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Six Days After Killer Quake; Lifesaving supplies Slow to Reach Survivors; U.S. New York and Florida Crews Save Lives in Haiti; Doctors in Dire Need of Supplies; Son Unable to Contact Dad in Haiti Asks for Search Help; Homebuyer Tax Rebate Delays; Boston Tea Party?
Aired January 18, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Monday morning. It is the 18th of January. Thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. Here are the big stories we'll be following for you in the next 15 minutes.
First, there are some tense moments in Haiti. Food and medicine may be on the ground but it's still not reaching many of the people who need it. Chaos is breaking out as people fight over any scraps of food. Looters clashing with security forces. In the midst of the madness, there are miracles to report as well.
ROBERTS: A son desperate for news about his father in Haiti turns to CNN. Armed with an address and a photograph, our Jason Carroll makes his way through Port-au-Prince's battered streets. He finds the home and another relative.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Basically what I'm doing right now is I'm 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: But did they find the 73-year-old father? We'll go live to Jason in Port-au-Prince in just a little while.
CHETRY: And it may be hard to believe but Democrats are actually worried about losing the Senate seat that Ted Kennedy held for 46 years. With a special election coming up tomorrow, polls show Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley in a virtual tie. Is there a modern day Boston tea party in the works? Our Jim Acosta taking a look at a race that will impact everyone.
ROBERTS: Nearly six days after a killer earthquake brought Haiti to its knees, only now is food and medicine beginning to reach survivors. Fifty thousand emergency food packets and 250,000 liters of water distributed by aid agencies over the weekend. The process though is painfully slow, and looting is now becoming a problem in Port-au-Prince.
Desperate Haitians running low on patience and running into the law. But amid all the chaos, all the carnage, there are some minor miracles.
The United Nations says 61 people have been saved by search and rescue teams. One of them, a U.N. worker pinned for five days, pulled from the rubble alive. Five others rescued from the remains of a Caribbean grocery store. Thanks to police and firefighters from Florida and New York.
But doctors are in short supply. Many physicians are ready and willing to volunteer, but are unable to get clearance to land at the airport. The United Nations says seven makeshift field hospitals were set up in the capital by Saturday, but so many people are injured that many of them have to be turned away.
CHETRY: And it's hard to imagine what it must have been like to experience an earthquake like the one that hit Haiti but you're about to get a sense of it. A camera was rolling inside one of these homes. There it is, when life changed forever on Tuesday.
Everyone in that home survived, and scenes like that one played out in homes and stores all over Haiti last week. Some people got out, and as we know, many did not. Dozens of others, even now, nearly six days later, are still being pulled from the piles of steel and concrete alive.
Ivan Watson now with the American search and rescue teams that are pulling off miracles one life at a time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the eerie light of a supermarket storage room, an international team of rescue workers, waiting for a miracle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, guys. Take a breath nice and easy.
WATSON: Rescue teams from Florida and Turkey have been struggling to reach people buried in a supermarket.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's get them right over here.
WATSON: And at 10:23 on Sunday night, after more than five days trapped in the dark, a survivor emerges. A Haitian man, 30 years old, rescuers are withholding his name.
As he comes into the light, he looks around and smiles. Then a wave, and a sign of jubilation. He whispers thank you to his rescuers. Because against all odds, this man escaped what should have been his tomb.
What's one of the first things he told you guys?
LT. FRANK MAINAIDE, SOUTH FLORIDA URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE: I ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly.
WATSON: I guess he was in the snack aisle or something.
MAINAIDE: Well, it is a grocery store so whatever aisle he was, he had peanut butter and jelly. That's probably why he survived.
WATSON: Moments later, a second survivor, this 40-year-old Haitian woman, also a customer of the supermarket.
MAINAIDE: Health-wise, remarkably they look pretty good. I don't know if they had access to water. We did give them water once we made contact with them, and they drank those water bottles, as you can assume, very quickly, and they were remarkably in very good condition, considering they've been in there for five days.
WATSON: Managers say there may have been up to 150 people in the five-story Caribbean supermarket when the building collapsed. Saturday night and Sunday morning, rescuers succeed in digging three other survivors out from under the rubble, including a 50-year-old American woman named Marey Ditmaire (ph). But the rescue operations are dangerous work. Rescuers quickly evacuated when the walls of their tunnel suddenly shifted.
Sunday night's rescue offers a devastated city a much-needed moment of hope. Captain Joseph Zahralban takes a minute to embrace the manager of the supermarket, but their celebration is short lived. As long as there is a chance of more survivors, he says they cannot afford to rest.
