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American Morning
Earthquake Devastates Haiti
Aired January 13, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. We are following breaking news on this Wednesday, January 13th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts.
And here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes here on the Most News in the Morning.
Three million people in Haiti's capital waking up to a horror this morning, most of Port-au-Prince -- according to reports on the ground -- in ruins. A magnitude seven earthquake leveling thousands of buildings; aid groups are rushing in to join the rescue effort there to provide clean water, sanitation, shelter, food and other emergency supplies.
CHETRY: And CNN has the first team on the ground in Haiti. We're getting constant updates and a clearer picture of the damage and devastation that's been done there. There have been over 30 aftershocks since yesterday afternoon, the strongest of the aftershocks registering 5.9. That's a very strong quake in itself. And there may be even more aftershocks this morning.
ROBERTS: The Pentagon says it is already working on shipments of humanitarian aid but with no airport tower, no communications and unreliable roads, it may be very tough. A former FEMA official, who's an expert on disaster preparedness in Haiti, says there are people on the ground ready to help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREW SACHS, FMR. FEMA OFFICIAL (via phone): A tremendous number of aid agencies have a presence in Haiti. They have a lot of strong relationships within the communities, both inside Port-au- Prince and out in the rural areas. And they probably will have a network of people in place as long as they made it through the earthquake themselves. They'll have a network of people in place that can provide some support.
I think the challenge is going to be getting those individuals the support they need and the resources they need, everything from pharmaceuticals and food and water that's going to be required for what I think is going to be a very long and drawn out recovery period for Haiti. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. There is barely any emergency response to speak of so far. So, millions there are going to rely on outside help for relief. And aid agencies say speed is essential in helping the survivors. Officials say the immediate needs are medication and drinking water.
The capital city, Port-au-Prince, largely destroyed by yesterday's magnitude seven earthquake. The presidential palace is on fire after collapsing. A U.N. mission headquarters is leveled. That was in the Hotel Montana. Many of its workers are missing this morning.
The devastation so widespread, so complete, some fear the death toll could climb into the thousands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS (voice-over): When the earth mercifully stopped shaking, an ominous cloud of dust and smoke blanketed the capital of Port-au- Prince. When it settled about 20 minutes later, it revealed nothing but misery.
All you could hear, according to witnesses, was the sound of victims wailing. People trapped under chunks of concrete everywhere. Street after street in ruin. Some buildings burning; many others collapsed. Even the presidential palace came down, no match for the massive quake and its trailing aftershocks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All (INAUDIBLE) everything was just falling apart.
ROBERTS: These people lived through the nightmare. Their Miami- bound American Airlines flight was the last one to leave Port-au- Prince taking off about 90 minutes after the earthquake hit. Passengers describe the devastation they left behind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People was crying and, you know, the roof, like the ceiling was falling, and there was no place to hide.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole building was cracked down. I mean, it looks like a building that they need to build from point A to point Z right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you talking about the airport?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The airport. I mean, it's really cracked up.
ROBERTS: The condition of the Port-au-Prince airport could be key to relief efforts today. Urban search and rescue teams, like this one in Fairfax, Virginia, waiting into the early morning hours for clearance to deploy to Haiti.
DAVID ROHR, FAIRFAX FIRE AND RESCUE: We're able to break reinforced concrete and do technical search, which means sound and video and all that. So, we'll have -- we'll have our fullest capability with us to go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Thousands of buildings in Port-au-Prince reportedly have collapsed. The government there is offering no guidance about the possible number of casualties, but a spokesman for the State Department says, quote, "Clearly, there is going to be a serious loss of life."
CHETRY: And we're covering the disaster with the global resources of CNN this morning. We have Susan Candiotti on the ground in the Dominican Republic. She is making her way into Haiti's capital. Rob Marciano is digging deeper on whether warning signs about this monster quake were missed.
Rosemary Church at our Haiti desk this morning, she is monitoring what is proving to be a vital communications link, networking sites, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, cell phone video, all of it coming in from Haiti -- in some cases, the only way to get information from any people.
Also, our Jill Dougherty reporting from the State Department on the U.S. mobilizing disaster response teams. In fact, in just an hour or so, the secretary of state, among others at the State Department, set to meet with representatives from Haiti to try to figure out the aid situation and what they are going to do.
Meanwhile, our senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth is also working the phones this morning. There's a large number of U.N. personnel that are still missing, some according to agencies saying that they're -- that they are reporting some of their members killed in this earthquake.
And "The Associated Press" is reporting this morning that among the missing is the head of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti. The secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon, is set to speak at any moment now and we will bring that to you as well.
First, though, Susan Candiotti live on the phone from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic and Haiti, both are together on the island of Hispaniola, but a very, very different scene this morning between the nations.
Good morning, Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Good morning, Kiran.
