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Campbell Brown

Help Finally Arriving in Haiti?

Aired January 15, 2010 - 20:00   ET

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

CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome, everybody.

For the people of Haiti, help is beginning to arrive, and not a moment too soon. Tonight, this is what hope looks like. Take a look. This is 2-year-old Regison Cloud (ph) in the arms of the Spanish rescuer who pulled him from the rubble of his own home. At this hour, U.N. troops are in Port-au-Prince. They are now handing out food and water to survivors.

But we are also seeing scenes like this: starving, thirsty people clamoring, battling for relief supplies. The situation on the streets tonight is increasingly tense. We have heard reports of rioting. And the U.N. has told its doctors to pull back for their own safety.

CNN's team of reporters is going to bring us the full story tonight.

The U.N. has set up a food distribution center tonight, serving up to 10,000 plates of chicken and rice to survivors. Anderson Cooper was there. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": We have seen what it's like in downtown Port-au-Prince, where a lot of the big structures have just collapsed in on people, but we haven't been out to some of the shantytowns, where so many of Port-au-Prince's people actually live, makeshift structures, corrugated tin houses.

So, we're heading to an area called Cite Soleil, which is among the poorest of poor neighborhoods.

In different parts of the city, U.N. peacekeepers are trying to start to distribute food. They're trying to do it as orderly as possible. These are peacekeepers from Bolivia. They have got lines of people here who have been waiting for some time now. And they're in small groups letting these people come through to trucks over here.

There is no real central organization in Port-au-Prince right now determining where the greatest needs are. Everything seems to kind of be impromptu. They're trying to get things organized, but, at this point, no one can tell you where the worst-off people are.

So, these Bolivian peacekeepers basically just came down to a poor area and set up this operation themselves. And they're distributing a hot meal as best they can. It's essential for them to keep order, because, in a situation like this, there's a lot of desperate people. In the last 10 minutes that we have been here, this line has pretty much doubled in size. The peacekeepers are trying to keep order as best they can, and that's a key component here when distributing aid. And it's one of the things that -- that aid workers and peacekeepers have to keep in mind. They can't just start handing out food. It's got to be done orderly, or else, literally, a riot can break out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And Anderson Cooper live for us right now in Port-au-Prince tonight.

And, Anderson, describe what's happening right now at this hour.

COOPER: Well, you know, nightfall. It is yet another night here.

And people behind me, we hear them clapping, kind of singing songs, rallying their spirits. We saw a lot of people praying today, actually, of course, on this Friday, a lot of people in makeshift churches out in open fields testifying their faith and praying to God for their salvation and for help.

You have a lot of people now coming up to you on the streets as you drive by, motioning to their mouths that they're hungry, that they want food, asking, where is the aid, where is the help?

And we are seeing more organization on the streets. A little bit -- I saw more Haitian police out at gas stations today trying to maintain order, make sure that people weren't fighting one another over gas.

But it is nowhere near the kind of presence that is needed out there on the streets right now, and at this point it's not clear what tomorrow is going to be like.

BROWN: And, Anderson, you also discovered a mass grave earlier today.

And we should tell people that the images you're about to see are very disturbing. But it is the reality of what you're seeing on the ground there.

COOPER: Yes, it is the reality for so many families here.

The Haitian government is now saying that they have buried up to 7,000 people. I'm not sure how they are accurately keeping track, because they're literally just dumping them into dump trucks and, as we saw today, in this one field, burying them in pits, and in some cases just dumping them out onto the ground, and then a bulldozer comes by and pushes them into pits, and then some dirt is put on top of them, bulldozed on top of them.

And then more people are laid and dumped on top of those people. And it's very hard when you're first looking at it to even realize you are looking at human beings, because not only are they in the condition that they are, but they're wrapped up sometimes in sheets or in blankets or on makeshift stretchers. It looks almost just like household items that have been thrown out. But it's human beings. And it's only once your eyes adjust to what you're looking at that the true horror of this becomes clear. And these people will disappear. A lot of their family members will not know what happened to them.

They could be Americans. They could be Haitians. We will not know, because it doesn't seem like their names or records or photographs or even accurate numbers being kept, as far as we can tell.

BROWN: I can't imagine they would be. This is going to be incredibly painful for so many people, not having those questions answered.

Anderson Cooper for us tonight.