CAPT. JOE ZAHRALBAN, SOUTH FLORIDA URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE: We're going to go back in. We're going to do more searches, and the commitment I've made to Samir (ph) is we're going to do this until we no longer find survivors.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hopefully we can find more and more people. Hopefully.
ZAHRALBAN: Agree.
WATSON: Ivan Watson, CNN, Port-au-Prince.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And thousands of people still do not know what to do or where to go. They are waiting for food, water and medical care, and are worried about the growing threat of violence throughout the city.
The organization Doctors Without Borders said a cargo plane carrying a mobile field hospital was turned away from the airport and had to be rerouted through the Dominican Republic. That created a 24- hour delay. Our Elizabeth Cohen is live in Port-au-Prince this morning taking a look at how doctors are trying to save lives with so little. Hi, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: John, the situation has become quite dire at this makeshift hospital that I've been in for nearly four days now. What happened was that people were brought in from the rubble, of course, with open wounds. The problem is they can't really treat them here effectively. All they can do is give people antibiotics and pain medication. But for a lot of these people, that is not enough.
Gangrene has set in for about half of the 160 patients that are here. The problem is it's very, very difficult to get them to a facility that can do the kind of surgery that they need in order to save their life or to avoid amputation. And the mortality rate here, the death toll has been rising swiftly in the past 24 hours. And they're very concerned about where they're going to put these patients.
John, let me tell you a little bit about this hospital that I'm in. It is completely no test (ph). There are no blood tests. There's no x-rays. There's none of that.
There's not even -- there's like two blood pressure cuffs for the entire hospital. And just to give you an idea of just sort of how chaotic this is, they have three boxes of these.
This is a blood pressure cuff. You can see they have three boxes but there's no bulb. You need a bulb in order to pump the blood pressure. We've all seen it done. There's no bulb, so there's three boxes of cuffs, but no bulbs.
I haven't seen a thermometer since I've been here. The situation here doctors say is very desperate. They're trying to figure out ways to get these patients off to more sophisticated hospitals -- John.
ROBERTS: Elizabeth Cohen with a report for us from the ground there this morning in Port-au-Prince. Elizabeth, thanks so much.
And find everything you need to know on the relief effort in Haiti at CNN.com/haiti. There is information on how you can help and a list of charitable agencies at CNN.com/impact. You'll find stories and images at CNNireport.com. And stay connected with CNN on Twitter at #haitiCNN.
CHETRY: Also coming up tonight, 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, a special two-hour edition of "LARRY KING LIVE." Celebrities, leaders, activists will all join Larry to show you how to take action and be part of the global outreach.
ROBERTS: Other stories new this morning. He just walked through the wrong door. That's what an attorney says happened when a man set off security alarms at JFK International Airport in New York. The man was returning from Haiti, and now faces criminal charges. Saturday's security breach delayed dozens of flights and forced passengers to be re-screened. CHETRY: President Obama is in Boston. He's trying to save a seat for his party, a key vote for health care reform with a special election coming up tomorrow to fill the late Ted Kennedy's seat. Polls show Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley in a virtual tie.
Now if Brown wins, he would break the filibuster-proof 60-seat majority that Democrats currently hold in the Senate. Our Jim Acosta is live in Boston taking a look at a race that could impact everyone. That's coming up at 6:25 Eastern.
ROBERTS: Also breaking this morning, Afghanistan's capital rocked by deadly and brazen violence. At least five people were killed after militants entered and attacked several government buildings, including the presidential palace. Gunfire and explosions were also heard at a shopping center. U.N. forces say two insurgents were killed. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for this morning's attack.
CHETRY: Nine minutes past the hour right now. We get a quick check of the morning's weather headlines with Rob Marciano. He's in the extreme weather center for us this morning.
Hey, Rob. So it warms up, but for a lot of people now it's raining.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right. A little storm in the northeast but it'll be existing fairly (INAUDIBLE). Let's look at the radar.
Some snow now replacing some of that rain across parts of New England in through Boston. You may see a little bit of a wet dusting here. Some slushy snow may be piling up on some of the sidewalks and sides of the roads. You see the temperatures dropping, so it is cooler behind this, but not a whole lot of moisture left. So it shouldn't be terrible as far as piling the snow up.
The focus will be going forward this week will be a series of strong storms heading into California, John and Kiran. This is a very El Nino pattern that could very well spell flooding and potentially some landslides near those burn areas. We'll talk more about that in about 30 minutes. Back to you.
