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Putting America Back to Work; President Obama & Jobs; London in Political Fog; Oil Leak: Capping and Cleaning; Tennessee Flood Waters Recede

Aired May 07, 2010 - 11:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio 7 at CNN world headquarters, here are the big stories for you on Friday, May 7th.

President Obama, live remarks momentarily on the big run-up in hiring in April.

Plus, a man on a mission to find work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm applying at two or three places a week, leaving applications. Everybody's like, well, we'll give you a call if something comes up. And I'll even go to the same businesses twice to see if they lost my application or what have you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Boy, desperate enough for work to clean port-a-potties. A single dad doing whatever it takes for a paycheck.

Crews lower the boom. A containment dome on a gushing oil well almost a mile under water in the Gulf. This hour, we talk to the man on the hot seat, BP's top executive. Is there a Plan B, or are we up to Plan C?

Also this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nashville has a spirit that won't be put down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: How about that? Nashville cleans up from the historic flood. Furniture, appliances, toys and treasures are now trash.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.

Those stories and your comments right here, right now, in the CNN NEWSROOM.

OK. Let's get to work here on the new jobs report out this morning. The economy posted the biggest jobs gain in four years. Still, the unemployment rate went up. We can explain that.

We are taking a comprehensive look at the numbers and the story behind them. First, the number, the jobless rate.

It rose to 9.9 percent in April. That's because of people streaming back into the job market looking for work. The number of jobs added last month, 290,000, the most since March of 2006. Well, the jobs story is going to be a tough one to tell for a long time. We have been amazed by the stories of people who have refused to give up despite the difficult economy.

More of those stories this hour.

First, more on the numbers and who's hiring. Stephanie Elam is in New York with details.

And Stephanie, if you would, give us a little bit more of the nuts and bolts of the April jobs report just ahead of the president's comments in just a minute or so.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Tony.

You know, when you take a look at this report, it was surprising. It was a much better number than we were expecting.

The estimate was for 187,000. So the fact that this many jobs were added is really good news.

Obviously, manufacturing adding. And we have health care adding jobs. And take a look at this chart that's on the screen now. We've been doing this. This is, like, our one-year chart of job losses.

Remember January '09? We were -- I'm sorry, two-year. This is at the point that we saw January of last year -- we saw almost 800,000 jobs were lost.

HARRIS: That's right, Yes.

ELAM: Now look at us. We've been actually adding jobs a little bit more and more this year. So, this is a progression in the right direction here. This is what we want to see.

Also, it's important to point out, too, Tony, that we saw the numbers revised for March, and more jobs were added in March. Two hundred and thirty thousand jobs were added, they're saying. That's up from the original number of 162,000.

So, these numbers are fine, but one point worth pointing out here is that this 9.9 percent, the unemployment rate did go up. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that people who were waiting on the sidelines until things looked better to get back into the labor force are now back looking for jobs because they see jobs are being added. And that's one of the things that we see there.

You can also take a look at it by -- do you need to go? Because I know the president is going to speak.

HARRIS: No, no, no.

ELAM: Oh, OK.

HARRIS: Before we get to the president, we're going to walk our way up to the president together here.

ELAM: OK.

HARRIS: I want to talk about sectors, where the jobs are, the good jobs. Where they are.

What sectors are we talking about here?

Oh, I see the president. I'm sorry, Stephanie.

ELAM: Yes, I see that.

HARRIS: Here's the president talking about the jobs report in April --

ELAM: OK. Here we go.

HARRIS: -- and the economy.

Let's take you to the president.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On what seems like a daily basis, we're barraged with statistics and forecasts and reports and data related to the health of the economy. But from the first days of this administration, amidst the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, I've said that the truest measure of progress would be whether or not we were creating jobs.

That's what matters in people's lives. What matters is whether someone who needs a job can find work, whether people can provide for their families and save for the future and achieve some measure of economic security.

Everything we've done has been with this goal in mind. And today I'm happy to report that we received some very encouraging news.

In April, the economy added 290,000 jobs, with the vast majority, approximately 230,000, coming from the private sector. This is the largest monthly increase in four years, and we created 121,000 more jobs in February and March than previously estimated, which means we've seen job growth for four months in a row. These numbers are particularly heartening when you consider where we were a year ago, with an economy in free-fall.

