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Earthquake Death Toll in Nepal Soars Past 2,500; Google Executive Dies on Mount Everest Avalanches; Climbers Killed on Mount Everest; Colorado Movie Massacre and Boston Bomber Penalty Case Begin; U.S. Search Rescue Teams En Route to Nepal; Obama a Hit at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired April 26, 2015 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:05] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: This is Nepal, the capital city, Kathmandu. This man is one of the lucky ones. He is alive, rescued from the building that collapsed right around him. Aftershocks nearly as powerful as the initial quake. They have been rattling the country, making rescue work even more dangerous.

Survival stories are a relief but the death toll is incredibly high and it is rising. As of right now, more than 2500 people in Nepal, India and China are dead. Those injured double that number. And it happened mid-Saturday, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake centered in land- locked Nepal. It shook the ground far into India, far into China and across the towering Himalayan mountain range.

Back in the city, nearly surviving is just one hurdle. Finding medical care, shelter, food and water is another. Thousands of families, their homes destroyed, are spending a second night out in the open air. And Kathmandu's hospitals are overflowing with people who desperately need help or are looking for their loved ones.

What I'm about to show you is what this natural disaster looked and sounded like from right inside, in real time, the moment that it happened. It is terrifying. The earthquake shook Mount Everest, the highest mountain on earth, sending avalanches on to the estimated 1,000 climbers at the base camp. At least 17 of those climbers were killed. One man shot the video at the base camp. It was a normal day on Mount Everest until the mountain started to move.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ground is shaking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa. Whoa. (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come under my jacket. Hurry. Come under my jacket. Are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You all right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Can you imagine living through something like that? You hear the fear in each and every breath. About 1,000 people were there at the Everest base camp. It is the start of climbing season.

As I said, we know at least 17 people on the site of Everest have been killed and that number very well may rise. The powerful aftershock that hit today was closer to Mount Everest than the initial earthquake was on Saturday and right alongside the devastation, we are seeing remarkable stories of survival. Rescues are being performed by Nepal's shaken citizens, even tourists helping out, dressed in street clothes and without really any proper tools.

Our Nick Valencia joins me now.

Nick, I know you've been following this, even talking to some of the survivors. I know you just spoke to someone who made it through. What did they tell you?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We did. And it was remarkable to actually even get through to this person in Nepal. So many people have not been able to contact those who survived the earthquake. Cell phone batteries have died. It's now day two since that devastating earthquake hit, but we were able to get through to young Ayushi Aryal, 17 years old. She and her family live near Kathmandu and she says for the last two days, they have been huddled in a tent, waiting for help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYUSHI ARYAL, SURVIVOR: Physically we are all fine, but emotionally, we are all exhausted and we are all hoping that this just passes soon, that we are going to be OK. It all feels very unreal to me. Like every single time I sit down, I feel like the ground is shaking, even if it's not. It's like every single time someone falls asleep, the ground starts actually shaking and everyone jolts -- jolts up awake.

We have not gotten a single blink of sleep. We're all very -- we are all very scared and we are all praying. It's very unreal. It's just -- doesn't feel real to me still. I feel like I'm just stuck in a nightmare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: That nightmare is very real for that young 17-year-old. And it is amazing and incredible to think about it. When you look at those photos that Ayushi sent to CNN, she said, no one in her community was killed by this devastating earthquake. She says, though, when she looks around, all she can see is destroyed buildings. She says that she has been through an earthquake before but nothing of this magnitude and that things were so severe, even the aftershocks so severe that the ground, she feels, has not stopped shaking since the initial earthquake yesterday -- Poppy. [17:05:12] HARLOW: Nick Valencia, thanks for bringing that story.

Continue to tell us what you hear from the people on the ground there.

VALENCIA: You bet.

