Return to Transcripts main page

Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Day Eight of the Disaster in the Philippines; Interview with Doug Ford

Aired November 15, 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. I'm Anderson Cooper, reporting tonight live from Manila. Thanks for joining us on this edition of "AC360".

We're going to have reporters from all over the disaster zone. This is day eight since Super Typhoon Haiyan hit this region and has devastated much of the Philippines in the south, a lot of coastal communities.

You have been witnessing what we have been seeing over the last several days. It's easy to think by day eighth, with all the aid that's coming, with the increasing improvements in the way it's being distributed, it's easy to think the worst is over. But for many people on the ground, the nightmare continues.

There is still a lack of food, still a lack of water and people are dying. People are still dying. People will die who don't need to die. They will die of things that if they had antibiotics they could easily be cured of and we have an example of that this evening.

You may have seen this picture. It's been seen around the world. It really stunned a lot of people. A woman of what remains in a hospital in Tacloban who has no other option but to try to pump air into her husband's body to keep him alive. She has manually been pumping air into his lungs to keep him alive. He essentially has a broken leg, but an infection set in because he wasn't seen by doctors, because there weren't doctors that could see him. There weren't surgeons who could operate on. They were not antibiotics that could actually stop the infection.

So, antibiotics that would cost a few cents weren't available. And we are still -- we are not talking about the first day after the storm, the second day. We are talking about the third, and the fourth, and fifth and sixth day.

Ivan Watson is joining us now from Tacloban with an update on what has happened to this man, also joined by Nick Paton Walsh here in Manila.

Ivan, you were just at the hospital. Again, this picture has really captivated. It has been on newspapers. It has been seen on television around the world. You have an update what has actually happened. What has gone on? IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, I'm sad to report the man photographed there 27-year-old Richard Pulga who had an open fracture on his right leg basically is to shin bones passed away on Friday, doctors tell me.

They operated on him. He was terribly infected. He had a terrible infection of his leg. He had not, they said, gotten first aid for at least three days, and then he was bandaged, and then this infection set in and they had no choice but to finally operate on Friday, but they lacked one critical, critical element that they say could have saved his life. They didn't have blood supplies for a transfusion and could save him as they operated on him. The doctors tell me that if they had blood and they asked for it and it is certainly in stock in other cities and towns around the Philippines, they could have saved this man's life whose initial injury was a broken leg -- Anderson?

COOPER: I mean, let's just pause and think about that for a moment. A man who had a broken leg is now dead because there wasn't blood supplies, and he had got an infection that there weren't antibiotics to treat. So, when people here, when the government has talked about well, we're focusing on the living, we're focusing on saving the living, simple things like blood, like antibiotics haven't been getting out fast enough and time, I mean, you know, you can say well, you know, it's difficult. We're facing a lot of difficulties and we all understand that. It's not an easy situation. The infrastructure is bad in the best of times, but that man should not have died. There is no reason for that man to have died of essentially a broken leg.

As you see on the ground Ivan in Tacloban, how are the efforts going to get the aid out to other places? I mean, the fact that the clinic at Tacloban, at the airport, you know, days ago didn't have food and water and basic supplies, enough supplies, according to doctors I talked to there, that's right at the airport. So, this hospital is in town, they didn't have blood is just -- is inexplicable and heart breaking. How are things now, today?

WATSON: Well, I mean, at this one hospital, which was destroyed. It's operating rooms were destroyed. It's a private hospital, the Divine World hospital, and it was a surgical team that came in from the department of health from another town and they have came in and basically taken over to try to do some of these very urgent operations. They said that they have done 17 in the last 36 hours, just giving us a snapshot here.

Some of those operations are caesarian, for example, and I saw some very tiny babies who were just been born. But disturbingly, some of the other operations they carried out, at least six in the last 24 hours are amputations. These are people who have had also wounds to their limbs, to their legs, to their arms that have gone untreated for the better part of a week that have gotten inflected and then the doctors have no choice but to basically use a method dating back to the civil war, chop the limb off. And we saw a number of men in there with amputations above the knee, below the shoulder, and this is -- these are some of the measures that doctors at this facility are having to take because people have gone untreated a week after the typhoon -- Anderson?