We want to get back to the focus of aid beginning to arrive and getting to people. And despite the relatively calm food distribution that Anderson just showed us, other food deliveries quickly turned into somewhat of a mob scene, with lots of pushing, lots of shoving.

CNN's Chris Lawrence was in the middle of chaos in Port-au-Prince today. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: We are in the back of a United Nations truck heading to the center of the city. You can see, we are jammed in pretty tight with a lot of the same supplies that the World Food Program is going to be delivering to the people of Haiti.

You can take a look next to me, you can see some of the U.N. guards. It is going to be their job to try to keep some form of order, so things don't get out of hand.

The truck has now made it here to the park near the presidential palace, a lot of people starting to push and shove their way, trying to get up to where the food is.

You can see a lot of to men pushing their way up. Haven't seen any of the women be able to get up here.

It is swiftly getting a little chaotic here. They had to stop it. They started blowing their whistles and had to stop it about 10, 15 minutes ago.

It just started back, but it seems to only be able to last for about five minutes before it starts getting out of hand again.

The thing that I'm noticing, too, is like there's a lot of small kids in there that are getting jammed up against other people, or they're just getting pushed out of the way entirely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not good like that, OK? It's not good like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not good. LAWRENCE: What is wrong with the -- what is wrong with the biscuits? Why don't people want to eat it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a bad thing. It's a bad case.

LAWRENCE: What's happening is, they're confusing the date that it was -- that it was packaged on, which was 2008, with the expiration date, which is November 2010.

I know it's hard to see, but he's basically yelling and telling people, do not accept these biscuits, because they're no good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are very concerned, but the biscuits are very good. They're OK, no.

LAWRENCE: But you can see everybody's following the truck, but there it goes. They're trying to even just hold onto the back of it, but it's pulling away.

A lot of people ended up with nothing. But I don't know if you can still see. They're running after the truck, trying to get it. But that truck is gone now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Wow.

Chris Lawrence joining us from Port-au-Prince right now.

And, Chris, that shows you, I guess, a sense of desperation really setting in for a lot of people. Even though we're hopeful that there was kind of a breakthrough today with aid getting there, it's not getting to everybody, is it?

LAWRENCE: No. And it just shows you, getting the aid here to Haiti is just one hurdle. Actually getting it out to people without people getting hurt or people getting taken advantage of is something totally different.

What was so frustrating about being there is that these biscuits are good food. But because a couple people yelled and screamed louder than anybody else and intimidated other people, they convinced all these people that these were bad. And we saw people throwing them on the ground, stepping on them because they thought they were two years old.

They're not. They're good food. And that was what was so frustrating. All these people that needed that food, they either tossed it on the ground and didn't take it, or they rushed the truck to an extent that the truck had to pull away. I have got to tell you, I saw that truck get loaded. There had to be a ton of food still left in there.

BROWN: That's unbelievable, Chris. I don't know how you overcome this, too, I mean, how -- communication, given the state these people are in, this level of desperation, and not understanding and not being able to communicate, I don't know what they do. How do you address this?

LAWRENCE: Well, I was speaking with one of -- some of the folks at the World Food Program. They said they did feed about 2,000 people yesterday. Their goal was to feed about 8,000 people today and ultimately get that up to about 60,000 people.

But I think, from what you saw there, even though there were armed United Nations security guards on hand, I think you need a bigger presence to try to funnel some sort of line, with -- like what we saw at some of the water ports, where it was a little more orderly, because in a situation like that, the strongest people push their way to the front, and we even saw people snatching food right out of the hands of some of the weaker people.

BROWN: Wow. Chris Lawrence for us tonight with a very different scene.

You can see the contrast there from what Anderson showed us, where they had all those U.N. peacekeepers, and what Chris just brought us. Chris, thank you so much.

There are extraordinary stories of survival that we are still hearing about. And in the midst of the devastation, every one of those stories is a miracle.

And, today, Gary Tuchman saw one woman who was rescued after more than two days buried in the rubble. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: How do you feel right now? How are you doing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm OK.

WATSON: Everyone was worried about you.

(CROSSTALK)

FARADHIA MOISE, RESCUED: (INAUDIBLE) right?

TUCHMAN: You were up there for over two days.

MOISE: Uh-huh.

TUCHMAN: OK. What do you think about these heroes? These are guys from Iceland who rescued you, and women?

MOISE: (INAUDIBLE) I don't know.

