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Millions Affected by Earthquake; Challenges for Rescuers; Why Can't Aid Get Through to Haiti?

Aired January 18, 2010 - 11:00   ET

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

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And can you imagine that? So that's essentially the focus of day. It is aid-focused. It is this human drama that's playing out right now in various parts of Port-au-Prince.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And even with all that, we're also bringing stories, miraculous stories of people surviving, living under that rubble for days.

HARRIS: How about that?

PHILLIPS: It's incredible, yes. Kind of fabulous.

HARRIS: Well, we are rocking and rolling. Thank you. See you tomorrow.

PHILLIPS: It continues with Tony.

HARRIS: Thanks, my friend.

It is Monday, January 18th, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The top stories for you here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

A camera under the rubble, seconds after an earthquake hit Haiti. Darkness filled with screams of terror.

Desperate for help, Haitians take whatever they can find in the wreckage to survive.

Surprise shakeout in Massachusetts. Martha Coakley struggles to hold Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in a state that is solidly Democratic.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris, and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Struggle for order amid the chaos. Six days since Haiti's catastrophic earthquake. Here is what we know.

Relief workers are intensifying efforts to get food, water and medicine to hundreds of thousands of desperate survivors. Even where aid is getting through, it is not enough.

Search teams are still looking for signs of life beneath mounds of rubbles. Officials don't know how many died in Tuesday's magnitude 7 earthquake. Estimates range from 100,000 to 150,000 in Port-au- Prince alone.

Incredible rescues defy the odds. Searchers pulled five more people from the rubble of a grocery store and one person from the ruins of a U.N. building yesterday.

Let's get you live now to the earthquake zone. CNN's Jason Carroll is in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.

And Jason, you've been seeing firsthand efforts to get help to people. What can you tell us about those efforts?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it's spotty. I mean, that's the bottom line. It really depends upon where you are, it determines what kind of help you're going to get.

I mean, there's no question that there's -- the international community is doing its best to try to get the aid here on the ground where we are. But the reality is, Tony, that we've visited several different neighborhoods throughout the city of Port-au-Prince, and these makeshift tent cities, some of them are getting water, some of them are getting food, some are not getting food, some are getting clothes. It's just very potty.

Basically, what's happened is the international aid community has divided up the city into various quadrants, into sections. And each section is then monitored by a particular agency in terms of providing relief.

So, for example, we went to one particular neighborhood, Delma (ph) 40B, where a huge tent city is set up. Thousand of people out there. And at one point we saw military helicopters come in, dropping supplies to the people who could get it on the hillside. And then what we saw was a mad rush of people then to get to those supplies.

The problem with that is, if you're strong and you're fast, you get the supplies. If you're weak, if you're elderly, if you're sick, you don't. So that's an example how some of the aid can be sporadic.

HARRIS: Well, Jason, if I can, let me jump in here on just that point. What kind of security is being provided for these aid deliveries?

CARROLL: Well, there is limited security for the aid workers. That's part of the issue as well here.

They want to make sure that the relief supplies are getting to the people, so you've got to go down there with some security. But in terms of security here on the streets of Haiti, and in terms of its -- that the aid stays in the hands of the people who get it, I mean, there's basically none.

HARRIS: Oh my goodness.

CARROLL: So we've been out here on the street. So let's say you get the water, Tony, you get the food, you're there with your family in the tent city. Someone may take it from you, and there's one there to stop that from happening.

HARRIS: And generally speaking, how is -- a big step back here for half a second here. How is the communication with the people who are desperate for this help? Are they being told, for example, when the next supply might be coming through, hang in there? Something?

CARROLL: They do. They do.

World Vision, one of the relief organizations that's down in here on the ground, a Christian relief organization, what they do is they get to a spot even before they're going to deliver the aid. And they say, hey, everyone, we're going to be here at this particular time, line up orderly, be here ready for that.

They deliver the goods, and then they say we're going to be back here at this particular time tomorrow. So that's how that one organization is doing it. But others, again, it could be sporadic. They could deliver aid at 2:00 one day, at 10:00 the next. So if you're there at 2:00 and you're not there at 10:00, you're going to be out of luck.

