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Philippines hit by strongest typhoon; Anthony Bourdain's season Finale; Intense talk with Iran in Geneva is over;
Aired November 10, 2013 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In some parts of the Philippines right now, the power could be out for months. Entire homes flattened. Homes and building wiped away.
Hospitals are trying to deal with far more injured people than they can handle and then there is the death toll. Initial estimates put it at about -- or more than I should say, a thousand dead. And that is considered to be way low according to the International Red Cross. They say that a more realistic figure is closer to 10,000.
President Obama is promising humanitarian help. He said just a short time ago that we stand ready to further assist the Philippine government's relief and recovery efforts.
And in the Vatican city this morning, Pope Francis had the people of the Philippines on his mind, including them in his Sunday's service and asking his three million plus twitter followers to include storm victims in their prayers.
CNN's Ivan Watson is in the Philippines right now. And he caught an emergency flight to one of the areas worst hit by this killer typhoon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Approach to a shattered city. Tacloban, the first major population center to be struck by super-typhoon Haiyan. Amid the ruins of the airport here, desperate people waiting for food and clean water. Some hoping for a flight out of the storm zone.
MURRAY ATTWAAD, TOURIST, NEW ZEALAND: Hopefully, we can get a C-130 to manila or something. We'll just have to watch. It is a waiting game. As with any situation like this. It's catastrophic.
WATSON (voice-over): In this catastrophe, some residents say they're terrified of lawlessness and looting.
RICHARD YOUNG, BUSINESSMAN: We are forming groups now. As a matter of fact, if you will see, since last night we have whistles, you know. We were all awake the whole night. If someone attempts in our street, you know, we all whistle with flashlight and everything, we have our firearms, we will show it, you know, within our property.
WATSON (voice-over): You're afraid of being robbed.
YOUNG: Yes, we're afraid of being robbed.
WATSON (voice-over): From the misery and fear of Tacloban, we fly west following the path of the storm to Roxas, Kalibo and Busuanga. We accompanied officials from the Filipino civilian aviation authority. Like other government agencies, they're trying to assess damage to other islands in the Philippines.
WILLIAM HOTCHKISS, GENERAL DIRECTOR, CIVILIAN AVIATION AUTHORITY OF PHILIPPINES: I was 37 years in the air force. I've flown all over the country. And I have experienced the storms before, but not to the extent this one put us into.
WATSON (voice-over): In the other towns we saw, the typhoon shattered windows ripped off roofs. But fortunately, these communities did not suffer the far more deadly surge of ocean water that swept through Tacloban.
(on camera): The typhoon swept through here days ago and now the long hard work of rebuilding has just begun. All these damage was done in just a matter of hours. And nobody here really knows how long it will take to truly recover.
MELY FABIAN, STORE OWNER: We have no electricity, no water. And most badly, we have to flights. No boat coming here. So, we have no food.
WATSON (voice-over): Haiyan has shocked an island nation long- accustomed to typhoons. Everyone here tells us they've never seen a storm this powerful before.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Tacloban in the Philippines.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: I want to bring in Paula Handcocks. She is live not far from where we just Ivan Watson.
And Paula, I know it is day break there now again in the Philippines. So, tell us what does this day have in store for the survivors?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Martin, this the third day since that terrible storm. And overnight, we were staying here and a hundreds of people showed up to get to the airport knowing that they may be able to get out of this area.
It is fast-becoming a large-scale humanitarian air lift, this disaster. People simply can't deal with being here. They don't have a home, many of them. They don't have food or water or medication. That's only just in the past 24 hours started to seek through to the city itself, which is about 10 miles away. But many parts of that city the still cut off. So they simply can't cope. So, what they're trying to do is just pack up as much as they can and leave.
Now, we got the military based out of here. The C-130s are coming in with food, with water, with anything that is needed and they are taking the injured and the survivors at. They're also taking many body bags out, as well. But it is a devastating scene here. Many people have the look of horror on their face from want they've been through, you can tell. It's been an incredibly difficult time for them, not just the storm, not just the heavy winds, the heavy rain, the storm surge that decimated this airport. But also now, the fact that they have to try and find food and water.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Carrying all they could from their devastated lives. A steady stream of typhoon Haiyan victims keeps arriving at the Tacloban airport looking for food, water and escape.
