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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Disaster in the Philippines; Toronto's Mayor Under Fire; More Aid Arrives In The Philippines, More Help Needed For Survivors

Aired November 13, 2013 - 20:00   ET

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

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. I'm Anderson Cooper, reporting tonight from Tacloban in the Philippines. It is Thursday morning, 9:00 a.m. and a new day has begun.

In the last several hours, there have been significant developments to tell you about. Yesterday I talked to the Marine Brigadier General Paul Kennedy who promised he would be about to get this airport, the runway up and running on a 24-hour basis. He's fulfilled that promise along with Air Force personnel on the ground last night for the first time, aircraft were coming in during the nighttime hours, able to land and offload supplies. We have actually seen an uptick in aid along the side of the runway from USAID, from the Malaysian government, from other places. Food aid, medical supplies and tarps that people can use for shelter.

The problem is getting it out from here at the airport to the surrounding communities that are in such desperate need. And it's not just the question of communities far away. I'm talking about communities that are half a mile from here, even a clinic here at the airport. People come up to you all the time.

Look at all the people milling around here at the airport. They -- many times they come here every day desperate to get on some sort of a flight out of here. They don't have food. They don't have water. And you would think the one place with supplies coming in here, the one place that would be easy to distribute water or food to people would be here at the airport but there are people begging us for water, just little sips of water.

I want to show you what we saw at a clinic several hours ago. A clinic that's been set up here at the airport, a clinic that's simply overwhelmed. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): It's like this every day now. In this overcrowded clinic at Tacloban airport, there are too many people, and not enough supplies.

KATRINA KATOVEY, MEDICAL DOCTOR: It's a little bit chaotic because --

COOPER (on camera): It looks very chaotic. KATOVEY: Yes. As you can see, we don't have any medicines. We don't have any supplies. We have IV fluids but it's running out. And most of the people here doesn't have water and food. That's why they come here. Most of the kids are dehydrated. Most of them are suffering from diarrhea and vomiting.

COOPER (voice-over): Dr. Katrina Katovey has been here for three days. It feels much longer.

(On camera): What do you need here?

KATOVEY: We mostly need food and water. That's the most important supplies that we need for all the --

COOPER: So you don't even have enough food and water for the sick people?

KATOVEY: Yes.

COOPER (voice-over): More people just keep coming in. Captain Leland Noel Abagnol (ph) stitches up a man injured in the typhoon. Used bandages lie in a pile on the floor. Nearby, a member of the Philippine Military reads names off a list of those who get to be evacuated today.

(On camera): So who gets to be evacuated right away? What makes it -- someone eligible?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, like the elderlies, the children, the very sick.

COOPER (voice-over): For some, the wait is too long. This man died last night. He lies on a gurney at the end of the hall. They have no place else to put him.

A mother plays with her child and in a tiny side room three babies have been born in the last three days.

(On camera): A very beautiful baby.

KATOVEY: It's a boy.

COOPER: I know. He's very beautiful.

(Voice-over): A healthy baby boy named Haiyan, named for a storm he will know nothing about.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Not only is the boy's named Haiyan for the storm, his middle name is Daniel which is the name of the airport I'm told. So his mother named him after both the storm and the place where he was born. Imagine being born in this place -- this catastrophe.

There are Americans here who have been trying to get out. I want to introduce you to Rick Stanford who we just met at the airport. You are hoping to get out today.

RICK STANFORD, STRANDED AMERICAN: Yes, we are. We're trying to get up to Manila tonight and maybe move up to Pampanga area where we have some friends that we can help us relocate over there.

COOPER: You're retired. You've been living here just for about -- for the last couple of months. How has it been the last few days? I mean, have you seen out there?

STANFORD: It's turning into absolute chaos. As soon as the food runs out and the water runs out, people are going to get desperate. We've had gunfire in our neighborhood. We had reports of NPA trying to take over the town. So it's only going to get worse until somebody gets over here and gives us a hand.

COOPER: You talk about the lack of food, the lack of water once it runs out. Have you seen large scale relief efforts, government officials handing out water, handing out food?