Here in Santa Domingo, a number of relief agencies are also trying to muster -- to get relief aid together, to get personnel together as well to make their way to Port-au-Prince. The best way, the easiest way, safest way at this hour is to try do that by air. There are a number of fits and stars with trying to get some planes into Port-au-Prince, with word that the airport there is open, and it's is closed, and back and forth. And we have been here throughout the night actually, waiting to get on a plane to go in, and/or on helicopters to make our way to Port-au-Prince. Security is extremely tight. You have a lot of people here who are very worried, who have family, who have relatives there. We've run into a number of people from the American Red Cross, the International Red Cross, also trying to go in there to see what they can do.
Once we hit the ground in Port-au-Prince, of course, the key thing is to see firsthand what others have been reporting on already. We have seen some evidence of the devastation. It will be an opportunity for the relief agencies, and for journalists, to begin reporting in even greater numbers about what is needed there -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes. And again, as you said, until you can actually get in there and see the devastation, it's very hard to make an assessment. But what we've been hearing is pretty grim. You had the U.S. ambassador to Haiti's wife saying that most of Port-au-Prince is destroyed and there are others who are saying that we're basically seeing a catastrophe, the likes of which Haiti has not experienced.
CANDIOTTI: That's true. And certainly, unfortunately, Haiti has bore the brunt of so many of these disasters -- natural disasters in the past. I have been there for some of them. Hurricanes hit there, as you have heard, time and again already. This day in 2008, there have been mudslides. There has been massive flooding that caused by various natural weather events. And we've been there for many of those.
This, again, will be yet another test of the strength and the courage of the Haitian people who, as you know, live in one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. The homes in which they live are hardly what people in other parts of the world would call homes. Many of them built into the -- into the mountainside.
So, they have all these things working against them. The infrastructure is so poor to begin with, electricity barely working when things are in a normal situation. And so, when we get there -- this is what the relief teams are going to be up against -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Susan Candiotti making her way now from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, just across the border there to Haiti. We'll be checking in with you throughout the morning. Susan, thank you.
ROBERTS: We're just learning this morning that at least 11 United Nations peacekeepers have been killed in the earthquake after the missions five story headquarters at the Hotel Montana collapsed. Eight were from China, three of them from Jordan. France's foreign minister now quoted as saying the U.N. mission chief in Haiti appears to have died in the quake.
The U.N. has 9,000 peacekeepers in the country. They've been there since the mid-1990s.
Our senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth is on the phone live now with more on these breaking developments. Richard, this is obviously a terrible, terrible day for the U.N.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes. The United Nations is saying that they fear a large amount of casualties here after the collapse of their headquarters building in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is going to shortly address the media, along with the U.N.'s peacekeeping director. Basically the countries have supply troops to the United Nations. They are individually, separately reporting through their own national media about various death tolls.
It appears that there could be many dead among the strong Brazilian contingent there, some 1,200 peacekeepers designed to help the people of Haiti. Also, there are several Chinese soldiers reported dead and Jordanian troops. The United Nations fears a heavy loss of life, major search and rescue is under way at the collapsed headquarters building, a former hotel constructed, they say reinforced with concrete in the mid '60s, then in decades later -- John.
ROBERTS: That hotel, you know, I was on the Web site taking a look at it while there were no exteriors of the hotel, there was a shot taken from inside looking out. It's in the hills looking over Port-au-Prince, built on a hillside. The fact that that hotel, according to reports that we got this morning from Haiti's ambassador to the United States, collapsed completely -- what might that portend for other structures in that area around the hotel?
ROTH: That's a point because if the heavily reinforced building -- or reinforced building collapsed, what chance does the flimsy housing in the rest of Haiti? Also, there were many U.N. people staying at the Hotel Montana, also in the hills overlooking Port-au- Prince. I stayed there once with former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali when we toured the U.N. facilities in Haiti in 1995. So, the death toll could be there.
There were other U.N. -- also, and there U.N. installations that were damaged at the airport and elsewhere. The leader of the U.N. mission there, a diplomat named Hedi Annabi, is also still unaccounted for.
ROBERTS: All right. Richard Roth for us this morning with the latest from the U.N. -- Richard, thanks very much.
CHETRY: We've also been talking about the aftershocks amid the devastation of the actual 7.0 initial earthquake. They have been dealing with strong aftershocks, as strong as in fact registering a massive 5.9, some 30 counted so far. And the threat may not be over for days.
Our Rob Marciano is monitoring the developments from the CNN weather center in Atlanta.
Good morning, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys.
I checked a few minutes ago and there haven't been any aftershocks in the last hour or two. This map highlights a couple of things. One, all the aftershocks that have transpired over the last 14 hours at last check, over 30 of them.
The only thing I wanted to point out with this Google Earth map is the stark difference between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. You see a little bit in the vegetation. Much and much greener in the Dominican Republic. Not nearly as green. This bowl safe area here is more flatland, very highly populated urban area.
And the surrounding areas, and one of the reasons they're not so green is because -- well, they've been deforested. That also poses a threat for a lot of that land to move, not only when it rains but when the earth shakes like it has done just that -- 7.0 magnitude, haven't had something like this in this region since 1946. In this place specifically, Port-au-Prince, several years -- several decades beyond that.
