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CNN Live At Daybreak
Family Reunited After Deadly Tsunami Disaster in South Asia
Aired December 31, 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: People came from all over the world to spend the holidays in South Asia. Now they're a world away from anything familiar. The people making a difference. Donations are pouring in. Supplies are going out. But there are some things you should know before giving money to the tsunami relief effort.
And for airline passengers, last weekend was a disaster. Are you willing to go into the new year trusting the airlines to make it right?
It is the 31st of December.
You are watching CNN's DAYBREAK.
And good morning to you.
From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.
It is New Year's Eve and the celebrations have already started in New Zealand, where it's already 2005. So, Happy New Year to New Zealanders out there.
Now in the news, appeals go out across the globe to get more help for Southern Asia. Half a billion dollars has been promised to help people ravished by earthquakes and tsunamis. Supplies are coming in, but relief workers still have not reached many remote areas in Indonesia.
More than 160 were killed after a fire breaks out in Buenos Aires in a nightclub. At least 375 people were injured by the fire and the stampede to get out.
The Justice Department is out with a new memo saying torture violates U.S. and international law. It comes days before the Senate considers White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales' nomination as attorney general. Democrats plan to question Gonzales about memos he wrote on torture.
In Times Square, three Olympic athletes test the switch that will lift and drop the crystal ball at midnight. One athlete, Ian Thorpe, is using the occasion to tout New York as the site for the 2012 Olympic Games.
To the forecast center and Chad -- good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol. (WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: The fear of not knowing and the fear of finding out -- a Kingston, New York dad says somehow he knew his son had survived the tsunami on an island south of Thailand. But he had to know for sure. So it took him 24 hours to fly to Bangkok. And while he was waiting for another flight, he got some incredible news through CNN. His ex- wife had called into Anderson Cooper's show to say she had heard from their son.
Listen to how it all came together.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ed, this is amazing news.
ED ALEO, SR., FATHER OF ED ALEO, JR.: This is great news. Thank you very much. I was -- go ahead.
COOPER: What -- your, where are you now? Are you at Bangkok Airport?
E. ALEO: I was just, I just got out of line from the airplane. I'm going back in line as soon as I finish to get on the plane to go to Phuket. And from Phuket, I should go where? Where is Eddie?
COOPER: Sue, do you know where he is now?
SUE ALEO, MOTHER OF ED ALEO, JR.: Yes. Well, no. I do not know where he is right now. As soon as I hung up from my son, I called my husband's cell phone number and left a message with a couple of telephone numbers that my son has given me. My son told me that he was making his way to Krabi. He knows that his father is -- was to land in Bangkok at midnight their time last night and that he would be coming with a CNN News team. And that's all that he -- we talked about.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: Well, the father and son are together this morning in Phuket, Thailand and we know that because DAYBREAK tracked them down, both father and son. In fact, I just spoke to them about an hour ago.
Listen to what they had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED ALEO, JR.: I was on Kopiana (ph), which is the west coast of Thailand. I was on an island, basically having lunch. And water came in quite fast and rose probably three or four meters. Where I was actually sitting was on the eastern, sheltered side of the island, so it wasn't as bad as the west side. The west side got a little bit more rising water a little bit faster. But there was really, compared to everywhere else in Thailand, it was very mild and they were very lucky there was no serious injuries or deaths on that particular island. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: OK, let me explain that to you. The reason the son had not called was he was on a remote island in Thailand that wasn't hit as hard by the tsunamis. They had very little television coverage there, so he had absolutely no idea the extent of the tragedy. So he figured he didn't need to call home. So dad comes out, finds the son having lunch with his fiance, thinking nothing was wrong. So they reunited and now they're just going to stay in Thailand for a while just to be together. And they're hoping, also, to get another brother, who's actually in Vietnam, to fly in for more of a big family reunion. So a happy ending there.
Now, let's head back to Thailand live to CNN's Matthew Chance.
He brings us up to date on the latest from there -- hello, Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to, as well, Carol.
Well, that was certainly a fortunate story amidst a great deal of tragedy here in Phuket. According to the latest Thai government figures, about 6,000 people are still missing in this, what was supposed to be a paradise tourist island and the area around the island. In the very busy holidays period over the last few weeks, intensive efforts are under way to try and retrieve bodies from the surrounding areas, from the seas. There are still a great many bodies out there that are unclaimed.
And as we stand here, I'm talking to you from the place where those searching for missing persons first come to look at the hundreds of photographs, look at the dead and at the missing who are on the notice boards here and the list of names to see if there's any information about their loved ones.
U.S. officials aren't disclosing the number, or say they don't actually have an official number for the number of Americans that are actually missing, but it could be several hundred. But by far the countries that are worst affected, tourists from Scandinavia, from Sweden, from Denmark, other countries in Europe, from Australia. Many, many thousands of those nationals still not accounted for and their families are arriving in significant numbers to try and track down loved ones, sons and daughters, fathers and mothers that were here on holiday over the Christmas period.
