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Rescue Crews Search for Survivors of Earthquake in Ecuador; Brazilian Lawmakers Move President One Step Closer to Removal; Johnny Depp Apologizes for Trying to Bring Dogs into Australia Illegally; Oil Producers Cannot Agree on Reduction Scheme; Iraqi Community Grieving after ISIS Suicide Attack. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired April 18, 2016 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: Rescue crews search for survivors in Ecuador after a devastating earthquake kills more than 270 people.
ERROL BARNETT, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: Brazilian lawmakers put the pressure on Brazil's President, moving Dilma Rousseff one step closer to losing her office.
CHURCH: Plus, an apology and a guilty plea of their pets. Johnny depp and his wife say they're sorry for trying to illegally bring their dogs into Australia.
Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.
BARNETT: And I'm Errol Barnett. Thanks for joining us as we kick off our encore hour of CNN Newsroom.
The death toll in Ecuador has climbed to 272 now from Saturday's 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Rescue teams are still scrambling to keep that number as low as they can, but time is working against them.
CHURCH: Still, we have seen some rare glimmers of hope, like this image of a 7-year old girl, pulled from the rubble in one of the worst-hit areas. Many parts of the country are barely recognizable from a few days ago, riddled with debris.
And our Rafael Romo looks at the damage.
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A young girl pulled from the wreckage of a building. One of the first glimpses of rescue operations underway in Ecuador. After a magnitude 7.8 earthquake towards through the country's coastal region Saturday night.
The catastrophic quake left behind a trail of destruction.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (TRANSLATED): Everything is completely destroyed. The majority of the buildings have fallen, and there are a lot of dead.
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ROMO: Hundreds have been confirmed dead, making the quake the deadliest to hit the small South American nation since 1987. And the most vulnerable are the hardest to reach.
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THOMAS HOLLYWOOD, CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES SOUTH JAMAICA DIRECTOR: The roads are merely bad shape. And then also the area is very vulnerable because of the intense rainfall that has gotten because of El Nino, so those two factors have made it a challenging environment to work in.
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ROMO: The quake's epicenter was just off Ecuador's coast, south of Muisne in Esmeraldas province. A state of emergency has been in effect for six provinces, spanning the majority of the country's coastline. Hotels have been leveled. Bridges collapsed, and families left destitute.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (TRANSLATED): See my house like this, what am I going to do? Cry. That's all. Now we are on the street with nothing.
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ROMO: Countries around the world are offering help.
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JORGE GLAS, ECUADOR'S VICE PRESIDENT: Our friend countries, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Spain and the E.U. have all offered to send rescue workers with specialized tools and food rations needed for this type of situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMO: So far, thousands of police and military personnel have been deployed to affected areas. Portable hospitals have been mobilized in the hard-hit cities of Pedernales and Portoviejo. And rescue teams and helicopters continue to search for survivors. The extent of damage is only just being realized, but one thing is clear, Ecuador faces a long, difficult road to recovery from this disaster.
Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.
BARNETT: Steven Lucero (ph) joins us now on the line from Guayaquil. He was at the mall when the earthquake struck. Steven, thanks for your time. First, just tell us what you felt and saw as this all around you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, how are you. Well, it was very frightening actually. We were, I was with my family at the shopping mall as you said and things started to move. We thought it was going to be a regular earthquake, something smaller, but then things just kept going and going, and going and we started to realized that it was going to be -- it was going to be bigger, so at that moment we were actually terrified.
People started screaming. They were leaving the mall, actually started running out of the mall, some people. When below the tables, they started to protect themselves from things that were falling at that time.
BARNETT: It's been roughly 24 hours since this quake struck. That has just been enough time to assess the damage, the massive amount of devastation. Hundreds of people have been killed. Thousands are injured. What has the past day been like for you as far as seeing emergency responders and having access to help you and others around you may need?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Actually, I was able to help today. People started to come and talk themselves in Twitter and started making the nation. So, we began to organize ourselves and to get the nation's supply of water, mattresses, blankets, and clothes.
[03:05:07] And they're starting to take that to the cities that were more affected by this quake. So right now everybody's trying to organize themselves, you know, as you said, just 24 hours ago, so it's very recent yet. But authorities are trying to help as well, and we're trying to heal what happens in the cities that are more affected and other province in Manabi actually.