Magina Fernandez lost her home and business. She is desperate to leave on the next military plane.
MAGINA FERNANDEZ, TYPHOON VICTIM: Get international help to come here now. Not tomorrow, now. This is really, really like bad, bad worse than hell. Worse than hell.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): As the president of the Philippines Benigno Aquino arrives to assess the damage, Fernandez causes on her anger.
FERNANDEZ: We need to get the word out. The Philippines government can't do this alone.
BENIGNO AQUINO, PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES: There is also a breakdown, especially the local government there. They are necessarily first responders. And too many of them were also affected and did not report for work. That also contributed to the slow delivery.
MAYOR ALFRED ROMUALDEZ, TACLOBAN, PHILIPPINES: People here were convinced that it looked like a tsunami.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): The mayor of Tacloban almost lost his life in the storm surge. He admits a death toll as high as 10,000 is possible.
ROMUALDEZ: I have not spoken to anyone who hasn't lost someone a relative or close to them. And now, we are looking for a many as we can and we are still trying to retrieve so people here.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): Faces here tell us story of horror.
(on camera): And many of the people here have been walking for hours to through the devastation to get here to get food and water from the military themselves. Many of them just say they were too desperate to wait for help to get to them.
(voice-over): The young, the old and injured all board a military c- 130 leaving death and destruction behind them.
Paula Hancocks, CNN. Tacloban, Philippines:
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS: So after the horror of that storm, many people are now struggling to deal with the aftermath -- Martin.
SAVIDGE: CNN's Paula Handcocks. Thank you very much for that.
Aid agencies, of course, are mobilizing to help the victims of the typhoon. To find out how you can help, go to CNN.com/impact.
Next, while the Obama administration works towards peaceful negotiations with Iran, one Republican senator plans to tighten the screws on section sanctions against that country.
And then, later this hour, the horrors inside New Orleans memorial hospital during hurricane Katrina, patients led to die and in some cases, some called mercy killings by doctors and nurses. Was it a wake-up call for health care in America? We're talking with the author of a new book.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: There is no deal on curbing Iran's nuclear enrichment program. Not after three days of intense talks ending today in Geneva. Secretary of state John Kerry says progress was made and that diplomacy takes time. That is not enough for some lawmakers back in the U.S.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is planning to introduce a bipartisan resolution calling for you tripling sanctions on Iran. Graham told CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION," he is now waiting for the negotiations to resume.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: My fear is that we are going to wind up creating a North Korea-type situation in the Mideast before we negotiate Iran. And one day you wake up, they don't give up their enrichment capabilities, they don't divest themselves of the plutonium for this reactor. The (INAUDIBLE) to continue this ban and you're going to have a nuclear Iran. You can't trust the Iranians. They're lying about their nuclear program.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Graham's concerns' maybe similar to concerns from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has warned that U.S. agreement with Iran would quote "bad deal for peace." The top state department official Wendy Sherman arrived in Jerusalem today to address Netanyahu's complaints.
A fresh round of talks on Iran's nuclear program will resume next week. And America's top diplomat is firmly dismissing concerns from some allies that the U.S. negotiators may not be skeptical enough about Iran's nuclear intensions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: We are not blind and I don't think we're stupid. I think we have a pretty strong sense of how to measure whether or not we are acting in the interest of our country and of the globe. And, particularly, of our allies like Israel and gulf states and others in the region.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Political expert and Princeton historian professor Julian Zelizer joins me now.
And Julian, let me first get your take on Senator Graham. He wants to push, you heard, more sanctions on Iran. And doesn't that make things just more complicated or Kerry who try to cut the deal?
PROF. JULIAN ZELIZER, HISTORIAN, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Well, it makes things more complicated, but it's predictable. If these negotiations slow down as they did and didn't come to an immediate or quick conclusion, the pressure from conservatives here in the United States is likely to intensify and the call for sanctions were likely to increase. So, what Obama needs to do is to use that to his advantage and hopefully talk about the pressure at home for worse sanctions to try to bring a deal together overseas.