COSTELLO: Matthew, you know, I have a question for you. Earlier we talked to a "Christian Science Monitor" reporter. This is happening in Indonesia. He said relief aid is coming in, as in food, but the strongest is getting hold of the food, as in people with money. They're taking the food away from the people who really need it.
Do you find that's happening in Thailand?
CHANCE: No, I don't think so, because it's a very different situation here in Thailand, where it's got a relatively developed infrastructure. The Thai governments have been relatively efficient in distributing whatever food aid needs to be distributed on the sort of emergency level.
It has unique challenges. It first has to, of course, identify all these many thousands of foreign nationals. And that's a big problem for the Thai authorities, because the language barrier is an issue, people simply have no one around them who can identify them. And so identification is a problem, as well.
So they're struggling with forensic teams and they're getting forensic teams in from other countries, as well, to try and push that process through as much as possible and get the interest they need to so these bodies can be identified in the future.
The second problem they have is that in this tourist area, which is incredibly important for the Thai economy, accounting for maybe 10 percent of it, in fact, the income is made over this very important holiday period. That has now been absolutely ruined. And so many people in this area face, in the medium term, very severe shortages and financial hardships -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Matthew Chance reporting live from Thailand this morning.
Help also on the way from many others. Cargo planes carrying much needed medical supplies, blankets and body bags are arriving in Indonesia. And while we know the devastation there is just horrific, a British conservationist who's worked in the region flew over it yesterday.
Here are his observations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE GRIFFITHS, BRITISH CONSERVATIONIST: I was stunned, actually. I never suspected that the devastation should be so complete. And I didn't believe that the tsunami itself could go so far inland. Some of the damage was complete right until about one and a half, two kilometers inland from the coast.
What you had before was land and rice fields and coconut groves extending right to the coast. And it was a really emerald green kind of environment, very beautiful. And the infrastructure, of course, was complete. You had clearly defined roads and bridges and so on.
Now what you're left with are the pictures that you described to me, which I took two days ago.
Most of the people that olive near the coast, and that's, of course, the majority of people in this part of Aceh, of Indonesia, most people are either fishermen or rice planters. And these people were just completely, they've completely vanished. Literally, there are about four or five towns on the west coast with populations of at least 10,000 people, they have been eradicated. I mean literally wasted and they no longer exist. About 200 kilometers of coastline have been literally devastated. There's no buildings of any value left. And some of it wasn't just ordinary villages with nice, you know, stilts and thatched roofs. These were solid concrete structures, which have been totally leveled. And all that you've got left are the foundations, and sometimes not even the foundations.
I've seen plane crashes. I've seen all sorts of problems, and big floods. We had a flood a couple of years ago in Sumatra which killed 300 people. But the scale of this is something which I don't think has ever been surpassed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: For more on the tsunami disaster, log onto our special Web address at cnn.com/quake. There you can find out where to donate funds, read more eyewitness accounts or even get an update on your loved ones. Cnn.com.
We leave you this break, before the break, I should say, with more incredible stories of survival.
So take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the last thing I saw of him, when he was between a wall and a building, a concrete building, which was about four feet wide. And then that filled up with water quite quickly. So I have reason to believe that he just got swept away somewhere.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: It was just horrible. It sounded like a jet engine just right maybe five feet behind you, people screaming as maybe the water hit them. There was trees cracking, houses exploding. It was just so horrible.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Time now for a little "Business Buzz."
2004 was a pretty good year for investors. All the major stock market averages will end the year with gains.
Carrie Lee live at the Nasdaq market site with more on 2004 and what to look for in 2005. Ooh, I'm ready for some tips.
CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, Carol.
Well, first of all, the markets, you're right, are set to close in the plus column now for the second year in a row. This after three years of losses. As we go into the final trading day of 2004, the Dow Jones industrials higher by 3.3 percent.
Merck and Pfizer two serious under performers for the year. Pfizer down 22 percent, Merck down 28 percent on the year.
Taking a look at the broader market indices, the Nasdaq is up 8.7 percent. The S&P is up over 9 percent. Tech once again doing very well. Now, the iPod, in terms of the original -- individual stories and company stories -- very hot in 2004. That's helped Apple Computer's stock triple, from $20 a share to more than $60 a share right now.
Satellite radio also very big, helping Sirius Satellite Radio's stock more than double after it announced it had signed Howard Stern into a $500 million deal there.
But the biggest story of the year, or one of them, anyway, oil, which hit about $55 a barrel back in October, above $55 a barrel. Since then, we've come into the low $40 range, around $40, $42, and that has really helped the markets rally since October.
Since the October lows we've recently seen the Dow and S&P are up about 11 percent. So we have seen pretty nice gains.
One of the bigger Dow performers of the year so far, McDonald's, up about 33 percent.
So that's a look at 2004, Carol.
