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CNN Larry King Live

Rescuers Working Round the Clock; Haiti's Forgotten; Earthquake as it Happens; What Happens to the Children?; How You can Help

Aired January 17, 2010 - 21:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Tonight, hope and heartbreak. Dramatic rescues. See survivors pulled from rubble five days after concrete buried them alive.

And then, what's going to happen to Haiti's children? Some, already orphaned, have nowhere to go, others about to be adopted are stranded, as helpless parents watch from afar.

The fate of Haiti and its people, next on a special Sunday night edition of LARRY KING LIVE.

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KING: We're with you live on this Sunday night. Here are today's developments in Haiti five days after the quake. Three people who are buried alive were found and rescued. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon arrived in Haiti. And scavengers were scattered by Haitian police who fired shots in their direction. No one was injured.

Joining us now are some of the heroes, Dr. Marc Grossman. He's with South Florida Urban Search and Rescue Task Force II; as are Joseph Fernandez; and the task force leader, Eric Fajkis.

But, first, let's check in with our own Ivan Watson who's been covering this dramatic search and rescue operation at the Caribbean Supermarket. What's the latest, Ivan?

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The latest is is that the team here, they've actually reached two people who were still alive in this mountain of rubble here. The - the workers have gotten through, they've cut through and they've actually been able to hold the hand of a Creole-speaking woman there who is trapped alongside a Creole- speaking man.

They say the - her voice is strong. They've been able to pass water her. And they're trying to open up a hole to try to pull this woman out. She has survived five days - five days, Larry, in this mountain of rubble.

And, earlier today, overnight, the same rescue workers, they're from New York, and now they're workers from Florida, and from Turkey as well, they pulled out three other individuals, a Haitian man, a 13- year-old girl, and early this morning, a 50-year-old American woman named Mimi, and we understand she's got a son in Florida living not far from the home of one of those rescue workers - Larry.

KING: Wow. Thanks, Ivan. With you (INAUDIBLE) work he's done.

Eric Fajkis, do you have a relationship to one of the people you pulled out today?

JOSEPH FERNANDEZ, SOUTH FLORIDA URBAN SEARCH & RESCUE: Go ahead, Eric.

IRENEUSZ "ERIC" FAJKIS, SOUTH FLORIDA URBAN SEARCH & RESCUE: Yes. The relationship is - I work for the City of Pembroke Pines. I'm the captain paramedic. And when I found out - when the lady, when the victim was pulled out, that she actually lives in Pembroke Pines. So it's the city that I serve.

KING: Wow. Dr. Grossman, did you - when you got there, was what you found what you expected?

DR. MARC GROSSMAN, SOUTH FLORIDA URBAN SEARCH & RESCUE: In Haiti or at the - at the Caribbean Market?

KING: The whole - the whole ball of wax.

GROSSMAN: Nothing - nothing is what you expect.

No. I - I was expecting devastation, but I honestly feel like I've landed on another planet. Everything is in disarray, disorganized. You go from down a street and there's, you know, masses of people. They're sleeping on the street. They have streets closed so people can sleep. Everything is rubble and destroyed.

And you go from - our job is to go in and search buildings for survivors and, you know, it could be any one building that you passed by that's collapsed. You - you never know where somebody might be that we can help. And it's been very frustrating...

KING: Joseph...

GROSSMAN: ... and difficult to just drive through.

FERNANDEZ: Yes, Larry?

KING: Joseph, how do you explain finding people alive who've been buried under rubble for a period of time? How do you explain that?

FERNANDEZ: I think it's, well, you know, on the level of miraculous. But there are some - some factors here. You know, as a task force leader, I really sit outside, and most of the time, I'd go inside and look at what people like Eric are doing.

But there is something very different about this incident at the Caribbean Market, and that is that these people that are in these confined spaces are literally surrounded and trapped by food. And when Eric was in there for three or four hours, cracking cement to open a hole, the first thing that comes out besides the debris and the rubble were items, grocery items, fruit roll-ups and cookies, in one case, where the 7-year-old girl and the 35-year-old man were entrapped.

So, they were able, most probably, to sustain themselves, unlike people in many of the other collapses, and I think that's affecting the timeline here, and, hopefully, after we clear these couple of people, that we should get in the next few hours, that'll be five people in that building, two people that we rescued the night before that, where Dr. Grossman had to do an amputation on a girl. And I think that once we go to a more aggressive posture in that building, taking out concrete, we may find voids and lean-tos where we might find some people that are still viable.