All right. This happened in the mountains, about 10, 12 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince itself. Shallow, six miles deep -- and because it's so shallow, that creates more shaking, more destruction. And again, there is that bowl area.
You've got the North American plate rubbing against the Caribbean plate. It's just like the San Andreas fault, guys. It strikes, both fault, a lot of pressure, not quite as active, but obviously we can have similar results there. And a lot of scientists over the last few years have been saying the big one is coming. One gentleman out of Havana said the big one is coming soon. And, unfortunately, he was the one that was right.
Back to you guys.
CHETRY: Rob Marciano for us this morning, following all of this -- thank you.
ROBERTS: We have a firsthand account of what happened yesterday just in to us. A Central Florida television reporter on a church mission to Haiti unexpectedly found herself in the middle of all of the chaos late yesterday afternoon.
Christine Webb now with a firsthand account of the ordeal and its immediate aftermath.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE WEBB, CENTRAL FLORIDA TV REPORTER: I have to tell you, it was the most riveting and scariest thing I have ever been through in my life. I was actually on the compound in our dining room area when this all took place. Things were shaking, the roof was moving, the whole structure was moving, we ran outside. We kind of like darted on to the ground and there the earth actually split. It was unreal.
There are 40 members -- about 40 members on this mission here, they are all safe. They are all OK. What we had to do, though, we had to evacuate because there was a tsunami threat. And they are really close to the beach. But we have come back to the compound now -- that's where we are right now -- assessing the damage.
All right. Can you see that there is flooding here? You can actually see right down here how the earth has split from right down here to the floor where massive cracks are, to the buildings.
Now, keep in mind, we're one of the lucky ones where we're actually in a building. But many of these people in these villages are in huts. So, their houses are made of bamboo. They have nothing.
But one thing I do want to make clear is that when we had to evacuate throughout the night, there was silence, but you could hear people singing, they were praising God, thanking him for keeping them safe throughout the night, for keeping them safe and protected. So, it was pretty amazing to hear that message.
Christine Webb, News 13.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Christine Webb from Central Florida television and goes without saying the structure that she was in survived, but so many others -- particularly in downtown Port-au-Prince and in the hillsides around it did not. Many of those buildings have collapsed.
Hundreds potentially thousands of people trapped inside those buildings and there just is not the emergency response in Haiti able to go look for those people.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: So getting help in from the outside is of paramount importance.
CHETRY: And along those lines, we're getting in some information.
Carol Costello actually just forwarded along to us. We mentioned the U.S. military probably being called into action here. A lot of the different organizations are saying that they are ready to go. The Coast Guard is saying that they have the C-130 Hercules fixed-wing aircraft.
You talked about being able to get that in there. They are ready to go. They've been deployed as well to an area where they can get out there and also a Coast Guard cutter, the Valiant (ph), which is a 210-foot cutter, in the home Port of Miami so nearby and able to get there. Also the USS Comfort, which a huge Navy Hospital, that moving hospital, they're also ready to deploy if called.
ROBERTS: If the aborted 1994 invasion of Haiti by U.S. forces is any indication of what might happen, what could potentially happen is they get one big maybe C-17 or C-141 in there that has got an air traffic control pod inside it. It is basically a container. Like you see on a ship or on the back of a truck that is a portable air traffic control center.
They'll drop that on the ground, they'll set up their communications, then they'll be able to bring in flights, you know five an hour or more. They could just get a huge chain of relief supplies going in there very quickly. But if the need is so essential because you got people trapped, they could suffocate, they might be bleeding.
There is also another condition as a result of crush injuries where a lot of the contents of your muscles, if they're crushed, make their way into your blood stream, clog up into your kidneys and you can go into kidney failure. So they need to get to those people extremely quickly. There isn't a facility in Haiti to do that.
CHETRY: Time is of the essence. We heard from near city Police Commissioner Ray Kelly who was actually there just last week training and helping out with Haiti. He said it can take 10 hours to go 100 miles. Even if they actually were able to get that airport, how long will it take relief workers to get to the actual people is also something to keep in mind.
ROBERTS: Thankfully though the airport is literally in the center of the city. So if the immediate need is in Port-Au-Prince more so than some of the other outlying areas, they should be able to get things there fairly quickly.
CHETRY: Well, they're ready to deploy our U.S. military ready for action. So they are just awaiting orders. We'll, of course, follow more on that.
Plus we have new pictures coming in from Facebook and Twitter, people in Haiti. One of the ways to communicate, in some cases the only way is through social networking. Seventeen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty minutes past the hour right now.
We're starting to get a real look at the extent of the damage across Haiti in the wake of that devastating earthquake. There is a lack of communication, power outages everywhere making it very difficult get a real sense right now of just how powerful the devastation is.
We will know that soon though. We have our reporters and crews making their way to the disaster zone, including our own Susan Candiotti as well as Anderson Cooper and his crew. Pentagon and relief agencies are also scrambling to get aid on the ground as quickly as possible.