HARRIS: So this is interesting. And I'm going a little long with you, Jason. I know you've got other things that you need to do for the other networks here, but the idea of the aid organizations talking to one another and dividing up the area into quadrants, so how is that communication going? And I'm wondering, is there even a layer above the various aid organizations? Maybe it's the military that is providing sort of command and control of even the aid organizations' efforts?

CARROLL: Well, the United Nations is out there trying to do what they can, obviously, to try to coordinate all the various international agencies that are on the ground in terms of trying to funnel the aid. So that's what they're trying to do in that way.

And, look, logistically, there's no question. This is a nightmare. Logistically, it is very, very difficult to come into a place where there is no infrastructure at this point, there's no communication, there's very little in the way of protection to try to deliver aid.

But the international community is doing the best job they can. They're trying to get it to the people as quickly as they can. But for some people, just not fast enough.

HARRIS: So more than the U.S. military, it is the United Nations that is essentially at the top of this flowchart trying to coordinate the efforts of all the international aid organizations. Is that correct?

CARROLL: A combination of the United Nations, the U.S. military as well trying to do what they can. For example, when you look at the aid coming in, I'm going to do it in very sort of simple terms.

Let's say you're trying to come in by air. So you've got all these planes trying to come in. The problem is there's a bottleneck at the airport because the air traffic control tower went down. So you've got the U.S. military trying to do that.

So then you've got all this aid trying to come in this way. Then it gets sort of funneled this way at the airport because you've got a bottleneck. So you went from this many people trying to get in to this many people who actually get in.

Then when you've got this many people who are here, right, then it gets narrowed down even a little bit more, because once you get on the ground, then you've got to get it out. And there might be a block on the road here to get out this way or some other -- something else that's preventing you from getting out.

So then it gets squeezed down a little bit more. So you go from all this aid that's coming in from all around the world and it sort of gets funneled down to this that's actually getting on the ground. What they need to do is sort of open it up this way so the flow is a lot better.

HARRIS: Perfect.

CARROLL: Trying to keep it in simple terms so people out there can understand.

HARRIS: Perfect. Please do it that way.

Jason Carroll for us.

Jason, I appreciate it. Thank you.

And a little later, Jason helped a New York man search for his father in Haiti. We will show you what he found at the bottom of the hour.

The United States is playing a lead role in the Haiti relief effort with troops taking charge at the airport and humanitarian groups focused on medical assistance and supplies.

The U.S. ambassador to Haiti spoke to CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" a little earlier. He compares the disaster to a war zone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNETH MERTEN, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO HAITI: I think people need to understand that out in Port-au-Prince, it looks, I think, like Tokyo probably did after World War II. It's flat. It looks like an atomic bomb went off.

Streets are completely blocked. There are rescue efforts going on. It's just difficult to physically get there.

We're doing the best we can. On Saturday, we delivered 140,000 food rations, 130,000 packages, sanitary packages, to people to help get themselves clean and stay clean. So, I mean, it's happening.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARRIS: OK. More U.S. troops are expected to arrive in Haiti today to help with humanitarian relief. The U.S. Southern Command says there will be 7,000 troops in Haiti by the end of the day.

Last hour Kyra Phillips spoke by phone with Captain James McPherson with the U.S. Coast Guard about rebuilding Haiti's port.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. JAMES MCPHERSON, U.S. COAST GUARD: The Coast Guard cutter has just come into the port this morning. It's a 225-foot buoy Kenner (ph). It's especially equipped with a special team that's going to come in here and look what we need to do to restore the port, get cargo moving, get relief supplies.

Obviously, a ship can move multiple tons of cargo. And we need to do that. And for the long-term success of Haiti, we have to have that going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Earthquake survivors desperately trying to get word to family members that they are OK. Loved ones here in the United States anxiously waiting for information from Haiti.

CNN is helping to relay those messages back and forth. We're trying to make connections here.

Ralitsa Vassileva is handling that assignment at our missing persons desk.

Good to see you, Ralitsa.

RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, too, Tony.

I'd like to explain to people who are missing a loved one and want to search for that loved one, they can go to CNN.com/haitimissing. They can go to this Web page, enter the name or the location where their loved one used to be and search for them.

If they want to put in information about their loved one, they can do this by clicking on "Share Your Story." Put in the information. It opens a page there. I want to give you an example.

