out of the water, along with her husband, and they did everything they can to help the people running from this disaster.
MYERS: Right. Right. The turbulence...
COSTELLO: But there just wasn't much they could do.
MYERS: Yes, the turbulence was on top of the water, not where they were.
COSTELLO: Unbelievable.
MYERS: I wonder if their boat -- it looked like they were on that boat. I wonder if the boat was still there when they came up on the surface. That was kind of -- that would be odd -- an odd story, too, whether that boat actually got pushed away.
COSTELLO: I'm sure the boat got pushed away. But that was the picture that the mother sent us to show on television. Yes.
MYERS: That could have been from another trip.
COSTELLO: True.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: For more survivor stories, you can log on to cnn.com/quake. The site also has postings from families looking for loved ones. And we'll bring you much more on the tsunami disaster throughout the hour.
We leave you now with some images of the tsunami.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Reunions and miracle stories are in short supply in Sri Lanka. The numbers out of that country keep growing. The latest word, 23,015 people are dead.
CNN's Satinder Bindra is there -- hello, Satinder.
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.
These figures are now rising for the past 24 to 48 hours, and officials warning us that these figures will rise even further, because 4,000 people are still missing. Here on the south coast, where I am, everything has been damaged or destroyed. We're just going to pan our camera to show you how extensive the damage is.
Schools are gone. Homes are gone. Offices are gone. Nothing has been able to withstand the might of this tsunami. And now, Carol, another growing, gnawing fear. There are hundreds of unclaimed or rotting bodies everywhere and officials are concerned about the spread of disease. Relief supplies, though, are slowly getting in. International relief is slowly getting in and you can probably hear very loud music coming toward me. These are vans announcing that relief has arrived.
So the situation here in terms of relief slightly better than before -- back to you.
COSTELLO: What kind of relief is arriving, Satinder?
BINDRA: I'm sorry, say that again, please.
COSTELLO: Oh, I was just wondering what kind of relief is arriving that we're hearing.
BINDRA: Well, there are dry rations arriving. We've seen cookies being distributed. Clothes are being distributed. And the most important thing, medicine is being distributed and drinking water. Drinking water is being distributed both in plastic bottles and there are large plastic containers here set up on the back of trucks. Residents are lining up. Residents are coming in large numbers. They have been waiting for this for a long time.
So in that sense, finally and at last for them, things are beginning to move.
But one big fear, Carol, continues to remain and that's the threat of another big tsunami. Many people here are refusing to sleep in their homes. Their homes are located right next to the coast. So at night they move several miles inland. They go to relief shelters where they are provided a place to sleep. They're also given food, medication and water.
COSTELLO: And I know you're not a meteorologist, and I'll ask Chad this question, as well, but how much of a chance that there will be another tsunami is there?
BINDRA: Well, if you talk to the locals, they'll tell you that they are still very scared, though now it seems the chances are reducing. But the locals say as far as they are concerned, they really do believe, in the back of their minds, that they could be hit again.
I must tell you, Carol, this is an extremely traumatic experience when people have seen everything they own being washed away. People have seen their own kids being washed away in front of their own eyes. Their parents, everything that they own has gone. I should add, Carol, in this part of the world, very few people have insurance. So what they've lost, they have no chance of sort of going back to their insurance company and saying well, we're putting in a claim.
What they've earned for a lifetime is gone. Their family members gone. So the sense of great emotional upheaval is going to remain with them for several years to come.
COSTELLO: Satinder Bindra reporting live this morning from Sri Lanka.
Thank you.
Your news, money, weather and sports.
It's 6:14 Eastern.
Here's what's all new this morning.
In Baghdad, 22 people are dead after Iraqi police were lured into a house loaded with explosives. As police entered the house, the bombs went off. A police official says the attack looks like a coordinated plot by insurgents.
In money news, another avenue for disaster relief has opened up online. Amazon.com is giving customers a chance to donate to the tsunami relief efforts on its Web page. So far, it's collected nearly $1 million, and it did that in record time. Americans are mighty generous people.
In culture, it's been a pretty good year on Broadway. Boosted by Billy Crystal's one man show, "700 Sundays," ticket sales are up. Broadway productions grossed nearly $750 million. More than 11 million people attended shows on the Great White Way.
In sports, the Suns' streak has set. The San Antonio Spurs downed the Phoenix Suns 115-94, to end their 11 game winning streak. But the Suns still have the best record in the NBA.