For more, our Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Jill Dougherty joins us from the State Department this morning.
We have been talking about some of the military -- the members of the military sending out notices that they are ready to go, that they're, you know, awaiting deployment and that they're ready when called. Do you know anything about a time line for when our aid resources will try to get to Haiti?
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kiran. We just got some information from the State Department. What is going on right now -- this is the important thing. Remember you were talking about the airport. The Coast Guard is now just about to carry out some reconnaissance flights.
In fact they could be happening now. They are flying in, taking pictures of the area around the airport to make sure that that airport is functional. If it is, then the teams that are ready and really ready to go can go in and those are the teams that we've been talking about, the DART teams, Disaster Assistance Response Teams.
They come from Los Angeles, they come from Fairfax, Virginia, they've got the personnel. They have equipment, rescue equipment. They have canine teams. Everything that you would need. But they have to make sure that they can physically get in.
Also, the other thing coming to us from the State Department is that on the ground, the U.S. Embassy has been sending out some of its own staff in teams to assess the damage and look for buildings where the rescue teams, when they arrive, could go to help people.
Then finally one note from the State Department, remember we've been showing you that number that people can call in to get information on their relatives. Now the State Department says that number is for information only about American citizens. They've been getting calls literally from all over the world, but that 888 number is only for information about U.S. citizens. They don't have information on other -- people from other countries. Kiran?
CHETRY: All right, Jill Dougherty for us. Giving us that new information about the reconnaissance flights. They need to see whether the airport there is in good enough shape that they are able to start landing their rescue and aid flights there. Jill Dougherty, thanks. We'll check in with you again throughout the morning.
Meantime the State Department has set up a hotline for information family members can get in touch with if they need to know what's going on and are trying desperately to reach people in Haiti. They also warned us that this could be clogged up and could take some time, but this the number is 888-407-47.
On another note, if you would like to help with these relief efforts, if you're sitting at home and saying what can I do? You can text Haiti to 90999. If you do that, $10 will be charged to your cell phone bill and it will go directly to the relief efforts in Haiti.
By the way, if you would like to learn more about other ways you can help, go to our impact your world page at cnn.com/impact.
ROBERTS: We are witnessing a humanitarian crisis unfold right now in Haiti after a massive 7.0 earthquake virtually leveled the entire city of Port-Au-Prince yesterday. We are monitoring the social networks for messages from witnesses and victims and video that you just have to see.
Our Rosemary Church standing by right now at our special Haiti desk in our Atlanta headquarters. What are we picking up this morning, Rosemary?
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John. It has to be remembered of course that overnight communication lines were either down or jammed. That of course made it very difficult to contact anybody there and of course for anyone in Haiti to reach the outside world.
But you know, some people did manage to upload pictures to iReport, Facebook and Twitter, and that is where some of the very first shocking images of this disaster appear.
Take a look at this. Karell Pedre (ph) is in Port-Au-Prince and first posted these pictures to Facebook then he uploaded to I- report.com, and you can see sandwich buildings there and layers of concrete everywhere. Keep in mind this could have been someone's home or business. We don't know at this point.
Floors and walls just crumbled. You must remember, too, in the best of circumstances, the building standards in Haiti are not good, so under the power of an earthquake like this, a 7-magnitude earthquake just devastating repercussions. It tugs at your heart to see the expression of disbelief on people's faces as they scramble amid the chaos there.
Here's a chilling report from a missionary working in Haiti for more than three decades. I want to read out what she had to say if we can bring that up, "suddenly a loud rumbling came from the road and then the floor and support walls of our three-story concrete home began to move violently. I was frozen in my chair as glasses began to fall from the China cabinet and crash on the floor.
Now she goes on to say, "I have been a missionary since 1975 and been through coup d'etats, revolutions, civil war, and never been so terrified in all my life." Now we are continuing to track what's being posted online.
Do keep in mind this is a two-way communication we have with you. You can find me at twitter -- on twitter at rosemarycnn. But if you can get some pictures, we've actually been appealing on CNN International to anyone in Haiti if you can hear us, if you can get any pictures, any communication out to us. That again, rosemarycnn on Twitter.
John, back to you.
ROBERTS: We want to take you live to the U.N. now where the Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is speaking about the tragedy.
Let's listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BAN KI-MOON, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: The information on the full extent of the damage is still scant. The initial (inaudible) and aerial assessment have been undertaken. It is now clear that the earthquake has had a devastating impact on the capital, Port-Au- Prince. The remaining areas of Haiti appeared to be largely unaffected.
As you are aware, buildings and infrastructure were heavily damaged throughout the capital. Basic services such as water, electricity, have collapsed almost entirely. We have yet to establish a number of dead or injured, which we feel may well be in the hundreds. Medical facilities have been inundated with injured. There is no doubt that we are facing a major humanitarian emergency and that a major relief effort will be required.