ROBERTS: So, Rob, the El Nino really kicking in now, is it?
MARCIANO: Well, the pattern has shifted to one that is a complete signature of El Nino. But as far as what's going on in the equatorial Pacific, that pretty much remains the same.
ROBERTS: All right. Rob for us this morning. Thanks, Rob.
Still ahead on the Most News in the Morning, his father missing in Haiti. A son turns to CNN for help. Our own Jason Carroll goes door to door through Port-au-Prince on the hunt to try to track him down. See what he found coming up.
It's ten minutes after the hour.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Almost 13 minutes after the hour now. We're back with the Most News in the Morning.
The cloud of despair that has engulfed Haiti continues to be punctured by stories of hope and survival. Our Jason Carroll is live for us in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
And, Jason, we've had a project going here at CNN where we're trying to hook up loved ones back home in the United States with news of their relatives who might be down there in Haiti. We were contacted by somebody who gave us a photograph of the father. You took the photograph. You literally went door to door in Port-au- Prince looking for him. What did you find?
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, John, as you can imagine, there are thousands of people out there who are looking for loved ones here in Port-au-Prince. But with communications down, people can't get out, people outside can't get in. It's impossible to try to link up with those who you love and who are missing. So what we just tried to do is link the two together and take a look at what we found.
(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 Sare (ph), who is in Port- au-Prince for a funeral.
SACHIEL MONDESIR, FATHER IS IN HAITI: I started tuning out because I know 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.
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 didn't 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 Sare. Our local driver snaking through complicated streets, asking questions along the way.
Finally, we spot the address. In a neighborhood called Delma 24 (ph), the Mondesir home, destroyed. No sign of Sachiel's father, but we did find his aunt.
(on camera): Basically what I'm doing right now is I'm 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've been staying with other survivors. We wait. No sign of Jean Sare (ph). But several hours later --
(on camera): That's him! Hi. How are you? How are you? We've 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 SERRIER (ph) MONDESIR: OK, OK.
CARROLL: Yes. Yes, how are you? How are you doing?
JS MONDESIR: I'm all right.
CARROLL: Yes?
JS MONDESIR: I'm all right.
CARROLL: This is how we found you. This is a picture. This is you.
JS MONDESIR: Yes, that's me.
CARROLL: That's you, yes?
JS MONDESIR: That's me.
CARROLL (voice-over): CNN producer Justin Dial used our satellite phone to make an important call.
JS MONDESIR: Sachiel, how are you doing? OK, I'm fine. Are you okay? I'm 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?
JS MONDESIR: Sachiel?
CARROLL: Yes.
JS MONDESIR: Oh, very nice. Very nice for me. Very nice for me. 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, we haven't heard from him. So to speak to him now again, you know, it's, 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. JS MONDESIR: OK, good. All right.
CARROLL (voice-over): Mondesir was anxious to thank our crew. In a city with so much despair, one family is thankful for the ending they had hoped for.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Well, as you can imagine, it was a -- a bright spot not only for them but for us as well, John. Being out here and -- and seeing so much destruction, seeing so much -- seeing so much death, this was a bright spot for us as well. So it was a pleasure to be able to try and make that happen.
Jean Serrier (ph) is actually -- was originally booked on a flight leaving Port-au-Prince on Wednesday on Air France, but, obviously, because commercial flights aren't coming in or going out at this point, he will not be on that flight.
But he says he's all right. What he's been doing is going around, checking on other friends and relatives. He did lose a cousin in the quake. He lost a few friends in the quake as well. But he's spending his time going around, checking on friends and says that's what's been keeping him busy -- John.
ROBERTS: And at least now his family can rest easy knowing that he's -- he's doing all right.
Great story, Jason. Good job tracking him down too. Thanks. Our Jason Carroll this morning.
CHETRY: Wow, it's great to be able to talk about, you know, some bright spots in this tragedy that we've been following.
ROBERTS: It is. It really is.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead, we are going to take a quick break. When we come back, Christine Romans is going to be "Minding Your Business". We'll be right back.
It's 17 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up in 21 minutes after the hour. Time to mind your business.
