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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Haiti Survival Stories
Aired January 22, 2010 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening from Port-au- Prince. I'm Anderson Cooper.
And welcome to all of you who have been watching the Hope for Haiti Now telethon.
George Clooney, who organized it, is going to be joining us shortly.
Also tonight, thankfully, two stories disproving the conventional wisdom that there's little chance of finding anyone alive underneath the rubble after three days.
Today, Israeli crews dug out a 22-year-old man. He's being treated at a mobile field hospital set up by Israeli Defense Forces, dehydrated, but in otherwise good health, we're told, considering what he's been through.
And recovering as well tonight at the General Hospital, an 84- year-old woman pulled from the wreckage of her home. She's at General Hospital in critical condition. We will continue to follow her.
And then there's, of course, the case of 5-year-old Monley Elize, who looked frail when rescuers got to him on Wednesday. His uncle and -- and his uncle -- his other uncles found him. He's with us tonight. You're going to see what a remarkable difference two days can make, a little boy brought back from the brink, but also why his life ahead will not be easy.
We're also going to bring you up to date on the orphanage that Gary Tuchman visited the other day and the happy ending that came of that visit for two American families.
But, beyond all the individual reunions and survival stories, Dr. Sanjay Gupta tonight is covering the larger story unfolding, the disaster after the disaster, in this case sickness spreading in tent cities, so many people in close quarters, hundreds behind me right now in a park, primitive sanitation, little access to medical care -- their story ahead.
But we begin with Monley's story and how he's doing now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Monley Elize was brought to General Hospital by his uncle, who says he found him in the rubble alive after nearly eight days. Monley was covered in dust, weak and limp. A doctor and a nurse quickly gave him an I.V.
(on camera): What is he saying?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He want to drink some juice. He want to drink some juice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can tell that he is very dehydrated by his skin.
COOPER: Because his skin doesn't bounce back?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it doesn't bounce back.
DR. COLLEEN BUONO, INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS: He's in something called starvation ketosis, so you have to be very, very careful as you start rehydrating them before you feed them again. So, I'm sure he would love some food right now, but we can't give to them.
COOPER (voice-over): That was Monley on Wednesday. This is what he looks like today. The transformation is remarkable.
(on camera): Medically, do you think he's -- he's out of the woods?
GABRIELLA MCADOO, REGISTERED NURSE, INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS: I couldn't tell you that for sure, but he looks great, and he looks like he's been hydrated. And he's eating. And we fed him this morning, today, and he's doing really well.
COOPER: When we were here before, when you pinched his skin, his skin didn't bounce back. Now, if you do that, would it be normal?
MCADOO: It's bouncing back. So, that just shows that he is drinking and he's being hydrated. So, that's a very good sign.
COOPER (voice-over): Monley doesn't speak much. He clings to a bottle of water. He's sweet and he's silent, as if absorbing it all.
(on camera): You're very brave.
(voice-over): "Thank you," he whispers.
(on camera): Has he talked about what was it was like for him all those time -- all that time in the rubble?
(voice-over): "He talks to me normally," his uncle says, "but doesn't say a lot. From time to time, he says he's hungry, would like to have some milk or juice. He talks about being in the hole, that he didn't have food, he didn't have milk, he didn't have anything. He was hungry. Everyone was screaming, 'Help.' He said his father was close to him, that his father spoke to him and told him: 'Don't move. Someone will find you.'"
We went back to where his uncle says he found Monley. His other uncles show us the spot where the little boy lay. (on camera): He was here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes, inside.
COOPER: He was under this, inside this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, inside this, just gone sleeping, you know.
COOPER: Did he have any water or food?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, nothing.
COOPER (voice-over): They show us the place they found Monley's father. They took the body away just yesterday. His mother is dead. They show us her picture. They have buried her body one block away.
Monley now stays in this makeshift tent with two uncles, but they're poor and say they can't care for the boy. For all that he's been through, Monley is so very lucky, but luck only lasts in this city so long.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And joining us now is Monley -- we're very happy to have him here -- and registered nurse Gabriella McAdoo, who is from Stanford Hospital in California.
But you're working with the International Medical Corps here, which is a great American aid organization who sends doctors, nurses around the world. I have been covering IMC since like '92 in Somalia. You guys do incredible work.
He's coughing. You think that's from the dust he might have inhaled?
MCADOO: Yes, we think it is.
COOPER: But, otherwise, I mean, his skin, he's -- it's incredible. He looks -- when I first saw him this morning I didn't recognize him almost.
MCADOO: He's -- yes, he's hydrated now. And when we first got him, he was dehydrated. So, we gave him fluids. And after eating and drinking, he just -- his progress is great.
COOPER: Yes. And his -- I mean, he's lost his parents. His uncle is trying his best he can to take care of him, but has said that he wants to figure out some other solution for him. And they're literally sleeping in kind of a makeshift tent right now.
It has got to just break your heart to see all these kids who you're treating and then they kind of go out into the big, bad world.
