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Search And Rescue Teams, Aid Supplies Face A Collapsed Infrastructure, Chaos In Haiti

Aired January 14, 2010 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You will not be forsaken. You will not be forgotten. In this, your hour of greatest need, American stands with you, the world stands with you. We know that you are a strong and resilient people. You have endured a history of slavery and struggle, of natural disaster, and recovery, and through it all your spirit has been unbroken and your faith has been unwavering. So, today you must know that help is arriving. Much, much more help is on the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STAN GRANT, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And much more help is on the way. International aid is arriving in Haiti, but coordination is tough in a chaotic situation.

It is now a life and death race to find survivors among an untold number of dead.

And eyewitnesses to disaster, images continue to come in from social networks and from CNN iReporters, like this.

From CNN Abu Dhabi, in United Arab Emirates, this is PRISM. I'm Stan Grant.

The lives of some 3 million people have forever been changed, shaken apart by an earthquake that leveled the nation's capital. This is exclusive video of those first terrifying moments late Tuesday.

Aid is coming in from all corners of the globe. So far, just trickling to the streets, where it is so badly needed. Officials fear more than 100,000 may be dead. And experts say if help does not reach the people soon things will only get worse. (BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

IAN RODGERS, SAVE THE CHILDREN: We need a significant amount of resources, significant amounts of people on the ground, and funds to be able to turn around and respond. It is very possible that the situation can go from dire to absolutely catastrophic if we don't get enough food medicines, and work with children and their families, so to help them to help themselves.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

GRANT: We are covering developments from right there on the streets of Port-au-Prince. Our Jonathan Mann is there now to anchor coverage of the disaster -- Jonathan.

JONATHAN MANN, CNN ANCHOR: Stan, it is extra ordinary to see what the people of Port-au-Prince are doing for themselves, extra ordinary, at the same time to see just how elementary and halting the government efforts on their behalf have been.

We are hardly in the hardest hit part of the city but we are virtually -well, we're not seeing much of the government effort. Just a short time ago, the most obvious sign, a sound truck came by in an effort to spread basic information.

Keep in mind, that the people who are in this area are, for the most part, people who have fled their homes in fear. They were camped out in the amphitheater that is behind me. And several hundred of them still remain. Well, what is the government doing for those people? It is telling them to be careful about the spread of disease, telling them not to gouge prices, if they have water, to share it, or to sell it but not to take advantage of each other. The most basic kinds of instructions repeated over and over, in a sound truck, that then left the scene.

They are finding water where they can from the generosity of other Haitians. They are making what shelter they can from their own fabric and from their own tents. But on this particular street, evidence of people doing for themselves what the government, so far, has been unable to do for them.

Now, we heard in the last few minutes, the last few hours, about an enormous U.S. operations that is underway, about the efforts by the United Nations, but on the streets of Port-au-Prince, what is so striking is not what the rest of the world is doing it is what the people here are enduring. Gary Tuchman is one of our correspondents here who went out to have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On Tuesday this was a neighborhood in the Port-au-Prince with apartment buildings. Now it is the worst devastation I've ever seen. This is worse than any horror movie you've ever seen.

You can see here, people, looking for bodies of loved ones. Loved ones who are missing. And as we were just walking past we see bodies that are under the rocks, that are obviously lifeless, but what is horrifying is on the other side of the street. They've tried their best to give people killed some respect by putting sheets on top of their bodies. But this street is covered with people who died in the earthquake and there has been nobody here to recover the bodies.

Perhaps, though, the most worrisome thing, and the thing that concerns me the most, and the thing that is upsetting the most, is what is happening back here. And it is the search for possible survivors. There is not one rescue worker here. Not one emergency worker. And most importantly, no equipment; people are digging by hand.

One man says he heard noises. But there is no way to lift up these heavy rocks. There is no way to lift up this heavy concrete if there is someone who is trapped, who is alive.