HARLOW: And as we were just saying, Nepal and its capital city of Kathmandu are known as a gateway to the Himalayas, so climbers atop Mount Everest not spared at all in the devastation of this earthquake. As we've reported the shaking ground set off a series of avalanches that are frankly still ongoing. Seventeen people have died on Mount Everest. One of those lost in the wall of snow, Google executive, Dan Fredinburg. He was an avid climber, a self-described adventurer. His girlfriend tells us he had infectious energy.

In a post on his Instagram account yesterday, his sister wrote, "We appreciate all of the love that has been sent our way thus far. And know his soul and his spirit will live on in so many of us. All our love and thanks to those who shared the life with our favorite, hilarious, strong-willed man. He was and is everything to us."

CNN Money's Laurie Segall joins me now.

This man, I didn't know, you didn't know him personally, but when you read his story, you can see what they mean by infectious energy.

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT: It's just devastating. And I had a lot of people in common with Dan. And as I started doing the reporting for this, my Facebook page was just outpouring of love and respect for the adventure and the type of guy that this guy was. It's just unbelievable.

We were lucky enough to be joined by two of the people that actually meant the most to him, his girlfriend, Ashley Arenson, and his good friend, Michael North. They're with us right now.

You know, Ashley, we spoke a little bit earlier. I want to talk with you and just ask you kind of one of the most basic questions, how are you doing right now?

ASHLEY ARENSON, BOYFRIEND KILLED IN AVALANCHE ON MOUNT EVEREST: Pretty terrible. But I will say that the amount of love that people have for Dan is contagious and it's something that I've been able to experience in my relationship with him and especially before he left. And so thank you to everyone for loving him and for the support that you're providing to each other and to us.

SEGALL: And earlier, when we spoke, you said that he had been so influential, one of the most influential people in your life. Why -- why was he so influential? What about him that's so influential for you?

ARENSON: He had this -- I mean, he was just magical. And just by making the choices that he made, I think it was always unintentional, but he had this way of making the people around him just feel special without even trying. And make people feel like they could accomplish anything that they wanted and that, you know, they hadn't accomplished enough, that there was more that they could do and that there was more that they could be because every single person around him was able to feel special and amazing.

And he's brought out the best version in me and I'd say he has brought out the best version in North and everyone around him is just -- he constantly makes you want to be the best version of yourself and that's without trying. That's just by the actions that he would take, the choices that he would make. So he truly lived by -- by doing and by example. And it was just part of who he was.

HARLOW: Hey, Ashley and Michael, it's Poppy Harlow here right alongside Laurie. Let me say first, I'm so, so sorry for your loss and, you know, if there's anything that anyone can do, please let us know, we would like to know and our viewers want to know how they can help.

You said, Ashley, that he made decisions based on happiness. What do you mean by that?

ARENSON: So Dan was a big believer in always wanting to strive to be happy. And I think being happy is being comfortable with who you are and comfortable and excited and confident about the choices that you've made and so everything that Dan chose to do is choices that would help him become happy. And sometimes, that was, you know, making other people happy. Sometimes that was doing things that, you know, he wanted to do for himself.

And those can sometimes be really difficult choices to make because not everyone is always going to be on board with what makes you happy as an individual. But that's what made him so special and going to Everest was one of those things. You know, that's something that he wanted to do. It's what made him happy. He wanted to be back there after the devastation of the year before.

And, you know, making those choices and saying I want to -- the choices I make, I'm making because these are the things that make me happy, and make me feel complete. That's truly inspiring. And truly contagious. I mean, I'd say it is the one thing I will take away from knowing him is that just happiness is important and that's what he strived for.

[17:10:19] HARLOW: Michael, tell us about -- you guys are wearing these yellow scarves. I assume they have some significance to you guys and to him?

MICHAEL NORTH, FRIEND KILLED IN AVALANCHE ON MT. EVEREST: Yes. These are Nepalese prayer scarves that Dan gave us before he left. And it's part of a ceremony to give people safe passable on the mountain. And today we're wearing them to honor Dan and his passage that he's going through right now.

ARENSON: And I'd say to honor everybody in Nepal that's experiencing loss and devastation.