To the forecast center and Chad -- good morning.
MYERS: Good morning, Carol.
Forty-one, 42, 43, 45, 46 aftershocks so far above 5.0 magnitude from the same fault line. So to answer your question that you asked Satinder a little bit ago, obviously still earthquakes shaking there across parts of -- from Sumatra all the way over to India.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you this morning.
Part of the reason why the devastation across Asia is so enormous is the continent sits on a huge tectonic plate. That's a large chunk of the Earth's crust that's subject to shifting. There are things that can be done to protect people living in the most dangerous areas. Standards here in the United States demand buildings be quake-proof, as quake-proof as possible, that is. But the same codes are not common in Asia.
Joining us now to explain just how engineering can counteract a major disaster is Doug Taylor.
He builds shock absorbers for the buildings and bridges around the world.
Good morning, Doug.
DOUG TAYLOR, CEO, TAYLOR DEVICES: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, as we know, it wasn't really the earthquake that damaged so much, it was the tsunami.
Can the technology you're talking about help in this situation, too?
TAYLOR: To some extent, yes. When an earthquake occurs, you have to worry about ground motions and you have to worry about the effects of the earthquake if it occurs offshore, causing a tsunami to form. And our company's products are large shock absorbers, giant automotive shock absorbers, if you will, that are used to reduce the mechanical damage in a building or on a bridge when it is impacted either by ground motion or by wave motion.
COSTELLO: You know, when you look at these shock absorber things on the Web site, they just look like long metal tubes. It's just difficult for, well, for me to understand how these could be effective.
TAYLOR: What happens when the earthquake occurs or when the tsunami impacts, the building or bridge will begin to move. And the shock absorbers can put out forces literally in the millions of pound range for each device. What this does is takes the mechanical energy that is being put into the structure and harmlessly converts it to heat, which, after the earthquake has occurred, is dissipated quite nicely into the atmosphere.
So it takes the damaging motion of the earthquake, converts it to heat before it can destroy the structure.
COSTELLO: We're taking a look at now some of the aftermath of the tsunamis in Southeast Asia.
I wanted to ask you, I know that you got a lot of phone calls at your company after the initial earthquake struck. Tell us about those.
TAYLOR: We've had inquiries from the countries that were involved, mostly through their governments, requesting literature and additional information on applications that we've done, mostly throughout the U.S. We've done more than 140 building and bridge structures, most notably along the U.S. West Coast, but also encompassing cities as far away from California as Boston. We have applications down in Georgia, down to the State of Florida, where they're worried about hurricanes.
These are all potential...
COSTELLO: Specifically, though, did you get calls from the countries affected in this disaster?
TAYLOR: Yes, we did, from India and Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
COSTELLO: Why don't these countries adopt higher standards to protect their populations?
TAYLOR: That's an important point. The U.S. earthquake codes were changed massively after the 1989 World Series earthquake in San Francisco and the 1994 Northridge earthquake in California. And at this time, the U.S. seismic codes are the most stringent in the world and they cover everything from early warning and detection. They cover damage to the structures, to prevent collapse of the structures and keep the people intact. It also covers utilities, your gas and water lines, emergency services and the eventual socioeconomic impacts.
COSTELLO: Well, Doug Taylor, thank you for joining DAYBREAK this morning.
We appreciate it.
TAYLOR: Thank you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Time for a little "Business Buzz."
An update on that airline mess from the holiday weekend. Get this, US Airways is asking some of its employees to ring in the new year by working for free.
Carrie Lee, live from the Nasdaq market site, has more.
I just find this so difficult to believe, especially when we think there was an organized sickout over Christmas because workers were asked to take such huge pay cuts.
CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol.
The big question is are people going to do this? US Airways, according to published reports, asking employees to work for free and on their day off this weekend at Philadelphia International Airport. And this comes after the carrier was forced to cancel flights over Christmas weekend because it had too few workers, blaming a worker sickout.
Now, the carrier warns that they're going to review the attendance records of those who called in sick last weekend. They will discipline those who abused the sick time system, but obviously the carrier is in a very tough position. Don't forget, US Airways is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as we speak.
Meanwhile, over at Comair, which is a unit of Delta Airlines, the carrier had its own big problems over the weekend. A computer crash forced it to cancel its entire Christmas Day schedule. We're talking about 1,100 flights here. They expect to be back on full schedule today. Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said he's going to look into both incidents.