TUCHMAN: They saved your life.

MOISE: (INAUDIBLE) when they came, that I really had faith that I would be rescued.

TUCHMAN: Faradhia, we're so happy you're alive. The whole world knows about you.

MOISE: The only thing I can say is thank you very much. (INAUDIBLE)

TUCHMAN: Thank you, Faradhia.

(APPLAUSE)

MOISE: And, when it happened, I was very trapped.

TUCHMAN: Did you know what -- did you know what happened?

MOISE: Well, I presumed it was an earthquake, but I would not be 100 percent sure, because it happened so fast. My God, this is something I heard of. It's -- I never thought how fast (INAUDIBLE)

TUCHMAN: Were you screaming and yelling for a long time?

MOISE: Well, you know what? I did not even have the time to scream, because, as I told you, I just...

(CROSSTALK)

TUCHMAN: Afterwards. I mean, afterwards, while you were trapped, afterwards. Were you screaming while you were trapped?

MOISE: When that just happened, I was really under shock, because, when it happened, at first, I had one leg that was totally, you know (INAUDIBLE) and the other one was right under my other leg.

And I managed to have it back like to both to the same position. And ever since, I have been praying. And, to be honest, I even slept. I did not want to have that feeling where I could not breathe. And, luckily, I breathed all the time. And I even could smell fresh air.

TUCHMAN: Was there a time where you thought that...

MOISE: And that's -- no. (INAUDIBLE) said to myself, dear God gave all these possibilities to be on a place where I could lay down, turn on the side, both sides, even be able to get some sleep.

I communicate also with people that were in other places. And, unfortunately, many of them did not make it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Gary Tuchman live for us from Port-au-Prince with, oh, a little bit of hope, I think we all need right now, hearing these stories, Gary.

Tell me what your day has been like and what's happening there where you are now.

TUCHMAN: I spent the day today, Campbell, at an orphanage here in Port-au-Prince.

And this orphanage was partially destroyed, but the 25 children were in a section of the home that wasn't destroyed. So, they can't go back in the house because of the aftershocks we have had. The house has continued to deteriorate. They feel like it's going to be completely destructed if there's another aftershock. We had a huge one at 5:00 this morning where we from CNN who are in this hotel we're staying at, we all shook in our beds. It was quite scary. Felt the hotel that we're in creak, so you can imagine how scared the people are who have seen so much destruction.

So, these 25 orphans are living outdoors now 24 hours a day. They're eating outdoors. They're sleeping outdoors, and they're sleeping outside on mattresses on the dirt.

The amazing part of the story, Campbell, is these 25 orphans at this orphanage are all -- all 25 of them -- in the process of being adopted by American families. But in the best of times, there is such huge bureaucracy with the Haitian government and the U.S. government, it takes an average of a year-and-a-half for an adoption to be complete.

But now the women who run this orphanage -- and this is amazing -- they're both from Pittsburgh. They're sisters. They're wonderful young women. They have been here for three years doing this. They said that all the papers have been destroyed from the earthquake and the people in charge of the office, a couple of them have died in the office with the papers.

So, they don't know how long it will take for these adoptions to be completed.

BROWN: And you know what, Gary, we're going to talk more about this, because we're actually going to talk to the parents who were trying to adopt one of these orphans. And they are so worried about this, given what you just laid out, I mean, the situation with the paperwork and the bureaucracy, more generally.

Just before you go, Gary, what -- how are these kids? Are they getting food, water? Do they have the basic supplies they need?

TUCHMAN: These children are wonderful kids. They're all really small, and I was sitting with them and playing with them, because I miss my kids, so I like to hang out with other kids.

And there was no crying, and they were so well-behaved. They weren't smiling a lot. They have been through some trauma. But the two young ladies from Pittsburgh who run this orphanage, who are wonderful ladies, like I said, are explaining to me their food and water is running short.

There are some stores that are open and they have money from donations. They went to the stores to get food for their little kids, and the stores told them, we're strictly rationing, a little bit for each family. And they said, well, our family is 25 kids. And they said, sorry, we don't have enough for you.

So, they are concerned right now. They're not saying they're running out of food, but they certainly have less food and water for these children and no roof over their heads. They are living outside. We're very concerned, Campbell, when they have a rain here. It hasn't rained since the earthquake.

When they have rains here, there's often mudslides, and we don't know what is going to happen to Port-au-Prince when they have heavy rain.