What is so scary and horrifying is walked down the street and see children who walk by the bodies and look so frightened, when they see the bodies. And one thing rescue workers here are telling us, and the rescue workers are the civilians, like we said. But they are looking for the flies and the insect -

And you see the children as they are walking by, and they are walking fast, their mothers shielding them, but they are looking anyway.

But what the people here are looking for are flies. They say when the flies fly over here there may be survivors or human remains.

You hear some excitement right here. But it is not because they've seen a body. It is because of some arguing going on about how to proceed with the search for people.

But the site here, the smells here, are just unbelievable. This is just a situation that you can never possibly imagine, that nobody should ever have to endure.

This is one of the most beautiful parts of Port-au-Prince and that is because this is where the presidential palace is. And this exemplifies this disaster. Look at what has happened to this beautiful building in the heart of downtown Port-au-Prince; destroyed from this earthquake. And the area surrounding here normally has a lot of tourists, a lot of Haitians like Americans who come to the White House, to look through the gates at the White House. But most of the people here are now temporarily homeless, because most of the homes here in downtown Port-au-Prince have been destroyed.

And across the street, basically it has become a campsite. Not only are people here because they no longer have homes, but people are very scared about the aftershocks, and afraid it they do go in a structure that has just been damaged, that it can be destroyed. People don't want to go indoors and that is why they are staying outdoors.

This is the third floor of a school. It is for small children during the day, continuing education for adults in the late afternoon and evening. Adults were in this classroom when the earthquake happened. You can see by just looking at the chairs and the handbags, and the books, how quickly people had to escape. The people inside this room survived, but the people in the other section of the school, just on this side, many of them did not. You can see the rubble, the open wall right here, and we see several bodies that are down there right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: Gary explained it well. Ordinary people have now been thrust into the position of trying to rescue their loved ones, trying to rescue their neighbors, and they are throwing themselves into the effort, although international search and rescue teams are coming in. We saw some arriving at the airport. It is falling to ordinary people with the tools at hand to try to do the crucial emergency work of getting people out of the rubble.

What comes of that kind of effort? Sometimes miraculous things. Here is Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For many, trapped in the rubble of downtown Port-au-Prince the struggle to live continues.

(on camera): We have heard there may be somebody who is alive, buried in there. People on the street say there is a 15-year-old who is buried alive there and that they are talking. But we are going to go and try and see if that is the case and if there is anything we can do.

But - I mean, the street, I've never seen anything like this. Look at this. It is just complete devastation. This is downtown Port-au-Prince. Just a few blocks from the presidential palace, just about a block from the national cathedral, which itself is pretty much destroyed.

(voice-over): Atop a pile of rubble that used to be a building we find a small group of men who have been digging here for more than five hours to rescue a teenage girl. Her feet are the only part of her still visible.

(on camera): It turns out it is a 13-year-old girl who is trapped here. Her name is (INAUDIBLE)

(CROSS TALK)

Clearly alive, you can hear her crying out. You can see two of her feet at this point. They have been able to...

(CHILD SCREAMING FROM UNDER RUBBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Yelling in a foreign language)

COOPER: Clearly in some pain. They discovered her early this morning. And it is now a little past 12 and they are still digging.

(CHILD SCREAMING)

COOPER: They are not clear how they are going to get her out. They only have this one shovel. They don't have any heavy equipment. They are being very careful about what they are moving. They are afraid if they move this big slab that seems to be on top of her, that others stones .

(CROSS TALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Shouting in foreign language)

COOPER: .pieces of cement to fall on her and crush her. So they are arguing over what to do next. But

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Shouting in foreign language)

COOPER: the slab.

(voice-over): Bea's (ph) brother can do nothing. He just stands by listening to his sister's cries.

This man says his father is also trapped in the building but his already dead.

"I don't have a father anymore," he cries. "Gone. Had I been in the house, I wouldn't be here anymore either."

Worried more aftershocks may come and destroy the building even more, these family and friends work frantically.