I am grateful to those countries that are sending emergency relief. I urge all members of the international community to come to Haiti's aid in this hour of need. Many of our U.N. colleagues on the ground, including my special representative in Haiti and his deputy, Ms. Dela Costa, is yet unaccounted for.
The U.N. headquarters at the Crystal Fall hotel collapsed in the quake. Many people are still trapped inside. Troops have been working through the night reach those trapped under the rubble. So far, several badly injured casualties have been retrieved and transported to the Minister Logistic Space, which, thankfully, remains intact.
No names are available yet. Minister has around 3,000 troops and police in and around Port-Au-Prince to help maintain order and assist in relief efforts. Minister engineers have also begun clearing some of the main roads in Port-Au-Prince, which will allow assistance and rescuers to reach those in need.
I will dispatch assistant secretary-general and a former special representative of secretary-general to Haiti as soon as possible. The U.N. is also mobilizing an emergency response team to help coordinate humanitarian relief efforts which will be on the ground shortly. We will immediately release $10 million from the central emergency relief fund, CERF.
In this regard, I appreciate the willingness of the international community to extend immediate assistance and rescue missions. I am in close consultation with the U.S. government and Haitian governments, as well as many other international communities and major countries. In these times of difficulties, I would appeal again to the international community for an urgent further assistance, urgent help for them. Thank you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: There's Ban Ki-moon there saying that the extent of the devastation there in Port-au-Prince is something that cannot be measured. He said it's extensive, not much outside of the city. He also confirmed that the U.N. headquarters -- and we thought it was at the Hotel Montana after talking with the Haitian ambassador to the United States. It is the Christopher Hotel that is completely collapsed.
The Hotel Montana also serves as a quarters for the U.N. peacekeeping force there. He says the Christopher Hotel has collapsed, taking with it a number of members of the U.N. peacekeeping force. He says he hasn't heard from his U.N. chief down there. CHETRY: It underscores the difficulty of this tragedy of trying to get help to the people when the people who are sent there, the U.N. peacekeepers, to help are also victims themselves because of what happened. So we'll continue to follow that as we get more information.
But there are a lot of people who simply are just watching this helplessly waiting for information.
ROBERTS: Because there just is not the infrastructure down there to be able to respond to a crisis like this. They're going to be counting on outside aid. And Ban Ki-moon there appealing to the international community for as many countries as possible to pitch in and help.
Many Americans with loved ones in Haiti are watching television virtually helpless this morning. Among them, Clay Cook. His daughter Jillian lives in Haiti and was trapped in the rubble for hours.
CHETRY: He joins us now on the phone from his home in Connecticut. Thanks so much for being with us this morning, sir.
CLAY COOK, DAUGHTER LIVES IN HAITI (via telephone): Oh, it is nice to join you. Thanks for giving me the chance to update people who are concerned about all this.
CHETRY: Right. Well, listen, you have a little bit of optimism to your voice this morning. And we understand it is because you found out that your daughter was rescued from the rubble after being there. What happened to her and how is she doing?
COOK: She's doing fine now. She was in her residence, which is also her place of work, which, from what I've heard, pretty much totally collapsed when the quake hit last night and lay buried under the rubble until just before 4:00 a.m. this morning when three of the staff workers at her house and her husband managed to free her and get her loose from the concrete.
ROBERTS: Clay, hi, it's John Roberts. Now that you're on the phone -- hey, how are you this morning? I know you were on the phone with Frank Thorpe, her husband, just a little while ago. Can you describe from your conversation with him what that rescue was actually like?
COOK: Well, it was heroic. I think it is the only word for it. Jill couldn't really do anything for herself except she did have her cell phone, so she was able to talk to people and tell them where within the house she and this other gentleman, Chuck Dietz, were located so they didn't have to look through the whole pile of rubble.
Workers in the house began the process of uncovering her, I believe, pretty close to immediately. And they worked through the night. Her husband, Frank, was about an eight-hour drive away and clove through the night and got to the scene pretty close to the end and helped them do the final uncovering, and he literally lifted her out of the hole when they finally got her free.
ROBERTS: Just amazing!
CHETRY: And it is amazing that she had cell service, as well. As we understand it was quite spotty in many of those areas.
Tell us a little bit about what she was doing there and what you -- I'm sure you're familiar with Haiti because of your daughter's work there. What challenges do you think lie ahead as they try to make sense of this disaster?
COOK: Well, I mean it's an infinite challenge to try to make sense of it. Jill got hooked on the people of Haiti back in high school. She made a trip when she was a junior and a trip when she was a senior, and it really became an integral part of her.
And she was lucky enough to get a full-time job beginning just this past August working for a unit of the Norridge Diocese in Connecticut called the Haitian Ministries which is fundraising and outreach and support to a lot of hospitals and orphanages, and they provide scholarships.
So she's the assistant -- actually the acting director of the mission house down there now.
ROBERTS: And Clay, bring us back to the rescue here and the collapsed home. Many times in these earthquakes, even a building that appears to have pancaked down on itself, very often because of structural beams and whatnot, it can create these spaces where people who might have been fortunate enough to have the structure surrounding them there can live, at least for a time.