KING: Eric, I understand there were some frightening moment earlier today. The floor over the rescuers' heads buckled and rained down debris. What happened?

FAJKIS: Well, when I was with the - the victim there in this tunnel, there was a lot of debris, obviously, from the collapse. So as I walked - I mean, crawling through this narrow space, it's - there's debris that's falling down. And, at the same time, I'm pushing the debris behind me to the other rescuer that was in the opening that we just created to remove that so I can - making it possible so the victim could be pulled out through that - the tunnel that I was creating.

And as I'm doing it, I have to be really careful for the debris that's coming down from the - from the above area, and particularly I'm wearing - wearing my helmet that, now I'm with the victim who doesn't have a helmet, so I had to be very cautious what I'm removing and where I'm push - pushing the debris.

KING: Dr. Grossman, have you done a lot of amputations? Was it - under those circumstances, wasn't it difficult to do?

GROSSMAN: The - both the circumstances where I actually - they call it a confined space rescue, where I had to - I had to climb into a void. I was about two feet high. They had to clear away as much debris to make it as wide as possible for me and I had to go about nine feet deep. So it was very hard to do anything, you know, let alone do surgical amputation.

I don't really have - I'm an emergency physician. Routinely we don't do traumatic amputations or field amputations because it doesn't come up. If somebody comes in and their arm was severed by a saw or something in the field, then they come in and we just sort of fix it up and they go to the operating room with a specialist.

For me it was a new experience. I have - I've never had to do that before and it was - it was a harrowing experience, and, you know, combined with the fact that I had to do the amputation in a confined space and all the other circumstances, and also the race against time, that I had a very limited amount of time to do it and to pull her out because she was dying.

KING: Joseph, how long do you expect your team to be there?

FERNANDEZ: We are currently working there. We're not going to leave the scene until we can absolutely know that it is clear. Our group will be relieving the 35 persons that are operating there now.

We did have to recall our - our team that was supposed to be back resting today, because that situation that you mention when they cut a piece of rebar, the tensions snapped. There was movement in the slab. The slab is where they're working. You can see that there's very small spaces where our people are, and what we had to call in was extra personnel to put in post shores just in case that - that sandwich space in there got closed even tighter and could kill one of our personnel.

So we had to, like, shift all of our people that were resting back out there, and now they're back home again and they'll be out there early in the morning to do the shift swap. We're going to stay there until we can absolutely say with certainty that that place is cleared.

KING: We salute you all. Amazing.

Anderson Cooper and Karl Penhaul take us to a town outside the capital, where no one has shown up to help - no one. Incredible story next.

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KING: Joining us now back in Port-au-Prince, Anderson Cooper, the anchors of CNN's "AC 360", and Karl Penhaul, our famed CNN correspondent.

They travel outside of Port-au-Prince today. They went to a town called Leogane which apparently got no - what were the circumstances, Anderson? Where were you and what - what happened or didn't happen there?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Karl got there first and we just followed a search and rescue team in a little bit later. Really no humanitarian aid had been getting to this town until, I think, World Food Program sent in a team late last night. And then you saw some doctors from - Doctors Without Borders getting there today.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN VIDEO CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Yes. We - we went in there and - and the main street has collapsed. I mean, we talked to the mayor. He said 90 percent of the buildings there collapsed, were so badly damaged they need to be bulldozed. He says the other 10 percent is just trying to get by.

I mean, it really was a procession of the damned (ph) there, relatives taking people to a make-shift clinic on - on doors, on mattresses salvaged from the ruins. And then, even with all the best will in the world, there were very few supplies in that makeshift clinic. They were sending people out with broken limbs, splinted with cardboard boxes and pieces of wood.

COOPER: Yes, I saw a little girl...

KING: Anderson, why did they have to wait?

COOPER: ... being carried in a (INAUDIBLE) with her leg in a splint. KING: Why did they have to wait, Anderson?

COOPER: Just, you know, most of the focus so far has been downtown Port-au-Prince, has been the city in mountainsides here in Port-au- Prince. Leogane is about an hour's drive away and really, just no one had the time to go there. There just haven't been enough people to actually get there. We went out there today and it's just the - the very early hour, just the beginning of - of some relief.