COOPER: And if there were facilities or vehicles to get those people to the airport to get them on a plane to have gotten them out days ago, perhaps lives could have been saved, limbs could have been saved.

I want to bring in Nick Paton Walsh.

Nick, you just left Tacloban. You were down where I was several days ago where a lot of the bodies that have been collected and there is a large number of bodies that weren't collected but were actually being gathered in a kind of mass area. What did you see?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly in the last few days, the government came in. There is a change in the street and a lack of communication. What we saw, one of the key things where the bodies being gathered. The smell is in the street when is you drive through. They put them together in this makeshift morgue and there is an incredibly complex and heart breaking complex of trying to identify who are in those body bags and that's the beginning of trying to get through the process.

COOPER: Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH (voice-over): This is where it ends for so many without ceremony or even their name spoken softly. The corpses that have littered Tacloban, so much of the city leaves, come to rest here. Until parts of the horror of how they must have died.

But they leave many questions, too, among the overpowering smell of looming disease. It's a cold, but necessary process, the accounting of the dead that happens here in the condition they arrive in after days in the open and the impact of flood waters, grew some, sometimes unrecognizable. But for the relatives that come in search of their loved ones, it's here they hear the toughest answers.

Some endure the search for mothers or brothers and just find more not knowing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: The remarkable thing is the people who arrive. One man we spoke to found his father's remains in the corpses that are identified but hadn't found out where his mother was.

COOPER: That's the thing people don't understand. Unless you've seen the condition of people who have been -- who have drowned in a violent way, who have been hit by debris, who have been left outside for days and days, a mother can be looking at their child and not recognize their own child because of what happens to a body when it's been out like this. I mean, imagine the heart break of that, opening up body bags searching for your child and looking at all these remains and not even be able to identify your loved one. WALSH: There is emotional heart break everyone goes through, the most sensitive horrifying moment in trauma is that and what it makes them feel about their government and the government's ability to provide dignity. A simple public health issue because people will start getting ill in that town, unless debris is cleared away and more fresh water and that's a real issue.

COOPER: Ivan, I mean, again, you know, the government had talked about prepositions supplies in advance of the storm, and I know, electricity was out, facilities out at hospitals throughout Tacloban, but it is just stunning to me that this long into it on Friday a man can die essentially from a broken leg because of a lack of supplies, and just the prioritizing of things the immediate aftermath on this is something that will have to be looked at in calmer time so the next time, that's what that is about, not only saving lives. But the next time this happens, because it will happen again, what can we learn now what is happening here that will change things the next time around.

Ivan, I appreciate your reporting, Nick Paton Walsh as well.

So many people are trying to, in different ways, to help. And there is a young man -- not so young, he's my age, 46, Arnel Pineda is here. He is the lead singer of Journey. You were born in Manila.

ARNEL PINEDA, JOURNEY LEAD SINGER: Born and raised here.

COOPER: And the story, I mean, most people I know about how you were discovered, but you basically sing for cover bands here, Journey songs and they saw you on You Tube and they called you in and hired you.

PINEDA: No. A friend of mine, you know, we became friend back in 2000, 2006 and I've recorded all of my performances in Hard Rock Cafe and (INAUDIBLE), so, he ask for my permission to photo those videos and those are the ones.

COOPER: Incredible.

You have a foundation here --

PINEDA: Yes, it's APFI. We're actually like focus on helping the street kids. But now I'm coming to you to let our fellow men know that I am trying to raise with my group Journey, Mr. John Barack and CIA nation trying to raise the kind of money that could afford us to buy two million wheels to give to the --.

COOPER: I heard that journey is going to be donating $350,000 to the world food program.

PINEDA: Yes, that's the money that could afford at least.

COOPER: That's a huge, huge amount of money that will make a huge difference. When you see the images, when you see what's happening to people in Tacloban and Samar and Cebu, what do you feel?