Did she describe to you how big the space was that she was trapped in, how long it took to get her out, exactly what they had to move to get to her?
COOK: The only description I have is that she -- something was on one of her legs, and that's what limited her mobility. But I believe otherwise, she had a little bit of room to maneuver. She wasn't completely pinned in.
The other gentleman who was in the very small room with her I believe was a little bit more completely covered.
So she was able to operate her cell phone. She just couldn't free her leg or do much to get herself out of the rubble. But because she could talk to people, once rescuers came nearby they were able to converse through the rubble, and Chuck was as well.
So at that point she knew help was coming and they knew where she was. It was just a matter of digging down and getting to her.
ROBERTS: Did you have a conversation with her yourself yet?
COOK: With her this morning?
ROBERTS: Yes.
COOK: Yes, very, very briefly. Maybe about -- she had probably been out about half-hour or 45 minutes. And she was still a little bit shaky, but she spent 11 hours buried in concrete listening to the earth shake around her, so being a little shaky is probably pretty good.
ROBERTS: I just can't imagine being a little shaky. I'd be a nervous wreck, particularly with all the aftershocks that you said were going on at the same time.
CHETRY: Some 30 aftershocks in the wake of that.
What is her plan next? Or what do you hope happens? Is she coming back home?
COOK: Well, likely she will come home, although, to be honest, she's fighting that. She doesn't want to leave because she knows that there's more need down there than ever and she wants to stay and help.
But various people, myself included, are encouraging her to leave for just a while and make sure that she's checked out and she's good to go. Then we know she'll go back and chip in.
ROBERTS: Wow, that's just amazing that after going through what she went through, her initial instinct is to stay on the ground there and help to the best of her ability. She must be an incredible person.
COOK: Yes. And Haiti is an incredible place. You only hear about the terrible parts of it, but there's something about it that gets into your blood stream. And, yes, I'm very proud of her. I'm in awe of her.
CHETRY: Well, a relieved father this morning as well, no doubt. Clay Cook, thanks so much for joining us to talk a little bit about what you went through. We appreciate it.
COOK: Thank you very much.
ROBERTS: And you can imagine that story's going to be repeated dozens and dozens of times as rescue workers get in there and try to get to people trapped in the buildings.
As the sun rises on Haiti this morning, the sheer magnitude of the devastation becoming more clear.
CHETRY: Yes, literally the capital city of Port-au-Prince is in ruins, and no one in Haiti has resources or training to deal with this type of catastrophic event.
According to New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, they have virtually no infrastructure at all, no rescue teams, no fire department. He joined us earlier this morning just a week after returning from Haiti where he's been helping train local law enforcement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAY KELLY, NYC POLICE COMMISSIONER: It falls on the United States. No other country can do it. They need massive help, and I think we've got to do it.
There is no fire department. There is no rescue teams. The police department has improved, but there's only 9,000 police officers for a country of almost 10 million people. So they're in desperate shape there. They need our help.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Commissioner Kelly went on to say because of the poor infrastructure in Haiti, it can take ten hours to even travel 100 miles. And that is really going to really complicate efforts to save hundreds, perhaps thousands of people that we've been talking about who are likely trapped under the rubble right now.
ROBERTS: All right, the search and rescue operation gets underway in earnest this morning. What type of injuries are we seeing in Haiti? Our Elizabeth Cohen is running that down for us this morning. She's coming up.
CHETRY: Christine Romans also "Minding your Business" with a special series. Goldman Sachs, the most feared and respected firm on Wall Street. Who are these super stars and why is it the hardest job in America to get? It's 38 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's 41 and a half minutes after the hour. We want to update you now on breaking news.
The rescue efforts going on right now in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Red Cross now says 3 million people are affected by yesterday's 7.0 earthquake that has virtually demolished the city. There have been more than 30 aftershocks, more are expected.
The Haitian ambassador to the United States spoke to us a short time ago on "AMERICAN MORNING" and said right now there is no way of estimating casualties from the devastating earthquake.
CHETRY: And we are watching another developing story this morning. The CEOs of some of the biggest banks on Wall Street will be testifying on Capitol Hill today. And they're going to be facing questions from the financial crisis inquiry commission. That's what it's called.
It is a new group formed by Congress last summer to get to the bottom of the 2008 financial crisis. ROBERTS: Among those scheduled to appear today, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein. Our Christine Romans is "Minding your Business" this morning. She joins us now with this "A.M. Original." It will be interesting to hear Mr. Blankfein explain to the commission how he's doing god's work.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And to the American public as a matter of fact. Goldman Sachs is the focus of growing public scrutiny and scorn for its role in the mortgage meltdown that brought the economy to the brink.
A Wall Street company whose employees epitomize the masters of the universe -- if you work at Goldman, you're golden, an elite member of an exclusive club, a club most know little about.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: At 85 Broad Street is home to the revered and feared Goldman Sachs. But after more than a century of avoiding the media spotlight...