Larry, the need there is incredible. I was at a school where at least 100 - they believe 100 to 110 children are buried in the rubble of this convent school, Saint Rose of Lima School. I - I saw what I thought was a stone in the rubble. Upon further inspection, it turned out to be the skull of a child. It still had a tooth attached.

I mean, there - there were only three or four Haitians searching through the rubble, trying to recover the bodies of these children. No one was paying them. They were just doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. And there were about 20 or 30 young men there eagerly waiting to scavenge whatever supplies were found in the rubble, and every time the bulldozer were stopped, these young men would descend on the rubble, looking for notebooks, looking for food, looking for money, anything that they could find, cooking oil that they might be able to use or sell later on.

KING: Karl, frankly, are things getting better?

PENHAUL: It - it's very difficult to say. I mean, I sometimes ask myself how things - how things really can get better for some of the people that I saw today.

A guy was brought in by his friends, by his mates on a - on a wooden door and the doctors looked at him. They gave him a cursory examination and then said to his friends you've got to take him away. You've got to take him back home. He broke his back in the quake. He's going to be paralyzed now for life, that is if he makes it, if he doesn't die from internal organs.

I asked myself how are things going to get better for Haiti when you see things like that?

KING: Anderson, what you do you think?

COOPER: You know, we're starting to see some level of organization. I mean, search and rescue teams like - like the guys you just talked to, you know, they have this area in Port-au-Prince mapped out. They - they have teams responsible for certain areas, so they're going now systematically through.

I mean, obviously the chances of finding anybody alive are dwindling rapidly. You do hear some miracle stories of people trapped where there's food or water available, but, by and large, they - they are getting no responses now. And, at some point soon, and - and I'm not sure who's going to call it, it's going to turn to a recovery operation. Rescue operations are - are going to cease at some point during this week, Larry. KING: Anderson Cooper and Karl Penhaul. Thank you both very much.

A special live Sunday night edition of LARRY KING LIVE, two-hour special tomorrow.

The children of Haiti, some in the process of being adopted, have been left in limbo. Some heroic efforts to help them in 60 seconds.

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KING: We have some breaking news for you on this Sunday night, video of the moment the earthquake struck. This is the very second that destroyed Haiti's capital and brought such misery to almost a third of the country's population.

The building collapses around the person you see here. Miracularly - miraculously, she survived. Unbelievable.

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(SCREAMING PEOPLE).

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KING: Joining us now in Portland, Oregon - wait till you hear this story - Jill Wilkins. She and her husband were in the process of finalizing their adoption of a little Haitian boy when the earthquake happened. She's in Portland. Her husband, Joe Wilkins, is in Miami. He's trying to fly to Haiti to bring their new son home.

And in Fermathe, Haiti is Dixie Bickel. She's director of God's Littlest Angels Orphanage from which the Wilkins are adopting their son. The little boy's name is Chancelot (ph).

All right. Jill, when you heard about the earthquake, what - what went through your mind?

JILL WILKINS, TRYING TO BRING ADOPTED SON OUT OF HAITI: You know, Larry, it was shock, a complete shock, and we immediately got online and looked at the maps where - where we - where we're trying to figure out where it was, and it looked like it was right over the top of where the orphanage was. We've actually spent time in Haiti and know, you know, the location well.

So we were very, very concerned, and we didn't hear for a while if everything was OK or not, so we were trying to just, you know, ask all the people we had connections with if every one was OK, and it took a while to figure that out.

KING: Joe, why did you pick Haiti for an adoption?

JOE WILKINS, TRYING TO BRING ADOPTED SON OUT OF HAITI: Well, Jill and I have been in - been through the process quite a long time. When we first decided to adopt, we kind of thought it - thought domestic, and then we thought I think our hearts are leading us internationally, and - and Haiti was on our hearts. And, truly, He led us there for a reason, and we think that this is really the - the point where - where we're supposed to be in and that's why we're there.

KING: Wow. He's an adorable little boy. How old is Chancelot (ph), Joe?

JOE WILKINS: He's 20 months old on the 9th of January.

KING: Why don't you have him? Why weren't you able, after you adopted him, to take him home?

JOE WILKINS: Well, it is a long process. There's - there are several steps to adopt a baby out of Haiti, and there's just a lot of bureaucracy there. And we did receive our referral for Chancelot (ph) on December 30th of 2008, when he was six months old. And it's...

KING: Wow.