SAVIDGE: And the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is blasting the U.S. for even, you know, considering a deal with Iran. So, what are the implications here for the U.S.-Israel's relations.
ZELIZER: Well, this has been a sore spot since the beginning of the Obama administration. The question is what else is there is to do? So, one option is some kind of military strike which frankly at this point seems off the table. So, the key for the president and an international coalition will be to reach some kind of an agreement that gives Israel a pretty good sense of security and to buy them in to the final package.
SAVIDGE: All right, we are going to make a hard turn here and now switch gears talking about New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, easily won his election this week. And he has been very coy about whether or not he will serve out his term. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I'm the governor of New Jersey. That's my job and that's what I asked for for more years. And that's what I intend to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All for years?
CHRISTIE: Hey listen. Who know? I don't know. I'm going to continue to do my job and finish the job. But everybody who's trying to figure out what type is going to bring the few years from now? I don't expect to be sitting for years ago, George. So, nobody can make those predictions.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SAVIDGE: Yes. But nobody can make those predictions. As you, Julian, what do you think? Is Christie will run for president for 2016 or not?
ZELIZER: I think barring the revelation of any damaging information, some of that is actually circulating from a recent book, but barring in anything devastating, I think he is going to run. I think he has made that clear. And even with comments like this, it's no secret in New Jersey or nationally that he has his eye on that Republican nomination. He comes out of his reelection in a very strong position to be in the game, to be at the top of the heap.
SAVIDGE: You certainly sound like he was speaking to a nation when he gave that speech.
All right, Julian Zelizer, the man who can take us all the way from Iranian politics to New Jersey. Thanks very much for joining us today.
ZELIZER: Thank you very much.
SAVIDGE: Next, a birthday. It was a party one minute and a crime scene the next.
Then, big money problems and a high crime rate. Detroit, can it really rise again?
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Don Lemon and I think someone at CNN has it in for me because they're actually letting me go live from inside a bar at Las Vegas. We are at the Atomic Liquor in Las Vegas, in downtown as a matter of fact.
Why are we here? We're here for the finale of Anthony Bourdain, Detroit and then "last bite "live with Anthony Bourdain, myself and a few famous people tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern. I'm going to take you inside this bar coming up on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: A birthday party turned into a crime scene last night. If you hear this story, two high school students were shot and killed at the part in Cypress, Texas. That's just outside of Houston. Nineteen people were also wounded after someone opened fire into the crowd. Police say the party invitation was posted on social media. Over 100 people were there. Police are looking for two suspects. They are still trying to determine the motive.
Many people think of Detroit as crime ridden and motor city that has been driven into the ground. But the city could be shifting gears.
George Howell explains how Detroit is revving up for a re-birth.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you think Detroit, what do people think about first? ANDRE SPIVEY, DETROIT CITY COUNCIL: Of course they think Motown. Music. You think automobile industry, you think athletic teams. But we need to know that we have a city that's now changing.
HOWELL (voice-over): Most believed the change that's coming about in Detroit is for the better. It's the getting there that they say is tough. You see it in the headlines.
On the streets of Detroit, two separate triple murders just this week alone. Folks here are fed up with the crime.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You just have to be strong. You have to think about and praying to God and having faith and just hoping, hoping, even though hope is not really there. But we still have to keep hoping.
HOWELL (voice-over): Then there's the issue of bankruptcy. The city is applying for a process that could dramatically cut the value for harder in pensions for thousands of retirees. Even precious pieces of Detroit's institute of Art could be put up for sale to the highest bidder to help make up for more than $18 billion in debt.
(on camera): As an elected official, you know, you represent the city. You grew up here. How do you deal with all of the negative headlines that come out of Detroit?
SPIVEY: It is hard sometime. This probably had to happen. This was 40, 50 years in the making. We have to come to this point here. Now, what will we look like this time next year or two to three years from now and there's great hope and optimism. We have people all over this world that are buying parcels in this city preparing for the re-birth and renaissance of our city.
HOWELL (voice-over): Renaissance comes in the most unlikely places where most see a skyline of abandoned buildings. Businesses like Detroit land are seizing opportunity. This company makes all sorts of mobile apps. I had some fun with it too.