STANFORD: Absolutely not. It's becoming every man for themselves. You'll see a group of people that --

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to get back to Anderson in a moment. We've obviously got a few technical problems, which is totally understandable.

I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. We're watching what's going on in the Philippines. We're watching what's going on here in Washington. I think we've reconnected with Anderson.

Anderson, are you there?

COOPER: Hey, yes, Wolf, are you there? Sorry, we're back. Yes. We ran into some problem, Wolf. I appreciate you jumping in.

Rick, we're back on the air. But you were just saying the security situation is deteriorating from what you saw?

STANFORD: It is. We went to the pier, my wife's family is on an island called Talalora and they were bringing in some fresh water for us. And my wife and I were riding our bike back and we got into a street and all on a sudden a mob of people are running towards us and we have gunshot going off and --

COOPER: Do you understand why it's so hard to get water? Why it's so hard to get food? I mean, you're having relatives bring you water from another island. There are planes coming in. Have you been able to talk to anybody on the Philippine side about what the holdup is?

STANFORD: It's -- what I've heard is supplies will come in and you'll have a mob of people going in there and taking them. So it's not being distributed. There is not enough security here to keep the people in line. We need that. And we need to get some sort of generators going so that we can get some fresh water going, get some fuel so that people can move back and forth.

COOPER: What was it like for you when you finally arrived here at the airport with your family and you saw U.S. Marines here?

STANFORD: You're going to make me cry on this one. It was the most beautiful site I've ever seen. God bless the USA. When I saw those American flags on those uniforms, I knew that we were going to be taken care of and the first thing they said, you're a U.S. citizen, you're our first priority and thank God for that.

But if I could say something, I wish that the U.S. embassy would do something for us expats who have wives that are Philippine citizens to help us get them to the United States. We have no place to live here and we need to get back to the U.S., and they need to be able to expedite some sort of visas or something to get them.

COOPER: And also -- I mean, for -- it's got to be shocking for you when you look and you see the hundreds of Philippine citizens who are lined up, who have been lined up for days and it's very slow for them to get out.

STANFORD: It is. And what's even worse is going through the town and seeing people just sitting on the side knowing that they have no place to go. The hope is just fading from them. So they really need to have the government -- the Philippine government needs to step it up and do something to help them and I know the United States will, because the United States is always the first one in there to help a country.

COOPER: Rick, I appreciate it. I'm glad your family is safe and we're glad you're getting out.

STANFORD: Thank you so much.

COOPER: Take care. My best to your family.

STANFORD: Thank you.

COOPER: Again, we're -- I cannot -- I cannot emphasize how frustrating it is for residents here, for Philippines -- for Philippine citizens to be standing here for hours and hours without getting water, without getting food and that's the frustration. They want to know why can't we have some water? Why can't we have something here?

Paula Hancocks has been covering this disaster from the beginning.

When -- I understand you talked to the Philippine -- the Interior minister who was here on the ground and he was upset with me, I understand.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Yes, he came here about midnight last night, still working, and he said that he was upset by a tweet that he thought you had done saying that there is no presence of government. Apparently, this is being picked up by the local media and was made into a big story.

COOPER: What is the tweet allegedly said? There is no presence of the government? I never said that nor have I been able to send out any tweets because there is no cell service here. The show sent out a tweet based on something I said, which was -- and I think you would probably agree with this, that I've seen very little large-scale Philippine Military in the surrounding areas.

There is Philippine Military here at the airport and there is some roadblocks in the town, but in terms of like a grid-by-grid search, a street-by-street search for any survivors or even those who have died, I haven't seen any searches. Have you?

HANCOCKS: No, I've not seen no systematic search for survivors. I mean, not to say that it didn't happen in different areas, but I personally have not seen that. All I've seen is the recovery of bodies at this point. But what the Interior minister was saying is what the government has been saying all along. That the local government, the local infrastructure was wiped out. So the first responders who would usually deal with this kind of crisis were the victims themselves.

So this is really what they are trying to hammer home to people, which is why they believe that the issue is in the media that it may have been a little slow. But they're very sensitive to people say thing is slow. But you've got to say what you see.