MCADOO: Yes, it is heartbreaking. And his uncle was very worried about the resources he would have for him and to try to care for him. And he really wanted to leave him with me. And I told him I couldn't. Like, we couldn't -- he had to had someone...
COOPER: His uncle wanted to leave him at the hospital with you?
MCADOO: Yes.
COOPER: Yes.
MCADOO: And I asked him just to stay, and that we could follow up, and kept him overnight. So, when he came back today to see me, it was just a great joy to see that he was doing well.
COOPER: We think he may have a grandmother who may be living in the United States. And we're trying to track that down, because, obviously, we don't want to just -- you know, none of us can imagine just leaving and having Monley still kind of one of the many unaccounted for, or not knowing what's going to happen to him.
I mean, every day -- I mean, you are saving lives every single day. It's got to be so frustrating, though, you know, not having all the supplies you need, especially in those early days.
MCADOO: It is.
IMC has done a great job just supplying the things that we need. And we have really not had such an issue with it. And everything that we have asked, we have pretty much gotten. So, I think they have done a great job just giving us the things that we need.
COOPER: But, like, at General Hospital two days -- was it two days ago? Like, in the morning, they had to delay surgeries because they didn't have surgical gloves. And that wasn't an IMC thing. It was just a hospital-wide thing.
MCADOO: Yes. And I think IMC has actually stepped in to help with the different operating rooms and to start functioning. And surgeons are coming in on a regular basis now.
COOPER: Where did you find the X-Men shirt?
MCADOO: It was donated in a box. And, so, I thought, since it was bright and red, that he might be spotted in case we needed to look for him.
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: Uh-huh.
You know, we went to his house today. It's totally destroyed. They have buried his mom and dad nearby. It's going to be a long road for him. And there really is this new generation of kids who are going to be now facing, I mean, a new kind of life. A lot of them have had limbs amputated because of infections and they don't have parents.
MCADOO: Yes, it's going to -- it's a very sad situation, and I'm just hoping that people will, you know, donate and help with just the long-term progress of Haiti, because it's not a short-term fix.
COOPER: Yes. A lot of the surgeries that you're having now, they will need follow-on surgeries in some cases, right?
MCADOO: Oh, yes, and also prosthetics, physical therapy. There's just a whole lot of things, you know, that need to be done.
COOPER: Right.
MCADOO: And it's going to take a long time.
COOPER: Mm-hmm.
You OK?
He's very shy.
(LAUGHTER)
MCADOO: He is.
COOPER: Well, thank you very much, Monley, for being with us.
I hope the cough gets better.
MCADOO: Yes.
COOPER: And we will continue obviously to follow. Thank you so much for all you're doing. Appreciate it.
MCADOO: All right. You're welcome.
COOPER: We should also point out that the doctor, also, who you were working with.
MCADOO: Colleen Buono?
COOPER: Yes, Colleen Buono.
MCADOO: Yes.
COOPER: She did an amazing job.
MCADOO: Yes, she did.
COOPER: Both of you did.
MCADOO: She did.
COOPER: Thank you.
We have got a lot tonight. For two hours tonight on networks all around the planet on every continent, except Antarctic, millions watched the television event aimed at reminding us that saving Haiti is the world's business. Hope For Haiti Now, you see the banner at the bottom of the screen with how to donate.
George Clooney was the driving force behind Hope For Haiti Now. He joins us from Los Angeles.
George, how did the telethon do so far, 60 countries, six continents, 58 domestic networks, 60 international networks. I mean, how did you organize this? How did you get it up and running?
GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR: Well, one of the things we did -- the first thing we did was, I called the people at MTV, and they were kind enough to start the ball rolling. And then it seemed as if everybody wanted to participate. All the networks immediately jumped in.
And, then, once they jumped in, we were able to get other networks and other networks. Eventually, I think we even got the -- the Chinese government to allow it to run in China. So, we have had a -- I think there's an outpouring because of the images that you're showing. I think there's an outpouring across the world of people understanding that, as bad as it is for them, it's nowhere near as bad as it is where you are right now.
COOPER: How quickly will the money donated tonight, you think, get to relief organizations?
CLOONEY: Well, that was one of our big -- what was most important was that we would use organizations that actually are on the ground and up and running, Red Cross, obviously, Oxfam, World Food Program, places like that. It's important for us to make sure that it's an influx of money immediately, because, you know, there isn't much else we can do, except make sure that there's money and begin the process of healing, because everyone here feels very helpless otherwise.
COOPER: I mean, there -- as you addressed in the beginning of the program, I mean, there's a lot of people who feel like their donations aren't going to make a difference in a country where, as you pointed out, 80 percent of the people live on less than $2 a day. What do you say to people about, you know, the effect that their money can have?
CLOONEY: Well, it's obvious...
(COUGHING)
COOPER: Do you want to get some water?
CLOONEY: Is she (sic) OK?
COOPER: Yes, yes. No, he's all right. He just -- I think he needs a little water.
CLOONEY: Oh.
COOPER: Go ahead, George.
CLOONEY: Well, no, it's obvious that anything -- a $5 donation from, you know, 300 million people is a lot of money.