At the height of the downturn, around the time that I took office, we were losing an average of 750,000 jobs per month. So this news comes on the heels of a report last week that the overall output of our economy, our GDP, is increasing. We now know that the economy has been growing for the better part of a year. And this steady growth is starting to give businesses the confidence to expand and to hire new people.

I should also note that the unemployment rate ticked up slightly from 9.7 to 9.9. Given the strength of these jobs numbers, this may seem contradictory, but this increase is largely a reflection of the fact that workers who had dropped out of the workforce entirely are now seeing jobs again and -- are now seeking jobs again, encouraged by better prospects.

Now, I want to emphasize, the economic crisis we faced has inflicted a lot of damage on families and businesses across our country, and it's going to take time to repair and rebuild. Over the course of this recession, more than eight million jobs were lost. So, there are a lot of people out there who are still experiencing real hardship, and we've got to be mindful that today's jobs numbers, while welcomed, leave us with a lot of work to do.

It's going to take time to achieve the strong and sustained job growth that is necessary. And, of course, long before this recession hit for a decade, middle class families had been experiencing a sense of declining economic security.

So, yes, we've got a ways to go, but we've also come a very long way. And we can see that the difficult and, at times, unpopular steps that we've taken over the past year are making a difference.

Productivity is up. The hours people are working are up. Both are signs that a company may be hiring more workers in the months to come. We saw the largest increase in manufacturing employment since 1998, and we can see the benefits of our Recovery Act in the strong employment reports from construction and other sectors where we've made key investments in creating and saving jobs.

Of course, there are limits to what the government can do. The true engine of job growth in this country will always be the private sector. That's why we are very pleased to see the strong employment growth on the private sector side.

What government can do is help create the conditions for companies to hire again. What it can do is build the infrastructure and offer the incentives that will allow small businesses to add workers, that will help entrepreneurs take a chance on an idea, that will leave manufacturers to set up shop not overseas, but right here in the United States of America. And that's what we've been doing.

Right now a series of tax incentives and other steps to promote hiring are taking effect. Because of a bill I signed into law a few weeks ago, businesses are now eligible for tax cuts for hiring unemployed workers.

Companies are also able to write off more of their investments in new equipment. And we're spurring additional investments in school renovation, clean energy projects, and road construction, which will create jobs while laying a new foundation for lasting growth. In addition, as part of health reform, four million small businesses recently received a postcard in their mailbox telling them that they're eligible for a health care tax cut this year. It's worth perhaps tens of thousands of dollars to each of these companies and will provide welcomed relief to small business owners who too often have to choose between health care and hiring.

So, that's what's already come on line, but we still have more to do.

In my State of the Union Address, I called for a $30 billion small business lending fund which would help increase the flow of credit to small companies that were hit hard by the decline in lending that followed the financial crisis. And obviously small businesses are a major source of job creation.

This morning we sent draft legislation to Congress on this fund which now includes a new state small business credit initiative. The state initiative, which was designed with the help of governors and numbers of both the House and the Senate, will help expand lending for small businesses and manufacturers at a time when budget shortfalls are leading states to come back on vitally important lending programs.

In addition, with state and local governments facing huge budget gaps, we're seeing layoffs of teachers, police officers, firefighters and other essential public servants which not only harms the economy, but also the community and the economy as a whole. So we are working with Congress to find ways to keep our teachers in the classrooms, the police officers on the beat, and firefighters on call.

A few months ago, I also proposed giving people rebates to upgrade the energy efficiencies of their home. This will not only save families money, it will create jobs in hit-hard construction and manufacturing sectors since things like windows and insulation are overwhelmingly made in the United States of America.

I was gratified to see a bipartisan vote to pass this proposal called Home Star in the House of Representatives yesterday. I'm calling on the Senate to act as well. And I'm urging Congress to expand the clean energy manufacturing tax credit which is helping create jobs across America, building wind turbines and solar panels.

Even as we take these steps to increase hiring in the short and long run, we're also mindful of other economic factors that can emerge. So I want to speak to the unusual market activity that took place yesterday on Wall Street.

The regulatory authorities are evaluating this closely with a concern for protecting investors and preventing this from happening again. And they will make findings of their review public, along with recommendations for appropriate action.

I also spoke this morning with German Chancellor Merkel regarding economic and financial developments in Europe. We agreed on the importance of a strong policy response by the affected countries and a strong financial response from the international community. I made clear that the United States supports these efforts and we'll continue to cooperate with European authorities and the IMF during this critical period.