BROWN: I know. I know. People are aggressively trying to get tarps in. That's one of the big things on everyone's list in terms of the relief effort.

Gary Tuchman for us tonight -- Gary, thank you so much.

In the search for survivors, like you just saw Gary, that woman earlier, it is a race against time. Ninety percent of earthquake survivors are generally rescued within the first 24 hours. Typically, the chance of finding survivors dwindles after three or four days. We are in day three now.

But, even then, there is hope, a sliver of hope. The longest reported case of an earthquake survivor being rescued is 14 days.

You can't possibly look at the pictures that we are getting in tonight without seeing just how desperately the people of Haiti need help, and right now you can help. You have heard us say this a lot, but go to CNN.com/impact to learn about the very many organizations that are there on the ground bringing aid to Haiti and give generously. We're going to take a quick break.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And they're simply overwhelmed. There is no electricity to run things like oxygen machines. They just don't have enough needles, even, to do sutures, to sew people up. And that's just a first aid station. We have people out here wounded sleeping in the streets right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: More pictures coming in to us today. All day in Haiti, people have been coming up to our reporters on the ground with a very simple message, "I am alive," a message they are trying to get out to their loved ones.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Alex (ph).

I want to send a message for my family in New Jersey.

Julien (ph), everything is good. My mom and my brother, my sister, everything is all right. OK, I'm safe. Thanks. Bye.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BROWN: We're going to play as many of those as we can fit in throughout the show and throughout the night, given how many people are watching, obviously, friends and family, hoping for a little bit of information about their loved ones.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been showing us doctors and nurses working in this makeshift hospital setup. But, tonight, some of them are actually being warned to leave. It's not safe where they are because of a growing threat of violence. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: What we just heard, though, Wolf, and this is of concern obviously to a lot of people here, is that the doctors and the nurses and the health care professionals are being told to pack up their medical supplies and try to get to a secure location. They are being told this by the United Nations. There is concern about riots not too far from here.

And this is part of the problem for them. Is they want to take care of lots of patients that are actually in the tents, and many more patients actually outside, but they simply being to told at this point to stop and to try to get to some secure location.

Patients that are waiting, you may even see some of the patients over my shoulder here, Wolf, including a little baby boy over there. They are watching as the health care teams start to packing up their goods. I don't know. This is the same situation that we ran into yesterday, lots of patients waiting for care and hardly anyone to provide any care or any resources for them.

Again, even as I am talking to you, there are cars behind me, they are starting to pack up their goods in preparation to leave. The specific language that was told to me is there are concerns about riots, and concerns specifically about the gunshots that they could hear off in the distance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: This is so frustrating, given how many people are still in such bad shape, certainly a setback.

We're going to have more, if we can get Sanjay live, a little bit later in the show.

So much of our focus is on the children of Haiti. They are obviously the most vulnerable here, in the most danger. Two million kids have been affected by this disaster. Many of them were fighting for survival before the earthquake hit -- 22 percent of Haitian children under 5 years old are underweight, and one-third of all children die before their fifth birthday.

And those are stunning numbers, which make, I think, the miracles happening on the streets of Port-au-Prince all the more important.

Our Ivan Watson, who has been doing extraordinary reporting, has the story of a baby girl who was found alive by a TV news crew. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Robert Penfold from CNN's affiliate Channel 9 in Australia, now, he's just come back with an incredible story of survival amid all this carnage, a baby that his team discovered lost amid the rubble.

Rob, what did you see today?

ROBERT PENFOLD, CHANNEL 9 AUSTRALIA REPORTER: Yes, it was an amazing day.

We were told, of course, there would be for more miracles today. This was it, more or less. And we were up there. We went to see the Save the Children's representatives. And there was quite a noise going on outside.

We went out, and the neighbors said, come quickly, come quickly. There's a baby in the rubble. We can hear the baby crying.

And, so, at this stage, we had decided we had better go over and have a look.

WATSON: And what did you find?

PENFOLD: Well, we found was there was a hall, and there were a few people standing around. We made our way through the rubble. It took about 10 minutes to get down to where the area was. Most of the houses had collapsed down there.

And, sure enough, when we put our ear down to the hole, we could hear baby crying, a little baby. We asked around. They said they thought it was a 2-year-old baby girl. They weren't too sure. The neighbors weren't really sure at that stage. But, luckily, we had a fair -- our interpreter is a fairly small guy, but a guy with a big heart, a big heart.