PINEDA: My God, it is the heartache is indescribable. It is like no words can say like how much I feel for them. It is like it saddened me so much I was, I was kind of depressed for a couple of days now because you don't know what to do. You don't know how to help because I'm planning to go there but my people just telling me don't go there because it's chaotic. But you, you're the brave one who went there.

COOPER: I think, often times, the kind of people over play or over blow, you know, minor security incidents. For the most part, I think the security is fine there.

PINEDA: It is?

COOPER: Yes, and I think that will take away from rescue efforts if people feel this is an unsafe place. I would say by in large it's --

PINEDA: I guess I will go there as soon as our food is here.

COOPER: That would be awesome.

PINEDA: Yes, I think I'm going to go there to give it out.

COOPER: It's got to be frustrating too, as a citizen here to feel like, you know, to know what needs to be done and feel helpless and feel like thinks are not moving fast enough.

PINEDA: I know. But then, you know, I just put in my mind that, you know, just forget about those negativities. I just have to do what I can do so I could be one of those people, you know, who can make a difference.

COOPER: The other thing that I'm so impressed by and, I mean, you grew up very poor here in the Philippines.

PINEDA: Yes, yes.

COOPER: Is the strength of people I've met in Tacloban and elsewhere, who, you know, who have nothing and who had nothing before the storm in many ways, except their hearts and their love for their families and whose livelihoods have been wiped out and tin shacks have been destroyed and yet -- and whose children are dead and they can't find them and yet every day they are sometimes able to smile, and they are able to hold their head up high. I mean, the strength of the Filipino people is extraordinary.

PINEDA: I think it's the resilience that we have, you know. It is, you know, from 400 years ago we've been invaded by all the Spaniards and we have been having patience and the courage and the bravery to fight against all odds.

COOPER: Yes. You have to be a hero, you are just, sometime, to get through each day.

PINEDA: You don't even have to be a hero, basically. These poor people, you know, they don't even deserve to have something like this, you know, I mean. We haven't seen this kind of storm for decades, now it's here and it has torn a lot of innocent lives and they are fighting.

COOPER: Yes.

PINEDA: They --

COOPER: I think it's awesome you're giving so much back.

PINEDA: Thank you so much.

COOPER: Thanks for all you are doing.

PINEDA: Please hang on.

COOPER: Yes, hang on. Those are good words.

Thank you very much and I appreciate it.

PINEDA: Thank you.

COOPER: We'll take a short break. When we come back, we are going to talk to somebody from a group I really like a lot, "Doctors without Borders, (INAUDIBLE)," NSF about the needs on the ground right now.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: This is one of the few houses that are still standing. Pretty solidly build. Some of the houses made out of concrete seem to survive the storm, but you just get a sense of the power of the storm. I mean, look, here is a jeep slammed into the house and this truck lifted up from somewhere and put on top of the jeep and the smell of rotting -- the smell of decay is everywhere around here.

There is a -- it's a cow, I think a dead cow, and it looks like behind it, there is the body of a person covered in a green cloth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That was Tuesday in Tacloban and a body like that, more than likely is probably still there. There is still a lot of bodies, particularly bodies that are in debris that have not yet been collected. That grim task goes on and it is thankless work for the firefighters and others who are viewing in.

I want to bring in Damien Maloney. He is from "Doctors without Borders." He's on the ground in Tacloban. His organization, we worked with a lot of years and a lot of very difficult places. They have remarkable experience.

Damien, in terms of the greatest needs, the greatest priorities for you right now, what are they? DAMIEN MALONEY, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: Anderson, at the moment I think it's a logistics problem at the moment. We're having trouble with access, with electricity, with food, with water. It's really hard to help people if we don't have these things. We can't find transport. We can't find drivers. The population is basically leaving the city because it's really difficult to get any of these basic human rights.

COOPER: The -- we saw earlier in this broadcast that a man died essentially of a broken leg, infection spread. And yes, the result of that broken leg, he died yesterday after being operated on. His wife was in a hospital in downtown, basically manually trying to pump the air into his lungs because there was no one else, there were no nurses to give a hand.