JOE WILKINS: It - it's heartbreaking that we don't have him yet, but we were on our way, and we - we had a timeline kind of sketched out, and now that - that may be in question right now.

KING: Let's check in with Dixie. Dixie, what's the situation? When can - can the Wilkins get their little Chancelot (ph)?

DIXIE BICKEL, DIRECTOR, GOD'S LITTLEST ANGELS ORPHANAGE: Right at this point, all papers are lost. The papers for his adoption is buried in a building, probably. It's very difficult - it's going to be very difficult to finish that right now.

We're hoping to get the children out of Haiti on humanitarian reasons, humanitarian parole, so that they can join their families in the US. And we are running out of water, food, fuel, and we need our beds also for orphans that are - will be coming into the orphanage.

KING: We see little Chancelot (ph) there. I imagine with the - with the records buried, you'd allow Joe to come in and take Chancelot (ph) home, would you, Dixie?

BICKEL: I would. We just need authorization from the Haitian government to do that, and authorization from the US government to do that. And we're waiting on that. The Haitian government, hopefully, will start letting children go out tomorrow. We've heard that. It's not been confirmed yet.

Five (ph) of my children went out yesterday on a humanitarian flight to the Netherlands and 100 more will be going out tomorrow if the prime minister signs the paper that we need.

KING: He better sign it. Jill - when are you going down there, Joe?

JOE WILKINS: I'm heading down on Tuesday. I'm here in Miami now with some volunteers from GLA. Dixie asked us to come and put together supplies, and we have flown in several tons of supplies, medical, food, diapers, you know, things that they need. And we're looking forward to getting on - on a plane, a chartered plane, on Tuesday, and hopefully getting into the orphanage that day and delivering those.

KING: Hopefully no red tape. Hopefully you'll be able to bring Chancelot (ph) home. Jill, are you going to wait in Portland?

JILL WILKINS: I - I am, Larry. I've actually stayed on the home front here because we have several things going on with regard to helping other families and making a difference here. We've kind of come together as adoptive parents and we're just trying to hit all of our - our congressmen, governor wherever we can, and we've been able to come together with concise messages, and really - I think we - we're making a difference.

When we started, we didn't get a lot of attention, but I think they're hearing us now and we've had several meetings.

KING: Oh, they sure are.

JILL WILKINS: So we're (INAUDIBLE) news.

KING: They are hearing you now.

Joe, if there's anything we can do, let us know. We'll stay close and follow this up.

JOE WILKINS: That sounds perfect. We'll be in touch, Larry.

KING: Red tape in an earthquake. That's a joke.

Here's more video of the moment the earthquake. This is the very second that destroyed Haiti's capital. The building collapses around the person you see. She did survive. Look.

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(SCREAMING PEOPLE)

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KING: Maria Bello is a wonderfully talented actress. She's a board member of Artists for Peace and Justice. She joins us here in Los Angeles.

She was in Haiti last year. What took you there?

MARIA BELLO, ACTRESS: I went to Haiti last year with my friend, Paul Haggis. He works with an incredible hero, inspiration, an amazing human being called Father Rick Frechette we were - he's been working in Haiti for the last 22 years.

And we saw the - the incredible pediatric hospital that he built, a hospital for disabled children, 20 street schools in the slums of Cite Soleil, orphanages, free medical clinics. He brings the only free drinking water every day to the slums.

KING: Was it your first trip there?

BELLO: It was my first trip there. KING: And you were impressed?

BELLO: Shocked by the poverty. I've traveled all over the world, Larry. I have never in my life seen such dire poverty. But, in the mist of that poverty, these - the Haitian people have so much joy and resilience, and such beautiful, beautiful spirits.

KING: So when you heard about the earthquake, you must have been whacked out?

BELLO: Oh, it was devastating. I - I spoke to Father that day in a weird coincidence - Father was in Connecticut. He never leaves Haiti. He was in Connecticut with his mother who was dying.

And his people in Haiti - and I said that - that morning, I said, "Father, what can we do?" and he said, "Get your boots and hard hats on and come help me dig my people out."

KING: There's a young man here with us on - on Friday, I guess it was, Jimmy Jean-Louis, the Haitian-born actor, probably best known for the series "Heroes". You remember, he was flying out that night? He is now in Haiti.

We're all glad to see you there, Jimmy. How are you doing?