And he jumped down that hole. And he worked for about 20 to 23 minutes pulling rubble out bit by bit by bit. My cameraman, Richard Moran (ph), also got down there as well and pulled the rubble out bit by bit. He had to work around a dead body. And then he came out and then there was amazing shot where he brought up the little baby. She is only about 18 months old.

He -- we're told her name was Winnie (ph). And, by then, her uncle had appeared. And -- but little Winnie, she was covered in dust, but she was uninjured. There were no cuts our bruises. It was amazing. Somehow, this tiny thing this had survived down there, what, for 68 hours.

WATSON: People will want to know, what will happen to Winnie now?

PENFOLD: Well, what we did, we -- we got Winnie out. One by one, we carried her. Bit by bit, we passed her across all the rubble and brought her back out, and took her into the Save the Children Fund offices there.

We washed her down. We got her water. She seemed in amazingly good condition. She didn't cry once. There were no tears. There was no screaming. She just looked around and stared, almost in a daze.

And we washed her down. And then we got her uncle again and we put them together. Her uncle, sadly, has lost his wife, who was five months pregnant, and the mother and father of Winnie are apparently dead as well. But we put the together. And now they're taking them to a doctor for a checkup. But Winnie, to us, looks in fantastic condition.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Ivan, wonderful, wonderful news.

Ivan Watson joining us now live from Port-au-Prince.

Such a relief, when I first heard that story, to see those pictures of that little girl.

But I know we should tell people you have some very sad news to share with people as well. You told us last night of a story -- or shared a story with us about another little girl, an 11-year-old who was trapped in the rubble who was rescued yesterday, late yesterday.

And bring us up to date on what's happened now.

WATSON: Yes, this is -- this is really difficult to handle right now, Campbell.

The girl we talked about last night, Anaika Saint Louis, 11 years old, trapped under the rubble of a house, very active, very afraid, in pain, but talking with us and with the rescuers, the volunteers that were trying to get her out. And, you know, you just -- your heart went out to this little girl.

And, as we told you last night, she was cut free and being rushed to some kind of medical care. Well, we talked to her uncle this evening, and he gave us very sad news, that, shortly after she went to a first aid station, she passed away, as a result of the injuries to her right leg and her shoulder. And the doctors had said, we simply don't have the capacity to treat her here. She has to go to a better hospital which has more sophisticated machines.

And they did not make it to that hospital in time, and she passed away. We are told that she was buried this evening in the hometown of her mother. It's about three-hours drive outside of Port-au-Prince.

It's pretty heartbreaking. Her last words, the uncle says, were (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE), which means, "Mother, don't let me die."

She was buried tonight, Campbell, unlike so many other victims of this -- this awful natural disaster, who we have witnessed being dumped into mass graves. But, here, she was with her family, at the very least -- Campbell. BROWN: OK, Ivan Watson with us tonight with that part of the story.

Many, many hearts breaking for this little girl, Ivan.

We're going to take a quick break. We will be back in a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They haven't had any sleep in two days. They don't have water. They don't have food. The most immediate thing now is for people even to give small amounts of money. We need large numbers of people giving small amounts of money, so we can get food, medical supplies, and shelter there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMANUEL GUCHE (ph), EARTHQUAKE SURVIVOR: I'm Emanuel Guche (ph). I just want to let my family in Maryland, Connecticut, and my brother who's in Iraq that I'm OK. The (INAUDIBLE) is completely down, but I'm safe and well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: There are thousands of Haitian children looking for a safe place to stay right now. It is a story that continues to touch all of us, so we check back in with Bobby and Sherry Burnette, the relief organization, Love a Child. I asked them if they are seeing any signs of relief on the ground where they are. This was earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOBBY BURNETTE, LOVE A CHILD: We're about 35 miles out from the city, but this morning early daylight, just one emergency case after another in our clinic that we have here next to our orphans' home, terrible cases of broken bones, just people crying and screaming, just one after another.

BROWN: So how are you guys, Sherry, dealing with that at the clinic? I know you've been short supplies, short personnel. How are you treating all these people?

SHERRY BURNETTE, LOVE A CHILD: Well, yes, the best way we can. We are triaging them and then we're doing all the gaping wounds first. We have a section for them. And then all those that have broken arms, broken legs, just really serious cases, we have those in one area.