Christine Romans is here minding it for you this morning, and big delays with the homebuyer tax credit.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. This is a very popular program, as you know, and until maybe November 6 there hadn't been really much trouble filing for this -- for this -- for this tax credit, but our folks last week at CNNMoney.com noticed that, wait a second, there were huge delays and you couldn't actually file anymore for the tax credit. Now that delay is over. You can you file for your homebuyer tax credit, but expect a long time before you're going to get the money, and expect an awful lot of paperwork. No electronic filing from here on out for that homebuyer tax credit, to claim. Extra paperwork, things like proof of residency, a copy of your driver's license, all kinds of mortgage documents, and you can expect two months to maybe four months delays.
Why? Don't blame the IRS. This is because so many people were scamming the system. Tens of thousands of people trying to claim this tax credit and they had no business doing so. In fact, a bunch of little kids claimed this tax credit. Thousands of -- of people have done this, I think maybe several hundred. $4 million in first time homebuyer tax credits went to kids under this -- under the age of 18, the youngest being four years old. These are shady tax preparers who are trying to get money back for their -- for their clients.
Form 5405 is what you need to know. This is the document -- this is the actual form you're going to need to file to get your money back, 5405. Remember that.
ROBERTS: Do you have a numeral this morning for us?
ROMANS: I do. 89,938.
CHETRY: Is that how many people have claimed it?
ROMANS: That's how many people scammed it. Can you imagine? So that's why the IRS is cracking it down. You're going to spend more time and have a lot more paperwork to do to get this tax credit, $8,000. You have until April 30th. You need to close -- you need to buy the house by April 30th. I think you have to close by June if you want to --
It's a very popular program, so popular -- wherever there's government money, there are people trying to scam for it. And that's why you're going to pay for -- for those other scammers, 89,000 scams. That was just by October.
ROBERTS: That's amazing.
Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business" this morning.
ROMANS: Sure.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Christine.
CHETRY: Still ahead, we're going to have more on the rescue and relief efforts in Haiti coming up.
But first, a special Senate race that's taking place in Massachusetts to replace the late Ted Kennedy's seat. Well, it turns into quite a nail-biter for Democrats and the state of health care reform could hang in the balance.
Twenty-two minutes after the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: We're monitoring the latest information coming out of Haiti. Our coverage continues in just a few minutes -- Kiran.
CHETRY: John, thanks. And right now it's 25 minutes past the hour.
What happens tomorrow in Massachusetts could affect the entire nation, President Obama's entire future domestic agenda as well. It's why he was in Boston yesterday, trying to recapture the energy from his 2008 campaign.
Voters are going to the polls to choose between Democratic State Attorney General Martha Coakley and Republican State (ph) Senator Scott Brown. They're fighting for the seat that was that of former -- the late Ted Kennedy. He held that seat for 46 years. But now there's no guarantee, even in New England, known as the bluest of the blue, that a Democrat will actually fill it.
Jim Acosta is following the critical race for us live from Boston this morning. So people there have been inundated with TV ads. It's really coming down to the wire. What's the latest?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, in a (ph) sign of big political weakness for the president, Democrats are scrambling to hold on to Ted Kennedy's Senate seat. Polls show the Republican in this race, Scott Brown, is tapping into voter outrage in the hopes of pulling off his own Boston Tea Party.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): Facing a volcano of voter anger, President Obama dashed off to Boston to prevent a Massachusetts meltdown. How important is Tuesday's election here?
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you were fired up in the last elections, I need you more fired up in this election.
ACOSTA: So important, the president parachuted into this campaign rally on the First Lady's birthday.
OBAMA: Where we don't want to go right now is backwards, to the same policies that got us into this mess in the first place.
ACOSTA: Mr. Obama was out to rescue Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, who polls show could actually do the unthinkable for Democrats and lose Ted Kennedy's Senate seat. Kennedy's widow is on hand to support Coakley who concedes the nation's top issue, the economy, is not on her side.
MARTHA COAKLEY, DEMOCRATIC SENATE CANDIDATE: People deserve to be angry, but we can't let that anger get in the way of remembering where it came from.
SCOTT BROWN, REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATE: This is my truck. I put a lot of miles on it during this campaign.
ACOSTA: Coakley's challenger, the pickup-driving Republican State lawmaker Scott Brown, has the backing of frustrated Tea Party voters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't like the health care. That's the bill that's in Congress right now. I think it's going to be a very dangerous control of our rights.
ACOSTA: Brown's vowing to deny Democrats the 60th vote in the Senate needed to pass health care reform.
BROWN: I want to be the person to go down there and send the health care back to its drawing board.
ACOSTA: This ultimate blue state is seeing red in part because some Independents and Conservatives who supported Democrats in the past are having second thoughts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think it's -- it's particularly the president. I don't think it's particularly Coakley. I think it's -- it's the direction that this country is taking. We need to send a message to -- to the people. The people are very angry.