So, this week's job numbers come as a relief to Americans who found a job, but it offers, obviously, little comfort to those who are still out of work.

So, to those who are out there still looking, I give you my word that I'm going to keep fighting every single day to create jobs and opportunities for people. Every one of my team that's standing alongside me here has the same sense of mission. We're not going rest until we put this difficult chapter behind us, and I won't rest until you and millions of your neighbors caught up in these storms are able to find a good job and reach a brighter day.

Thank you very much, everybody.

HARRIS: All right. There you have it. President Obama touting the jobs report for April. It's a good number, too, 290,000 jobs added.

Want to bring back Stephanie Elam.

Stephanie, nice job walking us up to the president here.

A good number for the jobs report in April, 290,000 jobs added.

Where are the jobs? What sectors are seeing some hiring?

ELAM: Yes. Let's take a look at that, because we actually did dig into the numbers a little bit to see who was adding jobs during the month.

And you can see that you've got business services adding 80,000 jobs. Obviously, the government, and a lot of this has to do with the Census, because we know now is the time that the Census workers are going out and knocking on people's doors who they didn't hear from. They are up 60,000.

Leisure and hospitality also adding jobs. Education and health care adding 35,000 jobs. Manufacturing, construction -- construction, it's really noteworthy to point them out. They're up 14,000 jobs during the month. This is their second month of gains. But keep this in mind -- construction -- you remember the housing sector? This is where all of the trouble began, right, Tony?

HARRIS: That's right.

ELAM: They had had three straight years of losses. So they're finally adding jobs again. So that's a good sign as well. Retail adding about 12,000 jobs there.

So it shows that things are moving in the right direction. And if you look at it this way, Tony, the economy's actually added jobs in five of the last six months. That's a good sign as well that we are progressing in the right direction. And we'd obviously would like to see more of this, even if the markets are shaking it off today because of so many other things. This is good information.

HARRIS: Yes. Yes, you made the segue. So deal with it for a couple of minutes here -- all right, a minute or so. What's happening with markets?

OK. Yesterday was yesterday. But are we seeing a hangover from yesterday because we've got some selling going on today? I guess we're off of session lows, but we're still in negative territory.

ELAM: We are still in negative territory. We thought we were going to open higher. We opened lower.

We did see some green on the screen, but then we went back lower, off close to 300 points. And now we're coming back. We're only off about three-quarters of a percent.

So this is obviously a lot better, but a lot of it is people watching what's going on in Europe, the members of the EU meeting today to see how they're going to vote about taking care of Greece. They voted to do that, to take care of Greece, so that's one thing that's stabilizing. No one expected to see what happened yesterday happen again today.

One note I will tell you about the Nasdaq, though, Tony, is that it is off 1.3 percent. It was off much more earlier, but a lot of this has to do with Apple being off about 3.5 percent because they are being sued by Nokia for allegedly infringing on their patents, about five of their patents. And they're saying that the iPhone 3G and the iPad 3G are part of the issues there.

So we'll be keeping our eyes on it, but it sounds like there's really more technical reasons today than just a free-for-all like we saw yesterday. So we're OK to deal with these normal days.

HARRIS: Yes. Fat-finger trading.

ELAM: We don't even know if that's the case. We don't know if that's -- it looks like there's just too much volume going through and the computers got ahead. So we won't even say fat fingers at this point.

HARRIS: Computers.

All right, Stephanie. Appreciate it.

More on this later, and again next hour. We will take a closer look at the good, the bad and even the ugly in today's job report. Not a lot of ugly.

Economist Danny Boston of Georgia Tech joins me at the half-hour to talk about the story behind the numbers today.

So, the big question for many today is, how much will this cleanup cost? You know what we're talking about in the Gulf.

CNN's David Mattingly talks exclusively with the CEO of BP. That's one-on-one, that's an exclusive interview, and that's coming up in just minutes right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Well, angry protests in Athens after Greek lawmakers passed drastic measures to trim the country's massive debt. Could these scenes be repeated across Europe? Leaders of several countries are meeting in Belgium today to finalize a Greek rescue plan.

The Greek financial crisis weighed heavily on elections in Britain, and those election results are about as clear as the fog in London. Conservatives won the most seats, but appear shy of a majority in parliament.