What about the existing medical infrastructure, I mean, are there hospitals operating? Are there -- can people get care? Because I saw a clinic at the Tacloban airport but they seemed overwhelmed two days ago.

MALONEY: Yes, exactly. I think at the moment it's people are starting to get -- the hospitals, the structures that are still standing are getting overwhelmed. People are starting to come with really severe infections and but also with these chronic diseases and things that people just generally get sick from, you know, upper respiratory infections and diarrhea diseases. And basically the hardest part again, it is logistics. There is very little drugs, there is very little stuff and it is hard to get the people here and it is hard to get there drugs here at the moment.

COOPER: What do you need -- I mean, do you have all the supplies that you need as an organization?

MALONEY: Sorry, Anderson, I just lost you.

COOPER: Yes, do you have all the supplies that you need as an organization?

MALONEY: Yes, it actually landed in Cebu, which is the next island across last night and is coming across tomorrow morning. So, on a barge and then we are going to put up an inflatable hospital with full surgical capacity, out-patients department, OB/GYN, maternity, children, the whole deal.

But this -- just this -- getting things from Manila and from Europe has been quite difficult here and now it's finally on the ground. We got to get it here, and that's quite difficult, as well.

COOPER: And even often getting it off the tarmac, you know, in a lot of places on forklifts to lift pallets of food and goods. And then, as you said, the trucks to move stuff, the fuel, I mean, it is all these logistical things that people don't think about it, people take for granted for but that really cost, end up costing people's lives.

I appreciate Damien, all the work you're doing as I always do with "Doctors without Borders." People can go to our Web site to find out more information about "Doctors without Borders."

Damien Maloney, we will continue to check in with you in the days ahead. Good luck to you and all of your folks working on the ground there.

We have seen also a number of families being reunited. A lot of people looking for their loved ones. Americans, Filipino-Americans in the United States trying to get in contact with their loved ones here. We've been -- last week or early they are week we were talking with an American family who was very concerned about their brother in the Philippines. They hadn't heard from him. They were finally able to be reunited. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good job, guys.

COOPER (voice-over): For 72 hours, after Haiyan struck the Philippines siblings Paulette Khoury and Cesar Villegas barely slept.

CESAR VILLEGAS, WITH RELATIVE SURVIVOR: When I saw the pictures of what happened, I assumed the worst.

COOPER (voice-over): Assumed the worst because while they were safe in San Diego, the last they heard from their brother, Jim, he was in Tacloban. Days earlier, Jim had e-mailed them not to worry, as he and his wife and three kids planned to ride out the storm in their two-story house. But as the storm devastated the city, all communication was lost and left in Cesar's imaginations began to get the better of them.

PAULETTE KHOURY, SISTER OF TYPHOON SURVIVOR: It was a really difficult time just kind of thinking what is happening? We tried calling. We tried texting. We tried e-mailing, and there was no response. So it was really difficult. It was a difficult time for us just not knowing and just thinking the worst things.

COOPER (voice-over): Jim was alive, but shaken. He watched from the second storey of his house as the water rose quickly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now we're at riverfront residence.

COOPER (voice-over): His travel agency on the ground floor was destroyed.

Over four days with barely any food or water, he and his family made their way to the Tacloban airport and got on a flight to Manila. He eventually got word to a relative who relay the good news to his desperate family back in San Diego. But it wasn't until Wednesday night everyone could breathe a sigh of relief.

KHOURY: Jim.

VILLEGAS: Jim.

COOPER (voice-over): Paulette and Cesar waived to see their brother for the first time and make sure everyone was safe.

C. VILLEGAS: How is the family?

JIM VILLEGAS, TYPHOON SURVIVOR: Oh, the family is good. Julia is here.

KHOURY: Did you get some -- oh, is she awake? Let me see her.

C. VILLEGAS: Julia.

KHOURY: Julia.

COOPER (voice-over): And Jim told them about how he survived the deadly storm surge that flattened Tacloban.