SEGALL: And guys, you know, from talking -- this is Laurie. From talking to a lot of the friends and just since he has so many friends, everybody is planning to gather today. We keep hearing about vigils in his honor. Is that something you guys are also doing in San Francisco?

NORTH: Yes, actually, someone just sent me a picture from New York there in Union Square and there is a big ring of roses and flowers and people are holding a vigil there. We're having a private vigil here in San Francisco, just getting people together.

This is such a loss for the community. And far reaching community, not just in San Francisco or New York, but a global community. And everyone is just reeling. The outpour has been incredible, intense and to have known Dan, he really moved people. I literally just got a message from a person that we met one time in Estonia and she reached out and with her best wishes. And that's just who he was.

You know, he had this thing he would do where he would do where he would walk up to someone, it could be in a hotel in Holland, never met the person before, and he'd say, hey, good to see you again, how are you doing? And people would just be taken aback, like, I know this guy and he just made you feel that comfortable.

We would say that Dan had this ability to create a reality distortion field. And that he's had so much power that he could change the reality around, and to what Ashley was saying, he would just make the world just such a happy, vibrant place to be.

HARLOW: So, guys, I'm wondering here, and Laurie and I were talking about this earlier, what do you think he would want from the world, and I know that's big question. But what I mean is he lived his life in this way that I think all of us hope we can one day live our lives. So what do you think he would want?

NORTH: I think, you know, Dan wanted everything and Dan -- could do everything. It was -- I mean, unbelievable. I've never met someone with more stamina, more endurance, more strength, more intellect. It was just -- he could be multitasking, working on an e-mail, holding a conversation and then pick up on something someone is saying in the back seat of a car all at once.

You know, there's a reason he was a rising star within Google and why he had all these different initiatives, you know? He creating a co- working space for social entrepreneurs to use the latest in cutting technology to really make a difference in the world for people out there that don't have access to it. Just amazing.

ARENSON: I think, yes, to North's point, I don't think Dan would want people just to do one thing. That he would want them to constantly challenge themselves and instead of doing one thing, do lots of things.

There is a CrowdRise page that we are currently collecting funds for the devastation in Nepal and then a portion of it is going to an orphanage that he's been involved with for the past couple of years. So it is crowdrise.com/celebratingDan. And it can also be found on savetheice.org. And so if you want to do anything, it would be wonderful to donate to some of those causes and -- but what Dan would also really want is for every single person out there to live their life to the fullest and just live in the moment, because that's what -- that's what he did. That's how he lived his life.

SEGALL: Hey, guys, thank you so much for joining us. And I have all these items on my bucket list, I feel like I now have to go start crossing off. I feel like that's his legacy in a nutshell.

Thank you, guys, so much. I know this is a really, really difficult time for you guys and we really appreciate you being here.

HARLOW: Thank you, guys.

ARENSON: Thank you.

NORTH: Thank you.

HARLOW: As we all try to live a little bit more like Dan. Thanks. We appreciate it.

[17:15:02] Forty-eight hours after that avalanche, climbers on Mount Everest are still stranded, still trying to get off the mountain. You're going to hear from one of those climbers, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: An airlift rescue on the side of Mount Everest where about a thousand climbers were staging for ascent when this earthquake struck on Saturday. It looked and sounded like this.

The earthquake shook the snow and the ice on the side of Everest, sending avalanches down on to the base camp. At least 17 people there were killed. Three of them are Americans.

We managed to establish a phone connection to Everest base camp just a short time ago. I spoke with Jim Davidson. He's climber from Fort Collins, Colorado. He survived the earthquake and the avalanche.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM DAVIDSON, MOUNT EVEREST CLIMBER: We are at Camp One, it's 19,800 feet on the Khumbu Glacier. We are safe and we are hanging tough in here, but it is kind of nerve wracking being up here with all these earthquakes and avalanches coming down around us.

HARLOW: Take me back to the moment of the initial quake. What was it like?