It'll open a page where you can put in information, any little clue you have besides the name, the age, the location where they were last seen. Any little clue you can put there for your loved one so that people can help find.

For example, here's this person who says, "My name is Edith Millen (ph). Looking for my sister, her daughter, her son, their address, their telephone number" so that people know if they have any information about them, that they can pass it on.

Another example here, Sarah Lature (ph). We've gotten a lot of people looking for Sarah (ph).

She was working at the Hotel Montana which completely collapsed. It has all the information here. They knew she was at work at the time of the earthquake. They're looking for information about her.

And this is how we are trying to connect people. And actually, we have a Web site where you can go to also a link on this Web site where you can look for people who have been found.

For example, here is some good news. This woman who had a sick child, she was found. Her name was Marie Kermilson (ph). We received an e-mail from her family members saying that she was found. So we've posted this on our Web site. So if anybody else is looking for her, they can find out that she's alive and that she has been found.

Give you one more example. Here it is, another person who's been found.

This was posted after the earthquake. There was a strong aftershock after the earthquake. So these people heard, Tony, from their family after the earthquake that they were OK.

Then there were all these strong aftershocks, so they didn't hear from them. So they posted on our Web site information asking for anybody who knows anything about them to find out if they were OK after that aftershock. And luckily, they contacted us and said that they have been found. Their family is OK.

HARRIS: That's terrific. Ralitsa, appreciate it.

And everyone, again, CNN.com/haitimissing.

Thank you. Ralitsa, thank you. Appreciate it.

Join us tonight for a special two-hour edition of "LARRY KING LIVE." Find out how you can help. A powerhouse lineup of celebrities, leaders and activists join Larry to show you how you can take action and be a part of the global outreach. A special two-hour edition of "LARRY KING LIVE," tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Signs of hope amid the rubble, rescues in Haiti. But there is still so much to do.

How are crews getting past mountains of debris to help people in need? You'll hear first hand from a rescue worker on the ground.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Desperate days in Haiti. Military and relief workers are getting food and water to as many as they can under challenging circumstances. Most people, though, are still without.

So here's the scene. This is what you get, people taking what they need to survive, then scatter when Haitian police arrive and open fire. There are some reports of deaths.

Let's listen.

HARRIS: I don't know. I don't get this scene, desperate people being taken to the ground, scrounging. I don't get it.

Rescuers in Haiti -- I understand the need for some order, but my goodness. Rescuers are focusing first on buildings that held a lot of people. Those buildings include hotel like this one, the Montana, we'll show you in just a second, as well as the hotel that served as headquarters for the U.N. mission to Haiti.

Think of the challenges here for a second -- mountains of pancake concrete, debris blocking roads, bulldozers, cranes or excavators.

Joe Knerr is with the Fairfax County, Virginia, Urban Search and Rescue team in Haiti, one of the real hero organizations in the effort.

Joe, describe for me -- and I want to try to paint a picture of just how difficult this effort is. If you would, describe for me the challenges you've encountered even from the earliest days getting from the airport to rescue operations.

JOE KNERR, FAIRFAX COUNTY, VIRGINIA, URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE: As with any natural disaster, a situation like this, you can assume that the country is overwhelmed by the damage and trying to get a good assessment of what's going on. So when we arrived, you know, as teams arrived, you want to provide assistance as quick as you can. But you know you're going to come into an airport that's damaged.

It makes it very difficult for them to provide for us as we come in. So getting transportation has been a little bit of an issue, but it's one that they have worked through.

We've been able to get out very quickly, within a short amount of time of arriving in country. We had teams out looking for people trapped in buildings and out making our first rescues within six hours or so of arriving here in country.

HARRIS: Joe...

KNERR: Go ahead.

HARRIS: Joe, if I could, I mean, I'm very interested in sort of you walking us through how this actually happens, because it may be instructive in helping us understand, you know, the delay that we're hearing in aid getting farther east in the country.

When you arrived at the airport there in Port-au-Prince, who was there to meet you? Who was there initially to guide you to the first operations?

KNERR: Well, when we arrived in country, we had an international search and rescue group that coordinates our response. They usually arrive in country. Made contact with the local authorities, and get guidance from them. Once they arrived and receive that guidance, they provided it to us, who gives us -- they give us the assignment and they get us out the door. And so we met with our colleagues.