COOPER: Yes. I don't mind being criticized for something I actually said, but obviously I did not say that. But I will say -- and you hear it from all the residents here. They don't understand why a mother who's lost six children and who's only found three of their bodies, why she has to search all by herself, why some military or police assets can't be used as they were in Japan out for the tsunami to search block by block, to even look if there's any survivors.

I know that early on the government said our emphasis is on the survivors, not recovering the dead, but there could have been people trapped alive under rubble and unless there is an organized search, which I haven't seen, and again, in this area, lives could have possibly been saved.

HANCOCKS: Well, absolutely. And this is in many natural disasters that we've covered. This is what you see right at the beginning. You see the desperate -- look for survivors but it has been on an individual basis. It's been, as you say, the mother looking for her children.

And the one thing that the Interior minister said as well was -- when I asked him to look around you, there was so many people desperate to get out. This is a chaotic situation. He quoted Katrina to me, and said, other countries have problems as well. Now of course I pointed out that it's not something you want to aspire to. You want to do better. You want to make sure that there is a better response. And he said that no response would be good enough. COOPER: I just want to clarify, I did not tweet saying that there was no government presence because obviously there is. There is soldiers around. But in terms of organized large-scale efforts out in this community, I just haven't seen it nor everybody I talked to who is searching for their dead children or dead husbands or dead wives, they said they haven't received help in the search.

We got to take a quick break. We're going to have a lot more on the aid effort and again, there has been an uptick in aid arriving here at the airport and also I went out with the Marines on an off- spray to a nearby island about 30-minute flight from here to assess the situation. I went out there with a captain from the Philippine Navy. You'll meet him ahead. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And welcome back. We're live in Tacloban. That sound you hear is a Philippine Air Force C-130 that's landed. Supplies are being offloaded and they're going to be able to take out a number of Philippine citizens, who -- many have been camped out here for days, in some cases, but certainly overnight and are very eager to get on that flight because of the security situation and the lack of food and water.

There's a lot more to tell you about here. And we are seeing pockets of hope and improvement. A more organized effort to recover bodies, to recover the dead and get them off the streets.

But first I want to go to Wolf Blitzer in Washington with the latest domestic news -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Anderson, thanks very much. We'll get back to you shortly but there is breaking news we're following here.

This was the moment critics of the Affordable Care Act have been predicting, supporters of it have been dreading. The Obama administration now releasing enrollment numbers for the first month of the operation. About 79,000 people enrolled through the state exchanges and about 26,000 through the government's -- we call a mess of a Web site, healthcare.gov. Still a mess. That's far lower than the half million the Obama administration was expecting.

Difficulties with the site and controversy with President Obama's pledge that Americans could keep existing policies really came to a head today. Key Democratic lawmakers signed on to plans to alter the law. Others had what's being described as a turbulent meeting with White House officials. Meantime a Republican-led House committee grilled some of the administration's tech people responsible for healthcare.gov.

A lot happening. Our chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash watching it unfold up on Capitol Hill.

Dana, these hearings today, members of the administration getting sharply grilled by lawmakers but did we find out much that we didn't already know? DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A few things, but it was mostly very, very partisan, maybe part of the reason why Congress' approval rating is 9 percent right now. But the two things I think are important to take away is one that the Web site is still running at less than half of the intended capacity that the White House intended. So that is not very good news.

The other is that the chief information official from the White House who testified says that there is no guarantee that they are actually going to meet the deadline or at least the goal that the White House has to get the Web site fully functional by the end of the month. So those are two not great pieces of news given the facts that these numbers we saw on enrollment today were very low in large part because of the Web site's problems -- Wolf.

BLITZER: You know, that Web site is just one of the problems. There is frustration clearly among a lot of Democrats and they brought White House officials to Capitol Hill today for some closed door meetings to deal with Democrats. They'll be back again tomorrow, I'm told.

So what's this all about?

BASH: That's right. I mean, look, this is a big, big issue that many members of Congress, especially Democrats, are hearing about from their constituents and that being that they are getting cancellation letters, they're getting calls saying that the policy that they do like they can't keep, which of course, as we've reported, was a promise that the president made.