J. VILLEGAS: If we didn't have that house, we would have been, you know, flushed away. The water was like 10 feet high. It was like a tsunami.

COOPER (voice-over): Although a face-to-face reunion might not happen for weeks, Paulette and Cesar are doing what they can to help, shipping boxes full of supplies to those who lost everything.

KHOURY: My brother had told us that his worst experience there was at nighttime there was like no light. So we're trying to get a bunch of glow sticks and flashlights and just gathering as many like mosquito nets, just basic survival equipment to go there as soon as possible.

COOPER (voice-over): For Jim, anything helps. He'll go back to Tacloban determined to rebuild, refusing to give up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: It's nice to hear happy stories of reunions. We have another one in the program ahead for you. If you may remember, earlier this week, we talked to Jacquelyn (INAUDIBLE) who was very concerned. And she was in the United States, she was very concerned about her dad and her mom who were here in Tacloban. She hadn't been able to get in touch with them. She was concerned about the medical issues they have. We'll tell you what has happened on that story when we come back.

And also, in the "360 exclusive," of where interviewing the mayor of Toronto's brother, Rob Ford's brother, Doug, an exclusive interview and talking about the bizarreness going on with his brother and what is going to happen next. That will be ahead just after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Hey, welcome back. It is Saturday morning here in Manila in the Philippines, day eight of the disaster.

We are going to have a lot more what is going on here on the ground throughout this hour. But I do want to toss it over to our Bill Weir who has a remarkable interview with the brother of Toronto's admittedly crack smoking mayor.

Bill Weir is having in our program. Welcome.

BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is so great to be here, Anderson. Amazing work from there always. So proud to be part of your team. I always dreamt of reporting for CNN, never imagine it would a story be this. A surreal melt down of this gay up north on the fourth largest city on the continent now. And tonight, we have a "360" exclusive, exclusive with the brother of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. What a week, right, capped off with a vote today, unprecedented vote from the city council to take away some of his power, even as Mayor Ford continued to say he's not going anywhere.

From his admission that he smoked crack in a drunken stupor to the lewd remarks made on live television, Ford's brother, Counselor Doug Ford has been his most fervent, sometimes volcanic defender and I spoke with him just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WEIR: So you said today that you think your brother should take a leave of absence. Why?

DOUG FORD, TORONTO CITY COUNCILLOR: Well, what I mentioned, Bill, is that I believe Rob should take a couple weeks off. Let things cool down a bit, but we're going to be moving him forward and Rob wants to stay focused at the job at hand here.

WEIR: So he's not going to take that advice?

FORD: No, he wants to stay here, continue working, returning calls and dealing with city issues.

WEIR: There is so much speculation about your brother, not just there in Toronto from around the world, people just fascinated by this story that he has a real problem. Your sister and your mother have both come out and say they don't think he has an addiction problem with alcohol or drugs. What do you think?

FORD: Well, he definitely doesn't have a drug problem as Rob has admitted. He feels he's been drinking too much. I want to be very clear here. Rob doesn't come to work and drink and he doesn't drink every single day. But he does admit that he has excess of drinking at times and he's getting the medical support from a team of doctors and he's also gone on a pretty steady diet and exercise program. So we're confident that he's going to move forward.

WEIR: But no one has ever seen anything like we witnessed come out of your brother in the last week, such erratic behavior.

FORD: That's right.

WEIR: So much impulse, control problems, obviously. Can you not see why people are worried about him, embarrassed about this whole thing? FORD: Yes, that was unacceptable and it was not appropriate, whatsoever, what he said. He's apologized and got to make sure that never happens again, and he -- I'm sure he'll move forward and make as you were he doesn't use that language.

WEIR: At one point, I'm just so curious about the dynamic between you and your brother. You are his fiercest defender, but there have been moments when he really made you look like a fool. When you were defending him against the crack smoking allegations and going after the police commissioner there and he was admitting that yes, he had smoked crack. Has there ever been a moment where you two have come to blows and you tried to get him straighten out?