ACOSTA: Even die-hard Democrats accuse Coakley, who once had a double-digit lead here, of running a lackluster campaign.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That she's (ph) more likeable as a candidate, but there's some things that are turning me off about her as a candidate.
ACOSTA: The race is so close Democrats are now trying to figure out if they can pass health care reform if Coakley loses and before Brown would take office -- a scenario Republicans welcome.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They slow walk the certification and they warp speed the vote, that is it. That is it. You're going -- we will win the House for sure and probably take over this...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Now we've drawn up some baseball cards to help you keep track of this race coming up here on Tuesday. The Republican Scott Brown, as we mentioned, is a State Senator here in Massachusetts. Before that he served three terms in the House. He is also a member of the Massachusetts National Guard.
And Martha Coakley, as we mentioned, is the Massachusetts Attorney General. She was the district attorney in Middlesex County here in Massachusetts. She's also a former president of the Women's Bar Association.
And there's a Kennedy in this race. His name is Joseph Kennedy. He's the Libertarian in this race. He's worked for some information technology firms and also has the support of some Tea Party activists. And while we're talking about baseball, Kiran, we should mention that Martha Coakley may have made a -- a big political gaffe here in Boston when she referred to Curt Schilling, the former Boston Red Sox pitcher as a Yankees fan.
CHETRY: He's another Yankee fan -- whoops! That might be worst of all, right...
ACOSTA: Not good.
CHETRY: ... out of anything else that you could possibly do there in -- in Massachusetts. Hey...
ACOSTA: Hard to recover. Right.
CHETRY: ... a quick question, though. There is a Plan B, right? I mean, if this seat is lost for -- for health care to still get through the Senate?
ACOSTA: There is a Plan B, there's a Plan C, but they're not good plans, Kiran. The successor to Ted Kennedy would be installed fairly quickly after this race, so there is some talk that the House of Representatives may actually just vote on the version that passed the Senate, so that way it would not have to go to conference. It could go directly to the president's desk.
They admit -- Democrats admit privately that's a very difficult option to pull off.
The other option is to try to slow walk, as Mara Matalin said, the confirmation, the installment of a successor to Ted Kennedy in the event Coakley loses to try to ram that thing through, but that is also something that is not going over well with Democrats and would be a very difficult thing to pull off, Kiran.
CHETRY: Consequences politically to all of those options. Jim Acosta for us this morning for us this morning in a snowy Massachusetts. Thanks.
ROBERTS: Coming up now on 31 minutes after the hour. That means it's time for this morning's top stories.
Several thousand U.S. troops expected to arrive in Haiti today. They'll be helping to keep order in areas where food and water are being distributed to earthquake survivors. There have been scattered reports of violence, but we are still hearing amazing stories of survivors being pulled from the wreckage.
Yesterday five people were rescued from a collapsed supermarket. One man told rescuers he ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly while he was trapped.
CHETRY: We're following breaking news this morning as well out of Afghanistan, violence and chaos in the heart of Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul. Heavily armed suspected Taliban militants entered the presidential palace as well as other governmental buildings in Kabul. Explosions and gunfire then heard for several hours.
At least five people were killed. According to reports more than 35 others are being treated for injuries. NATO is saying that at least two of the attackers were killed. It started as 14 members of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's cabinet were about to be sworn in.
ROBERTS: And the man who shot Pope John Paul II is out of prison. Mehmet Ali Agca was released this morning, taken to a military facility. He served 19 years in an Italian prison for a 1981 attack. In 200 Italy pardoned him. He was extradited to Turkey where he served ten years for crimes, including the murder of a Turkish journalist.
CHETRY: They lived through Tuesday's earthquake. Now hungry, thirsty, and desperate, the people of Haiti are doing whatever they can to survive.
ROBERTS: For tens of thousands of people, that means cramming into makeshift communities with just blankets, tents, or and tarpaulins. Our Soledad O'Brien takes us inside one of these tent cities.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There was enough water in one of the makeshift camps of Port-au-Prince to give some of the children a shower. There was a little food, a makeshift clinic. They even picked up the garbage.
But many of the tens of thousands of Haitians displaced by the earthquake have no house to go back to and no new place to go. They live beneath recovered sheets and blankets in the grass and concrete. These hot and dirty encampments that have sprung up in parks and plazas are now their homes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The people of Haiti need the help quickly, quickly.