Today we had to -- we're waiting, actually, on an x-ray machine that is coming in from a ministry that supports us, which is Joyce Meyer ministries, and that x-ray machine has not gotten here yet. And so while we're waiting for it to come, we had to transport six people, six critically ill children, to the Dominican Republic and go across the border with them. It took two pickup trucks, and so we did that today, so we're just doing the best we can, but we're not turning one person away.

BROWN: That's amazing. So you were able to get these kids to the Dominican Republic and get them help?

S. BURNETTE: Absolutely. We put them in two pickup trucks. We had sheets and blankets and pads in the back of the truck, took some of our Haitian nurses with us and didn't know if we could make it across the border or not. People told us the border was closed, but you know what, the doors just opened. They waved us on through, and drove for a little while and got both trucks, about six horrible cases unloaded and came back.

Tomorrow we're sending another truckful, and then Bobby and I will go out into Port-au-Prince tomorrow with a pickup truck, and we're going to gather up people that we see that are on the roadsides and market places that haven't been brought into the clinic, and we're going to bring them right here to our clinic in Fond Parisien.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: That was Bobby and Sherry Burnette from the relief organization Love a Child from Haiti again tonight.

An amazing scene this afternoon in Port-au-Prince. We were live on the air when a spontaneous peaceful demonstration began. This is hundreds of men, women, children singing, marching, clapping their hands. An incredible, incredible sight in the midst of all of this.

We're going to be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A steady stream of help did begin to pour in to Haiti today, but it is slow going, and for many desperate Haitians, time is running out. Ten thousand American troops are expected on the scene by Monday. They are bringing the heavy machinery that is needed to dig through the rubble and try to rescue any remaining survivors.

Tonight, Port-au-Prince remains a city of chaos. Bodies are piling up in the streets, some destined for mass graves. There is still no electricity. The country's communication system remains pretty much paralyzed right now.

We've got a lot more to tell you about. Jason Carroll has been reporting as evacuations get under way. He's talking about the chaos and the confusion at the airport in Port-au-Prince, and he is there now. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are two groups of people here at Port-au-Prince international airport, hundreds of desperate trying to get out, and a grateful few like Danny Abraham's family managed to escape on military airlifts. DANNY ABRAHAM, AMERICAN EVACUEE: We lost our house. Thank God none -- nobody was hurt, and we're trying to get them away.

CARROLL: Families with young children and the elderly given priority. Virginia Cary was hurt during the quake.

VIRGINIA CARY, AMERICAN EVACUEE: And I knew I was going to pass out, and I guess I did.

CARROLL: Cary and her husband Lovel are 81 years old. Both from Cleveland, Tennessee, here for a church conference.

V. CARY: And a wall collapsed on us. The car killed one of our men in the front and we were in the backseat.

CARROLL: And so the plan is to get you on one of these planes and get you out of here then, right?

LOVEL CARY, AMERICAN EVACUEE: We hope. We hope. I hope I can find the man who's got our passports.

CARROLL: Some confusion to be expected. Rescue crews saying this is still the early stage of the evacuation.

(on camera): Throughout the day there are steady stream of planes coming here at the airport. They've got relief supplies. They're coming from all over the world, from Belgium, from Brazil, from Miami, from Spain, from Iceland, just about any place you can imagine.

What happens is as soon as they get those relief supplies off of the planes, then you've got evacuees who are sitting here at the airport anxiously awaiting to get on those flights.

When you have so many different countries trying to do what they can to help, how do you coordinate that?

LT. GEN. P.K. KEEN: It is a very difficult challenge and here is no difference.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get separation. Get them on. I know it seems stupid.

CARROLL (voice-over): Outside the airport, a crowd of those still trying to get out continues to grow.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing works. So I wait.

CARROLL: So you wait.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I don't know how long it's going to be, but I'm going to wait.

CARROLL: Many here just as frustrated as the U.S. State Department representative who is trying to control the crowd.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to have a security problem here if these people don't get in order.

CARROLL (on camera): Can you just tell us what information would you like to get out there, because people at the airports --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, because the situation is fluid, OK? What we have is these people are already here. We've got to try to deliver service to them.

CARROLL (voice-over): Many say they would rather stay here and take their chances instead of going back to the city where help still seems very far away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And Jason Carroll is with us now. Jason, I want to ask you about where you were earlier today. I know you've been in these tent cities.