HARRIS: Got you. When you make a rescue, as you did several times since this quake, who do you turn the injured people over to?

KNERR: There's several field hospitals that have been established by multiple international partners. Most of the patients are turned over to them. It depends on the severity of the injuries, as to where they go.

HARRIS: How would you describe your efforts to rescue people so far? And how much of a window do you still have, in your view, to make rescues?

KNERR: Time is always a factor in a situation like this. Every hour that ticks at this point is critical.

The first four to five days, you have the biggest opportunity. And based on our rescue efforts so far, we've had the most success. Now we're into day five, I guess six now. It's starting to get dire. I mean, unfortunately, the opportunity for rescue is going to be very slim here over the next day or so.

HARRIS: Has the military been able to help your teams get farther east to impacted areas there, and maybe effect some rescues farther east in Port-au-Prince?

KNERR: Which area particularly are you asking? We have had assistance of our U.S. military, whether it be on ground or air, assets. We have not had difficulty actually accessing any of the areas we've been assigned at this point.

HARRIS: Terrific. That's the answer to the question.

Joe, appreciate it. And thank you so much for your efforts for the people of Haiti. We really appreciate it.

Thank you. Thanks for your time.

KNERR: Thank you.

HARRIS: Let's get you caught up on our top stories now.

Taliban fighters launched a wave of bold attacks on Kabul today.

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(SOUNDS OF GUNFIRE)

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You're hearing security forces locked in what was a three-hour gunfight at an Afghan shopping mall. Suicide bombers blew up outside government buildings, including the presidential palace. Hospital workers say five people were killed, the Taliban claim 31 died.

Former prime minister Tony Blair will testify before Britain's Iraq Commission on January 29th. Blair's one-time spokesman denied last week intelligence had been sexed up to promote the case for war. Investigators are looking at events in the run-up to the invasion in 2003.

And you're looking at live pictures here from the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta. King Day services under way now at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Speakers include Princeton Professor Cornel West, U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, new Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. President and Mrs. Obama are honoring Martin Luther King Jr. by participating in a community service event today.

Water, food, medicine, lifelines for the people of Haiti. Many of you are donating to the cause, and you're wondering, why is it taking so long to get the stuff to the people in need? We have some answers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: It's hard to believe, but as many as 20,000 Haitians are still waiting for food, water and medicine. How can that be with all the relief organizations helping out? It comes down to this -- they simply can't get the stuff from point A to point B.

Chief national correspondent John King mapped it out for us with the experts on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": We just want to go in and take a closer look at some of the roads inside Haiti here as this plays out, because one of the big challenges is when you have the damage, the country is not all that developed to begin with, and you have the damage that goes in a lot of these buildings, this is a -- using Google Earth and satellite imagery, the red circles are roads that in the immediate aftermath were completely blocked.

A lot of the buildings collapsing in the street. The yellow means they're partially obstructed. And you have the airport up in the north which is where the general is out here. And you have down into here into Port-au-Prince.

Is there enough heavy equipment -- to you, Dr. Shah, first, and then to the General -- the bulldozers, the earth-movers, the other things, are these roads now cleared or is this still a problem on the ground in terms of delivering aid?

RAJIV SHAH, USAID ADMINISTRATOR: Well, there has been some clearance of certain roads, and there is a lot more heavy equipment coming from the U.S. military on U.S. military assets over the course of the next week or two. So the effort to clear transport routes, especially when you look at secondary roads, is an incredible challenge, will require a lot of equipment. And, of course, that will have to come in from the United States, and from other countries. It is -- I am glad you are doing this, because it points out that, you know, the airport initially suffered a real hit. And that's one of the unique points of this tragedy.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: ... and this is where the general is right now, right?

SHAH: Absolutely. The air-traffic control tower was down, and so it was essentially not effectively operable until we were able to work in partnership with the Haitian government and help upgrade its throughput and its capacity and manage its operations. In addition, we're working to clear transit routes and using the helicopters on the aircraft carrier to make sure we distribute commodities despite the fact that many of the roads are not passable.