O'BRIEN (on camera): It's now Sunday afternoon, a full five days after the earthquake struck, and as you can see in the shadow of the presidential palace, which is basically collapsed, there's been a tent city that has grown and grown over the days. People came in really because they said they had nowhere else to go. They didn't know what else to do.
Some of the complaints we're hearing though, not only the garbage that you can see here, and the sanitary conditions, which has them very afraid, but also the fact that there's no real system for getting any food.
People have brought whatever they can, including little makeshift cook stoves in order to feed themselves. But it's clear from some of the complaints we're hearing that food is becoming a serious, serious problem.
Can you tell me how long you've been here? UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): Since the earthquake struck.
O'BRIEN: We see children with wounds that have barely been treated. An eight-year-old boy has a seizure as we speak to his mother. The hot sun beats down on a people wounded and helpless.
We climb a tower that former president Jean Betrand Aristide erected in 2004 to get a wider perspective of the desperate camps that are growing in the streets. Entire neighborhoods have been lost, and open spaces have been filled by the homeless.
The streets belong to rescue workers and wandering survivors. Crowds surround the occasional water truck. The capital is in ruins.
O'BRIEN (on camera): That crane is a welcome sight. This is the first time we're told that heavy machinery has been working on that building, which we're told is a tax building. One of the rumors is there's money inside and may be bodies inside as well.
So you can see this tent city growing by the hour as night gets close tore falling. Folks here are going to settle down for the evening right in the shadow of the presidential palace, which is collapsed -- that's the front entrance right there -- as they try to figure out what will be coming tomorrow and if any food, any more aid will make its way right here to the heart of Port-au-Prince.
Reporting from Port-au-Prince, Soledad O'Brien, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Likely they'll be living in those tent cities for a long time to come as well because it's going to take months just to clean the streets, let alone start to rebuild.
CHETRY: And you heard the woman saying quickly, we need it quickly. We're still struggling to grasp why it is that there's so much aid that has poured in and it's still not able to get to the people.
ROBERTS: It's difficult getting through the streets because there's so much rubble, they don't have the transportation. But they're beginning to sort it out.
We'll talk about an hour from now with the U.S. ambassador to Haiti. He'll tell us about the logistical hurdles and how they're trying to get past it.
Right now it's 35 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's 38 minutes after the hour. Let's get a quick check of your morning weather headlines.
(WEATHER BREAK)
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 42 minutes past the hour. We're following a developing story right now. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon returning to the U.S. with the bodies of 40 U.N. staffers that were killed in the Haiti earthquake.
ROBERTS: While in the country yesterday, he visited mission headquarters, the crumbled remains of the Christopher Hotel, and witnessed a worker pulled out of the rubble alive. Our U.N. correspondent Richard Roth has the emotional journey.
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RICHARD ROTH, CNN U.N. CORRESPONDENT: First stop for the U.N. secretary general in Haiti was deeply personal, the demolished U.N. building complex in Port-au-Prince. He lost his two top diplomats there and dozens more remain unaccounted for. The secretary general said he came to Haiti with a heavy heart.
BAN KI-MOON, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: This is of course the gravest single loss for the United Nations.
ROTH: U.N. peacekeepers looked on as the secretary general gazed at what was a six-story building, housing his senior diplomats and others who are still missing. As the secretary general visited, rescue workers were able to speak with a Danish U.N. civil affairs staff member.
Shortly after the secretary general departed, they were able to get him out alive.
KI-MOON: We had a small miracle -- a U.N. staffer who had been trapped under the rubble for longer than five days was rescued safe, and I'm very glad, it was a great sign of hope.
ROTH: Ban's motorcade raced through the streets. He didn't see any bodies but couldn't miss extensive building damage. If Port-au- Prince residents knew who the latest dignitary to visit was, they didn't show it.
In front of the caved in presidential palace, the secretary general approached a group of people. He told them in French the U.N. is aware of their needs and is mobilizing resources. Several men yelled "We need food and jobs."
The secretary general got a better few from a helicopter ride over Port-au-Prince. The U.N.'s top diplomat says the U.N. is in the lead to coordinate the massive relief effort.
KI-MOON: We are with you. You are not alone. Help is already arriving.
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ROBERTS: Richard Roth reporting for us this morning. This morning's top stories just minutes away now, including beating the odds of survival in Haiti. Five people rescued after five days in the rubble, trapped in a supermarket next to a lifeline, the PB and J.