So what Democrats are hoping for is White House give them some kind of sense of a fix, something to take to their constituents and say, look, we're dealing with this, we're addressing this. There will be a meeting on Capitol Hill with White House officials, including, I'm told, the White House chief of staff and the Senate side to talk about this.

Again on the House side today there was a very contentious meeting, members of Congress saying, you've got to help us, you've got to give us something, and the White House saying, we're working on it, but it's a very difficult issue for them to figure out. It is not easy at all to figure out how to get these health policies back up and running after they've already been canceled because they need to meet the requirements for the new Obamacare law.

BLITZER: Yes. A lot of these Democrats who are up for reelection next year especially worried.

All right, Dana, thanks very much.

Just a little while ago, I spoke with Dr. Zeke Emanuel. These days he chairs the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy. He's the vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. But back when the Affordable Care Act was being formulated, he was the top advisor to the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: These numbers remain just dismal, 26,000.

EZEKIEL EMANUEL, PROF. OF MEDICAL ETHICS AND HEALTH POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: Yes.

BLITZER: The model, it's not going to work because you need healthy young people enrolling in order to get the system to work.

EMANUEL: Correct, you need a wide swath of the population to create a pool. Absolutely agreed. But this is not a technical problem that is insuperable. It will work at some point and further, I do think lots of people, as we've seen the numbers of people who want insurance, is high and so I do think this is going to be a solvable problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Dr. Emanuel also said he thought President Obama had kept his promise about Americans keeping their existing policy, something not even the president fully claims any longer.

Let's discuss what's going on. I want to bring in a pair of Democrats who differ somewhat when it comes to the problems of the Affordable Care Act. The "Daily Beast" special correspondent and city -- University of New York professor of journalism and political science Peter Beinart, and CNN political commentator, the Democratic strategist Paul Begala. Also our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger.

Gloria, these numbers that were released today, pretty dismal, aren't they?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. They're very dismal. I think they're evidence of a complete failure, breakdown of this Web site. The White House was low-balling us and saying you're going to see some low figures. And they were right. They were lower than we even anticipated.

So I think this is a complete failure. They are trying to say as Zeke Emanuel just said, look, there is a great deal of interest and they're right about that. There were, you know, 26 million people at one point or another who clicked on to the Web site. There were over a million who tried to enroll.

So if they can get this fixed, maybe they can get it going but right now they've got a president, people are questioning his competency, his honesty and his credibility.

BLITZER: And, Paul, the president's approval numbers are really going south right now. Only in the last couple of weeks you can only imagine if the Republicans wouldn't have pushed for a government shutdown where those numbers would be right now given the performance of the Obamacare Web site. So what does he do?

PAULA BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, he's got to fix it. He's got to muscle through this and he's got to get it right. This is one of those deals where, you know, we are almost exactly a year past his reelection and a year away from the next midterms. If you're going to crater, I guess this is good a time as any.

But he's got to get it right. This is where the good policy will lead to good politics. Everybody needs to calm down. I have to say, honesty compels me to say, if they've signed up a million or two million, I would be crowing. So the fact that they've signed up like -- you know, 1.5 percent of their goal, I got to eat crow.

But it also doesn't mean that this thing is fatal or there's no recovery. A few weeks ago I was saying, the shutdown means the Republicans can't win in 2014. Now the Republicans are saying, well, the glitches in the Web site mean that the Democrats can't win in 2014. The truth is, we don't know what the hell is going to be deciding the 2014 election now and we ought to just all just take a chill pill.

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: Is that covered by health care?

BLITZER: Almost a year. Peter, you know, a little bit of the problems the president has, a whole bunch of Democrats -- forget about the Republicans. A whole bunch of Democrats seemingly ready to abandon him as far as this health care is concerned.

PETER BEINART, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, THE DAILY BEAST: Right. I mean, I think that's really the big story over the last couple of days, potentially a bigger problem than the Web site itself because the political move that the Democrats, especially Democrats worried about reelection in 2014, want is to be able to tell people that they can keep their plans. But, you know, you start pulling at one thread in this whole Obamacare system and the whole thing start to fall apart because there is a reason that people weren't allowed to keep those plans.