So that's why it's so important for us to have the whole of government response where we are using assets and capabilities from across our government as the president has directed us to do.

KING: And I want to show, and General, go to you as I do -- and again, I know you can't see this -- but I want to show our viewers, this is what the port looked like before -- this is the port just off downtown Port-au-Prince. This is what it looked like before the earthquake hit. And I want to use now satellite imagery to show you the devastation.

I want you to notice, up here to our viewers, there is a crane right here on the port. You see the ships docking on the long dock. Now look at how this has played out as you bring this out. Get this to turn on for me, and it will work -- we'll get it to work.

We've zoomed away. Let me come back in and pull that out. And if you look now, if you had the before and after, it is stunning. It's completely destroyed. And again, I want to go back so that our viewers can see the difference. A full port there before the earthquake. And now this.

General, is there any chance in the short term that you can use this port, that you can make the necessary repairs to make it functional, or is that out of commission for you as you deal with this urgent challenge?

LT. GEN. P.K. KEEN, DEP. COMMANDER, U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND: Well, it's currently out of commission. But we are already moving in the direction to get ports over. I have a Navy rear admiral on the ground who is going to be responsible for looking at all the ports and getting them open as soon as possible or getting things moved in this direction in order to address that tremendous challenge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Connecting the missing with their families. We're going to show you how an e-mail from a worried son put CNN on the trail of a lost father.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Very quickly here, we wanted to jump out of that commercial break and get to Chris Lawrence. He's at Port-au-Prince at the airport, and he's on the phone with us.

And Chris, I understand you've got some new information.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Please turn up the volume.

HARRIS: Chris, can you hear me OK?

LAWRENCE: Turn -- yes, I can, but barely. Please turn up the volume.

HARRIS: OK, we'll work on that, but we understand that you've got some new information to share with us.

Do we need to get back to Chris?

LAWRENCE: Oh, yes. OK, I can hear you. I can hear you now.

HARRIS: You can hear me OK?

LAWRENCE: Yes, I can.

HARRIS: OK, Chris, take it away.

LAWRENCE: We're at the Port-au-Prince airport and the military has just told us that there has been a mass-casualty event in the city of Port-au-Prince, that it involves 30 Americans.

What happened was we were on the flight line (ph), we were about to get on board a military helicopter, Navy helicopter that was going to drop off aid in the city of Port-au-Prince. All of a sudden they pulled us back, they started pulling off all the supplies that were on it. And one of the men (ph) on the plane when I came over said, it's a mass casualty, there's been a mass casualty, we've got to pull everything off. Soldiers started running over, pulling all the water, all the MREs that were on off.

And then we saw about two or three other helos land, they've all been cleared of all the supplies. We also saw some medical personnel getting on board. And then about 30 soldiers...

(AUDIO GAP)

.... they started putting on their blue medical...

(AUDIO GAP)

HARRIS: Chris, I can barely make out the information, but my understanding is that you're talking about a mass casualty event involving 30 -- as many as 30 Americans. I'm going to reach out to folks at the International Desk for a little help on this.

Did we lose him? OK. So we lost Chris Lawrence on the beeper line. We'll try to get that re-established.

In the meantime, maybe someone on our team can talk to the folks over at the International Desk and see if I can get some more information on what has happened here. Chris Lawrence describing -- Pierre, if you could, get me some information maybe on e-mail or something on what Chris is reporting. Well, just come on up. Come on up, come on up, come on up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't know what he's found exactly, but we're expecting to find mass burials of people. Some bodies have possibly been piled up in some areas.

HARRIS: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, in the coming days, you're going to have, you know, people running....

HARRIS: Kayla (ph), let's get a chair up. Let's get a chair up and let's get -- let's do that. Let's get a chair up and we'll get Pierre or someone from the International Desk to help us on this story and in the meantime, we'll try to get Chris Lawrence back with this information. Maybe a couple other bits and then we'll get back to this story.

In New York, a son anxiously awaits any word on his father who couldn't have picked a worse time to visit Haiti. Frightened by all of the images on television, the son sent an e-mail to us here at CNN and Jason Carroll takes us along on the search to find his father.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): When news of the quake broke and images of destruction poured in, Sachiel Mondesir sat in New York frustrated and worried, unable to reach his father, Jean Syrie, who was in Port-au- Prince for a funeral.