What happens now?

CNN's Max Foster is outside Number 10 Downing Street in London.

And Max, first of all, good to see you.

Sitting Prime Minister Gordon Brown, my understanding is, gets first shot at forming a government. I can't imagine that will prove successful. After all, labor lost, correct?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's an extraordinary situation, isn't it? It's very unusual here in the U.K. But effectively, what's happened is David Cameron of the Conservatives, as you say, got the most votes, but under the British system he can't become prime minister until the current prime minister, Gordon Brown, actually resigns.

He's refusing to do so until he makes another effort at staying in power. His last effort is to win around the third party in British politics, Liberal Democrats.

Nick Clegg heads that party. So, Gordon Brown has made a direct appeal to Nick Clegg to join labor in a coalition, and then Gordon Brown can stay in power.

But just after that happened, we had David Cameron offering the same thing. So both the main party leaders fighting over Nick Clegg's support to get in power.

In the meantime, we just have to wait and see what happens. It's extraordinary. It's very unusual for the U.K..

HARRIS: So, Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, as kingmaker here, tell us a little about him.

FOSTER: Well, he's an extraordinary story, actually, because about a month ago, very few people in the U.K. had even heard of him. But during the campaign, the election campaign, which only lasts for a month in this country, he went to prominence because he performed extremely well in TV debate, surely the type of presidential debates that you're used to. Only came to this country this year, and he did really well in that. And everyone knows his name now. He's a bit of a star. But he didn't perform well on the night. But he's still the kingmaker because the other two parties are neck and neck. So that's essentially what we've ended up here.

But what we've got is a situation where Nick Clegg basically will decide who the next prime minister will be. He's the most powerful person in Britain right now. It's extraordinary.

HARRIS: That is crazy.

All right, Max. And one more quick one here. Can conservatives really rule as a minority government?

FOSTER: They can, but it doesn't work very well under the British political system. We're just used to having one party in power, and they're getting their sort of legislation through parliament very easily.

He may well try, but as we learned today, he actually wants a coalition with the Liberal Democrats so he's got a proper sort of power base in order to get things done. It's quite hard to have a minority government under the U.K. system.

HARRIS: OK. Max Foster for us just outside of Number 10 Downing Street.

Max, good to see you. Thank you.

Let's get you caught up on our top stories right now.

Crews are getting a containment dome in place over a gushing wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico. It may be several days before they know whether the contraption will be able to capture the escaping crude.

Fourteen people are facing charges today after protesting Arizona's new immigration law. They laid down in the street outside the immigration detention facility in Los Angeles.

And don't eat the romaine lettuce if it's Freshway or Imperial Sysco brands. It is facing a recall today, suspected in an E. coli outbreak. Nineteen people have gotten sick, three are hospitalized with life-threatening symptoms.

BP's CEO is talking exclusively to CNN this hour. In about 15 minutes, our David Mattingly will ask him, who is at fault?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Got to tell you, more than 27 million people actually live without electricity. We're talking about rural Kenya. When night falls, children strain to see their schoolbooks.

This week's CNN Hero has made it his mission to lift families out of poverty by transforming the sun into rays of hope for thousands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EVANS WADONGO, CNN HERO: I have problems with my eyesight due to prolonged exposure to smoke. (INAUDIBLE) and I had to use firewood to study during my childhood.

I grew up in a small village in the western part of Kenya. These families, they're so poor, they don't have electricity. It's only kerosene and firewood that they use for lighting, cooking.

It's very, very frustrating. I couldn't compete effectively with other kids who have access to lighting. A lot of other kids just drop out of school. So, they remain poor for the rest of their life.

My name is Evans Wadongo.

When I made the first lantern, I thought I must find a way of using sunlight to light up the rural rooms. I was so overwhelmed. I knew the impact that the lantern would have in the rural communities. The amount of money that every household uses to buy kerosene every day, if they can just save that money, they can be able to buy food.

Good morning.

WADONGO: All along I've been skipping at least two meals a day so that I can construct the lamps, but I want to do more. It gives me satisfaction knowing that I'm lifting people out of poverty. I just feel like it's right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: I've got to tell you, in 2004, Wadongo founded the Use Solar, Save Lives program and has so far given away 11,000 lanterns to Kenya's rural families.

If you would like to nominate someone who you think is changing the world, just go to CNN.com/heroes.