These people need to go onto the exchanges. Remember, the exchanges only work if you have young and healthy people entering the exchanges, too. So you keep those people out of the system and allow them to keep their plans and you probably don't have a lot of young healthy people willing to try eight, 10, 12 hours to get on this Web site.

So already the people who are signing up are probably the older and the sicker and the entire economic basis of this -- these exchange systems starts to collapse. That's a really big problem.

BORGER: Well, that's really why the administration is saying to Democrats, hold on, kind of like Paul, saying Democrats, hold on. We want to try to do and some kind of administrative fix because if you do a legislative fix like some of these Senate Democrats want to do who are up for reelection, and if you do it legislatively, then you're essentially undermining Obamacare because you are saying to these individuals, OK, you can keep your policy, and if you can keep your policy, you're not going to buy into that risk pool. If you don't buy into that risk pool, the whole paradigm collapses, falls apart and, you know, undermines the very program that Democrats really fought so hard to promote.

BLITZER: One number that really jumped out at all of us today, Paul, was the number of people whose health insurance policies were canceled in California alone. One million people lost their health insurance. They got to now find other health insurance, eventually might be better policies, might be even a little cheaper if they get subsides but still a million people losing their health insurance in California. That's a significant number.

BEGALA: It is. But I think it breaks up into three subgroups. One is a lot of these policies in the individual market are annual anyway, and so it cancels every year no matter what. No Obamacare, a lot of people would still be getting cancellations. Second, there is a group of them who have policies that aren't with the paper they're written on. They call them health care policies but it's nonsense. It's like, you know, we can't buy an airplane ticket on an airplane that's, you know, got -- made by a rubber band and a propeller in a 1982 Volkswagen engine. You know, there are certain standards that have to be met.

There is a third group, though, where a lot of these people really do think they have pretty good plans and they will lose out and it's for the reasons Peter and Gloria are talking about, we need them in the Obamacare pool. But it's really -- you're getting down to now actually a pretty small percentage. A lot of people, it's a big country, but at most you're talking about 2 to 5 percent and then --

BORGER: But it's millions of people --

BEGALA: The 95 percent that benefit.

BORGER: It's millions of people and the worst part is, of course, Paul, as you know, is nobody wants to be surprised when their president told them one thing, and they say OK, that's great, that's good to know, and then they're surprised and find their policies are canceled, whether they are lousy policies or not. It's bad.

BEGALA: Absolutely.

BEINART: There's -- those people also tend to be more politically vocal and articulate then. This is a basic political problem with essentially economic redistribution, which is what this is. It's basically -- for people who are really benefiting tend to be poorer people who are getting on to Medicaid, for instance now, or sicker and poor people.

But those people are not going to have as much political weight as the people who are starting to squawk and write their members of Congress and you're seeing that with Democrats revolting. Not just conservative Democrats but Democrats like Diane Feinstein in California.

BLITZER: All right, Peter, thanks very much. Peter Beinart, Paul Begala, and Gloria Borger. Good discussion.

Up next, we'll have some more breaking news, new scandalous accusations about Toronto's crack smoking mayor.

But first, let's go back to Anderson Cooper, he's in Tacloban in the Philippines where the devastation continues -- Anderson.

COOPER: Wolf, sorry, very strange to hear about the crack smoking mayor when you're over here. We -- when we come back, we're going to also take you out to a surrounding area, an island that's been one of the concerns about what's happening in some of these very hard to reach areas.

I'm going to go out with Marines and a Philippine captain from the Navy to assess the situation on an island about 30 minutes from here. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: It is grim and thankless work for these firefighters. They often get sick doing it, but frankly it has to be done. It's gotten to the point the smell in Tacloban are overwhelming, the smell of death, the smell of decay. There are simply not enough body bags to go around say local officials. Firefighters have been brought in to do the work, military personnel, as well, but it -- there hasn't been a centralized organized effort to remove the bodies.