JIMMY JEAN-LOUIS, HAITIAN-BORN ACTOR: How are you doing, Larry?

It's - it's very difficult to be here. Yes. Yes, I'm doing (ph) - because - because I'm having a hard time actually accepting the - the situation. I see - I see way too many dead bodies being burned right - right around the corner where I lived.

Maria, I just went to see Father Rick today, and at the hospital there was a little girl who had half of the face completely gone - completely gone. She was still breathing. I couldn't show the - the footage to - to you guys because it was too graphic. But she's an American citizen. She's only 3 years old. She needs an operation. There is nobody here that can help her. If she doesn't get it by tomorrow, if she doesn't get help by tomorrow, she will die. She is right now at Father Rick's...

KING: But can we...

JEAN-LOUIS: ... hospital, just by the American embassy (ph). It's right there (ph).

KING: Can you fly her out tonight to Miami?

JEAN-LOUIS: If - if it's possible. I'm pretty sure they'd be more than happy to do that. But she needs help. We need help. Father Rick helped (ph) with that.

BELLO: Jimmy, what we heard from - what we heard from Father Rick today is they are desperate for medical personnel and supplies, right? They have - they have nothing right now, is that right? JEAN-LOUIS: Yes, yes. Oh, definitely. Yes. I mean, I'm just taking the example of that little girl (INAUDIBLE), just to - to show the situation. But they have nothing at all.

Maria, if you go back to that place, you will not recognize it. You know, everybody is sleeping everywhere outside, and - and the line goes all the way back to almost the - the embassy. So it's just a disaster what - what just happened. Father Rick was in tears...

BELLO: Well, the hospital - the hospital...

JEAN-LOUIS: ... and you know Father Rick...

MARIA BELLO, ACTRESS: The hospital has 120 beds. The hospital has 120 beds and now he is seeing 750 patients. Is that right?

JEANLOUIS: Exactly, if not more.

LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR, LARRY KING LIVE: Let me get a break. We'll come back. We're with Maria Bello and Jimmy Jeanlouis. We've got a two-hour LARRY KING LIVE special event for you Monday night, that's tomorrow night. Haiti, how you can help, some very big names will be here to raise money for some of the neediest people in the world suffering in this horrific way. We hope you will join Mick Jagger, Seal, Susan Sarandon, Ringo Starr, John Mayer, Ryan Seacrest, Tia Leone, (INAUDIBLE) and many more. That's tomorrow night from 8:00 to 10:00 Eastern. We'll be right back.

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KING: Jimmy Jeanlouis had to leave us. Maria Bello remains, Christine Webb in a moment. First let's check in in Port-au-Prince with our CNN national correspondent, Gary Tuchman, who's recovering orphans being adopted, we just discussed one of them Gary. What is the latest?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Two days ago Larry, I was in an orphanage that was partially destroyed. Some 25 orphans had to live outside. They had to sleep outside. The people that ran the orphanage, two sisters from Pittsburgh, didn't know what they were going to do. All 25 of these orphans have been -- are in the process of being adopted by American families. But it takes a year and a half at a minimum to go to the United States and all the papers have been lost in the earthquake.

Today after we did our story, six of those 25 orphans went to the Port-au-Prince airport and were flown to Orlando where they arrived a short time ago to meet their mothers and fathers who they will be living with the rest of their lives. It was very heartwarming Larry and what we are being told by the U.S. Air Force, the State Department, the UN and the military and CNN that helped lead to everything being quickened up for these six orphans.

KING: We got another little boy we just did a story about that we hope gets out tomorrow or Tuesday. Thanks, Gary, great work. Joining us now in Orlando, Florida, Christine Webb, a reporter with central Florida's news 13. Christine was in Haiti on a personal trip delivering supplies to the poor with a group called New Missions. Where were you when the earthquake hit Christine?

CHRISTINE WEBB, REPORTER CENTRAL FLORIDA'S NEWS 13: Larry, I was actually at the New Mission compound (INAUDIBLE) when the earthquake hit. We were actually inside the eating area when just the earth kind of just started to shake. The roof -- I looked up and the roof was moving. And just quickly grabbed the girl that I was with. We ran out and the force just shook us hundreds of feet to the ground. I actually saw the earth split in two.

KING: You were with what group?

WEBB: I was with New Missions group. They have been serving Haiti for 27 years. They actually have -- they are based in Haiti but they also have an office here in Orlando, Florida.