You can -- you can find a way to do a -- make a huge difference to a country, and particularly a country that's as poor as Haiti. And it's going to need a lot of work. It's going to be -- the biggest issue -- and you will have the same problem as the rest of us -- will be keeping it front-page news, not now, because it is now, but three or four or five or six months from now. That's the trick. And that's why it has to be sustained. And that's part of our job.
COOPER: Yes.
And, I mean, that's what, you know, a lot of the big relief organizations which you guys are supporting tonight, you know, they have -- they are going to have a presence here for a long time to come.
CLOONEY: Sure.
COOPER: But, as we were talking with Gabriella, a lot of these surgeries that these kids are having, it's amputations now, but it needs follow-on care, it needs follow-on surgeries. And that is the fear, that, six months from now, people are going to be like, oh, you know, Haiti, that was six months ago. Didn't we deal with that?
But the answer is no, because there's so much infrastructure that needs work here. The needs are so great.
CLOONEY: Well, historically, that's true.
I mean, certainly, Katrina, of most recent times, Darfur, you could talk about, you know, will -- you can have a big rally but then after it's over, people feel as if, OK, I have done my bit and that's it. And it's no longer part of the conscious, the collective.
And, so, our job in the -- in all of our industries, the industries that are seen by people, is to remind people of it and to keep -- to keep it up until it's healthy. And that's a lot of work, and it's going to take a lot of time.
COOPER: Yes.
Well, I certainly hope to come back a lot and continue reporting on this. George, appreciate all very done. And thank you very much for joining us tonight.
CLOONEY: Thank you, Anderson, for everything you're doing.
COOPER: It's the least I can do.
Up next, Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at medical dangers of life the way so many people are living right now here in tent cities right behind us.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: There's no way to tell exactly how many families are living here. A lot of them have even brought in mattresses. They have all their possessions. And they have built up these -- they're using sheeting for -- to create some privacy. Each family gets about -- well, it looks like a space of about 10 or 15 feet by -- by maybe 10 feet. And these alleys have been created that just keep going.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, that's how people are living right now in Leogane in these (AUDIO GAP) just about an hour from Port-au-Prince.
Tent cities are popping up all across the quake zone. I mean, as you know if you have been watching us, there's one right behind us, several hundred people. I don't know if you hear that music. They have actually set up speakers tonight for the first time and they're just kind of playing music for the people who are living there.
One international public health agency says that there are about a million Haitians living in about 600 impromptu settlements. So many people living so close together in these conditions pose potentially some serious health risks. Sickness can spread easily through tent cities.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta visited one of these makeshift settlement to try to size up the risk.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: And we're here with Atanya (ph). She's a little baby 2-month-old. T-shirt, it's cute. It says, "Does this diaper make my butt look big"? She is living here with four other kids, three adults. And this is their home.
This is a tent. This is what it's like to be displaced after the earthquake. Just everywhere you look, there are tents like this. And this is one of the things people are most concerned about when they talk about a potential second wave of death. They're worried about infectious diseases, in part because of the living conditions like this, people living in very close quarters. There's a concern, could you start to spread diseases like (AUDIO GAP)? Could you start to spread respiratory illnesses?
And what about the water? Is the water clean enough to actually prevent waterborne illnesses as well? Take a look over here. They do a pretty good job here. They have got clean water. It's really important. You have got clean water, and you can solve a lot of problems. For the most part, if you talk to public health officials, they will tell you this idea of a second wave of death due to infections is probably overblown. Actually, it probably doesn't happen that much. In fact, if you can control some very basic things, including water, making sure they get that, and including access to some good clean food, you can probably stave off a lot of these potential infections.
Keep in mind, we're talking about Haiti here. Even before the earthquake 45, about percent of people did not have access to clean drinking water. And, of course, this is how they're living, in very close quarters. If a disease outbreak were to occur, it could spread very quickly from person to person.
One thing that's important to notice as well is that -- how hot it is out here. It is just hot. Forget about infectious diseases. Forget about cholera (AUDIO GAP). Forget about hepatitis A. Worry about the heat. People are at real risk of having heatstroke if they simply don't get enough water.
Another concern people hardly ever think about is that all the aid workers that are coming into this area, well, they need to be inoculated as well. In fact, as journalists, we get these immunization cards to make sure that we don't become the carriers and the cause of a big infectious disease outbreak in a place like this.
But, again, this is tent city, people living in close quarters. People concerned, certainly, about infectious disease outbreaks, but, as things stand now, the likelihood of that seems pretty remote.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now.
Were you surprised by what you said in those tent cities, besides the T-shirt that said about the diaper making that baby's butt look big?
(LAUGHTER)
GUPTA: That's right. She was a really cute baby.
You know, I wasn't surprised, because we know they live in close quarters. What's surprising is, is that, every time there's one of these natural disasters, people always say there's a second wave of disease coming. And I have heard people say it could be -- it cause even more deaths than the earthquake itself.
COOPER: Right.
GUPTA: And I think it's pretty safe to say, based on history now, that that's not likely to happen. That's probably just an overblown thing. Certainly, there are risks of certain diseases.