That seems to be increasing in the last day or so. Here there is one, two, three, four, five, six people, two dogs, and over here there is another one, two, three, four, five, six, seven people and a dog that have been bagged and this is one block in Tacloban. It like this block after block you find bodies just about everywhere and that is the grim reality of life here in Tacloban these days.

We'll take you out with U.S. Marines, Philippine Navy personnel to an island to assess another town that's been hard hit to see the needs there are. But first, I want to go back to Wolf Blitzer in D.C. -- Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Anderson, thanks very much. We're anxious to get your additional reports, but there is some breaking news we are following here. Toronto's embattled mayor is now facing even more allegations of drug abuse and alcohol abuse and erratic behavior. This comes after a tense city council meeting today at Toronto where the mayor, Rob Ford, admitted he bought illegal drugs in the past two years while in office.

Just last week, he also admitted to smoking crack cocaine. Paula Newton joins us from Toronto with the breaking news. Paula, tell the viewers what happened.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, as if this story couldn't get anymore salacious. Just hours ago, new information released in court, it was information that had been secret before that Mayor Rob Ford allegedly was doing prescription drugs, other kinds of drugs, was on a binge drinking evening in 2012 on St. Patrick's night, that he drove drunk and he may have been with an escort.

All of these are details, Wolf, that were alleged by his own staff members when they were interviewed by police. But Wolf, really what kind of a day it's been here at city hall. So many people saying that they have never seen anything like it, it was like tuning into a reality show. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAYOR ROB FORD, TORONTO: I'm answering but you tonight want to hear my answer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Actually, you're not being truthful. That's my problem.

FORD: Have you been into that house?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have no interest in being in that house. I'm not a crack user.

FORD: So --

NEWTON (voice-over): Many in Toronto would say the nickname is unfair, but crack town lived up to the billing as its mayor, Rob Ford, made confession after confession as he faced an inquisition from city counselors.

DENZIL MINNAN-WONG, TORONTO CITY COUNCILOR: Have you purchased illegal drugs in the last two years?

FORD: Yes, I have.

WONG: Thank you.

NEWTON: And on it went. It's a very public intervention that put Mayor Ford on the spot and on the couch. This one from one of his allies --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Mayor, do you recognize there are few of us that really do want to help you?

FORD: Councilor, it was not the reason I drank or did drugs was not because of stress. It was out of sheer stupidity. That's all it was. I'm not going to blame something or use an excuse or cop out. I take full responsibility for my mistakes. I don't know what else I can say.

NEWTON: Councilors wanted to hear I resign, but on it went for several more uncomfortable hours.

FORD: There is nothing else to say, guys. I really f-ed up and that's it.

NEWTON: It didn't matter what he said. Fellow councillors voted overwhelmingly for the mayor to take a leave, but the truth is the vote didn't matter, either. No one can legally force the mayor to quit. In an exclusive interview with CNN, Doug Ford, the mayor's big brother says, no way, the mayor is staying put calling fellow councilors a bunch of hypocrites.

DOUG FORD, MAYOR ROB FORD'S BROTHER: Everyone has faced it, and they are willing to forgive. They aren't willing to forgive Rob Ford.

NEWTON (on camera): What if he stepped down?

DOUG FORD: Why should he step down? Again, let the people decide.

NEWTON (voice-over): Outside a few thousand protesters made it clear, they have decided the mayor can't stay on the job.

(on camera): Do you have any power to stop it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are we going to stop it? Anyway we can by any legal means necessary. We're going to keep the pressure up until he goes. This is not the end. This is the beginning.

NEWTON: And that's been the point here all along. People are saying, that look, this isn't the end. This is the beginning of a protest movement.

(voice-over): The mayor's response, bring it on. Even as new allegations swirled about drug abuse he says nothing will tear him away from his job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Paula, all this new information you mentioned earlier and again, it's important to note none of it has been proven in court. So what's the status of the police investigation? Is the mayor himself cooperating with law enforcement?

NEWTON: Well, it was quite a bombshell, something missed with all the sorted details today that Rob Ford admitted in council chambers, Wolf, that he's not cooperating with the police investigation. I spoke to his lawyer, Dennis Morris, afterwards. He says that is his advice to the mayor and he takes it.