They were here in the Madison blocks. There are dozens and dozens of startups like Detroit labs. There, you know, there are lots of business reasons to be here, but it's also great that the entrepreneurial activity is taking place right downtown.
HOWELL (voice-over): Detroit lab is one of many new startups backed by a private equity group called Detroit venture partners, a firm run by native Detroiter Dan Gilbert, the founder and CEO of Quicken Loans. And Gilbert is doubling down on Detroit. In addition to the ventures he's supported, he's moved all of his Quicken Loan employees back to downtown Detroit, setting the stage for other to follow.
DAN WARD, CO-FOUNDER, DETROIT LABS: As they are looking down here, every time they see an empty building like that, they should look at it as an opportunity to come in and make the company that they want.
HOWELL (voice-over): It is the hope the city is counting on. That seeds of optimism are just starting to take route and people here are determined to turn the tide.
As to the motor city in to better days ahead.
George Howell, CNN. Detroit.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: And Detroit is in the spotlight of tonight's season finale of Anthony Bourdain, "PARTS UNKNOWN." That will air tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern right here on CNN.
Next, Filipinos in the U.S. watching, praying and awaiting word of their loved ones in the path of typhoon Haiyan. Most have not been heard from.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOCTOR SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For more than three decades now, Don Horton's life has been mostly football.
DON HORTON, PARKINSON'S DISEASE PATIENT: (INAUDIBLE). All very rewarding experiences.
GUPTA: Then, in 2006, Don became one of the 60,000 Americans diagnosed every year with Parkinson's disease. Perhaps the worst day came in 2009, that's when Don found himself unable to button his own shirt. Russell Wilson, who is now a quarterback with Seattle's Sea Hawks helped Don with his buttons so their team could get back on the road.
HORTON: It is a humbling experience to be help with Wilson. (INAUDIBLE). Now you have do some, you seen it there. You were there before. It so easy if I ask to do.
MAURA HORTON, DON 'S WIFE: There was so many challenges he was going through that I couldn't help with, but this was one change that I thought I could do.
GUPTA: Calling on her own experience as a children's clothing designer, Don's wife, Maura, got to work creating a line of magnetic clothing, free of buttons and zippers that would help her husband and other regain their independence.
M. HORTON: So, it's as simple as lining it up.
D. HORTON: I'm so glad (INAUDIBLE).
GUPTA: The magna ready magnets are strong enough to keep the shirt closed, but not so strong that the shirts are difficult to open.
H. HORTON: A new dress.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: The sun is rising right now on a nation that is dealing with a once-in-a-generation disaster. Just 48 hours since a monstrous typhoon crashed over the Philippines. The priorities are water and food for the survivors while still counting the number of people who died. Some food aid and emergency supplies are already getting to the people who desperately need it. But that process is slow. And there are enormous parts of the country still cut off from communications or any way to get to a safer place.
Our own CNN crew members saw and heard Haiyan shred the hotel they thought would shelter them from the storm, far from it. Watch.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)
SAVIDGE: Winds so powerful that they stripped door frames out of the wall. Around the world, people are seeing images of devastation in the Philippines. And for many Filipinos living in the U.S., the pictures are too much to bear.
Since they can't reach their loved ones, CNN's Alexandra Field is covering that part of the story -- Alexandra.
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Martin, the death toll in the Philippines keeps rising while the wait for word from loved ones continues around the world. The images have so many people that are hoping their family members are in the Philippines are now, at best, without access to communication.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETH GUILLENA, TRYING TO REACH BROTHER: Right now, it is (INAUDIBLE). It is too disturbing and I know most of the houses that were destroyed in the country. The houses, we are not really rich country. Most of these affected are those who are really who needed most of our help. It is really disturbing and it really hurts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FIELD: Here in New York city, in the heart of a large Filipino community in Woodside, Queens the St. Sebastian Roman Catholic church is the place where some five to 800 Filipino families go to worship. At mass this morning, their prayers were with all those who were in the path Haiyan, almost all of the parishioners say they still have no idea who survived, who was gone, who has been hurt or what has been lost.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL HARDIMAN, SAINT SEBASTIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH: So, it is going to take days, probably weeks before the full impact of this is felt here in the community.