But what happens is that you have a -- if you have clean water, and you have -- and you're able to get people treated pretty quickly, they're not going to have these sort of large outbreaks of cholera or typhoid fever or hepatitis.
Keep in mind, though, that this is Haiti. About half the population didn't have access to clean water before all this started.
COOPER: Right.
GUPTA: So, it's a little bit harder to predict.
But I think -- I think I'm pretty comfortable saying that we're not going to see the huge outbreaks causing massive deaths. There might be clusters of measles, clusters of various infections, but that's probably what we're going to see.
COOPER: Did you get a sense today -- I mean, every day, you see little bits of progress, and you see improvements, and you drive by a street that, just other day, wasn't cleared and then suddenly it's cleared. And you go to the hospital and you notice, OK, there's more doctors here. It looks like things are moving a little bit better.
Do you sense today is better than yesterday?
GUPTA: No question about it. Three things that I noticed.
First of all, that baby that you met in the piece, I mean, they were smiling. They clearly had gotten food recently. There was a water truck that had come by actually distributing water. And, so, the -- even the children ended up getting freshwater, and not that concerned about waterborne illness.
But, also, I think that the cleanliness, the hygiene seems to have improved as well. Obviously, if you have these squalid conditions, that puts you at higher risk of some of these infectious diseases as well.
But it was clean. People were sweeping up. You saw a lot of the trash getting picked up. So, it was a lot better than I -- I think I expected.
COOPER: Right.
And next -- tomorrow, the next day, what do you think the priorities are right now?
GUPTA: Well, you have about, as you mentioned, hundreds of thousands of people. It's hard to -- hard to estimate, but probably at least 400,000 people who are living in these types of conditions right now.
I think that the -- the plan is to try and get them located to an area where they're going to have easier access to all these basic things, and, by the way, medical access as well, so, food, water, and some medical access.
COOPER: Because it is the situation now that it's still this patchwork of, well, in this park, there's a surgical theater that medics have set up, and, down here -- it's still sort of patchwork. The idea is maybe get folks into a central location.
GUPTA: That's right. Get them into a central location. And a lot of these people, by the way, they still have homes. They're just frightened to go back to them because of all the aftershocks they have been feeling.
COOPER: Understandably, because, I mean, the construction here, even if a home is standing, the concrete that it's used, it's nowhere near -- it's not reinforced concrete, like we have in the United States.
GUPTA: That's right. And, so, they have the physical trauma that they may have suffered, but the emotional trauma that is ongoing as well, we kept hearing that over and over again.
COOPER: Right. Yes.
All right, Sanjay, great. Thank you.
GUPTA: Thank you.
COOPER: Another good day for Sanjay.
We have been tracking relief supplies sent to Haiti on our Web site. You can go to AC360.com for sort of an overview of aid and where's it going.
Just ahead tonight: the max exodus out of Port-au-Prince, a lot of people leaving the capital, trying to get to other parts of Haiti. But the question is, where exactly are they going and what awaits them when they get there? We will show you ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Aid officials say about 200,000 people have fled the capital by bus or ferry or on foot, some planning to stay with relatives elsewhere in Haiti. Others, well, their plans are less certain. They just kind of to want to get out of the city, as Karl Penhaul found out.
He joins me now.
There are a lot of people just trying to get out, right?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Really is.
I mean, there were a lot of people that we saw today heading towards the coastal city of Jeremie down in the southwest there. There seem to be a lot of family ties here, a lot of kind of rural connections, so they just want to get out in the countryside. I wouldn't say so much that they want to build a new life, but they really just want to find some way to survive, but pushing, fighting for seats.
You know, it's 90-some degrees outside. And then, on those buses, it's absolutely boiling inside. As you can imagine, the kids are just crying. Everybody's getting bent out of shape. And the buses are in such appalling condition.
COOPER: Right.
PENHAUL: And they might be sitting on the bus for four or five hours while they do repairs to axles and everything else.
COOPER: And until they get some sort of large mobilization to get people working on rebuilding, I mean, there's not a lot of jobs to be had. Businesses aren't open. People are just kind of -- there's a lot of people just kind of hanging around.
PENHAUL: Exactly. I mean, one of the ladies that I met today, she said: "Well, you know, one of the reasons I'm going is that there are no jobs here. I worked for a kindergarten, and that kindergarten is no longer here."
In the second part of her sentence, she then added that her 5- year-old and 1-and-a-half-month-old were crushed by a building when she was away. And when I asked her, "Well, did you have time to bury them before you're leaving?"
And she simply said, "I threw them -- I threw them away."
COOPER: She said her -- she threw her kids away?
PENHAUL: She just tossed her kids away. And that -- that, I think, you know, you -- they are fleeing, but, at some point, they're going to have to come to terms, not only with where they're trying to build their new life, but with these emotions as well.
As I put to this lady, "You know, why don't you Haitians cry?" Because we haven't seen...
COOPER: Yes.
PENHAUL: You know, we have seen some immediate outpourings of grief...