Finally after being trapped for more than 18 hours, the men make a small hole and pull Bea (ph) out. She is alive. She is finally free.

(MEN SHOUTING)

COOPER (on camera): Did you think you would come out alive?

(voice-over): "I felt that I would live," she says. "I wasn't scared. I wasn't scared of anything. People were dying below me. I could hear them. But I wasn't scared. My heart didn't skip a beat."

"I heard them crying," she says. "I heard an old lady crying, 'God, I'm dying, ' last night. I hear my aunt running, then a big block fell on her.

(on camera): This man has lost four family members. He just showed me his wife's body, which is under a shroud. And he's now worried about another family member who is an American, and he believes she is trapped inside that building, as well. And he's pretty sure she's dead.

(voice-over): There is no telling how long it will be before he knows for sure just how many people he has lost.

(MAN SOBBING)

COOPER: This is just one building. This is just one block. The suffering here has just begun.

Anderson Cooper, CNN, Port-au-Prince.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: The people of Haiti, the people of Port-au-Prince are self- reliant and resourceful beyond words. They have to be, because their own government has traditionally so little for their welfare. And so they are being that now, organizing themselves as best they can, sharing what they can, rescuing those they can. But there is an enormous, enormous gap here, between what the people of Port-au-Prince can do for themselves and what potentially the rest of the world can do.

The aid is beginning to come in, Stan. The president of the United States is pledging an enormous national humanitarian effort. And so the real help may now just be beginning, back to you.

GRANT: Jonathan, thank you very much for that. Jonathan Mann, joining us live there, from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

As Jonathan says, with the arrival of the U.S. emergency air traffic control team at the airport in Port-au-Prince, the air space above Haiti has been opened to international air traffic. Cargo planes from a number of countries, including France and China, quickly arrived, bringing food, medicine, and relief workers. But once on the ground, disaster specialists may find it difficult to get help to those who need it most. Because of downed trees, buildings, lack of power and the country's shattered infrastructure.

President Obama is pledging $100 million in immediate relief aid to Haiti. A 30-member U.S. military assessment team arrived in Port-au-Prince Wednesday to determine the damage and estimate what is needed most. The U.S. aircraft carrier Carl Vinson is expected arrive later today, bringing much needed helicopters and equipment. So 3,500 paratroopers from the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division, have also been dispatched to Haiti. U.S. President Barack Obama says time is of the essence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: It is important that everybody in Haiti understand that at this very moment, one of the largest relief efforts in our recent history is moving towards Haiti.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRANT: Well, France is intensifying its response to the dire situation in Haiti. The country is flying in rescuers, sniffer dogs, and tons of aid. Haiti is a former French colony. French leaders were called to an emergency meeting in Paris Thursday. Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy says he will try to visit Haiti in the next few weeks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICOLAS SARKOZY, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translator): All of our efforts are focused on the humanitarian crisis and rescue operations of this catastrophe, this disaster, we have to do everything that we can. And we also have to use this opportunity to help Haiti move out of this -this difficult economical and financial situation. We need to use this crisis to mobilize, to help this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRANT: Well, more and more images are coming out of Haiti as survivors search for loved ones. Up next, Jim Clancy takes a look at how the web is being used to share information.

Plus, frantic rescue efforts continue on the ground, we'll bring you the latest on that race against time. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRANT: A dramatic scene, here, as a rescue teams swings into action in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. This man was pulled alive from the rubble of the U.N. compound headquarters, today, just one small story of miraculous survival. Fifteen American rescuers worked for five hours to remove blocks of concrete surrounding the trapped security worker who was from Estonia. He was able to walk out on his own.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TARMO JOVEER, U.N. SECURITY OFFICER: I lost my footing, I was laying, I was laying down on the floor. That was it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you never lost hope? How was it being there, trapped all that time?