DAVISON: Well, we had done a tough climb, about five or six hours up to Camp One. It's got in here, had a little food and water, were resting just about noontime and then all of a sudden, we heard an avalanche sound off to our left, just a couple of hundred yards away, there's a mile-high wall. We heard the avalanche sound. We started to get ready to scramble out the tent.

And before we could gather the rest of our clothes and step outside, the tent started bouncing up and down vertically about six inches. We got in so much weight the avalanche, we had nowhere to run. We were surrounded three to four sides. And we to stand there. We plowed and listen to the (INAUDIBLE) and we just pray.

HARLOW: Have you been feeling the aftershocks?

DAVISON: Yes, we have. We felt four or so, maybe five yesterday. They were also accompanied with huge avalanches off the side slopes. The aftershocks were not as big, of course, as the first ones but in this case, instead of the glacier going up and down, this massive, massive glacier that's miles and miles long felt like it was sliding back and forth and there were these avalanches again then we didn't feel any for about 18 hours when we felt another pretty big aftershock, the biggest one yet, this afternoon.

It was just about 24 hours, maybe 24 1/2 hours after the original quake, and again, triggered those avalanches nearby. So we are feeling pretty precarious right here, even though we are staying away from those avalanches so far.

HARLOW: How dire is the situation for the people around you who are injured in terms of how long they can wait until they need to be airlifted?

DAVISON: Well, here at Camp One, and above us another 1500 feet, Camp Two. As far as I know there are no major injuries. We've had some altitude sickness, we had somebody with a heart problem apparently, those people have been flown out. So right now, the people that are here are relatively healthy. We're a little nervous and little altitude sick but doing fine. It's people down at base camp, where there have been much more severe injuries and some fatalities that have been getting the bulk of the rescue help as is appropriate.

So the folks down there, they're getting good, definitive care. All the teams in the mountain have been helping each other out, so we're just hoping that the weather continues to stay good in the morning and we can get more injured people out of here by helicopter.

HARLOW: How long are you and the people around you there at that point on Mount Everest going to be able to stay there until you have a plan of how you're going to get safely off?

DAVISON: Well, we've been working on a plan the last day or so, when we served the guide, the western guide, checked out the ice wall, which is the tricky part for us to get down to base camp. It looks like the ice fallout have been severely damaged. And it's not going to be able to be reinstated very quickly at all, so we're now looking toward getting some helicopters in at the next turn of good weather.

It's about 9:30 here at night, almost 10:00, and I'm outside, the moon is out, the stars are out, though. We're keeping our fingers crossed (INAUDIBLE) tomorrow can start this helicopter flight to fly people from (INAUDIBLE) over the mountain, over the ice wall.

HARLOW: Jim, when you and those with you do get off the mountain and see really the devastation around you there in Nepal what is your plan? Are you going to stay to help? Are you coming back to the United States?

DAVISON: No, we have to get down first, first of all, like you said and yes, we are going to be able to give whatever aid we can. We've got some medically trained people up here and very anxious to get back down to base camp to lend a hand. So I think we're going to do the best we can to help out as much as we can. It will be approaching day -- well, 48 hours after the accident until we get down. At the earliest is that may be later if the weather's bad.

Of course there's a lot of people in base camp that are going to need some help. Base camp needs to be disassembled. So it's very difficult to say what the plan is now, but people are going to be sticking around for a while and then slowly trying to figure out how to work our way back toward Kathmandu and home, but that's going to take some length of time because as you know, the poor people in Nepal have been really hit tragically by this earthquake.

HARLOW: Jim Davidson, stay safe. Thank you so much, sir, and please keep us posted as you can and let us know what help is needed on the ground there when you do get down so we can get the message out to our viewers as well.

Jim, thank you.

DAVISON: You bet. Thanks for the good wishes and support.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: All right. If you want to help the people of Nepal, go to CNN.com/impact. You can find a lot of different ways to help so many people in need right there. CNN.com/impact.

We're going to have much more on the desperate search and rescue for survivors in Nepal coming up.