CHETRY: That's right. Also, Democrats desperately trying to keep Ted Kennedy's Senate seat from slipping away. It is the last day of campaigning in Massachusetts. Will the president's last-minute pitch make a difference?
ROBERTS: And Haiti on Hollywood's mind. Celebrities making a pledge from the red carpet at the Golden Globes. An eyewear real drama upstaged the movies. Those stories and more coming your way at the top of the hour.
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CHETRY: Forty-eight minutes past the hour. Despite the recession, tuition hikes, and less financial aid, public college presidents still got a raise last year, but it was their lowest raise in four years. The chronicle of higher education says that their median income rose to more than $436,000; that's a 2.3% increase over last year. Raises of more than 10% have been the norm.
ROBERTS: Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta found himself in the middle of one of the most dramatic developments over the weekend in Haiti when a team of Belgian doctors and nurses picked up and left a field hospital over fear of violence. Sanjay was the only doctor left to care for 25 earthquake victims. Our Gary Tuchman spoke to the man who gave them the order to get out.
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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Did you ask the United Nations to provide security?
UNKNOWN MALE: At the time that we -- yes, we asked the compound as thought we went that and we asked for security and protection at night.
TUCHMAN: What did the United Nations say to you?
UNKNOWN MALE: At that time, they were not able to offer us for the night armed protection, and then they --
TUCHMAN: Did they tell you why?
UNKNOWN MALE: No. They didn't tell me, but they offered us transportation to get out and to come to a secure zone.
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ROBERTS: Dr. Gupta stayed all night at the hospital on Friday with other CNN staffers and at least one Haitian nurse who had refused to leave to take care of all of those patients. He tweeted at 3:45 in the morning that all of the patients were stable. Sanjay says the United Nations is now providing security for this field hospital so that this does not have to happen again.
CHETRY: That's mind boggling.
ROBERTS: It really is. It's incredible.
CHETRY: And Sanjay stayed there. Some of these patients --
ROBERTS: Sanjay and his crew.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: And he turned them all into medics, had them tending to these patients. He was changing IVs, making sure the people were stable and can you imagine?
CHETRY: No, and he actually -- he was tweeting about the experience. I mean, this is also the surreal nature of the social networking and what a big link it's provided people in Haiti and information to the outside world, but he said I'm sorry, I'm not going to be able to do my regular show, his new weekend show, because I was up all night tending to these patients. I mean, he needed a little bit of a break, but really unbelievable. Very brave of Sanjay and everybody else who stayed behind--
ROBERTS: Yes, he used to go under (ph) the situation, and he doesn't shy away from it. That's for sure. God bless him.
CHETRY: Yes, absolutely.
Former President Bill Clinton will be in Haiti today. He is going to be delivering emergency supplies, met with volunteers as the U.N. special envoy for Haiti. Mr. Clinton will also be meeting with President Rene Preval and other leaders about coordinating post quake relief efforts. President Obama asked former presidents Clinton as well as George W. Bush to lead a fundraising campaign for disaster victims.
ROBERTS: The people of Haiti are understandably desperate. Living on the streets can be a very dangerous prospect.
CHETRY: Our Jason Carroll is in Port-au-Prince this morning with more on how people are dealing with this situation after facing nearly a week since this earthquake hit, and still waiting in some cases to get food and water. Good morning, Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you. You know, Kiran, what we wanted to do was, we wanted to go to an area of the city that few are willing to go to because of fear of violence. It's an area called Bel-Air, actually not too far from here. We wanted to see how the relief aid are reaching the people there, and the answer to that is they are receiving very little.
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CARROLL (voice-over): Fires burn in the streets, clouds of dust cover everything. Even in the best of times, this neighborhood in Port-au-Prince is considered by locals as one of its worst, it's Bel- Air.
CARROLL (on-camera): As you walk through the streets of Bel-Air, one of the things you may notice is a lot of the people have a white substance above their upper lip. What that is? It's toothpaste, and what the people are doing is, a rumor has spread through the community that if you put toothpaste there, it will not only protect you from the smell, the growing smells here in the area, but it will also protect you from the dangerous substances in the air as well.
CARROLL (voice-over): Owens Mercy (ph) lives in Bel-Air. He and others here wonder if their neighborhood's reputation of violence and drugs means they'll be last on the list to receive aid.
UNKNOWN MALE: No clothes, no food, no water, nothing at all. We're suffering.
UNKNOWN MALE: It's like, you know, people just look at Bel-Air and see those people, because they're poor, and they are bandits, but today we're not bandits. There are no bandits. We are people dying here. We are people dying.