COOPER: Right.
PENHAUL: ... but not a lot of long-term outpourings.
COOPER: Yes.
PENHAUL: I said, "Why don't you Haitians cry?"
She said: "There's no point. They're dead already. That's over and done with."
COOPER: I think there's been generations of suffering in this -- on this island. We know there have -- you know, from dictatorships and killings at night. And people who have no power really have absolutely no power.
And there's this kind of resignation almost at times of, people just kind of throw up their shoulders and say, you know what, this is the way it's always been.
PENHAUL: I think it's a really interesting issue.
And, you know, I get that. And I think that's part of this, is that -- the explanation. I can't believe that's the whole part of the situation. Can you imagine a mother saying in any culture, "I threw them away"?
COOPER: It's -- I will never forget being at the cemetery on the second day of this, and, you know, families bringing their loved ones. And there was just no place to put them, and putting them in crypts, and -- anyway, a lot of things which are just kind of eye-opening, and I think are going to take a lot of time for -- for the Haitians to kind of wrap their minds around what -- what has happened.
I mean, it was -- I think the shock is still kind of very present.
PENHAUL: Absolutely, yes.
COOPER: All right, Karl, thanks very much.
Up next: so many children left orphaned by the quake. There is some good news. We're going to show you the happy ending for some families who were already in process of adopting Haitian kids. There are so many others not even near that yet. But we will show you the good news ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Those are just some of the kids affected by the quake we have seen.
You know, in 2007, UNICEF estimated there were about 380,000 orphans in Haiti. That was in 2007. There are many more new orphans after the quake. Orphanages, as you know, have been hit pretty hard.
Gary Tuchman visited an orphanage here. And the parents back in the U.S. saw Gary's report, saw the kid they were in the process of adopting -- and, tonight, happy endings for two of the families that we have been profiling.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We arrived at the Bresma Orphanage (ph) three days after the earthquake. It seemed remarkable. None of the orphans were crying, but we also noticed they weren't smiling.
Two sisters from Pittsburgh who ran the orphanage were nervous and upset. The children's adoption papers have been destroyed in the quake. They didn't know what they were going to do.
JAMIE MCMURTRIE, BRESMA ORPHANAGE: Their paperwork was in government offices downtown and they're all crumbled.
ALI MCMURTRIE, BRESMA ORPHANAGE: ...all crumbled.
TUCHMAN: Though we didn't know it until later, our trip to the orphanage triggered two amazing coincidences. This is what I said on the air at the time.
(on camera): There are fears the rest of these orphanage could collapse because of the frequent aftershocks we're having. So the decision is that made to leave these children outside 24 hours a day.
The little girl on my lap is the first coincidence. A woman in Denver, Elizabeth Dowling, happened to be watching and she was stunned.
The little girl was Jenna and Jenna was the girl that Elizabeth was adopting.
ELIZABETH DOWLING, JENNA'S MOM: It's been exhausting. And going from terrifying to seeing her on TV was amazing. To see if she was ok and then not to know she was going to be safe at the orphanage.
TUCHMAN: But the very next night Jenna and four other children from the orphanage were approved to move to America and start new lives.
I got to say good-bye to Jenna at the Port-au-Prince airport before she and the others boarded an Air Force C-17 for a trip to Florida. Their new parents would meet them there.
DOWLING: Hi, guys. This is Jenna.
TUCHMAN: Jenna and her mom would no longer be separated.
Thursday night mother and daughter flew to Denver where Jenna made her grand entrance into her own bedroom. And how does Elizabeth feel?
DOWLING: I can exhale and get used to it and start her little routine.
TUCHMAN: As for the second coincidence, while we were at the orphanage a couple from Kansas reached out to our producers at AC360 in New York and told them they were looking for information about the boy they were adopting. So they called us and we found him.
J. MCMURTRIE: This is Alexander.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How is he doing?
J. MCMURTRIE: He's doing good.
ROSS HASKELL, ALEXANDER'S ADOPTIVE DAD: Well, I guess I have got mixed emotions. I'm incredibly happy to see him. And I'm also terribly worried.
TUCHMAN: Two nights after that Alexander and 53 other children from the orphanage were driven to the U.S. embassy. They did not all have approval to leave, but ultimately each child received permission. And now Alexander is home, too, in Kansas with his mom and dad, Jean Griffith and Russ Haskell.
JEAN GRIFFITH, ALEXANDER'S ADOPTIVE MOM: I just kissed him and hugged him and...
HASKELL: Yes.
GRIFFITH: And checked him out and made sure for myself that he was ok.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN: Almost all of these parents were months away from getting their children. So the interesting thing is because of the earthquake they got their children quicker.
So, Anderson, that is the silver lining here amid this terrible catastrophe.
COOPER: Well, for these families certainly, Gary, thanks.
We are joined by Alexander's dad, Ross Haskell and he joins us now. Ross, we have a picture I think of Alexander that was in your home today. How's it going? How are you doing?
HASKELL: Anderson, we are overwhelmed. We're overwhelmed by...
COOPER: In a good way.