FORD: You know, Bill, I didn't realize that until he announced it that day and again, I believe in live when a family member has an issue, you don't throw them underneath a bus, you support them, deal with the issue, move forward and that's what we're going to do. It's unprecedented. Politics would try to take the powers off the mayor, number one morally and legally, they have over stepped their bounds in our opinion legally they can't do that. So we're going to be challenging these folks and not only the courts but the courts of public opinion.

WEIR: That's a long time until the next election and now you have a mayor and title owner. He can't manage the city during an emergency. He can't make key appointments.

FORD: Yes, he can. He can -- let's stop there for a second. He still sits as a member of the emergency team if anything happens. Really, today was symbolic. I feel it doesn't have too much teeth. We don't have the same powers as the U.S. mayors. We don't have a strong mayor system. I prefer a strong mayor system.

What we have is the mayor gets one vote so nothing moves without 45 counselors that approve it. Going into the next election if Rob, as we say, can stay on the rails and continue moving forward and have a healthy lifestyle, then I'll -- as sure as I'm sitting here now, it will be one heck of an election.

WEIR: What about these other allegations, cocaine, Oxycontin, the abuse of language towards staffers and taxi drivers and sounds like from what we hear from reporters there is that there are other shoes to drop. None of those things have been proven, but it all leads to a picture of a man, it seems ill fitted to lead.

FORD: Well, you know, again, Bill, that's going to be up to the people to decide, not the politicians, not the media but the people. Again, that's why we have elections.

WEIR: If your brother had gone away for a few weeks, a month, rehab, sought some help, came back, this wouldn't be an issue. He probably would win the next election by a land slide. Why is there such a resistance in your family for him to talk to somebody, people that care about him just to make sure he doesn't have a substance problem? FORD: Well, you know, something, again, Bill, I think we have a good team of health care professionals dealing with that right now, and again, I want to emphasize something, Bill, that rob is not a crack user. He doesn't drink every single night. He's admitted to his faults, and I just wish other politicians would come clean like Rob Ford has.

WEIR: You don't have to be a regular crack user to look at that and say boy, this is a -- this -- let's cast light on judgment issues, right? Like you say, it's fair enough people have Friday night after a long week want to blow off steam and knock back a few scotches, but most people I know don't go smoke some crack. That must worry you.

FORD: Yes, no, I agree. Yes, no, you know something, Bill? We keep, you know, whipping the horse here and keep talking about it. Again, he's getting support and we're going to move forward on this and he has to change his lifestyle, which he's doing.

WEIR: Let me ask you about this TV show. I mean, you're encouraging him to take some time off. Do you think it's a good idea for you guys to sign a TV show contract right around now?

FORD: Well, let me -- well, let me just confirm, we didn't sign any contract. We're doing, for now, one off. We had one of the most popular talk shows in the entire country every Sunday, and we have a very bias media up here, Bill. I think CNN has been very fair and some other international media, but this didn't start with the media last week, Bill.

This started three years ago when Rob Ford was elected for mayor. Rob Ford, I want to remind you and the listeners, Rob Ford doesn't represent the establishment and elites of the city. He represents the frontline blue color workers of this city and there are more blue color workers than the establishment and elites in the city.

WEIR: Councillor Doug Ford, we appreciate you spending time with us tonight and good luck and hope your brother gets well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WEIR: You can say a lot of things about the Ford boys, Anderson, but they are certainly loyal to each other amazing stuff.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yes, it's interesting how people don't consider -- or some people don't consider alcohol a drug, that drug use is one thing, he's not a drug addict, but somebody is binge drinking where alcohol is clearly interfering with his day to day life. The fact this is a story that's been going on and on and on.

Those are all criteria from what I understand, I'm not Dr. Drew, but from what I understand, alcoholism and let's hope this person is getting the help they need. I don't know. It is just bizarre. No doubt this isn't the last. Bill, great to have you on the program and CNN and we'll take a short break.