(END VIDEO CLIP) FIELD: Right now, parishioners are focused on making contact with the people they have not been able to reach. The church also be working to raise money for a massive relief effort -- Martin.
Thanks, Alexandra.
And as she mentioned, fund-raising is going to be key here because Haiyan survivors are in desperate need of life's basics, shelter, water and of course, food.
Now with me, Bettina Luescher, chief spokeswoman in North America for the world food program, also an old friend.
And Bettina, it is nice to see you again, of course, not under the circumstances. But your organization already had people in the Philippines in pace because of the earthquake that hit a few weeks ago. So, what's the latest that your teams are telling you about what they are seeing there today?
BETTINA LUESCHER, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: Yes. It's nice seeing you, Martin. And the devastation is just absolutely, you know, heartbreaking. Our people on the ground, we have been working in the Philippines for awhile already for years. But we are ought to responding to an earth quake. Now, our guys are on the ground. We've got several people in the epicenter of the destruction. And we are preparing, we need the logistics works and supporting the Philippine government.
Everything is destroyed. The streets are often damaged. Bridges are broken, the airports are broken, run ways are often not functioning, only military planes can land there. So, we are gearing up a big logistics operations and we are flying in energy biscuits. Also these life-saving biscuits that the World Food Programme is handling out, in situations when people have lost everything, when they cannot cook anymore, when they have lost their homes, their pots, everything. So, that is underway from Dubai and from Malaysia and other place.
SAVIDGE: Bettina, let me just stop you for a moment to ask. How do you get that to the people. I mean, you just explained the logistics nightmare. Do you air drop it? What's the best way?
LUESCHER: No. We have to air lift it in. Right now, it is coming in. It will go to Manila then to Cebu and then will be air lifted in there. We normally pre-position for disasters. But because we were dealing with the earthquake a couple of weeks ago, most of our food supplies have gone into the earth quake zone that again, the same people have been hit now by this horrendous super typhoon.
So, air lift is probably the way to go. Often in these kinds of disaster, I did, for example, the tsunami and you work closely with the military and get it in there with helicopters and other ways.
SAVIDGE: And these biscuits, do they provide, what, a day's worth of nourishment? How does it work?
LUESCHER: Yes. You get everything in there. It has 450 calories, you get two or three of these biscuits, of these little packages and you are seven. Of course, we're going to bring in rice and other food, too. This is something that starts you going when everything has been swept away.
SAVIDGE: And how do you get water? I mean, water is going to be, of course, another crucial thing that people need. If the family have access to water, it is clean water you need.
LUESCHER: Yes. And we are working there, you know, with all the other international aid organization together the world food programs. There are other UN sister agencies that are bringing in water. All right, of these things have to be set-up. What we are doing, for example, we have these humanitarian response depots is we are going bringing in things like generators, like offices for the aid workers, like warehouses where we can store the stuff. But the hard thing is going to be that the airport there, you know, is damaged. Only military planes can land. It's going to be, not in matter of time, but it is hard getting it in because the situation and the damage on the ground.
SAVIDGE: We wish you every good luck in doing that fine work.
Bettina Luescher, thank you very much for joining us from the World Food Program.
LUESCHER: Thank you. If I can add one more thing, go to wfpusa.org and make a small donation.
SAVIDGE: All right. Thank you, Bettina.
Eight agencies like the world food program are mobilizing to help the victims of the typhoon and to find out how you can help, go to CNN CNN.com/impact.
Next, the horrors inside New Orleans memorial hospital during another hurricane, Katrina. Patients left to die and in some cases, so-called mercy killings by doctors and nurses. Was it a wake-up call for healthcare in America? We will talk to the author of the new book.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: The images coming out of the Philippines are gut-wrenching. And there are also a reminder that life and death during a storm maybe these are the days, weeks, eve years before that storm hits. Those are the lessons Americans were exposed to during hurricane Katrina.