Also this, opening statements beginning tomorrow in the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater mass shooting trial. Next, how the defense will try to prove that the defendant, James Holmes, was insane at the time of that tragic attack.

[17:24:44]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Two very big court cases will captivate the nation starting tomorrow. First in Colorado where James Holmes will go on trial for the 2012 Aurora movie massacre that left 12 people dead, 70 others injured. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the 100- plus charges that he faces and the prosecution wants to see Holmes put to death.

Meantime, in Boston, the penalty phase of the marathon bomber, Dzhokar Tsarnaev, that will continue tomorrow with the defense now bringing forth its case. They are going to try to convince the same jury that found Dzhokar Tsarnaev guilty to hand down a sentence of life in prison instead of executing him. The attack two years ago along with the subsequent manhunt left four people dead and 260 others injured.

Let's talk about these cases with jury consultant and author of "Acquittal," Richard Gabriel.

Thanks for being with me, Richard. I do want to start with the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater massacre because this trial begins tomorrow. So the jurors were questioned very closely about their views on mental illness and the death penalty. They were chosen out of a pool of 9,000 potential jurors. How difficult is it going to be for the defense here to win them over with an insanity defense?

RICHARD GABRIEL, JURY CONSULTANT: Well, it's an extraordinary process. They've questioned over 1,000 jurors out of the 9,000 and it is going to be difficult, because what we found in death penalty cases that jurors actually have a feeling coming into jury selection about the death penalty but then when they are confronted with actually looking at a defendant, sitting at the table right there, sometimes their feelings change.

This jury is quite a mixture, some of them have very strong feelings about it, some don't like this guilty by reason of -- not guilty by reason of insanity plea, but a lot of them have some backgrounds with mental illness.

[17:30:10] HARLOW: Right.

GABRIEL: And one juror in particular actually is -- was a friend of the Columbine massacre shooters and has been through a lot of counseling himself. So it's a very mixed bag.

HARLOW: At the same time, you've got the issue and the facts here that the prosecution is going to put forward are the fact that he bought the guns in advance, that I was there covering it, I was outside of his boobytrapped apartment, you know, which was set arguably, you know, for -- to possibly kill more, including any police officers that responded.

How much is that going to factor in?

GABRIEL: Well, it's always difficult for a defense in that instance, because it's the -- the distinction is really, can he discern right from wrong, and what the prosecution always looks to do is to say, well, look at all this premeditation, of course he knew right from wrong. He actually exited the movie theater, went out and got the weaponry, came back in. That is actually consciousness and that's knowing right from wrong.

So that's a very difficult hurdle. So to a certain extent, I think the defense having already offered a guilty plea in this case is looking at this really as a prolonged penalty phase, really showing that his mental illness affected his judgment throughout, even if they can't win on guilt.

HARLOW: And turning to the continuing trial, the penalty phase of the trial against Boston marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, I mean, some of the victims' families, including the family of the 8-year-old boy who was murdered that day, Martin Richard, have come out and said they don't want the death penalty.

Do you think that's going to have any impact on the jury in terms of ultimately their decision what some of these families say that they want?

GABRIEL: Well, hopefully the jurors haven't been paying attention to that because they've been instructed not to. However, this stuff can filter through and whether those statements come into evidence or not, it surely can have an impact.

HARLOW: Right.

GABRIEL: The truth is that what they are looking for, the defense is looking for, one or two jurors just with some misgivings that have sit there and say, look, even Sean Collier, the MIT officer who was killed, has said that he wouldn't kill a bug and that also that he wouldn't bow to peer pressure. Those kinds of messages can get through to some of those jurors with misgivings and help them to maybe stay the course against sort of the overwhelming evidence of the brutality of this crime.

HARLOW: And you know, we saw some of Tsarnaev's family members arrive in Boston on Thursday. I wonder if you think there is any chance they're going to be introduced as character witnesses, if they might take the stand for the defense in this.