Obviously, Carol, though, Delta, this is putting the carrier in an even tougher position. A lot of people think Delta is close to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Problems like this cost it not only its reputation, but millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, futures looking flat to slightly weak for today's session, after a very nice rally yesterday.
That's the latest -- back to you.
COSTELLO: All right, thank you.
Carrie Lee live from the NASDAQ market site.
We'll have much more on the tsunami disaster throughout the hour.
But first, here are some international hotlines for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: So many children have died in Asia. Whole generations have been wiped out. Some families losing two, three, four children. And then there are the lost children, looking for their parents.
Anderson Cooper has a heart wrenching story for you this morning.
We warn you, though, this is a hard story to watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (voice-over): Their grief is nearly too much to bear. Parents, whose precious children were suddenly pulled out to sea or crushed by the oncoming water, their young lives lost in the crash of a wave. In Thailand and India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, desperate parents search for their children on the streets and in the morgues, hoping, praying their babies are still alive.
These images are haunting. A mother searches through lifeless bodies looking for her child. A father carries the body of his dead child. Parents without children, children without parents. This boy cries out for his mother as she is laid to rest.
According to UNICEF, one third of the tens of thousands of lives lost in the tsunami are children, the littlest victims, too young to understand the wrath of nature, too small to escape the danger.
CAROL BELLAMY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNICEF: Kids are the least able to run, the least able to -- they can run, but the least able to withstand the flooding or holding on. So that's one of the reasons children have particularly been affected.
COOPER: UNICEF officials also point out that in the countries hardest hit by this disaster, where between one third and one half of the population is under 18 years of age, children could account for up to half the death toll when the final figures are tallied. And while there's little risk of another deadly wave, the danger is far from over for these families, so many already torn apart by tragedy.
CHRISTOPH GORDER, AMERICARES: The larger task at hand will be keeping the survivors alive, the millions of people who were displaced and vulnerable in these unsanitary conditions.
COOPER: The heat, exposed corpses, lack of food and clean water could lead to epidemics of cholera and other diseases. And that could double the number of child victims. The future swept away in a monumental disaster that may change the face of a continent for generations to come.
Anderson Cooper, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: And before we go to a break, we'll give you some phone numbers and Web sites if you want to help those affected by the tragedy. So grab a pen and paper now.
First, though, we want to check in with Jan Weuts, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders.
He's with us live from Brussels, Belgium.
Good morning.
JAN WEUTS, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: Hey, good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Let's talk about the tiniest survivors and what you can do specifically to help them survive.
WEUTS: Well, first of all, we arrived yesterday in Banda Aceh with a seven member team. They are already starting from this morning consultations in the displaced camps, as far as, you know, there are three displaced camps in Banda Aceh. Half of the city is destroyed. So the consultations started. They also give support to hospitals. And then the other part of the team, they're trying to set up the logistics capacity, in effect, to see that we can increase that activity, because that's absolutely insufficient.
COSTELLO: So what is the number priority as it comes to the care of these people?
WEUTS: Well, water, I guess. So a person cannot survive without clean water. That's why we are sending until now 20,000 foldable cherry cans. So they're on their way. That's OK. Well, for some people. Then the second thing is, of course, health, yes. Treat the wounded, treat people who have diseases. And then set up a surveillance system, because we expect epidemics that can happen. But in order to react appropriately, we have to have a surveillance system to see where the epidemic exactly starts. Then we can intervene on that spot directly.
COSTELLO: You know, with so many injured, it's, you know, there's not enough hospitals to handle them all.
So what do you do?
WEUTS: Well, first of all, we try to set up field hospitals. We've sent like 20 hospital tents. They're on their way. We will have also storage capacity with durables. All of this has been reconstructed because the infrastructure in Banda Aceh, half of it is destroyed. So it's very difficult to have existing buildings.
Moreover, there are still aftershocks because they're in Aceh, where the epicenter of the earthquakes and they still have a magnitude of around five or even six (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
COSTELLO: Well, good luck to you and thank you for your good work.
Jan Weuts, who is the coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, joining DAYBREAK this morning.
We've got details at cnn.com/quake about how you can help those whose lives have been devastated by this disaster. Here are the Web sites and the numbers of some organizations helping out with relief efforts. There you have it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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