The problem here though, Wolf, is remember, this is a man that is in charge of the police department. He is not cooperating with the very department that he oversees and many people are wondering how long this can go on. Mayor Ford says, look, I'm not addict. I'm staying on this job. I'm a good mayor and nobody can prove otherwise -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Paula Newton in Toronto for us. What a story that is. Thanks very, very much. Let's go back to Anderson. He is the Philippines -- Anderson.

COOPER: Just unbelievable story out of Toronto, Wolf. When we come back, we'll show you the scenes we've been witnessing for days now. Hundreds of thousands of people lined up waiting to get out. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: The desperation in Tacloban more evident than here at the airport where thousands of residents line up. They are waiting and have been waiting for hours for a seat on a plane to take them to Manila. There is no guarantee they will get on a flight today. However they come here every day. These are priority case, often times they have children, they are elderly by desperate to get out. They have been here for hours and will be here for many more hours until the plane arrives.

As I told you at the top of the program, as promised by Brigadier General Paul Kennedy of the U.S. Marines, he has been able to get this airport operating on a 24-hour basis. So flights are coming in at night, last night was the first night that that happened bringing in more aid, supplies. So that is certainly the good news.

The other good news is the Marines have started to spread out to try to make -- to try to get out and assess the needs along with their counter parts of the Philippine Navy, Philippine military, assess smaller towns and cities on islands and outlying areas that are more difficult to get to, some of them you can only get by air or by water. We went out a short time ago with the Marines on their jets. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): The Osprees have arrived. American Marines are now using their unique aircraft to check on remote island communities cut off by the typhoon. Today, we are flying to an island called Samar. From the air the damage to its main city, Guiuan is clear. Osprees fly like planes, but can hover like helicopters. Before landing the screw makes sure the runway is safe.

Most of the passengers on board today are Philippine Navy personnel. Captain Troy Trinidad is trying to assess the needs of the island's people.

CAPT. TROY TRINIDAD, PHILIPPINE NAVY: Is the food enough? No.

COOPER: The 45,000 people live here, 87 died in the storm. Hundreds are sick or injured and some need urgent care.

(on camera): This lady needs medical attention, she clearly cannot get so Colonel Trinidad has been asked if the U.S. military will take her someplace else. They will try to bring her on the Ospree back to Tacloban and from there get her either to Manila or to Cebu.

(voice-over): Dozens of people are waiting and watching hoping more relief is on the way.

(on camera): What is it like to see this? You've seen a lot of disasters and typhoons in your country.

TRINIDAD: I've been through a lot of earthquakes and typhoons, this is the worst. Tacloban badly hit, this is worse. COOPER: This is worse and it hasn't gotten the attention yet?

TRINIDAD: Not yet, not yet. There may be other towns that we still have to see that may be as devastated as this one, maybe more.

COOPER: It's just a question of you getting to them?

TRINIDAD: Yes.

COOPER (voice-over): Captain Trinidad said they have only got to about 20 percent of the towns that may have been affected by the typhoon.

TRINIDAD: You would be actually on the ground, you would sense of despair and hopelessness in the face of the people. Unlike the other typhoons, you see the people build normal lives. The force of the typhoon in the Tacloban city, very seldom will you see somebody starting to build his life, everybody, almost everybody walking around, wondering endlessly.

COOPER: People don't know where to begin.

TRINIDAD: Yes.

COOPER (voice-over): Now that they know the landing scrape can accommodate the Osprees, U.S. Army Major Leo Lee Brike says they can quickly return.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It opens a new tool that we can find them and have capabilities with aircraft, quick turns, and carry a lot on cargo. We can drop off supplies, bring in things. It's amazing.

COOPER: After 40 minutes on the ground they re-board the planes. The woman in the wheelchair and her family members are brought along as well, one more island, one more mission, the effort here has really just begun.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: If you've been watching the coverage over the last several days, you may remember the first day when we arrived, we went to a community maybe half a mile or so from here. We walked out there and found a man who was desperate to get in touch with his mother in Manila, let his mother know he was alive, but that his wife was dead and two of his children were dead. He still had one daughter left alive named Christina.