CARROLL: Yes.

BROWN: Tell us a little bit about how the aid workers are organizing there, trying to get supplies out to people.

CARROLL: Absolutely, Campbell. First of all, two places. I went to the airport first just to check out how things are going there, and things are looking a little bit better there as of just a few hours ago. The U.S. military now there on the ground aiding in some control in terms of what's happening back here on the streets in Port-au- Prince.

You know, behind me is just one of those tent cities, and one of the big problems that they're dealing with is, it's not that they're not getting supplies in, they are. It's getting the supplies to the people who need them and then once you get the supplies out there, Campbell, how then do you distribute them?

And one of the relief workers tell me that what they do is when they get to one of these tent cities, they immediately try to identify one of the leaders because apparently de facto leaders emerge. Perhaps it's a pastor or a neighborhood elder. What they do then is they approach them and they talk to them about the special needs that men have, that women have, that children have, the elderly, and then they try to meet that need. But as you can imagine, the challenges are great -- Campbell.

BROWN: Jason Carroll reporting tonight from Port-au-Prince. Jason, thanks so much.

I just want to remind everybody to go to the Web site CNN.com/impact. We have all the information there about the relief organizations that are on the ground that are operating and how you can give, how you can help.

Stay with us. We have a lot more ahead. We'll be right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My family, my mom and dad in my house. I can't do nothing. I want somebody to help me, please.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Doctors from around the world are arriving in Haiti. Many arrived there today. But as we have been telling you, the demand for medical help is so great, supplies are quickly running out and volunteers are being forced to make some very difficult decisions. Elizabeth Cohen saw that for herself today. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A moment to celebrate. After eight hours of waiting, this group of doctors from the University of Miami finally made it in to help save lives in Haiti. I accompanied them on the flight in.

No one was happier to see these physicians than Dr. Enrique Ginzburg (ph), who'd been working in this makeshift hospital on the United Nations compound near the airport for two days.

(on camera): So last night you had three doctors for how many patients?

DR. ENRIQUE GINZBURG (ph): Probably 250.

COHEN: Three doctors for 250 patients.

GINZBURG: Yes.

COHEN: Are you kidding me?

Let me show you around this makeshift hospital in a tent. The screams of the woman that you're hearing right now, she's six months pregnant, and during the earthquake, a boulder fell on her stomach and now she's miscarrying.

This little boy over here, he has a bleed in his brain. The doctors say he hasn't been conscious since he arrived here, and they don't think there's very much that he can do for him. You hear children crying. You hear orphans crying through the night, mommy, mommy.

(voice-over): Dr. Ginsberg gives the Florida doctors plus some from Chile physicians an assessment on each patient.

GINZBURG: Yes. She also has a pelvic fracture, I think. Yes.

We need one person to change the dressing on this child. We need an I.V. on this girl.

COHEN (on camera): Now the new doctors will help, but there is a limit to what they can do, and that's because they're missing even the most basic of supplies. For example, when they do amputations, they don't have general anesthesia, so they cut off the limb while the person is still awake. One doctor I talked to calls it civil war medicine.

(voice-over): In all this pain, in all this trauma, there is one bright light, and his name is Reggie.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Reggie.

COHEN (on camera): This little boy just came out of the rubble two hours ago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just came out. Just came out. His grandmother, his brother and two of his cousins.

COHEN: And they were all dead?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were all dead.

COHEN: How did he live for more than two days all alone, crushed under dead bodies?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm telling you, that's God. That's the only thing I can say. That's God.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Look at that little boy. Elizabeth Cohen with us again from Port-au-Prince.

Elizabeth, I do know you have some good news to report from where you are tonight. Tell us what's going on.

COHEN: That's right. Campbell, the doctors here were overjoyed at this makeshift hospital you see behind me. When they heard the Israeli military was coming in, they flew in from Israel to set up a mass unit, a surgical hospital unit. That's because there's about 100 patients here who are desperate to have surgery. Without it, infections will soon set in, so they're hoping to begin doing surgery tomorrow. So again, that's the Israeli military flying in to begin doing surgeries tomorrow. Up until this point, they had no capacity to do any surgeries at all -- Campbell.

BROWN: That is great news. That is fantastic news. Something so, so desperately needed. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks, Elizabeth. Appreciate it.