KING: Did you have trouble getting out?

WEBB: Yes, we did have a lot of trouble getting out. But thanks to a huge collaborative effort from many churches, parents, politicians, we were able to make it out OK with a very dramatic rescue.

KING: Were any of your party injured?

WEBB: Luckily, Larry, no. And that a true blessing in all of this. Because just hours before we were actually inside a school -- a school that I had actually gotten to take a tour of the area and just hours before all of us had been at this school delivering shoe boxes to all these little children and just hours later that school was no more. So we could have all been in there. All the children could have been in there. So we were really lucky.

KING: Last thing you expect in a tropical island nation is an earthquake, right?

WEBB: Last thing that we ever expected. I think the last time Haiti had an earthquake was 200 years ago. We never ever thought anything was going to happen like this. When it was actually happening, none of us really knew what was going on. It was almost like a wave. You actually saw like the earth kind of move like a wave. It was nothing I had ever experienced and we were all in shock and very scared.

KING: Thanks Christine. Christine Webb, reporter central Florida's news 13. There are s many stories in a tragedy like this. We will be right back with Maria Bello. Don't go away.

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KING: An incredible story of students all from one university, all back home safe (INAUDIBLE) . We'll meet them in a minute. First let's check in at Port-au-Prince, with our own Elizabeth Cohen for the latest from her viewpoint. What's up, Elizabeth? ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Larry, I am at this makeshift hospital near the airport. It's on the UN compound. Things have gone from bad to worse here. Larry, we keep seeing all these pictures, all this video of people getting pulled out of the rubble and of course it's a wonderful moment, but sometimes I think what we're missing is that once people get out of the rubble, they still face huge challenges. The people behind me in this facility, they were pulled out, but about half the people here, they have wounds that have become gangrenous. There's gangrene in their wounds. And what this means is that they soon could face death, because once you have gangrene, you could have a systemic infection that will kill you. Things are really quite difficult. In fact in the last 24 hours or so, about five people have died here.

KING: Elizabeth Cohen, I don't know how you do it. Elizabeth Cohen on the scene. Now, an incredible story. Let's go to Boca Raton, Florida. Students from Lynn University in Florida were on a relief mission in Haiti, there you see them, almost all of them when the earthquake struck. Representing, speaking for them is Paul PJ Tyska and Nikki Fantauzzi. They are both students there in the front row. Along with them is Len Gengel and Lynn's daughter's Brittany is among those missing. Others missing are Stephanie Crispinelli (ph), Christine Giancocki (ph) and Courtney Hayes (ph). Paul, what were you doing in Haiti?

PJ TYSKA, QUAKE SURVIVOR: We were on a mission trip with a group of students and two professors with an organization called Food for the Poor. We went there Monday and were supposed to be there until Friday. We went there to help paint houses and work at orphanages.

KING: Where were you, Nikki, when the earthquake hit?

NIKKI FANTAUZZI, QUAKE SURVIVOR: All of us were outside of the hotel on the patios, on the third floor patios.

KING: All of you got out except for four girls, right?

TYSKA: Four girls and two professors, yeah.

KING: They are still missing, right?

TYSKA: Yes.

KING: Lynn, when did you last talk to your daughter, Brittany?

LEN GENGEL, FATHER OF STUDENT MISSING IN HAITI: My wife spoke to her at 4:00, an hour before the earthquake hit. That was five days ago, Larry. Larry, I am pleading to you as a father to help us. We have four young ladies who are 20 years old, if that. Brittany was going to be 20 on Thursday and we need your help. We need snake cameras there. We need concrete gas-cutting saws. We need a military presence. These parents sitting behind me and these brave young kids, you have no idea, it takes every ounce of our being to even sit here. We need help! These are great kids. These are kids that didn't go on vacation. They went to help the poor. They went on a journey of hope and we need help and we need it now and we need people down there Larry. I am begging you as a father to help us and you can. You have the power on CNN, Larry. Please, help us.

KING: I am doing all I can, Paul. A lot of people were watching us. Where were they last seen, Paul?

TYSKA: A majority of them were on the second floor in the hotel rooms and Brittany was the one that was on the third floor in her room.

KING: Did the hotel collapse?

TYSKA: Yes.

KING: It did?

TYSKA: Yes, it did.

KING: Did people go in Nikki and try to find people?