MICHAEL MOORE, DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER: We want our money back!
ROMANS: ... the bank finds itself front and center.
"Rolling Stone" ridiculed it as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity."
Critics blame Goldman for selling toxic assets like mortgage- backed securities that contributed to the financial collapse. Like other banks, it took government bailout money, although it has since paid it back. And while the country is steel reeling, Goldman Sachs is having a banner year.
ELIOT SPITZER, FORMER NEW YORK GOVERNOR: Goldman always brings to the table we are smarter than everybody else and we're better than everybody else, and that's why we make money.
ROMANS: Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer investigated Goldman's business practices while attorney general.
ROMANS (on camera): What is it about Goldman that makes them so feared and expected.
SPITZER: To a certain extent they are the New York Yankees of the investment banks. They keep winning, they have all the money, they keep winning, and they have an arrogance, but people underneath it say, boy, they're good.
And so you love them, you hate them, you resent them, you fear them, you think the game is fixed. And sometimes it's probably all of the bop.
ROMANS (on camera): It all began in 1869 when Marcus Goldman created a trading company that invested in other businesses. Soon after his son-in-law, Samuel Sachs, joined the firm, a rare Jewish bank on Wall Street.
Outside its headquarters you won't even see a Goldman Sachs sign. The company declines our request for an on camera interview. Instead, Goldman Sachs prefers to let its high-octane roster of traders, investment managers, and bankers speak for itself.
JANET HANSON, FORMER GOLDMAN SACHS EMPLOYEE: This was the equivalent of getting to work at NASA.
ROMANS (voice-over): Janet Hanson spent 14 years at Goldman starting in the '70s, the first woman to manage the money market sales desk. For Hanson, the allure was simple.
HANSON: The excitement of working with really smart people I think is really what attracted these very talented young people, particularly young people.
ROMANS: To begin with, the firm recruits top students from the best graduate schools. Charles Ellis is author of "The Partnership, a History of Goldman."
CHARLES ELLIS, AUTHOR, "THE PARTNERSHIP": Well, if you've got the very, very best people in very large numbers and you discipline them well and train them well, and give them tremendous motivation to do a great things and teach them to play as teams, you get a very formidable organization.
ROMANS: And they pay well. This year Goldman's compensation pool is approaching $21 billion. In a company of nearly 32,000, that average is about $700,000 a piece.
CHRIS WHELAN, INSTITUTIONAL RISK ANALYSIS: Goldman bankers just work very hard. They try and get information before everyone else does and they try and act on it first.
ROMANS: They also rely more on complicated high-tech trading over traditional investment banking to make money; loads of it. In the third quarter, more than $49 million in profit a day. Allowing for bonuses Goldman's CEO claims are justified. He said in October...
LLOYD BLANKFEIN, CEO, GOLDMAN SACHS: I can't do too much that subordinates the interests of our shareholders in having a great franchise in Goldman Sachs and maintaining our people and being able to recruit other people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: After public outrage Goldman backed off decided to offer 30 top executives bonuses in deferred stock instead of cash, a sign to Goldman watchers that the days of avoiding the public spotlight are long gone. And that spotlight will shine brightly today at these hearings, next week as well when Goldman reports its profit for the year and what its final bonus pool will be. It's supposed to be big.
ROBERTS: It's interesting that we don't hear from them, they just live in the Crystal Tower and don't talk down. ROMANS: They would not speak to us on camera. They issued us some statements about some of the specific criticisms against them. We'll have more of that again tomorrow in the second part of our series.
Goldman, it's is just not its style to go on camera even if the public is demanding to hear more -- to hear more from this company about what it is doing every day, right?
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: They will hear from the CEO at the hearing today, you're right.
ROBERTS: All right, Christine...
ROMANS: Sure.
ROBERTS: ... great series, thanks, looking forward to tomorrow. I appreciate it.
CHETRY: And we just got word by the way that President Obama is going to be speaking in about an hour and 15 minutes, 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time, regarding Haiti. Obviously a show of solidarity but also just how much aid and help the United States is going to be giving.
ROBERTS: It's going to take a lot, no question about that.
CHETRY: We want to take a quick break. When we come back we're going to be talking more about the aftershocks and the threat they're posing right now for that island nation. Rob Marciano joins us in a moment.
Forty-seven minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 49 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.
And we're starting to get a look at the extent of the damage across Haiti and the danger is not over yet either.
ROBERTS: No, it continues because there was so much energy released by that earthquake, the aftershocks continue. There have been more than 30 of them in Haiti already.
Rob Marciano monitoring developments from the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta. And you know Rob, I've seen previous earthquakes in California, Turkey, rescuers try to get in to these buildings to try to get the trapped people out. There is an aftershock and you see them scurrying out of the building. And that's going to go on a lot over the next few days I imagine.
MARCIANO: It is and as rescue workers get in there to try to dig people out from rubble, obviously you going into even more unstable structures to do that. Aftershocks become even more dangerous. We haven't had a lot in the last couple of hours which makes me a little bit nervous as maybe the stresses are building.