HASKELL: ...happiness for Alex being here in our house. We're overwhelmed with gratitude for all the people who made this happen, yourself included. And especially Jamie and Ali, they are heroes in our eyes.
We also are overwhelmed that there are still hundreds and hundreds of children in Haiti, just like Alexander, who need to be rescued and united with their parents.
We think about that a lot because we understand what it's like to be waiting and suffering in that way. Our ending was happy. There's a lot of other happy endings that could be happening.
COOPER: Yes. And there's a lot of kids who weren't even in the pipeline but who are unfortunately now orphaned by, you know, by circumstances. Their parents died in the quake and even like little Monley who we introduced to you at the top of the program. You know he has an uncle who is caring for him right now but the uncle essentially is looking for some place to put Monley because he's too poor. He doesn't feel he can take care of him properly.
How is Alexander dealing with all this? I mean, he's suddenly gone from one world to another. And how is he doing?
HASKELL: He's doing pretty well. You know, Jean was supposed to be with me this evening. She apologizes but she could not do that, but Alexander really needs us right now. She's upstairs with him right now putting him to sleep, comforting him.
He started to show some signs of being scared, especially when airplanes would fly over our house, but he's still a happy kid. He's still engaging with us, looking us in the eye, smiling, laughing. We just need to make him our top priority and that is what we're doing.
COOPER: Well, you made the right choice. I'm certainly glad that Jean's not here because what she's doing is far more important than being on TV.
But I know your story, you know, it gives hope to a lot of people who are in the same situations, who are trying to get their kids from Haiti back into the United States.
I'm so glad things worked out for you and we'll keep in touch with you. And please give our best to Alexander and to Jean. Ross, thank you so much.
HASKELL: Thank you, thank you very much.
COOPER: Well, coming up, some amazing stories of survival. What we have seen during our ten days on the ground here in Haiti. Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER (on camera): You know, when you first come here it seems like it's just out of control, like its complete chaos. But when your eyes kind of adjust to it after you've spent a little bit of time here you realize there is an order to it. There are lanes, there is organization.
And people have respect for one another. You don't see a lot of fights. You don't see pushing. Short tempers may flare from time to time; it's extraordinarily stressful situation. But there are kind of unwritten rules and people, you know, are forced to live very close together and so far at least in this area that they seem to be getting along.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That's some of what we saw in Leogane, again, it's about 20 miles from here. It takes about an hour to get here. Roads are kind of crowded. People are living outside in tent cities. They have nowhere else to go. A lot of the buildings there have been destroyed.
I want to talk to some of our correspondents who've been covering this crisis now for ten days; stories of heartbreak and hope. I'm joined by my colleague Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Gary Tuchman and by Ivan Watson.
That is one of the things I think that when you first get here things seemed chaotic. But there is really an order here. There are unwritten rules. And even in these tent cities, you know, even if some aid organization hasn't come in and organized things there's kind of little markets sprout up. People selling goods, kind of a life finds a way to move forward.
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We saw this yesterday, bazaars have set up; impromptu bazaars and people who even rigged up car batteries and they charge people the equivalent of 50 cents to their charge phones in the middle of a refugee camp.
COOPER: Yes, you saw -- what did you see today? What...
WATSON: We traveled a little bit past Leogane to a place that was called Petite Paradi, that means "little paradise." And it was actually hit by a tsunami -- a localized tsunami...
COOPER: Yes.
WATSON: ...tragically on top of the earthquake that killed by our count at least seven locals there. There had been a tsunami warning on the day of the earthquake...
COOPER: Right.
WATSON: ...but it was withdrawn. But we've since talked with experts and it is possible to have localized tsunamis like that in areas very close to the epicenter.
COOPER: And how are things in these towns which are farther away from Port-au-Prince. I mean, so much focus has been on Port-au- Prince, these little towns have they gotten any attention?
WATSON: No aid whatsoever. There was a nun trying to distribute some rice and pop tarts. They flocked to her car. She had to drive away and they chased her car but we did see Marines and U.S. Navy CV's arriving in amphibious boats, ships and they said they're going to start distributing aid this weekend.
COOPER: And Gary, what did you do today?
TUCHMAN: I had a meeting with a woman I will never forget the rest of my life. Her name is Pricilla Setut (ph) and this was at a tent city on a soccer field, thousands of people living on a soccer field and tents. And Pricilla is into her second century of life. She is 109 years old.
COOPER: 109?
TUCHCMAN: ...109. She was born in 1900. She's always had a roof over her head. Her house was destroyed. Her 17-year-old great granddaughter carried her out of the house after it came down. The whole family's now in a tent: daughter, great granddaughter, cousins, eight people in this tiny tent. And asked her how she was feeling.
And she said, I'm sad because I'm blind and I lived in my house so long I knew where I was going and now in the tent I don't know where I'm going anymore. Nevertheless, she was smiling the whole time and laughing. She laughed at a joke when I asked her what year she was born. And she didn't remember at first and I said, don't -- don't worry I don't remember what year I was born, I was so young when I was born and I didn't remember it either. And she laughed which I appreciate of course.