Now, there's a book that details the drastic, even horrifying choices made it one New Orleans hospital during that 2005 storm. Dr. Sheri Fink, the author of "Five Days at Memorial" hopes her book is a wakeup call. Don Lemon spoke with her about what happened at memorial hospital during Hurricane Katrina and how it could happen again, she says anywhere, even today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SHERI FINK, AUTHOR, FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL: The American hospitals have element of their back-up power below flood level. And so, the circuits got wet. All power went out and it became, you know, very unbearable. Everything in American hospitals these days relies on electricity. And they have to decide who to save first when the helicopters started to arrive. They had about 2,000 people in the hospital, about 250 patients. Here, a year ago in New York city, we have hospitals that their back up power systems that were vulnerable to flooding and we had a storm surge. And many of our hospitals in New York city are on rivers and on the oceans and same with nursing homes. So, same kinds of problems. We haven't yet learned all that we need to learn and applied that from Katrina.
LEMON: After that happening down in New Orleans for Katrina, what's the take -- what sticks with you most about this?
FINK: Well, I think obviously, this hospital kind of the most extreme thing that could imagine happened which is that after the storm, doctors and nurses were accused of having hastening the deaths of their patients intentionally.
LEMON: When you say hastening the death, that really means they were just allowing these people to, if they were only life support, they were allowing them not to
FINK: It was more than that. It was allegedly, and what I found out, is actually, that medicines were actually injected that would hasten the deaths of the patients.
LEMON: These are mercy killings?
FINK: Well, so that is sort of what was alleged. And, of course, then became a debate because what is that line between comforting the patients, these are the same medicines you would use in a normal dose to give comfort. Or, you know, were they pushing them over the edge? In the end, there were 20 patients who forensic pathologists determined had received these drugs in short order and died. And some of the doctors were willing to tell me that yes, we did this. We did -- do this intentionally. We felt that the situation was so desperate because we have to wait a long time for rescue for these patients.
LEMON: Is there any sort of justification for this? The things are so bad that it's better that the patient's life be ended than having to suffer through that?
FINK: It's interesting. A lot of people thought that their families would say that. They would say, you know, thank you for doing this merciful thing. My loved one was not going to survive it anyways and you gave them a comfortable way out. But, in fact, almost 2-to-1, they were very upset and they felt, you know, maybe my mom or my husband didn't have a whole lot of time left, but that time was so valuable. And so, that effort should have been made to rescue him or her.
LEMON: Does this become something more sinister because in your book, it says that they all vowed not to talk about it afterwards, right?
FINK: They did. Some of them told me there was a code of silence about it. And I think that was, in part, brought about by the fact that very soon, you know, some of the doctors and nurses really felt like this was the right thing to do. We are on a desperate circumstance. These patients won't make it. Other doctors and nurses said are you kidding me? We don't do this. And they stood against it.
And for the very early on, they went to the media, they went to the authorities and the authorities started to investigate. Eventually, the doctor and two nurses were arrested. So, you can imagine why there was this code of silent,
LEMON: So, was it a matter of, in this particular case, was it a matter of just how sick someone was? Their race? Their weight? What were the criteria to, you know, to try hastening like?
FINK: So, I think one of the most disturbing part of this was that, one gentleman who weighed, I think he was close to 400 pounds and he was on the 7th floor. Of course, no elevator is working. But he was conscious. He had eaten breakfast that morning. He said, you know, are we ready to rock and roll. Apparently, they had a discussion, according to some of the people involved on that discussion, decide he was just too heavy to carry down the steps. And that is something we really need to think about because --
LEMON: What happened in him?
FINK: So, he was one of the 20 patients that was found by the forensic pathologist with these drugs in their bodies.
Interestingly, at Bellevue hospital, after hurricane Sandy last year, super storm Sandy, again, the last person who was taken out was a very heavy set patient. But they kept carrying fuel up to some backup generators on the 13th floor until they could get one elevator running and get him out. So maybe we have learned something from these events.
LEMON: Something from that.