JOVEER: It wasn't good. There was no one around me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRANT: We are keeping track of developments in Haiti. New video keeps coming into CNN. In fact, we are getting our first look at the earthquake as it happened. Jim Clancy is live at the Haiti desk, in the CNN Center, with that video - Jim.

JIM CLANCY, CNN INT'L. CORRESPONDENT: You know, Stan, this is usually the international desk, covering the entire world. Today I can tell you, it is really the Haiti desk; 24/7 the people are going after the story as best they can here. The latest video that we have seen came in from CBS News. A security camera captures the very moment that the earthquake begins to hit.

You can see there, as the ground begins to shake, the camera is wavering; vehicles coming to a stop. And then you see people beginning to run. That is how it started to unfold.

Today, the city of Port-au-Prince on the ground, flat; the people of Haiti, at least 3 million of them, are on their knees begging for help from anywhere around the world, who are digging with their hands through the rubble to try to rescue loved ones, Stan.

GRANT: Jim, thank you very much. That is Jim Clancy, joining us live, there, from CNN Center with those extraordinary images. Images coming in all the time of this earthquake, we're still just trying to piece together exactly how all of this happened. Of course, as Jim said, people desperate now for aid and more relief.

Now, Jim, more images as well? What else do you have to show us?

Now, we seem to have lost him there. But as Jim was showing us there are extraordinary images and more on the massive rescue effort is ahead. We'll bring you the latest from the people who were there, plus, exclusive footage of the quake's aftermath. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRANT: Welcome back.

A heart-wrenching scene playing out now in Haiti; the desperate search for survivors buried by Tuesday's massive earthquake. But everyone is still waiting for the arrival of most of the aid and rescue equipment being rushed to the scene. The government fears as a many as 100,000 people could be dead. And for survivors there is only hardship. No water, or power and communications are difficult at best, but rescue workers soldier on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM GRAY, FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA., SEARCH & RESCUE: I think it always matters to the people's family, no matter who, whether it is one or 100,we're going to try to save one person at a time. Each person that we save, it goes back to their families as a success.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRANT: Now we'll go back to the streets of Port-au-Prince and Jonathan Mann is standing by to anchor our coverage from there.

Jonathan.

MANN: Stan, we have correspondents who have rushed in, basically, from just about every corner that we could find a correspondent. Crews, producers, you know, our effort isn't really what the point of this is. What I'm trying to tell you is that we have people doing their best under very difficult circumstances to just get a sense of what it is that is going on in this densely packed city.

We know there has been enormous devastation and loss of life and destruction. We know there are incredible efforts underway, by ordinary people, to rescue their friends and neighbors. The scale of this disaster though, is still beyond anyone's ability to really measure.

So, let's go back to what we are doing to try to keep up to date. We are doing it the old-fashioned way and sending people out to try and simply find out what is going on, on the ground. One of those people is Ivan Watson and just a short time ago, he had this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN INT'L. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the first terrifying moments after the earthquake hit Haiti. Amateur video, filmed by a missionary in Port-au-Prince. Survivors screaming in the streets, coated in dust.

In the aftermath of the quake the city is still in shock. Its rescue services completely overwhelmed. Two few doctors treating too many people.

(on camera): And you are having to treat people out here in the street?

DR. JERRY DEGRAFF, PHYSICIAN: Yes, they come in, inside it is full so we treat them here. We treat them in cars, we treat them everywhere.

WATSON: There are few organized efforts to clean up the rubble. And sometimes they back fire. As soon as the bulldozer backs up these children sweep in to loot merchandise from what used to be a store.

In this incredibly poor country, desperate people have almost no one to turn to for help. Samuel Borgella (ph) joined more than 100 other survivors at this makeshift hospital in the parking lot of an upscale hotel. He asked us to find a doctor to treat his nine year old son, Sammy. And then a powerful aftershock jolted the hillside, triggering panic and prayers among the survivors in this devastated city. Ivan Watson, CNN, Port-au-Prince.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: Let me just give you one more sense of how many people, how many different kinds of people are affected as we have been reporting, and as he told us himself, the president of Haiti is -call him homeless. The presidential palace collapsed and he has been forced to find other quarters. He is the head of state.