SACHIEL MONDESIR, FATHER IS IN HAITI: I started tearing up because I knew my dad was down there and I had no idea what just happened so I was very afraid.

CARROLL: Mondesir tried everything, but communications were down. The U.S. embassy, out of reach.

S. MONDESIR: It was a sense of, you know, helplessness where you can't do anything for the person that you love. So I just -- I did not know what to do.

CARROLL: So Mondesir took a chance and sent an e-mail to CNN asking for help, attaching his father's picture and address. Armed with the information, we set out to find Jean Syrie, our local driver snaking through complicated streets asking questions along the way. Finally, we spot the address in a neighborhood called Delmar 24. The Mondesir home destroyed, no sign of his Sachiel's father, but we did find his aunt.

(on camera): Basically what I am doing right now is showing her a picture that I have of this man on my Blackberry here that was sent to me. This is his picture here. So we've made our way to his - we found his home here in this area and we found one of his relatives that has his passport.

(voice-over): She says, Sachiel's father is alive and took us to a small camp where they have been staying with other survivors. We wait, and no sign of Jean Syrie.

But several hours later...

(on camera): That's him! Hi, how are you? How are you? We have been looking for you! It's so good to see you. There are a lot of people back in the United States who are looking for you. Your son.

JEAN SYRIE MONDESIR, SACHIEL MONDESIR'S FATHER: OK, OK.

CARROLL: Yes, yes. How are you? How are you doing?

J. MONDESIR: I'm all right.

CARROLL: This is how we found you. This is a picture of you.

J. MONDESIR: Yes, that's me.

(LAUGHTER)

CARROLL: That's you, yes?

J. MONDESIR: That's me.

CARROLL (voice-over): CNN producer Justin Dial (ph) used our satellite phone to make an important call.

J. MONDESIR: Sachiel? How are you doing? OK. I am fine. Are you OK? I am fine. Everything OK with me. OK?

CARROLL (on camera): What was it like to finally hear your son's voice? How was that for you? Nice?

J. MONDESIR: Sachiel?

CARROLL: Yes.

J. MONDESIR: Oh, it's very nice. Very nice for me. Very nice. He's my last son.

CARROLL (voice-over): More than 1,000 miles away, a grateful and relieved son. S. MONDESIR: It's almost like a dream that, you know, you have not heard from him, so to speak with him now again, you know, it's hard to even explain the emotions, but I was extremely happy to hear from him.

CARROLL (on camera): Take care of yourself. Be well and be safe.

J. MONDESIR: OK, yes.

CARROLL: All right.

(voice-over): Mondesir was anxious just to thank our crew. In a city with so much despair, one family is thankful for the ending they had hoped for.

(on camera): John Syrie says he was originally booked on an Air France flight leaving Port-au-Prince on Wednesday. That's obviously not going to happen because commercial flights aren't coming in or going out. But Jean Syrie says that's OK. What he's going to do is spend his time checking on loved ones, checking on friends, making sure they're OK. He says so long as his family at home knows he's all right.

Jason Carroll, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: OK, very quickly now, I've walked over to the International Desk which -- I'm going to do it right now. Getting to Chris first and then we'll talk to Sanjay.

We want to clear up a situation we reported on -- a mass casualty event in Port-au-Prince. Our Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence is back on the line for us.

And Chris, if you would, walk us through your reporting, please.

LAWRENCE: Yes, Tony, what we're being told now is there's been a mass casualty event in the city of Port-au-Prince. The U.S. military is telling us that right now it looks to be 30 injured -- not dead, wounded -- and they are 30 Americans.

What happened was we were on the flight line here at the Port-au- Prince airport. We were just about to get on a helicopter that's going to drop off some aid. All of a sudden they pulled us back and a crew ran out, started pulling off all the supplies, all the MREs, all the bottles of water. And pretty soon they were stripping all of the helos as well that were lined up alongside us. We saw some medical personnel start to jump in those helos. And one of the men on the flight line said, yes, there's been a mass casualty, mass casualty event.

And so those helos were then redirected to go out and try to pick up those wounded Americans. We're being told they will be brought here first, treated, and then airlifted out to the USS Carl Vinson for further treatment.