But this map shows you all the spots where over 30 aftershocks have occurred. Actually there's just one now, that red one in the last hour. So I've missed that one. I'm not sure what the magnitude of that is, probably somewhere on the order of 3 or 4.
You get the idea of very, very unstable land mass here and with that, we've got some issues because of the plates that are going from one side to the other. The Caribbean plate going this way, the North American plate going that way, strikes the fault, much like the San Andreas fault, although not nearly as active.
Speaking of San Andreas in California, system is coming in there that's getting more active, more El Nino like and so rain and mountain snow will be the call there and slightly warmer air building its way into the nation's midsection.
The clean-up efforts and rescue efforts for Haiti, temps in the upper 80s with mostly dry weather over the next three days -- John and Kiran.
ROBERTS: All right.
CHETRY: At least some good news.
ROBERTS: Yes Rob, thanks very much.
In earthquakes we see I mean, typical injuries, you know, bleeding, that type of fractures, shock injuries, that sort of thing. But there are also some other injuries that are pretty much unique to earthquakes and these are a real danger for people who might be alive and trapped in the rubble.
Our Elizabeth Cohen is going to give us more details on this coming right up.
Nine minutes now to the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning. We are tracking breaking news out of Haiti today; widespread devastation after a major 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Officials say thousands could be dead and thousands more still trapped under collapsed buildings.
CHETRY: And the biggest enemy now for the rescue efforts is time. People need medicine, clean drinking water and food and they need it now.
For more, let's bring in our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen. Elizabeth, when we talk about the injuries and when we talk about the most dire needs, what do we know about the health situation there right now? ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we were just on the phone, Kiran, with the International Red Cross and they said they are on their way, they expect to arrive there tonight. And this is what they expect to see. Injuries due to crushing and also they're prepared to deal with terrible problems with infectious diseases.
Obviously when you have an earthquake, the water system, sanitation system isn't working, the sewage system isn't working so you can get dengue fever, malaria, measles, cholera, I mean, a whole laundry list of terrible things can happen.
So even once you clear out and try to catch people who have been caught in the rubble, then you have to deal with that situation.
Now CNN has been told that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has asked for the naval ship "The Comfort" to be deployed. I've been on that ship and that certainly would be a great help to the people there.
Now it is difficult at this point to get information about the public health situation in Haiti out, so if anyone has any information, please do send me a tweet. I'm at elizcohencnn on Twitter -- Kiran.
ROBERTS: Elizabeth you mentioned this idea of crush injuries and we've seen an awful lot of these in earthquakes when pieces of buildings come down and they might land on someone's leg or arm or whatever. And the injury itself might not be deadly, but the aftereffects of what happens to the body from a crush injury could. Can you explain some of that?
COHEN: Right. That's right. You might have a crush injury where let's say someone's limbs get crushed. If you could get them out right away you could help them. But if they stay there for too long it can affect their major organs and become a much bigger problem, as you said, than the initial crush.
So what they're trying to do obviously is get people out as quickly as possible. We don't have word yet, of course, on how many people are crushed and how quickly they're able to get people out.
CHETRY: Another question is, what's going on in the actual earthquake zone right now? We have a whole team of reporters and producers, they're heading there and among them our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta as well as you know, Elizabeth. What are some of the things that they're going to need to watch out for as they head into the earthquake zone?
COHEN: What they're going to need to watch out for really is sanitation. They're going to need to make sure that they have a supply of fresh, clean water; supply of food -- that really is, again, once you sort of try to help as many people as you can who have been crushed, that's the big concern is sanitation and infectious disease.
CHETRY: Elizabeth Cohen for us this morning, thanks so much. COHEN: Thanks.
CHETRY: We'll of course follow this all throughout the day here on CNN and will have much more after the break. Right now, it's 56 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: All right. We're back with our breaking news coverage of the earthquake devastation in Haiti. Let's get you caught up on where we are here just before we leave you. The capital city of Port- au-Prince flattened by the massive 7.0 quake. Witnesses say there are more buildings down than left standing and it's taken a horrific human toll.
The U.S. State Department expecting a , quote, "serious loss of life". There are frantic efforts to save those trapped in the rubble. The Red Cross says 3 million Haitians are affected by the quake. A large number of U.N. personnel are still missing, including the head of the peacekeeping force in Haiti.
President Obama going to address the situation and U.S. efforts to help the island nation at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.
CHETRY: Also we are harnessing the global resources of CNN to bring you the very latest and most complete coverage of the Haiti earthquake. We have a team of correspondents on their way to the scene right now, including our Anderson Cooper, Susan Candiotti who was in the Dominican Santo Domingo right now making her way across the border. We have Sanjay Gupta, Gary Tuchman, Ivan Watson and Jonathan Mann. They're going to be covering every angle of this humanitarian crisis as we're still watching unfold this morning.
ROBERTS: Our special coverage of the earthquake in Haiti continues in the "CNN NEWSROOM" and here's Heidi Collins.