The last trading day, volume expected, no surprise, to be very light today -- back to you.
COSTELLO: It is a fully trading day?
LEE: It is a full trading day, I should add.
COSTELLO: Is it really?
LEE: Yes, it is.
COSTELLO: So the markets don't close early, huh?
LEE: They don't close early and people here are getting ready, probably lining up already for the ball to drop tonight. So it's going to be very crowded in Times Square...
COSTELLO: Are you...
LEE: ... even if trading is light here.
COSTELLO: Have you ever gone to the ball dropping in person and stood out on the streets?
LEE: You know, I did a long time ago. Once was enough. I'll watch it from the comfort of my own living room.
COSTELLO: Someone described it to me this way. You're standing in a crowd of people smelling the alcohol on their breath...
LEE: Yes.
COSTELLO: And you can't see a darned thing.
LEE: There you go. COSTELLO: There are so many people there. So you miss it.
LEE: Well, I believe Anderson Cooper has a special tonight live, so hopefully people will turn into that.
COSTELLO: And a special perch, as well.
Thank you, Carrie Lee.
LEE: OK.
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports.
It's 6:16 Eastern.
LEE: Happy new year.
COSTELLO: Happy new year to you, too.
Here's what's all new this morning.
It's 6:16 Eastern.
At least 169 people are dead following a fire inside a Buenos Aires nightclub. As many as 375 others were injured in the blaze and the rush to escape.
Viktor Yushchenko is making plans for his inauguration. This after Ukrainian election officials denied the appeal of his opponent. But Viktor Yanukovych's supporters say they plan to take their case to the supreme court.
In money news, Anna Nicole Smith may need to get a real job after all. The federal appeals court threw out the $88.5 million judgment she got from her late husband's estate. Smith was married to J. Howard Marshall for one year before the 90-year-old oil tycoon died.
In culture, legendary band leader Arte Shaw is dead at the age of 94. Shaw's music became synonymous with the big band era of the 1930s and '40s. But he may be just as well known for his marriages to starlets Lana Turner and Eva Gardner.
In sports, pitcher Randy Johnson may once again be heading for the New York Yankees. A baseball official says the Yanks and the Arizona Diamondbacks have reached a tentative agreement on a new deal. A similar deal agreed to two weeks ago fell through at the very last minute.
To the forecast center and Chad.
MYERS: Good morning, Carol.
And congratulations to Texas Tech. Oh my goodness, they just put a whipping on the California Bears last night. So, what a good -- a good way to wake up if you're living in Texas this morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you this morning.
Thousands will be cramming airports this weekend, but some airlines still have mountains of lost luggage from last weekend. We'll tell you what the airlines are trying to do to win you back after the Christmas fiasco.
And are lasers being used to blind pilots as they try to land their planes? The FBI is trying to find out. We'll take a closer look at that when DAYBREAK returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Sunday is expected to be one of the busiest travel days of the holiday season. And for several airlines, it's the time that they can try to win back some customers, or at least their goodwill. US Airways, for one, is still digging out from under their avalanche of lost luggage.
We get more on that story from Tisha Thompson of CNN affiliate WMAR in Baltimore.
TISHA THOMPSON, WMAR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jackie Skinnerbach (ph) says she survived the last week by waiting in line and being patient.
JACKIE SKINNERBACH: It was just the perfect storm.
THOMPSON: She and her family lost all of their luggage and their Christmas gifts nine days ago. US Airways lost thousands of bags after its computer system crashed and its baggage handlers called in sick, leaving Skinnerbach with a pile of claim tickets, boarding passes and receipts.
SKINNERBACH: I'm getting reimbursed or trying to get reimbursed for the expenses that we had as we, you know, we had to go buy toiletries. We had to go buy clothes.
THOMPSON (on camera): And she's not alone. Slowly but steadily, bags have been trickling in here at the US Airways Baggage Service Center and that means there are now hundreds of bags waiting to be delivered.
RON BETCHAGARE: It's been an actual nightmare. We've had bags, I can't remember -- it's been years since, you know, I've recalled something like this.
THOMPSON (voice-over): Ron Betchagare (ph) says he's been working 22 hour days for five days to deliver more than 2,500 pieces of lost luggage. BETCHAGARE: For the most part, people are happy to see us. And especially now it doesn't matter day or night, whenever we show up at their house, they're just happy to get their bags.
THOMPSON: A US Airways spokesman says the company hopes to deliver all of the lost luggage by the end of this weekend. Of course, that's assuming nothing else will go wrong.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: That was Tisha Thompson from our affiliate WMAR in Baltimore.
And joining me live from Washington is Ben Mutzabaugh, the travel writer for "USA Today."
Good morning, Ben. BEN MUTZABAUGH, "USA TODAY" TRAVEL WRITER: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: So, should we start with U.S. Air in light of that story?
MUTZABAUGH: Yes.
COSTELLO: So, give us an update on where that situation is now.