New signs the economy is recovering. Economist Danny Boston breaks down the numbers.

And in just a couple of minutes, we will hear directly from BP's CEO on the oil spill and how it is impacting the environment.

Are we walking you into the -- that's classy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Pictures, information, insight you won't find anywhere else. CNN NEWSROOM with Tony Harris.

For fresh signs that the job market, I don't even know the end of my own promo, but the job market is starting to really heal now and the economic recovery maybe gaining some momentum. The April jobs report shows the biggest gain in four years. Joining me to talk about the jobs and the economy, Professor Thomas Danny Boston of Georgia Tech Department of Economics.

Good to see you, sir, from the new digs. Give me the good, the bad, and maybe the not so good with the April jobs report.

THOMAS "DANNY" BOSTON, GEORGIA TECH DEPT OF ECONOMICS: All right. The April report?

HARRIS: Yes.

BOSTON: It's a good message wrapped in a bad package.

HARRIS: OK.

BOSTON: Here it is. Everybody is looking at the increase from 9.7 percent to 9.9 percent.

HARRIS: Yes. Yes.

BOSTON: But, 805,000 people came into the job market. Those people are not counted before. That's going to drive the unemployment figure up. There were 290,000 jobs created which is very significant. We need about 250,000 to get this unemployment picture down some, and we're exceeding it.

HARRIS: Now, remind us again, we see a good trend line developing here, but it really is going to take us a long time to dig out of the hole that we're in, correct?

BOSTON: Right. It's going to take a while.

HARRIS: So, good numbers now, but we're in this for the long haul, right?

BOSTON: Right.

HARRIS: OK. So, the broader economy now, I'm listening to a trader on one of the radio shows. One of the Wall Street traders saying that, you know, in spite of what happened yesterday with whatever was going on with the markets on Wall Street, that there was a lot of good stuff going on in the economy right now from earnings reports to what we're seeing with jobs. Talk us through this because you sent me a note from Zurich, Mr. Big Shot, patting yourself on the back which is the reason we have you on the program because you know this stuff not because you don't. What's happening in the broader economy now, some of the signs of the so-called green shoots?

BOSTON: All right. What's happening is the economy is growing much faster than economists have forecast.

HARRIS: Yes.

BOSTON: 3.2 percent last month, right? Very significant. And when you look at the job gains this month all across the board, the only major industry where jobs were not gained was in transportation and wholesale and that's largely attributable to all of the flooding and the volcano and the disruption of the world trade, I think, and so but for that we actually would have exceeded 300,000 jobs. So, we got GDP growing. We have increases in productivity, very significant and that's driving the output. Plus, I think, the thing that is off the screen, but very important.

HARRIS: Yes.

BOSTON: Is that there's a lot of pent-up demand by consumers, and they are hitting the streets now spending that's been reflected in the retail sales and then that's ultimately going to drive the economy along with this increase in productivity.

HARRIS: That's terrific. All right. And that's something to keep an eye on. If we can get the housing Sector turned around a little bit and that's tied to jobs, we know that, then we might really become a little more confident about this recovery taking hold for everyone.

BOSTON: Right. And if we can get Mother Nature to cooperate a little bit.

HARRIS: Yes, yes.

BOSTON: No more floods.

HARRIS: No more floods.

BOSTON: No more volcanoes.

HARRIS: Yes.

BOSTON: All right.

HARRIS: Good to see you.

BOSTON: Great to be here. Wonderful new set.

HARRIS: You like it?

BOSTON: I love it. Beam me up, Scotty. This is great stuff.

HARRIS: We'll work on catering for your next visit, all right?

BOSTON: All right.

HARRIS: I got to tell you, while the jobs story is going to be a tough one for a long time here, we are finding some amazing stories of people who have refused to give up despite the tough economy. We have got one of those stories for you coming up.

OK. So, at this time, we were going to talk to BP's CEO, Tony Hayward. We've just learned that he's running a bit late. So, we will get you caught up on what's happening right now in the effort to cap that oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Officials say that huge containment box that you see the animation on right here should be in place very soon. It is being lowered 5,000 feet to the sea floor in hopes of capturing oil that has been gushing into the water for more than two weeks now.

Oil from that leak, as you know, is starting to wash ashore. Our Brooke Baldwin is on the front lines.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Take a look at what we found in the water, this is the oil. This massive orange sheen is the oil. We're 25 miles south of the Gulf Coast.