But she was smiling so much. And I said, how can you smile so much? And she said that if I don't laugh, I'll cry.
COOPER: Sanjay do you know how long you're going to stay? I mean, have you...
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's funny. I don't know the exact day that we're going to leave. But I'd been thinking to myself sort of all along, I'd like to be able to report some good stories. I'd like to be able to report some stories of recovery of the things that we've been talking about for some time.
COOPER: Right.
GUPTA: It was nice today in some ways; I had a similar experience I think to Gary's. I went out to one of these tent cities and I wasn't sure what to expect. But first thing that we saw when we got there was a kid who was flying a kite that he sort of made out of a paper plate...
COOPER: Yes.
GUPTA: ...and he was flying that and everyone around him was laughing. It was very clean as well; people sweeping up the area.
COOPER: Yes.
GUPTA: There wasn't the squalor of I sort of expected and there was also some of the sort of commerce that I think that you're alluding to.
COOPER: Right.
GUPTA: People trying to sell things and including water being distributed and all of that. I mean, it's not permanent settlements but it seemed like a pretty good sort of temporary housing and also one that would probably not be one that would be at risk for disease.
COOPER: And I mean, life really does move forward here even amidst the rubble. People are -- I mean, figuring out new ways to survive. And I mean, it's not, it's painful and there is sorrow everywhere and everybody seems to have lost somebody.
And that's the thing I think, you know, maybe that doesn't come across on television is that just the loss infuses everybody's life here.
I mean, and, you know -- they're not crying about it openly on the streets but it's got to just change everything about everybody's life.
TUCHMAN: Very different situations, but it reminds me of September 11th and the days after in New York City...
GUPTA: Yes.
TUCHMAN: ...3,000 people died in 9/11 but when you went throughout New York City everyone knew someone or knew someone who knew someone. Here it's obviously a much bigger toll, but it's the same kind of feeling that there's no one who's escaped unscathed.
COOPER: Yes, do you-- what -- explain, Ivan, how you work every day? I mean, we all basically just kind of go out and we have a destination in mind but you don't always make it to the destination because something else kind of comes up.
WATSON: It is really is pretty random. You -- sometimes you have a goal in mind, oh, we're going to go and talk to this person somewhere and along the way and you see something that just blows your mind or you see a gathering. And we just plan to drive out west because nobody -- I'd never been out there.
And we saw a cluster of people on the side of the road and it was a nun trying to give out food. And she had to hide in her car to get away from the hungry crowd. And that things lead from there.
And it was a -- and then we started talking to a fisherman there and they said our boats got destroyed. And I thought it was from the earthquake, it turned out it was from a giant wave that swept a lot of the relatives out to sea.
And that's what happens in a situation like this.
COOPER: Do you see -- do you see improvement? I mean do you see that today was better than yesterday?
WATSON: I think in Port-au-Prince we see some signs of improvement, but what really came home to me was out in the provinces. It's -- there has been little to no change.
COOPER: Yes. Well, we...
TUCHMAN: I think that one thing our viewers want to know is how we live. They've been asking me a lot on e-mails and on Twitter. And I think one thing that's really interesting, before I came to this earthquake, we always hear a lot during earthquakes about how people stay outside even if they have homes because they're scared of the aftershocks. I think a lot of us wonder, why don't you go in your house if it's good?
Well, what our viewers should know is that all of us CNNers are staying at this hotel and other journalists are staying here, too. I'm not going to name any names but there are a number of people who decided among the journalist corps to sleep outside. They're not comfortable because we've had so many aftershocks including 2 this morning. COOPER: Yes. Well, I sleep inside because I figure like, you know, if it's going to happen, it's going to happen.
GUPTA: You see all the people coming out in the hallways are often in their boxer shorts and their...
TUCHMAN: I was. I was.
COOPER: I will say when one of the aftershocks hit I put on a pair of jeans and stood in the doorway and I kind of thought to myself, is this how I would want to be found? You know, like, so anyway. I guess that shows how vain I am.
Ivan, thank you very much, Gary as well and Dr. Gupta as well, Sanjay.
A lot to report on here; lot of stories to tell. We've been here a week and a half now; a photographer has been traveling with us helping to capture all the images. We're going to show you some behind the scenes images you haven't seen, in our Reporters' Notebook. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: In the ten days that we've been here with my photographer, Neil Hallsworth (ph); my producer, Charlie Moore, Marion Fox, and Vlad Duthiers have been traveling around with this guy. Jonathan -- and I always mess up his last name.
JONATHAN TORGOVNIK, PHOTOGRAPHER: Torgovnik.
COOPER: Torgovnik who's our still photographer from Getty Images. He's been taking pictures -- really remarkable pictures behind the scenes while we've been working putting together stories. We wanted to show you some of his pictures with some of my kind of random thoughts in my Reporter's Notebook.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): It's been ten days now. Ten days. Ups still down, night still day; nothing is fair.
At first it's the dead. That's what we all saw; the bodies on streets, crushed under rubble. Hands reaching out as if imploring for help.