MUTZABAUGH: Sure. Well, obviously it was an incredible black eye for the airline. But I talked to officials at the airline yesterday and they say almost all of the bags that have been in Philadelphia have at least made it out of Philadelphia and are on their way, if not already at, other airports where the travelers ended up before their luggage. And most of the luggage, if not all of it, should be delivered hopefully today or by the end of the weekend. And they're using everything that they can, whether it's delivery services to limousine services to cabs to try to reunite these bags with their owners.
COSTELLO: OK, Ben, I'm going to read you a quote from U.S. Air. It said that the baggage handlers who called off sick en mass were embarrassed that that happened and that many have offered to work for free.
What have you heard?
MUTZABAUGH: That is correct. They said -- US Airways said that the sick out -- well, it's not technically a sick out -- but the massive number of people who called in sick is what caused the problem for them. They asked for any employees willing to volunteer to work this weekend to try to help smooth operations and just, as US Airways puts it to be ambassadors of goodwill for the customers who were affected this weekend. And they said several hundred have volunteered to do this.
Now, that said, most of these workers are management type positions. They're not all flight attendants or pilots. In fact, the majority of them are management workers who realize that something has to be done. But there are flight attendants and there are pilots that are participating in this and really, they're just out there -- the airline says that they realize that this couldn't have come at a worse time, as they restructure. And they want to try to convince people that their customer service isn't on the decline. And they're doing everything they can to try to get past this incident. But it's a big one to overcome. COSTELLO: Yes. You know, I always have that thought in the back of my mind that the holiday season comes every single year. Christmas is on the calendar. It comes on the same day. And that really all airlines should be prepared for this. But there always seems to be delays at this time of year.
Let's touch quickly on Comair before we go.
Are their computer systems back up to speed?
MUTZABAUGH: They are for now, and, you know, of course they thought they were on Christmas Day, as well. So hopefully there won't be any more problems, and especially for new year's. The flights on new year's, I think, will be even more full as they were on Christmas Day. So if there's a ripple now, then customers who get bumped from flights on new year's are going to have a lot more difficult time getting reaccommodated on other flights, as hard as that is to believe with what we saw on Christmas.
So they're up for now, but it's an old system. It's 10 years old. Comair says it's in the process of being replaced. So, you know...
COSTELLO: So we'll see.
MUTZABAUGH: ... they obviously are ready for a new system after that last problem.
COSTELLO: OK. Well, let's just be pessimists and say that there are going to be delays.
MUTZABAUGH: Correct.
COSTELLO: How should you be prepared? Give us a few tips.
MUTZABAUGH: There are a couple of things you can do to help tip things in your favor. First of all, be sure to ask the ticket agent who's trying to reaccommodate you if there's anything they can do to help you. Give them ideas, because sometimes they may not know or they may not offer you the best tip.
Another idea is know who your airlines' code share partners are. For example, Delta is partners with Continental and Northwest, which basically means these three airlines are able to sell seats on each other's flights. If you're on Delta, for example, flying to any city and you're having a hard time getting there on Delta, don't be afraid to ask your ticket agent, say hey, can I please find a Continental flight or is there a Northwest flight you can put me on to St. Louis or wherever you're headed?
It may involve an extra layover, it may involve a ticketing process, but you may actually get off the ground. And also if you're flying to New York, but you just want to get there and Philadelphia is good enough and you're willing to take the train, say to the ticket agent, hey, if all the flights to New York are full, I can go to Philadelphia, I can go to Hartford. Just get me anywhere near where I'm headed and I'll take care of the rest.
COSTELLO: All right, Ben Mutzabaugh from "USA Today" joining us on DAYBREAK this morning.
Thank you and happy new year.
MUTZABAUGH: Thanks.
Same to you.
COSTELLO: Coming up next, we take you live to a tsunami ravaged region controlled by rebels. Tens of thousands of survivors are in desperate need of aid there. So what's slowing down the relief? We'll dig into some of the problems.
Plus, are laser beams a new form of terror in the skies? We'll explore that, too, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: And good morning to you.
Welcome to the last half hour of DAYBREAK.
Happy New Year's Eve.
From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.
Now in the news, outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell will be in New York today to discuss tsunami disaster aid plans with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. On Sunday, Powell will lead a U.S. delegation to Southern Asia to assess the damage. Florida Governor Jeb Bush will also be part of that delegation.
A fire that raced through a crowded nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina killed at least 169 people. As many as 5,000 were inside the disco when the fire broke out.
The Justice Department is out with a new memo saying torture violates U.S. and international law. It comes days before the Senate considers White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales' nomination as attorney general. Democrats plan to question Gonzales about memos he wrote on torture.
In Times Square, three Olympic athletes test the switch that will lift and drop that huge crystal ball at midnight. One athlete, Ian Thorpe, is using the occasion to tout New York as the site for the 2012 Olympic Games.