FANTAUZZI: Oh, yes. Our first night we were all there for almost 24 hours. We watched -- there were several UN folks from Ecuador and Chile go in to try to get people out. The first day when we were there, we saw five people get out alive.

KING: We have the four students and two faculty members. Where specifically is this hotel? Paul?

TYSKA: It's on the top -- it's on the top of the mountain. There was -- when we were out on the patio, the ones that are here right now, we were actually looking over the rest of Haiti. So everyone that was down below said when they heard it, they looked up, you know and they said it looked like 9/11 and there was just smoke.

KING: What is the name of the hotel?

GENGEL: Larry, Hotel Montana.

TYSKA: Hotel Montana.

KING: Yeah, I heard about that, the hotel Montana.

GENGEL: We need your help.

KING: It was mentioned the other night. OK, Len, we're going to do all we can. We pinpoint our people there. We've got many reporters on the ground. We're going to do everything we can to find the girls, the professor and Brittany. We will do the best we can Len.

GENGEL: Larry, thank you. The U.S. military doesn't leave one man left behind, Larry. They can't leave our daughters. They have to go get them. Please Larry, please!

KING: Len. I understand completely. We will be right back.

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KING: Two more journalists to check in with. First Chris Lawrence, CNN's Pentagon correspondent. You went to a Protestant church today. Is it true the minister said the quake was Haiti's punishment for its sins?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, That's true, Larry. It sounds kind of shocking probably to you and me. But this whole idea of God's judgment and punishment is ingrained in Haiti's religious culture. Over the past few days after this earthquake, you would see people walking up and down the street talking about the end coming, it's the apocalypse. People take religion very, very seriously here. It's a majority Catholic nation, but it's got about a million Protestants but people of both of the faiths still practice or believe in a lot of the voodoo practices as well.

KING: Did the parishioners agree with the minister?

LAWRENCE: Some did and some didn't. Some said no they didn't believe that. In fact at one point, he said, used a metaphor. He said this disaster was God stomping his foot and shaking the ground. I asked a couple people about that and they said no, I don't really believe that. We think it was a natural disaster. But other people very much believe that this was some sort of punishment for Haiti's sins.

KING: I guess that three-year-old had a lot of sins, thanks Chris, unbelievable. Soledad O'Brien just got there, Soledad, I didn't think they were going to call you in. What did you see when you arrived?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The tent city which is really behind me and extends for quite a long distance, is full, we guessed about 20,000 people. I mean, it goes a long way this way and pretty far back. It's very pretty close to where the presidential palace is. And you've seen those pictures where the palace really collapsed in on itself. We got a chance to go up to this tower that Aristide built back in 2004 to get kind of a better view of how the whole thing looks, the scope of it. It's pretty amazing. When you walk through here, you know, people are calm. I mean, it's -- you don't hear shouting. You don't hear a lot of screaming.

But they're also very, very frustrated. And while they say, as Chris just reported, I'm waiting to see what God has in store for me and I'm just going to wait, I'm going to wait, they are frustrated that they aren't getting food. They say no one has really set up consistent food delivery. Some people haven't eaten since, you know, Wednesday. And there are water trucks but again, sort of whenever they come. So there's a little bit of -- or a lot of disorganization. And that has people getting pretty frustrated. People sort of getting angry under the surface as we walked through. But there was some water today. So we saw people taking showers and cleaning up and kids running around for the most part. The tone seems pretty calm, pretty relaxed, but people are very worried and very frustrated. They have no place to go. Their homes are gone.

KING: What, if anything, surprised you?

O'BRIEN: You know, I was expecting that people would be much more angry after, you know, five full days after the earthquake struck. This is the point in a disaster where people get mad, they get furious. They start turning on reporters who are covering them. And I didn't see or sense that at all. You really got a sense that people wanted their message to get out, that they were just going to -- I said what are you going to do? They said I'm going to sit and I'm going to wait. And that surprised me, the calm and in some ways some people have said to me it's because Haiti's history has been so devastating and so bad for so many people that maybe there's a level of lack of expectation that much will get better soon.

KING: I understand. We'll check with you again. Thanks. Soledad O'Brien, one of the best, I think, on the scene in Port-au-Prince. And Maria Bello returns when we come back. Don't go away.

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KING: Some more moments with the actress Maria Bello, board member of Artists for Peace and Justice. What do they do?