Let's take a closer look and see what it looks like. It is all over this side of the Chandeleur Islands, this kind of orange almost goo.

Capt. George Pelaez is good enough to drive us out here to check out the oil and we just came upon this. When you see this, what do you think?

GEORGE PELAEZ, CHARTER BOAT CAPTAIN: It's little discouraging now. Right now, we're at a very proper fishing location. We fished the Chandeleur chain, and we already in the aisle (ph). So, it's on this side of the island right now and we're going to keep on going south.

BALDWIN: As you take a look at some of the oil here in the water, we've noticed that it's at least about 18 inches deep. I've seen some fish already swimming through it, so to get a better glimpse as to what it really looks like under there, let's take a look with our underwater camera.

One of the biggest concerns here with this oil spill, of course, is the wildlife, and now, we have a front-row seat to what these experts are talking about. This is New Harbor Island. There are hundreds of pelicans here. This is nesting season. The pelicans, their babies, and you can see here just about ten feet from the shore, the authorities have put out this protective booming to do precisely that, trying to protect this habitat.

Today, we have perfect conditions, but here's one of the criticisms. This is a close look at the booms. The booms are supposed to keep all of this oil from going anywhere close to these ecohabitats in the islands. This massive criticism is that if the wind on any other day is worse, it can easily go over the boom. Another worry is because some of this oil is so broken up, underneath, these booms are only about this thick, it can go right on under.

PELAEZ: When I see from these booms, anything above a 15-knot wind, it's over. I mean, it's not going to serve its purpose. When do you go back to work and --

BALDWIN: Woo don't know.

PELAEZ: That's it. We don't know, and right now, what I've seen out there, it's going to be later than sooner.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Wow. CNN's Brooke Baldwin for you. We will take you to a government research site where oil slick clean up techniques are tested and it's what's being used right now in the in the Gulf of Mexico real time. The CNN exclusive next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Our top stories now, it's really just one top story, the Cumberland River in Nashville is below flood stage for the first time since torrential rains pushed it out of its banks. Floodwaters continue to receive. Businesses are starting to reopen again. The death toll stands at 31 in three states, in Tennessee alone. CNN's Anderson Cooper talked with one man who rescued several people from the rising water.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: How many people did you end up rescuing and bringing into your boat? And I know there were a bunch of people out there with boats doing the exact same thing you were.

DAVID PERKINS, RESCUED FLOOD VICTIMS: There were several boats. At river plantation, I think we made 15 or 18 trips with people in it. We moved to a different location with the fire department, engine 37, those guys are heroes. They're heroes every day. We stayed with them until 8:00 last night.

COOPER: And you ended up taking dozens of people in your boat?

PERKINS: We did. We did. We moved from river plantation to the interstate, and we moved people from the interstate over to dry land.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: CNN was the first on the scene when the earthquake hit Haiti. We are committed to staying on this story. Our Soledad O'Brien is focused on efforts to help the helpless orphans. She joins me live with a preview of her upcoming -- there she is. Documentary rescue. We'll talk to Soledad in a just a couple of minutes. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: It has been almost four months since Haiti's catastrophic earthquake. It orphaned tens of thousands of children. Our Soledad O'Brien introduces us to an American missionary family whose commitment to helping Haiti's orphans came years before the quake hit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ariana Manassero has dreamed of helping Haiti's orphans since she was 9 years old. She's now one of thousands of missionaries living in Haiti. Her journey started in California with a few coins.

ARIANA MANASSERO, MISSIONARY: I started putting a little money in a jar, just planning on like going to Haiti. The jar just got so full and my dad started putting little coins in it, and I started putting more like dollars in it.

O'BRIEN: In 2004, Ari and her parents, Bill and Suzette, visited Haiti.

One year later, this family from California had re-located permanently.

Some people would say now how did a bunch of grownups follow an 8-year-old to Haiti?

BILL MANASSERO, MISSIONARY: It wasn't my plan, I'll tell you. You know, we wanted to encourage her, and we thought it was wonderful, this little, you know, 9-year-old girl had this dream to build an orphanage, a school and church and all these things in Haiti. I never thought I'd be here with her.

O'BRIEN: Bill and Suzette Manassero founded Maison de Lumiere, the lighthouse orphanage.