To the forecast center and Chad -- good morning.
MYERS: Good morning, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 31, 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: People came from all over the world to spend the holidays in South Asia. Now they're a world away from anything familiar. The people making a difference. Donations are pouring in. Supplies are going out. But there are some things you should know before giving money to the tsunami relief effort.
And for airline passengers, last weekend was a disaster. Are you willing to go into the new year trusting the airlines to make it right?
It is the 31st of December.
You are watching CNN's DAYBREAK.
And good morning to you.
From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.
It is New Year's Eve and the celebrations have already started in New Zealand, where it's already 2005. So, Happy New Year to New Zealanders out there.
Now in the news, appeals go out across the globe to get more help for Southern Asia. Half a billion dollars has been promised to help people ravished by earthquakes and tsunamis. Supplies are coming in, but relief workers still have not reached many remote areas in Indonesia.
More than 160 were killed after a fire breaks out in Buenos Aires in a nightclub. At least 375 people were injured by the fire and the stampede to get out.
The Justice Department is out with a new memo saying torture violates U.S. and international law. It comes days before the Senate considers White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales' nomination as attorney general. Democrats plan to question Gonzales about memos he wrote on torture.
In Times Square, three Olympic athletes test the switch that will lift and drop the crystal ball at midnight. One athlete, Ian Thorpe, is using the occasion to tout New York as the site for the 2012 Olympic Games.
To the forecast center and Chad -- good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol. (WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: The fear of not knowing and the fear of finding out -- a Kingston, New York dad says somehow he knew his son had survived the tsunami on an island south of Thailand. But he had to know for sure. So it took him 24 hours to fly to Bangkok. And while he was waiting for another flight, he got some incredible news through CNN. His ex- wife had called into Anderson Cooper's show to say she had heard from their son.
Listen to how it all came together.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ed, this is amazing news.
ED ALEO, SR., FATHER OF ED ALEO, JR.: This is great news. Thank you very much. I was -- go ahead.
COOPER: What -- your, where are you now? Are you at Bangkok Airport?
E. ALEO: I was just, I just got out of line from the airplane. I'm going back in line as soon as I finish to get on the plane to go to Phuket. And from Phuket, I should go where? Where is Eddie?
COOPER: Sue, do you know where he is now?
SUE ALEO, MOTHER OF ED ALEO, JR.: Yes. Well, no. I do not know where he is right now. As soon as I hung up from my son, I called my husband's cell phone number and left a message with a couple of telephone numbers that my son has given me. My son told me that he was making his way to Krabi. He knows that his father is -- was to land in Bangkok at midnight their time last night and that he would be coming with a CNN News team. And that's all that he -- we talked about.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: Well, the father and son are together this morning in Phuket, Thailand and we know that because DAYBREAK tracked them down, both father and son. In fact, I just spoke to them about an hour ago.
Listen to what they had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED ALEO, JR.: I was on Kopiana (ph), which is the west coast of Thailand. I was on an island, basically having lunch. And water came in quite fast and rose probably three or four meters. Where I was actually sitting was on the eastern, sheltered side of the island, so it wasn't as bad as the west side. The west side got a little bit more rising water a little bit faster. But there was really, compared to everywhere else in Thailand, it was very mild and they were very lucky there was no serious injuries or deaths on that particular island. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: OK, let me explain that to you. The reason the son had not called was he was on a remote island in Thailand that wasn't hit as hard by the tsunamis. They had very little television coverage there, so he had absolutely no idea the extent of the tragedy. So he figured he didn't need to call home. So dad comes out, finds the son having lunch with his fiance, thinking nothing was wrong. So they reunited and now they're just going to stay in Thailand for a while just to be together. And they're hoping, also, to get another brother, who's actually in Vietnam, to fly in for more of a big family reunion. So a happy ending there.
Now, let's head back to Thailand live to CNN's Matthew Chance.
He brings us up to date on the latest from there -- hello, Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to, as well, Carol.
Well, that was certainly a fortunate story amidst a great deal of tragedy here in Phuket. According to the latest Thai government figures, about 6,000 people are still missing in this, what was supposed to be a paradise tourist island and the area around the island. In the very busy holidays period over the last few weeks, intensive efforts are under way to try and retrieve bodies from the surrounding areas, from the seas. There are still a great many bodies out there that are unclaimed.
And as we stand here, I'm talking to you from the place where those searching for missing persons first come to look at the hundreds of photographs, look at the dead and at the missing who are on the notice boards here and the list of names to see if there's any information about their loved ones.
U.S. officials aren't disclosing the number, or say they don't actually have an official number for the number of Americans that are actually missing, but it could be several hundred. But by far the countries that are worst affected, tourists from Scandinavia, from Sweden, from Denmark, other countries in Europe, from Australia. Many, many thousands of those nationals still not accounted for and their families are arriving in significant numbers to try and track down loved ones, sons and daughters, fathers and mothers that were here on holiday over the Christmas period.