BELLO: We're an organization that raises money, funds for Father Rick Fachette (ph) who's a doctor and a Catholic priest who's been in Haiti for 22 years.

KING: He's a doctor and a priest?

BELLO: A doctor and a priest. He said the Haitian people need a doctor more than they need a priest.

KING: He was in Connecticut when this happened.

BELLO: He was. His mother was dying in Connecticut. He raced back to help his people. He slept three hours in the last four days --

KING: And he's there now?

BELLO: He's been doing surgeries through the night. His hospital St. Damian's usually they have 120 people. They're seeing 700 people a day. They're doing amputations and surgeries through the night. So many burn victims, so many young children. It's a pediatric hospital, but they're seeing everyone.

KING: You told me they're doing it without anesthesia?

BELLO: I've heard that they are running out of medicine, anesthesia. They are doing the best with the little that they have. They're only 10 miles from the airport. And I'm begging everybody here, I know there's a lot of desperate stories, but anyone who is close to St. Damian's, 10 miles from the airport, please get medical personnel and medical supplies, food and water, to the hospital.

KING: Are you going to go there?

BELLO: We're planning on going as soon as we can get there. Our friend Jimmy Jeanlouis you saw he's there. The great thing about us, Artists for Peace and Justice, 100 percent of our money -- we have no overhead -- goes directly to father and his programs. Literally, someone put funds in his hands to go buy medicine today.

KING: Remarkable guy.

BELLO: He's incredible.

KING: If you want more information on Maria's organization, it's all one word. Artistsforpeaceandjustice.com, artistsforpeaceandjustice.com. Maria Bello, the actress, who's planning to return to Haiti sometime soon. I hope you get out -- I know you want to get there to see him.

BELLO: Yeah, I sure do.

KING: Thanks, Maria.

BELLO: Thank you for having me.

KING: Some of the images you've been seeing the past few nights on our show are from our own Brad Parks and David Theall, two of our go- to guys here on LARRY KING LIVE. They're not reporters, but they do everything else. They've been in Haiti since Thursday. We couldn't do any of this without them. Brad's written a terrific firsthand account of what he's seeing all around him. It's very compelling. And you can read it at bradshaitiblog@cnn.com/larryking . He'll be updating it during the coming days. David's with us now. David Theall, what are your observations? What are you seeing there?

DAVID THEALL, LARRY KIING LIVE PRODUCER: Larry, the thing that puts this all into perspective for me is the night. When night falls here in Port-au-Prince. And I'm not talking about the night that falls in the park across the way, although that's a sight that -- it's difficult to put into words, the noise that you hear coming from the park. And you see mothers laying their babies down and so much commotion happening in this park across the way. Rather for me it's the night that happens in some of the darkened streets of Port-au- Prince, some of the hills that surround our hotel. I've had the opportunity to go out at night. And you travel with a Haitian driver and with security.

But you'll find whole families, buildings and some places, cases, Larry, a whole neighborhood who will be sleeping outside on the street. And I'm talking 30, 40, 50 people sometimes and they will take a tire. They'll take some of the rubble. And they will just do this perimeter around their sleeping bed where they're sleeping at in the street. And you roll through, and these vehicles, rather close to people, and there's just this imaginary boundary between them. And you see mothers laying their children to rest for the night. That's what affects me the most. It's that time in between ending the day, doing what they have to do to find food, to find shelter and being exposed in the night until the sun comes up the next day.

KING: We have less than a minute, David. But you joined us after spending years in the service of your country in the Pentagon. You were in the Pentagon on 9/11, when the plane crashed into it, as I remember. Can you compare anything you see here to that?

THEALL: Seeing the rubble, frankly, seeing some of the cement rubble that's around here reminded me of that day and the dust that you smelled. Certainly here it's just to a greater extent. And it was easier to get in the Pentagon. I mean, the area was smaller. Here you look at whole buildings that have fallen, and you wonder will they ever find anybody in this building? When they come, they're going to have to make the decision pretty soon to clean up this rubble. If there isn't -- if they haven't found a body that's alive in there, you can only imagine that that body is going to wind up in a frontload mover and just dumped somewhere. And you hope that they'll be able to find those remains and bring some peace to some family.

KING: Thanks, David. David Theall on the scene in Port-au-Prince. We're going to see you tomorrow for a two-hour special, 8:00 Eastern, 5:00P pacific. "Haiti: How You Can Help." Time now for more news on CNN.