When we come back, more here in the Philippines, a reunion, an American woman who was very concerned about her parents, her mom and her father living here, you'll find out what has happened to them, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: When possible, here in the Philippines, we've been trying to help families reunite as best as we can. It's difficult to help people reunite and getting satellite phones to let people tell their loved ones that they are alive. Jackelyn Branscomb we talked to last Friday was the first time and throughout the week, she was concerned about her parents who live in Tacloban, if she had heard from them on Friday but wasn't sure of their status.

Finally Charles Branscomb, we ran into him at the airport in Tacloban and I talked to him here in Manila last night.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Charles, you had just moved there to Tacloban. When the storm hit, where were you? Explain what happened.

CHARLES BRANSCOMB, TYPHOON SURVIVOR: Well, we was in the house around about 4:00 in the morning. The rain started. It was raining, raining very hard and all of a sudden, just the wind started blowing and just started -- just tearing the place apart. The upper floor has two levels in my house.

COOPER: Were you on the top floor or bottom?

BRANSCOMB: No, we was thinking about moving to the top floor, but instead of moving to the top, we stayed to the bottom, which was a good idea because if we went to the top, we would be dead.

COOPER: Really? The top got damaged?

BRANSCOMB: Yes, it really got damaged.

COOPER: From the wind?

BRANSCOMB: From the wind and some rain.

COOPER: Did you have water coming until the house or were you in a high part of Tacloban?

BRANSCOMB: No, we didn't have water coming into the lower level. It's just the rain coming in the top floor.

COOPER: Thank goodness you were in a spot where the storm surge didn't come, if you were on the ground floor that would be an issue as well. We were talking to your daughter. Obviously she had been very concerned about you and your wife. Explain once the storm was done, I understand you were trapped inside your home.

BRANSCOMB: Yes, we was there inside our house for three days.

COOPER: How were you trapped? BRANSCOMB: We couldn't get out. The roads, there was trees and telephone poles and wiring, electrical wiring on top of the houses all along the way.

COOPER: Were you able to get out the front door?

BRANSCOMB: Yes, I could get outside the house. I could get outside but we could not leave the place.

COOPER: What was it like for days when you saw what was happening in your neighborhood?

BRANSCOMB: We was thinking about how to survive, where to go.

COOPER: Did you have enough food? Did you have enough water?

BRANSCOMB: We was limited with the food. We were limited with the water because we had just come back to the Philippines on the 2nd and we had not enough time to go out and buy anything.

COOPER: So you hadn't really done shopping --

BRANSCOMB: No, no shopping or anything like that.

COOPER: Your daughter, Jackelyn, we've been talking to, she has not actually seen you. She's watching tonight. What do you want to say to her?

BRANSCOMB: Thank you guys, love you very much.

COOPER: It was strange because we've been thinking about you and concerned about you because we've been talking to your daughter obviously. I actually saw you at the airport in Tacloban, I guess, was that yesterday?

BRANSCOMB: Yesterday.

COOPER: I didn't know because I had never seen a picture of you so I didn't know who you were. I know you went up to our producer and asked her for -- how you get out and I think she took you to where the U.S. military was.

BRANSCOMB: First, I came up and I kind of tap you on the shoulder and said Mr. Cooper, can you tell me where the people from the embassy and you said, they somewhere inside. So by that time, Kerry, she --

COOPER: She came over.

BRANSCOMB: Yes.

COOPER: She works for us but she didn't know who you were, either, but I'm glad she helped get you to the people. Do you plan to go back?

BRANSCOMB: Eventually. COOPER: You love it?

BRANSCOMB: Yes.

COOPER: You're going to rebuild?

BRANSCOMB: We got to. That's our home there.

COOPER: Well, I'm glad you and your wife are doing all right.

BRANSCOMB: OK, thank you.