Then there are some other men who have been living at government expense. Prisoners, being held captive, in fact, in a penitentiary that also suffered enormous damage, they are not homeless, they are escaped. Those men went free. The police say they simply don't have the means to try and find them in the midst of so much chaos and such great calamity, Stan.

GRANT: Jonathan, thank you once again. Jonathan Mann, joining us there from Haiti.

Of course, we'll check in now for the global weather picture. Mari Ramos can give a sense of just how the weather is treating Haiti. Probably not so badly at the moment, which is a good thing, Mari.

MARI RAMOS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, this has been actually, right now, very benevolent weather. We have had actually some very heavy rain just to the east, over to Puerto Rico, they have had heavy record-setting rainfall across some of these areas. But we think that for Haiti, in particular, as we head through the next 48 hours, Stan, we are expecting conditions to remain, generally, on the dry side. Mostly dry, maybe a few scattered rain showers.

Now, the weather, like I said, not such a big factor, but we are getting news. And I want to update you on a story I told you about the last hour. And that is about the bottleneck in the airspace leading into Haiti, leading into Port-au-Prince.

Stan, we have been reporting about all of this aid that is expected to come into the country. But remember that we 're talking about one runway here. It is a very small airport. I want to take you to Flight Explorer. Let's go ahead and take a look.

Here you are looking at Cuba. Over here, is the Island of Espanola, here is Port-au-Prince, right there. The green arrows that you are looking at, this is from Flight Explorer. This is real-time, live information. What you are looking at are the planes that are coming into this area. The green means a plane that is en route. The red lines that you see are planes that are being diverted. So, you have this plane right over here, for example, that came from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, came over here, circled around the bay, you can see all those little lines right in there. If you look closely and not it is headed back.

We have just gotten word from an FAA spokesperson, the Federal Aviation Administration, here in the United States saying that the Haitian government is not accepting flights because the ramp space at the airport is actually full. And there is no more fuel available either. So, it is a problem.

A lot of these flights that are trying to come in, it is not the weather that is the problem. They are not able to come in, or land, and they are having to circle around and maybe even go to other airports because the airport is full. The ramps are saturated is the word that we are getting and there is no more fuel available. So another situation here and something else that we will continue to monitor. Stan, back to you.

GRANT: Mari, just a question. Please tell me if you are not familiar with this, but this obviously is an area that has a lot of volatile weather. It has dealt with hurricanes and so on, in the past, do you have any understanding of how they dealt with those situations, relief and so on. And how equipped they'd be to then be able to deal with a calamity of this size?

RAMOS: Well, that is a very question. I was just reading something. Right now, a lot of people in Haiti saying that this is worse than any other hurricane that they have experienced because the devastation is so large. When we talked about hurricanes, in the past, even the one time they go affected by four cyclones in one year, back in 2008, they were able to move a little bit quicker, Stan. Because the areas that were damaged were more localized areas, we were not talking about the major population center. That is what we are dealing with here in Haiti, where the entire infrastructure, even the government, even the police, is struggling right now. Back to you.

GRANT: Mari, thank you for that. As Mari points out, that is the key point here. There is such a population density. And as we have seen from the pictures that have been coming in, you see most of the destruction in the capital itself. So that is where they believe most of the casualties are.

And, as Mari pointed out, when you even have a situation where the presidential palace, itself, has been destroyed it gives you an understanding of just how widespread this devastation is. And just how difficult it is going to be to try to marshal the forces that are needed to go out there and bring this relief aid. Not just internationally, but of course from the people on the ground themselves. When the capital itself has been so badly it will make it very, very difficult for the relief effort.

Well, that's it for me, Stan Grant, in Abu Dhabi. "CHASING THE DREAM" is up next, but after we update the headlines.

END