GABRIEL: Well, typically, they would. And they would take the stand. It's a judgment call on the part of the defense. But part of the effort here is to humanize this -- this young man and to say he is not a monster. He actually did have an upbringing. Here's some explanations that may not give all the answers to why -- why this happened, but here are some reasons in his background.

Here's a way that he is a human being and hopefully, create that kind of persona so the juror is more reluctant to bedevil him and to create this sort of evil character and thus put him to death.

HARLOW: And the big question is going to be, will Tsarnaev himself take the stand. Going to wait and see if that happens.

Thank you so much, Richard. I appreciate it as always.

GABRIEL: My pleasure, Poppy.

HARLOW: All right, coming up, we're going to return to the situation and devastation in Nepal, so dire, hospitals are turning away patients desperate for care because they are full.

A live report from Nepal, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:36:41] HARLOW: Three Americans are among at least 2500 people confirmed dead so far in Nepal's 7.8 magnitude earthquake. That figure is almost certain to rise. Parts of the capital of Kathmandu lie in ruins. International aid is rushing to the stricken area but right now there is just a frantic search for survivors amid the rubble. Widespread power outages make the difficult task even harder.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ground is shaking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: The quake and powerful aftershocks triggered huge avalanches on Mount Everest, engulfing climbers at the base camp where we know at least 17 people have died.

Look at that video. It's remarkable.

For the latest on the desperate rescue efforts now under way, let's go to Mallika Kapur. She joins us now in India.

MALLIKA KAPUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rescue efforts are under way in Nepal. Rescue teams there are making some progress, even the progress was slow on Sunday. That's because the region continues to be wracked by earthquakes and by tremors and by aftershocks. There was a significant aftershock on Sunday afternoon at around 1:00 p.m. local time. That is large enough to be considered another earthquake.

And it did rattle the region and scare people again. It did slow down rescue efforts considerably as well. Relief aircraft that were supposed to land into Kathmandu at that time couldn't land because the runway was shut for a certain amount of time. That was the case throughout much of Sunday, where the airport opening and closing, opening and closing, so a number of relief aircraft that were hoping to land and to bring emergency supplies into Nepal couldn't do that.

Some aircraft, however, did land, many of them from India. India, of course, taking a very proactive stance to try and help its neighboring country, Nepal, out. India has been sending a number of relief supplies to Nepal. The government of India holding a press conference on Sunday evening, saying that it has managed to send in a team of engineers. It sent in doctors, it also sent in some very basic supplies like food, water, medicine and blankets, all of which are desperately needed by the people in Nepal.

Experts say the first 72 hours after an earthquake are absolutely critical. The chances of finding any survivors after that falls significantly. At the moment, every minute, every hour, is crucial.

Mallika Kapur, CNN, Calcutta, India.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: And coming up next, we're going to talk about the search and rescue effort and how every hour counts and how they get over the hurdle of even the rescue planes not being able to land nearby. We'll talk about that next.

[17:39:32]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa. Whoa. (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come under my jacket. Come under my jacket.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That is what it felt like living through this earthquake and the avalanches that ensued in Nepal. Those are people at the base camp on Mount Everest who went through this and filmed the entire thing. It is remarkable.

The country of Nepal trying to cope with this devastation of a deadly, deadly earthquake and all those avalanches that followed. Amongst the tragedy of more than 2500 people who have died, there are some stories of survival, men, women and children, pulled from the rubble in situations just like this one.

Let's bring in Lieutenant Colonel James Reese, he's a former U.S. Army Delta Force Commander, also a CNN global affairs analyst.

You've done search and rescue operations like this. What is the most difficult part of it?

LT. COL. JAMES REESE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Probably the most difficult part, Poppy, is finding -- you can't get to the people quick enough. And sometimes when you're doing these things, you can hear the people, they are knocking, or you can hear them calling and just the amount of time it is to get some types of heavy equipment, or get a dog in there to help, you know, find the person because you really can't find them close enough with that rubble, and then you can hear them die in the rubble. It's just --

HARLOW: You can hear them die?

REESE: Hear them die. Take their last breaths in the rubble. That can become devastating.