BARNETT: That's right. You were very fortunate, we understand, some towns, some locations have been obliterated by this quake. And there have been a number of aftershocks, these subsequent earthquakes, which just adds to the trauma of all those who have been through this disaster.
We know that 10,000 soldiers have been deployed. More than 4,600 police officers. Are things secure where you are? Is there a sense that the government and the country has a control, handle on this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we saw that they were deploying all this officers. I've seen images on Twitter, actually, when I was helping as a volunteer today with the nations I could see officers being deployed.
And fortunately here in Guayaquil damage is not so great. There are some buildings that have houses in downtown, some bridges as well, but the damage is -- the damage is bigger in cities nearby where Guayaquil actually.
BARNETT: Well, thankfully you are safe and your area was not hit as hard. Certainly our heart go out to those who lost their loved ones and are still dealing with injuries, and in some areas still desperate to get out. I appreciate you speaking with us, Steven Lucero, there in Guayaquil. Thanks for your time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. I appreciate it. CHURCH: Now the devastation in Ecuador follows two deadly earthquakes
in Southern Japan. At least 42 people were killed, more than 1,000 injured. Some areas have had dozens of aftershocks and they're not letting up, slowing rescue efforts and causing more anxiety.
And Japan's meteorologist -- meteorological agency warns more building could still collapse.
BARNETT: Now disaster officials say about 180,000 people have been evacuated into more than 800 shelters.
CNN's Matt Rivers has more from Minamiaso village, one of the hardest- hit areas there in Japan.
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are in the mountainous village of Minamiaso just outside of where we have been in the last couple of days. It's a touristy town. People come up here because there are hot springs and there are spas, and apparently that building behind me used to be a spa.
It was on Saturday that the earthquake here triggered a landslide. And you can see over my right shoulder, the landslide came down the mountain and it took out this building right behind me.
Now officials say that there were two people inside a guesthouse at this spa when the landslide occurred. And they are now trapped. So, the operation you're seeing behind me involved dozens of members of both the Japanese self-defense force as well as police men who are trying their best to go through this very dense, heavy mud that came down with this landslide and try and o free those two people that are trapped inside.
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YOUSHUMI NAKAMURA, PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICIAL (TRANSLATED): We are searching for survivors. My team is exhausted. But we're determined to find them. We'll continue to search until we find them, in whatever state.
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RIVERS: But this isn't the only scene in this village. There are several other places where people are also trapped. So, there are operations just like this one be being conducted across this area, to try and free those people.
But in any situation like this, the survival window only lasts so long. It's been over two days now since the earthquake that triggered these landslides on Saturday. And with every passing hour, the chances of finding people alive inside in scenes like this become that much less.
CHURCH: And thanks to Matt Rivers for that report. Some big businesses in Japan are suspending production after the earthquakes. Honda released this statement. "Honda would like to express its deepest sympathy and condolences to the victims of 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. Due to this earthquake, Honda will halt operations at its Kumamoto factory until April 22nd."
BARNETT: And if you would like to help the victims of either of the earthquakes that we've been telling you about, just head to our special web site, we call it impact your world. You can find links to a reputable organizations that are already been vetted by CNN and they are all working to help victims. You can find all of those resources at cnn.com/impact.
Now Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is facing a major blow. Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to impeach her for allegedly concealing budget shortfalls.
[03:10:06] CHURCH: President Rousseff denies the allegation, calling this a coup meant to push her out.
Shasta Darlington reports.
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A historic vote and a crushing defeat for President Dilma Rousseff. Brazil's lower House of Congress has voted to impeach her. The opposition achieved the majority, 342 votes, even before the session was over.
Now the impeachment motion will be sent to Senate where a simple majority would be needed to launch the impeachment trial, and President Rousseff would be forced to step down to defend herself.
It was a night full of tensions, both inside the Congress where lawmakers were shouting each other down and outside.
(CROWD SHOUTING)
Outside of Congress, security was tight, with a huge barricade set up between anti-government protestors and pro-government protestors. On the one hand, people who blame the president for a prolonged recession and really a corruption scandal that engulfed dozens of politicians.