COSTELLO: Matthew, you know, I have a question for you. Earlier we talked to a "Christian Science Monitor" reporter. This is happening in Indonesia. He said relief aid is coming in, as in food, but the strongest is getting hold of the food, as in people with money. They're taking the food away from the people who really need it.
Do you find that's happening in Thailand?
CHANCE: No, I don't think so, because it's a very different situation here in Thailand, where it's got a relatively developed infrastructure. The Thai governments have been relatively efficient in distributing whatever food aid needs to be distributed on the sort of emergency level.
It has unique challenges. It first has to, of course, identify all these many thousands of foreign nationals. And that's a big problem for the Thai authorities, because the language barrier is an issue, people simply have no one around them who can identify them. And so identification is a problem, as well.
So they're struggling with forensic teams and they're getting forensic teams in from other countries, as well, to try and push that process through as much as possible and get the interest they need to so these bodies can be identified in the future.
The second problem they have is that in this tourist area, which is incredibly important for the Thai economy, accounting for maybe 10 percent of it, in fact, the income is made over this very important holiday period. That has now been absolutely ruined. And so many people in this area face, in the medium term, very severe shortages and financial hardships -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Matthew Chance reporting live from Thailand this morning.
Help also on the way from many others. Cargo planes carrying much needed medical supplies, blankets and body bags are arriving in Indonesia. And while we know the devastation there is just horrific, a British conservationist who's worked in the region flew over it yesterday.
Here are his observations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE GRIFFITHS, BRITISH CONSERVATIONIST: I was stunned, actually. I never suspected that the devastation should be so complete. And I didn't believe that the tsunami itself could go so far inland. Some of the damage was complete right until about one and a half, two kilometers inland from the coast.
What you had before was land and rice fields and coconut groves extending right to the coast. And it was a really emerald green kind of environment, very beautiful. And the infrastructure, of course, was complete. You had clearly defined roads and bridges and so on.
Now what you're left with are the pictures that you described to me, which I took two days ago.
Most of the people that olive near the coast, and that's, of course, the majority of people in this part of Aceh, of Indonesia, most people are either fishermen or rice planters. And these people were just completely, they've completely vanished. Literally, there are about four or five towns on the west coast with populations of at least 10,000 people, they have been eradicated. I mean literally wasted and they no longer exist. About 200 kilometers of coastline have been literally devastated. There's no buildings of any value left. And some of it wasn't just ordinary villages with nice, you know, stilts and thatched roofs. These were solid concrete structures, which have been totally leveled. And all that you've got left are the foundations, and sometimes not even the foundations.
I've seen plane crashes. I've seen all sorts of problems, and big floods. We had a flood a couple of years ago in Sumatra which killed 300 people. But the scale of this is something which I don't think has ever been surpassed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: For more on the tsunami disaster, log onto our special Web address at cnn.com/quake. There you can find out where to donate funds, read more eyewitness accounts or even get an update on your loved ones. Cnn.com.
We leave you this break, before the break, I should say, with more incredible stories of survival.
So take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the last thing I saw of him, when he was between a wall and a building, a concrete building, which was about four feet wide. And then that filled up with water quite quickly. So I have reason to believe that he just got swept away somewhere.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: It was just horrible. It sounded like a jet engine just right maybe five feet behind you, people screaming as maybe the water hit them. There was trees cracking, houses exploding. It was just so horrible.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Time now for a little "Business Buzz."
2004 was a pretty good year for investors. All the major stock market averages will end the year with gains.
Carrie Lee live at the Nasdaq market site with more on 2004 and what to look for in 2005. Ooh, I'm ready for some tips.
CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, Carol.
Well, first of all, the markets, you're right, are set to close in the plus column now for the second year in a row. This after three years of losses. As we go into the final trading day of 2004, the Dow Jones industrials higher by 3.3 percent.
Merck and Pfizer two serious under performers for the year. Pfizer down 22 percent, Merck down 28 percent on the year.
Taking a look at the broader market indices, the Nasdaq is up 8.7 percent. The S&P is up over 9 percent. Tech once again doing very well. Now, the iPod, in terms of the original -- individual stories and company stories -- very hot in 2004. That's helped Apple Computer's stock triple, from $20 a share to more than $60 a share right now.
Satellite radio also very big, helping Sirius Satellite Radio's stock more than double after it announced it had signed Howard Stern into a $500 million deal there.
But the biggest story of the year, or one of them, anyway, oil, which hit about $55 a barrel back in October, above $55 a barrel. Since then, we've come into the low $40 range, around $40, $42, and that has really helped the markets rally since October.
Since the October lows we've recently seen the Dow and S&P are up about 11 percent. So we have seen pretty nice gains.
One of the bigger Dow performers of the year so far, McDonald's, up about 33 percent.
So that's a look at 2004, Carol.
The last trading day, volume expected, no surprise, to be very light today -- back to you.