Now it's the living. They stare right at you. No words. No speech. Some still are on the doorstep of death.
There's a risk it can all start to blend together. The pain and the need and the sadness you see. You can't let that happen, though, not yet, not now. Each person's pain deserves to be known.
At General Hospital the screaming is constant. But some of the kids just sit there and listen. Their bodies are broken. There's not enough help to be had.
There has been some violence; some looting and fighting.
(on camera): It's become kind of a free for all.
(voice-over): Earlier this week we got caught up in it all. A boy was bleeding, collapsed on the ground. I grabbed him and ran, blood poured from his head. He was stunned and in shock. It all happened so fast.
The violence is limited, however, most people are calm. They pick through the rubble and save what they can. They sweep up their past. They find solutions to live. They're strong and resilient. Their spirits still soar.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: I want to thank Jonathan for all his hard work with us. Not all those pictures were his but most of them were.
Quick reminder about what you're seeing at the bottom of your screen. It's from tonight's telethon, "Hope for Haiti" now. Shows exactly how you can help make a difference to the people here.
And next, Haiti's new orphans. That story ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Saw Alexander David a few moments ago adapting to his new American home. He was orphaned before the earthquake. But for every Alexander David there are many, many more Haitian kids who are orphaned by the quake. There's really no system at this point in place to care for them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Outside the crumbling pediatric ward at General Hospital a nurse sings of God and grace.
You can't hear the singing inside the pediatric tent because Wanda Smiley can't stop screaming. She's 11 years old. Her legs are broken. No one's sure exactly what else is wrong.
Nearby a little boy with a broken leg sits silently, watching it all. His name is Johnny. He doesn't know his last name. His parents are dead. He has no clothes and nowhere else to go.
DR. MARIE FRANCE CONDE: Right now he has a broken leg, a femur as well as a broken -- he has several fractures on that leg. But no one is here for him.
COOPER (on camera): What will happen to him?
CONDE: Last night I did not sleep thinking about Johnny because I got up. I said, maybe I should take Johnny home. I said, I know it's not going to be possible. COOPER (voice-over): For kids whose parents are dead, there is no clear system. That's part of the planning that needs to be done.
CONDE: We don't have much. That's all we have.
COOPER: Dominique Toussaint, a Haitian-American nurse from Harlem, doesn't cry in front of the children. But outside the tent she's overcome by it all.
DOMINIQUE TOUSSAINT, HAITIAN-AMERICAN NURSE: Everybody has infections. It seems as though, to me, like they're going to eventually die. I don't even have some place to wash my hands. I have one bottle of hand sanitizer. We can't do anything under sterile technique. It's impossible not to have, you know, horrible infections.
You know, the medications we're giving them we could use some stronger medications. We don't have them.
COOPER (on camera): It also seems like a lot of the medication supplies you do have are not built for children. They're not geared for children.
TOUSSAINT: They're not. I went to get an oxygen tank. It took forever to get the tank, it took forever to get a mask. The mask we have is probably too big to even fit on my face.
We have no -- the needles on our syringes are too long. We have nothing for the kids. It's like the kids are forgotten almost.
COOPER: Like the kids are forgotten?
TOUSSAINT: Yes. So -- we're just doing the best we can. I mean, it's frustrating. I just -- I'm overwhelmed.
COOPER (on camera): It is overwhelming for nurses and children. The injured keep coming. There's no space to be had.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: We'll have more from Haiti in a moment.
We're following some other important stories though for you. Joe Johns has the "360 News and Business Bulletin" -- Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, Britain has raised its national terror threat level from substantial to severe, indicating an attack is highly likely. But British officials say there's no intelligence to suggest an attack is imminent.
Here in the U.S. a Los Angeles judge has ruled Roman Polanski must return to the U.S. to be sentenced for having sex with a 13-year- old girl in 1977. The director's attorneys argued their client should be sentenced in absentia. An appeal is likely. Polanski is under house arrest at a Swiss chalet. On Wall Street, stocks tumbled for the third day in a row. The Dow shed 216 points, the biggest drop since October. For the week, blue chips lost more than 430 points. The decline fueled by uncertainty over whether the senate will approve a second term for Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and worries over President Obama's plan to get tougher on big banks.
The president talked about the economy at a town hall meeting in Ohio today. President Obama said he will never stop fighting for jobs and health care reform.
Back to you, Anderson.
COOPER: Joe thanks very much. I hope you have a good weekend. We're going to be here tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. We're going to be here all next week if we can.
More news at the top of the hour.
We'll see you Monday and we'll see you on the weekend as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Good evening from Port-au-Prince, I'm Anderson Cooper. Welcome to all of you who have been watching the "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon. George Clooney who organized it is going to be joining us shortly.
Also tonight, thankfully, two stories disproving the conventional wisdom that there's little chance of finding anyone alive underneath the rubble after about three days. Today Israeli crews dug out a 22- year-old man. He's being treated at a mobile field hospital set up by Israeli defense forces, dehydrated but in otherwise good health we're told considering what he has been through.