HARLOW: We know that the United States -- I mean, you've had a number of countries sending help, the United States is sending help. It's supposed to arrive tomorrow. But just what we saw from our report before the break is a lot of these planes can't even land with the manpower, with the search and rescue dogs, with all of the gear they need.

[17:45:13] REESE: Right. Well, right now, like we talked to our office in Mumbai, India, this morning and we know right now the Indian government is very, very involved in this right now, they are pushing the air force, the army, trying to get in there. The weather's bad right now. It's starting to clear, you get the aftershocks of -- in the United States, we have the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is USAID.

Their dart team has deployed and they're prepared to be there tomorrow with, you know, services and other search and rescue aspects, but they'll be there to help coordinate all of this international aid that comes in.

HARLOW: What would have been learned from what happened in Haiti, from the Haiti earthquake until today? Because a lot of these images are strikingly similar where you have some of these buildings very poorly constructed.

REESE: Right.

HARLOW: And that's part of the problem, is that a lot of them just didn't withstand what they should have been able to withstand.

REESE: It is. And no one is going to be able to fix that in the near-term future because the money is not there. It just -- unfortunately, it's the way it is in some of these countries, but we will know from Haiti is that they have to keep the search and rescue up for weeks, because we saw that in Haiti. People, weeks later, still stuck in the rubble, were still alive, because what usually happens is you'll go into a search and rescue, and sooner or later, the coordinator will go into a recovery mode.

HARLOW: Right.

REESE: And so --

HARLOW: You're saying you don't want to do that too soon.

REESE: Too soon because there are people still out there who will have the intestinal fortitude to hang in there and survive.

HARLOW: For people that are watching, I think I look at these images and you feel really helpless. What can I possibly do, where does my money go to the best use? Even some of the most renowned organization, sometimes in the aftermath, you find out the money didn't really get to the people.

REESE: Sure.

HARLOW: I mean, do you have any advice on what people can do to help the most?

REESE: Stick with, you know, the go-to the basic, you know, the Red Cross. You know, you can go on the State Department Web site for USAID and they'll show you exactly where to get these things. And right now, trust me, there are a lot of posers out there throwing up fake Web sites to try to get this money to take away, but stick to the good, basic organizations that do this all the time worldwide.

HARLOW: Yes. Absolutely, Colonel James Reese, thank you so much. Our heart goes out to all of those people there. The 2500 already dead and that number is very, very likely to rise.

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

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[17:50:48] HARLOW: Get ready for brand new episodes of "ANTHONY BOURDAIN PARTS UNKNOWN." The fifth season debuts tonight 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. First stop, South Korea.

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ANTHONY BOURDAIN, HOST, "PARTS UNKNOWN": Everything you learned painfully in college about drinking, don't mix, you know, try to avoid raw shellfish in excess while drinking. They do all of those things.

Right me if I'm wrong here. Dried squid, M&M's and mixing your alcohols?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

BOURDAIN: Modern Korea has over the course of the last decade or so invested so heavily in an official way in their culture. You know, not just infrastructure. Not just industry. They've spent a lot of money promoting their music, their films, their television, their just general pop culture to spectacular result.

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HARLOW: "ANTHONY BOURDAIN: PARTS UNKNOWN" tonight 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

Did you watch last night? Because last night's Annual White House Correspondents Dinner was the nerd prom and the president skewered Washington power players, the media that covers them and of course himself, a lot of self-deprecating jokes in there at this annual dinner.

He began the roast by welcoming the star-studded crowd to the fourth quarter of his presidency.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: After the midterm elections, my advisers asked me, Mr. President, do you have a bucket list? And I said, well, I have something that rhymes with bucket list. Take executive action on immigration? Bucket. New climate regulations? Bucket. It's the right thing to do.

It is no wonder that people keep pointing out how the presidency has aged me. I look so old John Boehner's already invited Netanyahu to speak at my funeral.

He's not just a great vice president, he is a great friend. We've gotten so close in some places. In Indiana they won't serve us pizza anymore.