You started with all boys?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All boys, 12.

O'BRIEN: When did you start the girls orphanage?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That started December 2006.

O'BRIEN: They were consumed by a desire to help the children. Haiti has among the highest rates of infant mortality, child sex trafficking, and child slavery in the world.

MANASSERO: Ari's dream, more than anything else is that these kids that are our kids at this orphanage are going to be the one who's out there, handing out that cup of water. You know, 50 kids growing up they're doing that and influencing others to influence others, you know, can make a difference in a country.

O'BRIEN: But the faith that had secured them for years was about to be tested, when a powerful earthquake strikes Haiti.

MANASSERO: So, right now, we do not think it's safe to be here. We're trying to get extra security, so until we do, we have a plan. And you really don't have a choice of what to do. We are going to tell you guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: So, Tony, we follow these orphans and also this family of missionaries through the devastation of this earthquake. Also, we'll tell you what they do when they start to run out of supplies, when 20 armed gunmen come over the walls and terrify everybody. And we'll also tell you about some of the tough decisions they have to make in the wake of the earthquake. That's coming up, our documentary "Rescued" is tomorrow night, 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on CNN.

HARRIS: Soledad, help me with my mind, my short-term memory loss here for just a second here. I seem to recall doing an interview with you from Haiti when you were on a bus with a group of kids and you and everyone else involved were trying to hustle those kids out of harm's way. Do I remember that correctly? And are some of those kids featured in your reporting this weekend

O'BRIEN: Yes. Absolutely. That was a different orphanage. That's not the lighthouse that was Maison de Enfants which is the place of God for children, but they are. We feature them in our documentary as well and we go through that same really hairy trip as they board everybody on the bus and try to make it to the embassy where they're turned back in 90-degree temperatures. So, they are part of our documentary, which really focuses on the nation's orphans and street children and abandoned kids and rest of that (ph), the child slaves. That's really our focus for this documentary tomorrow.

HARRIS: Yes, I can't wait to see it. I remember that phone call with you and we were worried about the kids and you in all of that. So, can't wait to see it. Soledad, appreciate it. Thanks for your time.

O'BRIEN: Thanks, Tony.

HARRIS: And again, be sure to watch Soledad's special "Rescued" this weekend, Saturday and Sunday nights, 8:00 eastern only on CNN.

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HARRIS: That's not bad, huh, singing for flood relief in Nashville. Former Hootie and the Blowfish frontman, Darius Rucker, lending hand to WSMV with last night's telethon. Let's bring the flooding disaster into some better focus here. Ines Ferre joining us with really some compelling iReports and pictures.

I have to tell you something, we have seen some amazing video. Our photographers, our photo journalists have done a terrific job of capturing images of the flooding and the people involved in this, but, you know, oftentimes, nothing brings it home, you know, like still pictures, Ines.

INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Tony. And we have such incredible still pictures. And the first four that I'm going to show you are actually from iReporters. This one is from Paul Schiffe (ph) and he says that there's an incredible clean-up effort going on right now. And we've got, also, the next one that I'm going to show you, if -- there we go. From Sandy Rochelle. She's actually an unemployed newspaper photographer. And look at these images that she took. They're incredible. This is a hair salon. And you can see some of the chairs that they put out there.

HARRIS: Yes.

FERRE: I mean, this is incredible stuff. And I just want to show you as the waters have been receding, you're seeing that people are just -- I mean, they're devastated by the things that they've lost. You can see photographs there on the ground and lamps and all sorts of furniture outside. And these two people actually lost their 74-year-old friend to the flood. So unbelievable. And people are just so shocked when they see their home.

And Tony, I just want to show you this one. This one is -- this person right here is actually a volunteer. Leda Williams. He's showing Leda Williams a picture of her home so he can take away the initial shock before she sees her home. She just moved to Nashville about a month ago.

HARRIS: Oh men. Amazing, amazing pictures. All right. And I know we've got some iReports coming maybe next hour. Ines, appreciate it. Thank you.

FERRE: You're welcome.

HARRIS: I got to tell you the flood waters inching downward in Nashville. That spells relief for a city in recovery. We will show you what it looks like now as residents go home to survey a lot of damage.

Plus, riding out the recession. Poppy Harlow reports on how living within their means kept the people of Omaha, Nebraska from the worst of the financial crisis.

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