I can also tell you in just about the last five or ten minutes, I saw about 30 soldiers come up from their staging area and brought out -- they started stripping off some of their work gloves and putting on their medical scrubs and medical gloves in what looks to be in preparation to receive some of the wounded.

HARRIS: OK, Chris, let's do this in pieces here, because I've got a number of things going here at the same time at the International Desk. I'm going to try to get to our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta in just a second.

But if you would, walk us through again without -- hopefully with a clearer line this time, exactly the reporting on this, what exactly happened. Again, you're talking about at least 30 Americans wounded. Walk us through it again, and I apologize for having you do this a couple of times, but it only helps with clarity.

LAWRENCE: No, I understand, Tony. I understand. We're standing out here on the tarmac, so I imagine it could be pretty hard to hear. It's pretty loud out here.

But basically, this is the far end of the airport. This is where the U.S. military stages its helicopters. It's basically the hub of all the aid that's being brought out to the people of Port-au-Prince by the U.S. military. There's a huge grassy field and basically come off the Carl Vinson, they land here. There are big pallets of MREs and water bottles. And what happens is one helicopter will bring all water, the another helicopter, the next helicopter, brings all MREs. And they're just doing continuous runs into the areas in and around Port-au-Prince to drop off supplies.

We were about to get on one of those helicopters to watch them deliver some of this aid. As we walked, and we were right about to climb on board, and all of a sudden they pulled us back. They had us run back about 10, 20 yards. One of the men on the line started telling us there had been a mass casualty event, mass casualty event.

They yelled for some soldiers to come over. They came over, started stripping all the MREs off, clearing space on board that helicopter. We also looked around and saw several other helicopters being stripped of any water, MREs, things like that. We also saw some medical personnel with the Red Cross with the medical symbols getting on board some of those helicopters instead of the food distribution.

Then after that happened, after we saw these helicopters start taking off, I got a member of the military who was running like crazy to get some information, to get things organized. He wasn't able to talk long, very, very busy. But he told me it looks like a mass casualty event somewhere in or around Port-au-Prince. He wasn't sure at the time. But he said about 30 Americans, and he said initial reports show they are wounded. Wounded, not dead -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK. Let me do this, let me do this, let me turn you over to our International Desk. And, Chris, you can talk to Pierre and the others here and share that story again. We're working on a wire on it and everything else. But maybe the best thing to do at this point is to turn you over to the International Desk so you can explain the story to our team here as well.

We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to talk to our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

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HARRIS: Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta was pressed into emergency service this morning, surgery on a 12-year-old girl aboard the USS Carl Vinson.

Sanjay's on the line with us. And if you would, Sanjay, what happened?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, this is a 12-year-old girl who suffered a pretty significant head injury during the earthquake. She actually had some shrapnel, probably cement, that had caused the head injury. Gone through the skull and actually penetrated the brain.

The USS Carl Vinson is very well equipped for many of things and doctors here are very well trained, but they did not have a neurosurgeon in the area. So, in fact, Tony, they had been watching CNN and saw some of the reports coming in from Port-au-Prince and knew that I was in the area. So they got a hold of us through our world headquarters and somehow we connected amidst all this and a chopper came out and flew myself out to the ship.

And we just were able to perform a successful operation. I was delighted to be able to tell you that. The girl's going to do great. The shrapnel is removed and bleeding was controlled. So that's basically what happened.

HARRIS: Sanjay, describe that environment. I know you've been pressed into emergency service in these kinds of situations before. But if you would, I know people at home would love to hear what was the environment and the circumstances around this operation?

GUPTA: Well, you know, it's interesting, because this is a carrier. It's a very large vessel, as you know. And it's an enormous sort of footprint in the sea. About 4,000 people on a carrier like this. But they do have a pretty well-equipped medical core. They have an operating room, a couple of triage areas to take care of trauma.

When they got into this area, Tony, they weren't necessarily sure if they were going to be doing missions like this. But as we all know now, it's very necessary. And so the helicopters started going into Port-au-Prince from the Carl Vinson and picking up patients and bringing them back and forth. And the doctors, a couple of doctors that I was working with here had been taking care of patients for 40 hours straight, operating on patients 40 hours straight. So it's been very, very busy, as you might imagine and they're going to continue to stick around. We also know the Comfort will be here, we're told, within 48 hours, which will provide even more medical capabilities just offshore.