COOPER: Thanks for talking.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: It's nice, certainly, that they got out OK but again, there is so many still left behind in very desperate needs. We'll talk to reporters ahead on the ground throughout the region and give you a look at my reporter's notebook from this past week. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: All week long, we've seen too many remarkable things and met so many extraordinary people. We'll put it together in an essay format in a report's notebook and here is mine for this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): When everything else is taken away, broken and battered, soaked raw, stripped bare, you see things, you see people as they really are. This week in Tacloban, Samar and Cebu, amidst the hunger and thirst, the chaos and confusion, we've seen the best in the Filipino people. Their strength, their courage, I can't get it out of my mind.

Imagine the strength it takes for a mother to search alone for her missing kids, the strength to sleep on the street near the body of your child.

(on camera): Where will you sleep tonight?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here in the street.

COOPER: We've seen people with every reason to despair, every right to be angry, instead find ways to laugh and to love, to stand up, to move forward, a storm breaks wood and bone, brings hurt and heart break. In the end, the wind, the water, the horror it brings is not the end of the story.

With aid and assistance, compassion and care, this place, these people, they will make it through. They have already survived the worst. They are bowed perhaps, tired and traumatized, but they are not broken, Mabuhay, Philippines. Maraming salamat for all you've shown us. Maraming salamat for showing us all how to live. (END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: I also just want to bring in our correspondents, Anna Coren who is in Cebu, Ivan Watson who is in Tacloban and Nick Paton Walsh who is here with me in Manila. Anna, let's start with you. In terms of what you're seeing on the ground, the coordination, bottlenecks, how are things?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, I think you always expect a level of chaos and disorganization after any natural disaster. But for a country that experiences so many typhoons, you would think they would be better prepared. You know, this is the staging ground for this massive relief operation and for the first five days, there were perhaps three C-130 Hercules airplanes getting aid out with one forklift.

It just highlights the lack of resources. It's a completely different airport now that the international community is on the ground. There are planes, plenty of aid coming in and hope that very soon it will trickle through the system and get to the people who so desperately need it. The feeling is if the Filipino government knew the scale of the disaster, which apparently they did, they should have asked for help a lot earlier and perhaps a lot less people would be suffering right now.

COOPER: No doubt people are still dying, as we saw just yesterday, the man in the hospital dying with essentially a broken leg. Ivan Watson, in terms of what you are seeing on the ground, have you seen improvement?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. You know, aside from that horrific scene from the hospital, it's striking that probably within the last 36 hours, large crews of workers and equipment have come in. They've started clearing the streets of the devastated city, recovering bodies. We've seen pretty dramatic change with some of these roads opening up.

The debris being bulldozed away, so there is some progress, some work really being done on the ground as freight boats come in bringing heavy equipment. Of course, there is still a long way to go, and there is misting rain falling just moments ago over the city and last night a torrential downpour at points.

I'm going to get out of the way and let Mark Philips pan over the city, as we wrap up your week of reporting here. This shattered city of Tacloban, the monsoon season is coming, tens, hundreds of thousands of people, their homes destroyed or at very least their roofs ripped off completely and these people are going to be exposed in the weeks and months to come to the elements.

This is a city at the center of the horrible trauma, Anderson, that we're looking at right now for the last week and we'll just hope that these Filipinos can carry on with the will to rebuild after this -- the worst disaster they have seen in generations.

COOPER: And Nick, in terms of what you saw, you just got out of Tacloban.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONALL CORRESPONDENT: Ivan is right. There has been marked improvement in the presence of the government, came out of an airport amazingly transformed since we were there. Every hour, every half hour you see an aircraft land. I came out on an enormous C-117.

COOPER: Bigger than the C-130s and they were hopeful the Marines to get those --

WALSH: They should go out two a day. Pour massive forklifts and trucks and in their place sit 300, 400 Filipinos trying to get out. You get an idea how bad life is behind and still at the airport in huge numbers trying to get out and Americans assisting.

COOPER: Nick appreciate your reporting, Ivan Watson, as well and Anna Coren in Cebu. Our coverage is going to continue on this story, no doubt for a long time to come. That's it for us tonight live from Manila. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: That's it for us this hour here in manila. Thanks very much for watching. Salamat. "PIERS MORGAN LIVE" starts now. We'll see you again at 10:00 Eastern Time.