COSTELLO: It is a fully trading day?
LEE: It is a full trading day, I should add.
COSTELLO: Is it really?
LEE: Yes, it is.
COSTELLO: So the markets don't close early, huh?
LEE: They don't close early and people here are getting ready, probably lining up already for the ball to drop tonight. So it's going to be very crowded in Times Square...
COSTELLO: Are you...
LEE: ... even if trading is light here.
COSTELLO: Have you ever gone to the ball dropping in person and stood out on the streets?
LEE: You know, I did a long time ago. Once was enough. I'll watch it from the comfort of my own living room.
COSTELLO: Someone described it to me this way. You're standing in a crowd of people smelling the alcohol on their breath...
LEE: Yes.
COSTELLO: And you can't see a darned thing.
LEE: There you go. COSTELLO: There are so many people there. So you miss it.
LEE: Well, I believe Anderson Cooper has a special tonight live, so hopefully people will turn into that.
COSTELLO: And a special perch, as well.
Thank you, Carrie Lee.
LEE: OK.
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports.
It's 6:16 Eastern.
LEE: Happy new year.
COSTELLO: Happy new year to you, too.
Here's what's all new this morning.
It's 6:16 Eastern.
At least 169 people are dead following a fire inside a Buenos Aires nightclub. As many as 375 others were injured in the blaze and the rush to escape.
Viktor Yushchenko is making plans for his inauguration. This after Ukrainian election officials denied the appeal of his opponent. But Viktor Yanukovych's supporters say they plan to take their case to the supreme court.
In money news, Anna Nicole Smith may need to get a real job after all. The federal appeals court threw out the $88.5 million judgment she got from her late husband's estate. Smith was married to J. Howard Marshall for one year before the 90-year-old oil tycoon died.
In culture, legendary band leader Arte Shaw is dead at the age of 94. Shaw's music became synonymous with the big band era of the 1930s and '40s. But he may be just as well known for his marriages to starlets Lana Turner and Eva Gardner.
In sports, pitcher Randy Johnson may once again be heading for the New York Yankees. A baseball official says the Yanks and the Arizona Diamondbacks have reached a tentative agreement on a new deal. A similar deal agreed to two weeks ago fell through at the very last minute.
To the forecast center and Chad.
MYERS: Good morning, Carol.
And congratulations to Texas Tech. Oh my goodness, they just put a whipping on the California Bears last night. So, what a good -- a good way to wake up if you're living in Texas this morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you this morning.
Thousands will be cramming airports this weekend, but some airlines still have mountains of lost luggage from last weekend. We'll tell you what the airlines are trying to do to win you back after the Christmas fiasco.
And are lasers being used to blind pilots as they try to land their planes? The FBI is trying to find out. We'll take a closer look at that when DAYBREAK returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Sunday is expected to be one of the busiest travel days of the holiday season. And for several airlines, it's the time that they can try to win back some customers, or at least their goodwill. US Airways, for one, is still digging out from under their avalanche of lost luggage.
We get more on that story from Tisha Thompson of CNN affiliate WMAR in Baltimore.
TISHA THOMPSON, WMAR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jackie Skinnerbach (ph) says she survived the last week by waiting in line and being patient.
JACKIE SKINNERBACH: It was just the perfect storm.
THOMPSON: She and her family lost all of their luggage and their Christmas gifts nine days ago. US Airways lost thousands of bags after its computer system crashed and its baggage handlers called in sick, leaving Skinnerbach with a pile of claim tickets, boarding passes and receipts.
SKINNERBACH: I'm getting reimbursed or trying to get reimbursed for the expenses that we had as we, you know, we had to go buy toiletries. We had to go buy clothes.
THOMPSON (on camera): And she's not alone. Slowly but steadily, bags have been trickling in here at the US Airways Baggage Service Center and that means there are now hundreds of bags waiting to be delivered.
RON BETCHAGARE: It's been an actual nightmare. We've had bags, I can't remember -- it's been years since, you know, I've recalled something like this.
THOMPSON (voice-over): Ron Betchagare (ph) says he's been working 22 hour days for five days to deliver more than 2,500 pieces of lost luggage. BETCHAGARE: For the most part, people are happy to see us. And especially now it doesn't matter day or night, whenever we show up at their house, they're just happy to get their bags.
THOMPSON: A US Airways spokesman says the company hopes to deliver all of the lost luggage by the end of this weekend. Of course, that's assuming nothing else will go wrong.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: That was Tisha Thompson from our affiliate WMAR in Baltimore.
And joining me live from Washington is Ben Mutzabaugh, the travel writer for "USA Today."
Good morning, Ben. BEN MUTZABAUGH, "USA TODAY" TRAVEL WRITER: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: So, should we start with U.S. Air in light of that story?
MUTZABAUGH: Yes.
COSTELLO: So, give us an update on where that situation is now.