We have a lot more ahead. Stay with us. We'll be back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: You know, we can't really say it enough, how dire the situation is on the ground in certain parts of the country. And again, it is the babies who are among the hardest hit. We have Ross Haskell joining us right now from Wichita, Kansas. And little Alexander, the 17-month-old that he and his wife, Jean, are in the process of adopting from Haiti is just one of the children who is awaiting help right now.

Ross, tell me the latest that you've heard about how Alexander is doing.

ROSS HASKELL, TRYING TO ADOPT HAITIAN BABY: Sure. So after the quake, we tried desperately to get in touch with the orphanage where he lives. We called for a couple of days. When we finally got through just yesterday, he's alive and he's unharmed.

The people who run the orphanage, though, tell us that the orphans of Haiti really need to leave the country in order to live. They are alone. They have no one to care for them. You know, the people who work in these orphanages, they have families of their own, and boys like my Alexander don't, so the situation is pretty desperate.

BROWN: And, Ross, I know you know this already, but I just want to share with our viewers, Gary Tuchman, our own Gary Tuchman, who reported on this earlier, visited the orphanage today, and he is reporting to us that the kids are living outside, that they have a little bit of food and water right now. They are running low, but also that the records for adoptions, and again, I know you know this, are in collapsed buildings.

Some of the people who are in charge of these adoptions have been killed in the quake. How do you go forward with this? How do you try to get your little boy out of there? This is going to be a bureaucratic nightmare.

HASKELL: Well, what we are doing really is not thinking of this as an adoption. We are thinking about this as a humanitarian crisis. These children will likely not survive if aid is not brought to them immediately, and in the very short term, if they're not essentially evacuated from Haiti.

And that very well may negatively impact our adoption, Campbell. We don't know what will happen. But as his parents, we simply want him to live. We can, I guess, worry about paperwork later. We just want him for now to be safe.

BROWN: Of course, you do. Good luck to you. I know you're doing everything you can. And hopefully we'll be able to help you get information as well from our people on the ground.

Many thanks to you for joining us tonight, Ross. I appreciate it.

We have more ahead. Stay with us.

HASKELL: Thanks.

BROWN: We're going to take another quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been showing us doctors and nurses working in a makeshift hospital set-up, but tonight some of them are actually being warned to leave. It's not safe where they are because of a growing threat of violence. And Sanjay is joining me right now from Port-au-Prince.

Sanjay, what's the situation there? Is security really an issue right now?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's been a day of highs and lows, Campbell, I'll tell you for so many reasons. You and I talked over the last couple of nights about how dire the situation had become and what a need there was in some of these most critically injured locations for help.

We are in one of the areas that was hardest hit by this earthquake. We were outside this hospital last night hoping that these patients would get some care and get some supplies as well. We are delighted to see these field hospital tents that you see behind me being put up. They sort of take care of 100 patients, a couple of 100 patients over a few hours. And then all of a sudden, they got word that there was concern about violence and they were told to stop accepting any new patients and start packing up their supplies and get ready to move.

So this field hospital, for the time being, is not accepting any new patients. Take a look inside. There are still some staff here and some patients waiting around, along with family members.

A woman over here to -- just over my left shoulder was a woman who was just rescued, Campbell, after 72 hours. Her right leg was amputated as part of that rescue, but she's able to get antibiotics. She's able to get pain medication. She's able to get care that she desperately needed. The real question is, is that going to be able to continue or is it going to be a problem with the violence over time with trying to make sure that security is established in places like this?

BROWN: Sanjay, overall, though, it does look a lot different than last night when I saw you. I mean, the tents are up. Does it feel like, you know, there's been progress over the last 24 hours?

GUPTA: There's no question, there has been significant progress. The area is a lot more cleaned up. Patients have a greater sense of hope that they're going to be able to get some care. It really was quite optimistic earlier in the day. Again, these tents coming up, lots of health care personnel here. Actually starting to see supplies come in as well.

But again, this back and forth, escalations of violence, concerns, shut down the tents, all the personnel sort of take cover, go to secure locations, and then you have tents opening again. So back and forth. We just hope that situation stabilizes over the next several hours.

BROWN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta for us tonight from Port-au-Prince, who has done amazing reporting and I know has been helping a lot of people as well. Sanjay, thanks to you, to everybody. That does it for us. "LARRY KING LIVE" coming up next.

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