CARROLL: Those who survive the quake and have food cook outdoors. Tonight, it's chicken stew and plantains. And some like Owen, use their badly-damaged homes for shelter from the day's heat.
But you're still living here outside?
UNKNOWN MALE: I'm still living here, but I don't sleep in there, I sleep outside.
CARROLL (on-camera): This is their kitchen. This is what they use to cook. Over here and this, and over here where you see some of the chickens and the rooster, if you look right over there, that's what they use as a bathroom. Of course, no running water here. In this middle area, this is the living area. This is the area they use to congregate when they want to get out of the sun and get out of the heat for some shade.
CARROLL (voice-over): Late in the day, water arrives. Just in time for these quake survivors to settle in.
CARROLL (on-camera): And what's happening right now is everyone's getting ready for bed, and what you see here is the people have put their sheets and their blankets out into the middle of the street here, and this is where they're going to sleep. This is where they've been sleeping every single solitary night since the earthquake hit.
CARROLL (voice-over): It will be a long night, one of many to come.
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CARROLL (on-camera): And, Kiran, what we've done is we've gotten periodic updates in terms of how the people out there in Bel-Air are receiving some of their aid. We've told that there have been some regular water trucks coming through that particular part of the city. In terms of food, still not much. At one point, some aid workers came by, gave some of the children in the area a pop tarts, little packages of pop tarts. They were told one child, one package of pop tarts but then the crowd became unruly.
The aid workers had to pack up and get out of there very quickly, so for them and for that part of the city, it's still very much still in need of food -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Jason, one of the other questions we are wondering about is why can't some of those helicopters drop in some of the aid? I know that the World Food Program had all of those high protein, biscuit, high energy biscuits, other groups had thousands of them already --
CARROLL: It's a good question, and actually, we did see that in a different section of the city called Delma 40B. Huge tent city set up there, thousands of people. We saw some of the military helicopters come in and drop aid, but I'll tell you something, Kiran, you speak to some of the aid workers here on the ground, and they'll tell you that that's often times not the best way to deliver aid.
They do that only in desperate situations, and here's the reason why, because when you drop aid like that, then what happens is you have people running to get it and to pick it up. If you're strong, you can make it there and get the aid, but if you're sick, if you're weak, if you're elderly, if you're a child, you're not going to be able to be the strongest to get out there to get the supplies that have been dropped off, so the strongest get it, the weak do not, so that's probably one of the reasons why they don't do drops in that particular area -- Kiran
CHETRY: Jason Carroll for us this morning, thank you.
The U.S. military is taking part in numerous air lifts to help the people of Haiti.
ROBERTS: Our own Brian Todd went along with a crew delivering food. Have a look at what he found.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The call comes shortly after 1:00 p.m. Helicopter Squadron HS-15 has to get to Port- au-Prince now. We're with the four crew members as they quickly lift off from the deck of the aircraft carrier Vinson. We shuttle ten miles into Port-au-Prince to get the mission orders.
The airport's a swarm of choppers, cargo planes and personnel, scrambling to get supplies on to these birds. Dozens of boxes of MREs are piled into this small rescue helicopter that's not made for this kind of flight. It's a tight fit for everyone, but we're airborne minutes later. We peer down into one devastated neighborhood after another in the capital, then find our landing zone. The chief crewman relays the tension of these moments.
UNKNOWN MALE: Some people might try to start stealing other supplies from other people and then that could turn into a riot.
Not this time. Hundreds of people are in the landing zone, but members of the U.S. army's 82nd Airborne Division have secured the perimeter and helping off load. It's all on the ground in minutes, but the pilot knows this is just a tiny slice of what's needed.
UNKNOWN MALE: Definitely my heart goes out to them. You definitely can see the need in their faces. I think as an air crew, we -- we sympathize with their plight, and we want to do everything we can to help them.
TODD: We drop off one more load at a diplomatic compound, then it's back to the carrier. In less than two hours, one chopper crew has dispersed hundreds of meals directly to victims.
TODD (on-camera): These crews are exhausted. They're trying to face themselves, and they're flying in shifts, but they also know that this relief effort is not where it needs to be and that their operations are likely only to accelerate from here. Brian Todd, CNN, aboard the Uss Vinson off the coast of Haiti.
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ROBERTS: More coverage at the relief efforts in Haiti coming your way in just a few minutes, and the top stories will be up in 90 seconds. Stay with us.
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