HARRIS: OK. Sanjay, appreciate it. Boy, I can't imagine, but thank goodness you were there. Johnny on the spot, as always, our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

If you would, imagine this -- spending five days trapped in the rubble of Haiti. One woman's story of hope and survival in the midst of so much chaos.

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HARRIS: You know, it's one of the stories of hope emerging from the tragedy in Haiti, a south Florida woman pulled from a collapsed supermarket five days after she was trapped under the rubble. After all of the waiting and worrying her family calls it a miracle, sure.

The story now from reporter David Sutta of our affiliate WFOR.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID SUTTA, WFOR-REPORTER (voice-over): Michael and Ricky Dittmer can I have been waiting for word from their mother in Haiti.

RICKY DITTMER, MOTHER RESCUED FROM HAITI SUPERMARKET: Just five days and 12 hours, you know, we just couldn't -- I couldn't sleep. We couldn't eat, you know. It was a horrific experience, definitely the worst five days of my life.

SUTTA: Family found her car parked in front of the Caribbean supermarket, five floors that collapsed in the earthquake. There has been talk of some 60 people inside. There was no question Marielle Dittmer was one of them.

R. DITTMER: It just horrified me to think about it.

SUTTA: News reports finally brought hope -- a woman alive inside the market. Then there was this picture, Marielle (ph) Dittmer dazed but alive.

MICHAEL DITTMER, MOTHER RESCUED FROM HAITI SUPERMARKET: She was on her knees in between two walls. So for 108 hours, she was on her knees.

R. DITTMER: After all of this time to be in there and still be alive and well is a miracle, definitely.

SUTTA: Marielle's miracle gets even more incredible. The guy drilling his way through the concrete walls and floors that eventually rescued her? A firefighter from Pembroke Pines, her neighbor.

M. DITTMER: I heard she's on her way.

SUTTA: South Florida firefighters put Marielle on a flight home. Her sons proclaiming the good news on Facebook.

M. DITTMER: I'm going to tell her how much I love her, how much I've missed her and I can't wait to see her. I can't wait.

SUTTA: Ricky and Mike hope their story gives thousands of families still in waiting hope.

M. DITTMER: Just keep the hope. Don't give up. And to the firefighters, don't give up either.

R. DITTMER: I just want this to be an inspiration to everyone waiting for friends and family who they haven't heard of because it can happen, you know, miracles do happen. And they're working around the clock, they're doing the best they can.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: All right. An update on the story -- Marielle Dittmer and her sons were reunited at a Florida hospital where she is now listed in good condition.

Want to get you quickly back now to Chris Lawrence. He is in Port-au-Prince, he's at the airport in Port-au-Prince.

And, Chris, I know you've been tracking a story of some kind of event that involved at the end of it, some casualties to Americans. Maybe you can sort this out for us.

LAWRENCE: Yes, Tony. It's really difficult to hear you out here, a lot of the airplanes are taking off. But I can tell you it's good news in that it's much, much fewer Americans than they initially thought. Turns out it was only three Americans wounded.

And from what the military is just telling me here where the confusion came in is outside airport where the Americans are -- a lot of Americans are waiting to try to get out of Haiti, in some way three Americans were slightly injured but there was such a huge crowd around them, that initially the military just took that to mean a much larger injury count. So they immediately mobilized a lot of the assets around here.

I'm told now that all three of the Americans have been brought into (INAUDIBLE) hospital here. They're all being treated and (INAUDIBLE) injuries aren't life threatening (INAUDIBLE).

HARRIS: All right, Chris, appreciate the reporting. We'll get back to you at the top of the hour for more on this story.

Right now, let's take a quick break. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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HARRIS: OK. We will have more from Haiti next hour. Chris Lawrence is following teams trying to distribute food aid.

Plus, we will also take a look at a dire circumstances facing doctors. Too many injured, too few supplies. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen reports from hospitals that can only offer basic care right now.

And we're also working to connect quake victims with their loved ones in the states. Ralitsa Vassileva is manning CNN's missing person's desk.

We're back in a moment.

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