FINK: We need to think about the infrastructure in this country tremendously vulnerable. So, should we investing more? Should we be -- here in New York City, there's now a proposal that is going to be going through the, you know, the local city council to demand that hospitals be brought up to kind of a higher building standard. So that by the year of 2030, which still a long way away, that we would have hospitals that have their backup power protected against flooding. It seems kind of crazy that we don't have that already. And that's a vulnerability all over the country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: Our thanks to Dr. Sheri Fink. Her book is called "Five Days at Memorial."
Next, we're going to Las Vegas. Don lemon, hanging out with Anthony Bourdain for tonight's season finale of "PARTS UNKNOWN." We'll check in with him live. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: Anthony Bourdain travels to the motor city in tonight's season finale of "PARTS UNKNOWN." He says Detroit's one of the most magnificent cities in America, I'd agree, and he explains why you need to plan a trip there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CNN HOST, PARTS UNKNOWN: Sweet, like Detroit.
You should come here. You should come here for good reasons. You should come here to see what went wrong. This is a truly magnificent place. This is where everything good in America came from just about. Be it Rock & roll, blues, Motown, techno. And I mean, if you're looking to describe the sort of quintessential Detroit character, there is a stubborn determination, to stay, to see it through no matter what. And I think above all, there's an injured, but ferocious pride to anyone who stayed through good and bad times. You should come here. You should see this. This is all American cities. This is easily one of the most awesome.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Much more of Anthony's trip to Detroit. That will be tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern time. And then after that season's finale, the show is far from over. Anthony Bourdain will host a one hour post season show that's called that is "last bite."
Live from Las Vegas, our very own, very fortunate Don Lemon who is in Vegas with a little preview of what we are going to see tonight.
And Don, you're on historic Fremont street in front of a bar or in a bar?
LEMON: You sound like you know this place, Marty. Do you know downtown Las Vegas?
SAVIDGE: I might know a little bit. But let's not go there.
LEMON: You might know a little bit.
OK, so listen, Marty, this is for people who are our age or older. We remember these jukeboxes. We're here. We're at Atomic Liquors and it is almost as if time stopped here from the 1950s. It is a beautiful iconic spot. We are going to put on some music. We have taken over the place. You can see all of our equipment there. You don't even want to see in the back how many satellite trucks, but there's guys working in here. When we are doing the show from mover there. Can you point over there just a little bit. That's where we going to be doing the show. And there is rehearsals. Somebody was -- who was me in the rehearsals earlier? She looks just like me as they were doing the blockings and the lightning.
But the star of the show here today is my friend Rosy. Right, Rosy?
So Rosy, what is the most popular drink here?
ROSY: It is the f-bomb, the shot.
LEMON: It is called the f-bomb because this place is atomic, right? OK. And they called it Atomic because the test site is that what miles way --
ROSY: Forty-five miles.
LEMON: Forty-five miles that way. People used to come here to watch --
ROSY: The atomic site.
LEMON: Can we have an f-bomb? Is that possible?
ROSY: Absolutely. Can I do it with you?
LEMON: Yes, you can. And there is no liquor in there, right?
ROSY: Not at all. LEMON: This is what's on the menu here tonight. F-bomb. There is atomic cocktail then there is the Rose Busch and then on and on and on. And then there is the last word as well. But this is the oldest free standing bar in Las Vegas. And this bar really means a lot to Anthony Bourdain. And he is going to be here hosting the show. It is going to me, it is going to be Wendell Pierce, the actor. You probably know him from (INAUDIBLE), you also known him from other shows "waiting to exhale" and other HBO shows. Roi Choi, the famous chef and author is going is going to be here as well. And there is going to be a comedian -- there is our f-bomb. This is the first time I have dropped an f-bomb on TV. How do I take this, Rosy?
ROSY: Take the shot glass out and slam the other side.
LEMON: Take the shot glass out and slam the other side.
ROSY: Yes.
LEMON: OK.
ROSY: Ready?
LEMON: OK, I'm going to drop the f-bomb. Here we go. Oh, my God! What is that? That is atomic. And that will make you want it say the f-bomb.
Well, this place is great. And listen, we are going -- there are viewing rooms outside. We will take you up on the roof a little bit later on and show you where people used to come up here and watch.