We, you know, there are no cell phones. Cell service is down. We gave him our satellite phone and he was able to talk to his mother. Here is how that went.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma, Ma --

COOPER (voice-over): They are gone, they are all gone he says. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma, Ma.

COOPER: I don't know why this happened to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: We've been getting a lot of inquiries on social media, on Twitter and Facebook what happened to him, how he's doing. We haven't been able to get back in touch with him. After this broadcast, we are going to go out to the neighborhoods again and walk around and try to find him to see how he's doing.

One of the saddest things that he said to us, which didn't make it into the report is he said that with the death of his wife, with the death of two of his children, that he thought about killing himself, but the only thing that kept him alive and is keeping him alive is one of his daughters, his eldest daughter is alive and she needs him.

He's staying alive simply for her, but obviously in desperate, desperate shape. Hopefully we can find him to see how he's doing. When we come back we'll talk to our correspondents here on the ground. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: American Marines promised to get this airport up and running on a 24-hour basis along with U.S. Air Force personnel. Last night, the first night that C-130 cargo planes were able to land during night time hours. As you can tell, it made a difference. There is more aid on the ground. These are actually boxes of medical supplies, looks like they are from Germany. These are boxes, full of boxes from USAID, from the United States. These are plastic tarps, sheets that can be cut up by families, thousands of them. They can be used for shelter, which is critically important here for the people who have really no shelter from the elements whatsoever.

The question is how quickly can this aid be distributed to the communities that need it most? Can it be distributed safely, efficiently and quickly? That's the big holdup right now. The Philippine government, the local government here even the federal government is very disorganized. There aren't the capabilities. They don't have trucks. There is a shortage of fuel. How quickly the aid can get out there right now is the biggest challenge.

That certainly is a big challenge as we've been seeing. I'm joined by all our correspondents that have been here longer than I have. We talked about this at the top of the program. I want to reiterate, there are apparently some belief among the Philippine government or the interior minister, he was upset with me that -- saying that I tweeted something that there is no government presence here.

There certainly is a government presence, what I was saying and didn't tweet anything at all is saying that I have not seen a big relief effort out in communities by Philippine military personnel doing a grid search for bodies, even searching for survivors. Do you all agree with that pretty much? Are you seeing in terms of aid effort? It certainly has gotten better over the last days.

PAUL HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just yesterday I was with the World Food Program and they had three army trucks taking the aid to a warehouse. There was a warehouse pre-existing. They call it the golden warehouse because it wasn't hit by the storm and wasn't looted. There was an APC down there, a lot of military down there to make sure. There is a lot of food there, WFP have 75,000 family packs. They want to get the word out people are getting food at this point.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I've been speaking to the man in charge of the government response of this, and he's analogy is like it's filling up a swimming pool with hoses, they are getting more and more hoses in there. They are. They had a plan to come in on day three, a first responder issue but as he points out, the first responders disappeared.

They got in here 24 hours after that storm and weren't able to do much. There is no doubt, you go downtown and there is so much anger still and a military presence, but there is still so much work to be done down there. The government appreciates and realizes that, but saying we're doing the best we can.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Remarkable thing is we went for a drive yesterday out from Tacloban, city down south to the towns, the southern road and also in the path of the storm but as you drove away from here it slowly less affected, still badly hit. The key issue for the furthest one away, saying there are rebels and bandits robbing civilians for food perhaps.

You move back in the town Paola very concrete in the infrastructure, able to resist a lot and an organized mayor who buried 813 in the first 48 hours. They have given out food before the storm. That's all great, but it begs the question this is the biggest city here, you know, a huge golf in the capability there are still dead bodies, the same ones day after day and people have to ask themselves, what is the priority and where have they been in the initial four days, a slow trip from now.

COOPER: Hopefully it will get better as the days past. Appreciate all of your reporting. We'll take a short break and we'll have more coverage from the Philippines when we come back. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: That's it for us here in Tacloban in this hour. Appreciate you watching our coverage. I hope you join us an hour from now, another edition of 360, 10:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN. "PIERS MORGAN LIVE" starts now.