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HARLOW: Well, comedian D.L. Hughley joined me for CNN's coverage of the night. And I got his post-punch line analysis.

All right, D.L., what do you make of the night? Let's start with the president. How did he do? D.L. HUGHLEY, COMEDIAN: I thought he did a great job. I thought he

was hilarious, I thought he was poignant. I think he took shots at people who -- you know, because it is very difficult to be in a situation where people have said things and still have a retort that is comedic and yet kind of classy, but still has a bite to it. I thought he did a great job at that. I just loved the can't feel bit. And I think that for a long time people are saying, man, I wish this dude would -- and it's always --

HARLOW: Would lose his cool?

HUGHLEY: Yes.

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OBAMA: My anger translator to join me here tonight. What kind of stupid short-sighted irresponsible bull --

LUTHER, "ANGER TRANSLATOR": Whoa, whoa, whoa.

OBAMA: What?

LUTHER: All due respect, sir, you don't need an anger translator. You need counseling.

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HUGHLEY: I think most people don't have that level of cool where they could have just maintained it this long. But obviously he has a deep reservoir. But I just thought that was -- the tone -- you know, like I said, you know, yesterday, I wish he'd had said, mentioned, you know, the black lives matter, the fact that we're seeing these kinds of things, that seem to crop up in the news every day. But all in all, I thought he did an exceptional job.

HARLOW: You know, what's interesting is, you really wanted him to push the envelope and to talk about very serious issues in this country.

HUGHLEY: Right.

HARLOW: He did to a certain extent.

HUGHLEY: Right.

HARLOW: I think you would have liked to see a little more.

HUGHLEY: Right.

HARLOW: Cecily Strong from "Saturday Night Live" who told me in my interview with me that she wasn't going to be mean, right, and that she was -- you know, but she did say she does like to push the envelope a little further than others and she certainly did. How did she do?

HUGHLEY: I thought she did exceptional. She told the joke about his hair so white he could talk back to a cop. She told the Secret Service joke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CECILY STRONG, COMEDIAN: Let's give it up for the Secret Service. Yes. I don't want to be too hard on those guys. You know, because they're the only law enforcement agency in the country that will get in trouble if a black man gets shot.

Are you saying boo or are you saying true?

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HUGHLEY: I think those are all kind of relevant. The only reason to be a comic and particularly the only reason to be a comic in an event like that is to make people squirm. I thought she connected the best when it was -- you know, because obviously she had talented joke writers and some of the material was just great, too.

HARLOW: And she's a talented joke writer, too.

HUGHLEY: Right. And a very talented joke writer. But I think that some of the material was just great. She is a great joker. When she connected to those jokes, when it had, you know, when it had her essence, when she was connected to it, I thought she knocked it out of the park.

HARLOW: Who was funnier, Cecily Strong or the president?

HUGHLEY: Of course the president was funnier.

HARLOW: Really?

HUGHLEY: Any time --

HARLOW: Am I allowed to say Cecily is --

HUGHLEY: Well, you know what, that's what makes comedy great. But any time the leader of the free world can get on TV and say bucket, come on, now.

HARLOW: Bucket.

HUGHLEY: He could -- and let tell you something, he could have done Def Jam with us. We're doing the black and brown comedy get down with George Lopez and Eddie Griffith, (INAUDIBLE) Murphy. He could go on the tour with us and hold his own.

HARLOW: I'm going to hold my breath.

HUGHLEY: For sure.

HARLOW: For that.

D.L. Hughley, great to have you on. Thank you so much.

HUGHLEY: Thank you. HARLOW: Fun night. Thanks to everyone who joined me last night.

Coming up next, at the top of the hour, we're going to return to our top story in Nepal. Nepal continues to reel from the earthquake that devastated so many towns and cities. Also avalanches led to the death of at least 17 people on the base camp of Mount Everest. This video captured the moment that one of those avalanches roared right into the base camp.

More on the earthquake and how search and recovery is going next.

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