And again, this is downtown Vegas. And it is in a resurgence town. It is being re-gentrified. It is being popularized again. And this place stood standing while downtown Las Vegas really didn't do very well for a long time. But it stayed open for the most part. And so, we're going to honor this place. It is going to be me, Anthony, a whole bunch of people coming up tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern right after the 9:00 finale of "PARTS UNKNOWN, DETROIT."
Marty, back to you.
SAVIDGE: All right, Don. Let's keep you standing. Remember, what happens in Vegas, you keep there.
Anthony Bourdain's Last Bite."
LEMON: It stays right here.
SAVIDGE: Yes. See you.
SAVIDGE: Again, That's right after the season finale of "PARTS UNKNOWN." That will begin at 9:00 eastern right here on CNN.
Next, veteran's day story that you will want to share with your friends, trust me. It is a very special delivery, 70 years in the making.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: Tomorrow is Veteran's Day. It's a chance to salute those who have served in the military. There will, of course, be parades, speeches and flags. But for one Nashville family, all eyes will be on a van coming down the street. Because it carries a piece of history that reconnects a daughter and two sons to their now deceased hero father.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (voice-over): In a crate in a DHL warehouse in Nashville since a delivery that has waited 69 years. How it got here, well, that's the story.
It begins in the sky over Nazi Germany, November, 1944. A young American pilot struggled to control his shot up b-17 bomber. The plane is dying, and so is his wounded crew. They can't bailout. He has it try to crash land in Belgium.
Mary Ann Hubert was only a child living there at the time but she knows the story.
He gets out of the clouds and what does he see?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He sees the steeple after church.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Right in front?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just a few front below its wing. So his co- pilot and hi self, they have to brace himself to lift the wing and miss it by a feet or two.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): The plane lands, sparing the village, saving the crew.
The Americans goes back to England. And the bomber, vanishes. So, the plane essentially just disappears into the village itself piece by piece.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just like an ant, you know eating something.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Decades go by, life goes on. Then one day, Mary Ann finds the plane again. Well, at least part of it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was found in a chicken coup.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): It is a steel ring three feet wide from the machine gun tour et of the machine gun of the crashed plane.
Grateful to the Americans who fought to free our country, Mary Ann set out to find the brave pilot from that dangerous day. And after years of record digging, she did.
Lieutenant James Dimel of plantation, Florida. And so, the remnant was loaded with loving care and returned to the air once more, bound for the United States. Sadly, Lieutenant Dimel died in 2010. But that only makes the discovery all the more important to his family. As I found out, the phone call.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're just so excited that it will happen on Veteran's Day which just makes the whole event more of an honor.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): In other words, this will be one very special delivery.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: DHL assures us that the package will be delivered tomorrow morning. Pilot's family will be there to receive it. Along with Mary Ann Hubert and the loved ones of the bomber's radio operator as well.
At 107 years old, World War II veteran Richard Overton has seen it all, but he apparently didn't see getting a call from the White House coming. That's a first. Overton is believed to be the oldest U.S. veteran. He has been invited by President Obama it take part in the Veteran's Day. festivities tomorrow including breakfast with the president and vice president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD OVERTON, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: The president wants me to come. I'm surprised he called. So, I guess he want to talk to me, I don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know what he wants to say?
OVERTON: I don't know. They want to run me away, I don't know. They may want to send me back over there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: And there were shortage of surprises when it comes to Overton, besides still driving his own car, he smokes 12 cigars everyday and then spends free time hanging out with his 90-year-old girlfriend.
Thank you for your service.
You are in the CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Martin Savidge.
Thank you for joining us.
For thousands of typhoon victims right now, there is no food, there is no clean water to drink, phone and communications are down so they cannot call for help. And in too many cases, the roads have been swept away. So, at this moment, there is no way to get help or for help to get there.
Straight to the Philippines, live. And CNN's Paula Hancocks.
And Paula, you are at the airport. What are people there need most right now. And I guess the big question, are they getting it?
HANCOCKS: Well Martin, what they need is food. They need water, clean water. And many of them need medication and they all need shelter. Very few people actually have a home that is left standing. But for many people, hundreds of people that have arrived here overnight, the same happened the night before, they want to get out. they do not want to be in this area anymore.