MUTZABAUGH: Sure. Well, obviously it was an incredible black eye for the airline. But I talked to officials at the airline yesterday and they say almost all of the bags that have been in Philadelphia have at least made it out of Philadelphia and are on their way, if not already at, other airports where the travelers ended up before their luggage. And most of the luggage, if not all of it, should be delivered hopefully today or by the end of the weekend. And they're using everything that they can, whether it's delivery services to limousine services to cabs to try to reunite these bags with their owners.
COSTELLO: OK, Ben, I'm going to read you a quote from U.S. Air. It said that the baggage handlers who called off sick en mass were embarrassed that that happened and that many have offered to work for free.
What have you heard?
MUTZABAUGH: That is correct. They said -- US Airways said that the sick out -- well, it's not technically a sick out -- but the massive number of people who called in sick is what caused the problem for them. They asked for any employees willing to volunteer to work this weekend to try to help smooth operations and just, as US Airways puts it to be ambassadors of goodwill for the customers who were affected this weekend. And they said several hundred have volunteered to do this.
Now, that said, most of these workers are management type positions. They're not all flight attendants or pilots. In fact, the majority of them are management workers who realize that something has to be done. But there are flight attendants and there are pilots that are participating in this and really, they're just out there -- the airline says that they realize that this couldn't have come at a worse time, as they restructure. And they want to try to convince people that their customer service isn't on the decline. And they're doing everything they can to try to get past this incident. But it's a big one to overcome. COSTELLO: Yes. You know, I always have that thought in the back of my mind that the holiday season comes every single year. Christmas is on the calendar. It comes on the same day. And that really all airlines should be prepared for this. But there always seems to be delays at this time of year.
Let's touch quickly on Comair before we go.
Are their computer systems back up to speed?
MUTZABAUGH: They are for now, and, you know, of course they thought they were on Christmas Day, as well. So hopefully there won't be any more problems, and especially for new year's. The flights on new year's, I think, will be even more full as they were on Christmas Day. So if there's a ripple now, then customers who get bumped from flights on new year's are going to have a lot more difficult time getting reaccommodated on other flights, as hard as that is to believe with what we saw on Christmas.
So they're up for now, but it's an old system. It's 10 years old. Comair says it's in the process of being replaced. So, you know...
COSTELLO: So we'll see.
MUTZABAUGH: ... they obviously are ready for a new system after that last problem.
COSTELLO: OK. Well, let's just be pessimists and say that there are going to be delays.
MUTZABAUGH: Correct.
COSTELLO: How should you be prepared? Give us a few tips.
MUTZABAUGH: There are a couple of things you can do to help tip things in your favor. First of all, be sure to ask the ticket agent who's trying to reaccommodate you if there's anything they can do to help you. Give them ideas, because sometimes they may not know or they may not offer you the best tip.
Another idea is know who your airlines' code share partners are. For example, Delta is partners with Continental and Northwest, which basically means these three airlines are able to sell seats on each other's flights. If you're on Delta, for example, flying to any city and you're having a hard time getting there on Delta, don't be afraid to ask your ticket agent, say hey, can I please find a Continental flight or is there a Northwest flight you can put me on to St. Louis or wherever you're headed?
It may involve an extra layover, it may involve a ticketing process, but you may actually get off the ground. And also if you're flying to New York, but you just want to get there and Philadelphia is good enough and you're willing to take the train, say to the ticket agent, hey, if all the flights to New York are full, I can go to Philadelphia, I can go to Hartford. Just get me anywhere near where I'm headed and I'll take care of the rest.
COSTELLO: All right, Ben Mutzabaugh from "USA Today" joining us on DAYBREAK this morning.
Thank you and happy new year.
MUTZABAUGH: Thanks.
Same to you.
COSTELLO: Coming up next, we take you live to a tsunami ravaged region controlled by rebels. Tens of thousands of survivors are in desperate need of aid there. So what's slowing down the relief? We'll dig into some of the problems.
Plus, are laser beams a new form of terror in the skies? We'll explore that, too, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: And good morning to you.
Welcome to the last half hour of DAYBREAK.
Happy New Year's Eve.
From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.
Now in the news, outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell will be in New York today to discuss tsunami disaster aid plans with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. On Sunday, Powell will lead a U.S. delegation to Southern Asia to assess the damage. Florida Governor Jeb Bush will also be part of that delegation.
A fire that raced through a crowded nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina killed at least 169 people. As many as 5,000 were inside the disco when the fire broke out.
The Justice Department is out with a new memo saying torture violates U.S. and international law. It comes days before the Senate considers White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales' nomination as attorney general. Democrats plan to question Gonzales about memos he wrote on torture.
In Times Square, three Olympic athletes test the switch that will lift and drop that huge crystal ball at midnight. One athlete, Ian Thorpe, is using the occasion to tout New York as the site for the 2012 Olympic Games.
To the forecast center and Chad -- good morning.
MYERS: Good morning, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
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