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CNN Tonight
Desperation in Haiti; Relief Scams
Aired January 15, 2010 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Tonight, Haiti's earthquake crisis, bodies filling the streets, thousands buried in mass graves.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reports on the extent of devastation in Haiti are still coming in and each seemingly worse than the last.
O'BRIEN: Food and water pouring in from all over the world, but still only a trickle getting to the millions who need it. Millions of desperate survivors on the verge of (INAUDIBLE). When will help reach them?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN TONIGHT live from New York. Here now Soledad O'Brien.
O'BRIEN: Good evening, everybody. Tonight's Haiti's crippled government says Tuesday's massive earthquake killed more than 50,000 people, injured a quarter a million and left one and a half million people homeless. Those numbers staggering, of course, as are the images that are coming out of Haiti today.
There are bodies everywhere, mass graves, survivors who are still struggling to dig out the missing by hand. Help from the world is there. Airlift continues, bringing tons of food and water and hundreds of rescue workers, but they can only do so much because of Haiti's shattered infrastructure. And even when help is getting through, there is rage in the streets, as we hear from Chris Lawrence. He's in Port-au-Prince today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: We're in the back of the United Nations truck heading to the center of the city. You can see we're jammed in pretty tight with a lot of the same supplies that the World Food Program is going to be delivering to the people of Haiti. You can take a look next to me. You can see some of the U.N. guards.
It's going to be their job to try to keep some form of order so things don't get out of hand. The truck's now made it here to the park near the presidential palace. A lot of people starting to push and shove their way, trying to get up to where the food is. You can see a lot of the men pushing their way up. I haven't (INAUDIBLE) many of the women be able to get up here. It's swiftly getting a little chaotic here. They had to stop. They started blowing their whistles and had to stop about 10 or 15 minutes ago. It just started back, but it seems to only be able to last for about five minutes before it starts getting out of hand again. The thing that I'm noticing, too, is there is a lot of small kids in there that are getting jammed up against other people or they're just getting pushed out of the way entirely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
LAWRENCE: What is wrong with the -- what is wrong with the biscuits? Why don't people want to eat it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
LAWRENCE: What's happening is they're confusing the date that it was packaged on, which was 2008 with the expiration date, which is November 2010. I know it's hard to see, but he's basically yelling and telling people, do not accept these biscuits because they're no good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are very concerned about the age of the biscuits. They are very good and they're OK (INAUDIBLE).
LAWRENCE: As you can see, everybody is following the truck. But there it goes. They're trying to even just hold onto the back of it, but it's pulling away. A lot of people ended up with nothing. But I don't know if you can still see, they're running after the truck, trying to get it. But that truck is gone now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: That's Chris Lawrence for us in Port-au-Prince. Now among the most distressing developments that happened over the past two days has been the appearance of these mass graves in Haiti. Anderson Cooper joins us live. He's in Port-au-Prince as well -- hey Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey Soledad. You know there have been rumors for the last 24 hours or so about what is happening with the bodies because we have started to see body collection. We started seeing it late last night. Bulldozers coming -- actually front loaders coming, picking up corpses, dumping them into trucks and then driving off into the night.
We weren't really sure what was happening. The government announced 7,000 people have been buried so far but we didn't really know where. Today we discovered at least one series of mass graves outside the city in a mountainous area, an open field. It was at least -- there were probably at least 100 people visible in this series of mass graves that we found. They had literally been dumped, some of them into pits, others just dumped onto the ground, waiting for a bulldozer to come and push them into the pits.
They then would put some dirt over those people and so that there would be room for even more people to be dumped. And by the time we got there, we saw at least -- there were at least two truckloads of bodies that were brought in and you know we all covered the situation in the wake of the tsunami, Soledad, in Sri Lanka where I was there were mass graves as well, but there, there was at least an identification system in place.
They would photograph the corpses and paste the photographs in a morgue, loved ones could come and try to at least identify their bodies of their loved ones so they could at least get some sense of what had happened to them. There is nothing like that here. There is not level of organization. They're literally picking up these bodies and dumping them.
No one is reporting names. Of course no one is taking any images, and I'm not even sure they're accurately counting. I don't know if they're counting, but the government says they do have a number, but I saw no one at this burial ground counting how many people were being dumped. They just -- the dump truck comes, it dumps off a load, no one says anything, there is no prayer. There is no service, and then they just move off.
So this was just one burial location that we found. And you know for -- I think for a lot of Haitians, what is going to be particularly disturbing is the realization that a lot of their loved ones are simply going to have disappeared and they will never know what happened.
O'BRIEN: So utterly horrifying. Are they telling people where these mass grave sites are? It sounds like you just sort of stumbled across it.
COOPER: Yes, I mean no one -- no one told us, and as far as I know, dissemination of information -- I mean I haven't -- I've been out on the streets a lot in Port-au-Prince and I haven't seen a lot of government officials trying to disseminate information directly to people. We basically just followed a dump truck and we actually thought it was just a dump truck that had debris in it.
But once we got there, we realized that the debris was actually sheeting and makeshift stretchers that had been used to cover the people or carry the people to the site, and so when they were dumping -- this dump truck turned out to -- what we thought was just filled with garbage was actually filled with human remains, we haven't said where this site is because I frankly don't want to give out a location and then have that be, you know a negative impact and cause people to go there and create a chaotic situation like as we saw with Chris Lawrence. So I'm sure people will figure out where these sites are, but there are no markers that's going to you know mark who's there, so no one is going to know where their loved one is.
O'BRIEN: Is there any indication -- you said that it sounded like something like or they were saying that something like 7,000 bodies had now been removed. Does it look like there are 7,000 bodies in that one spot or is it possible there are more burial sites than that?
COOPER: If, in fact, they have buried 7,000 bodies, and I have no way of verifying that independently, there must be other sites. Because in the site I was -- I mean I saw perhaps 100 bodies today in this one site clearly visible, some of them just dumped on the ground, some in pits. And the pits had plenty more room.
But I also saw mounds that had been covered over, so clearly, just judging by the size of the other mounds I saw, there must have been several hundred people in this one location. You know, I wouldn't say probably more than four or 500, and I'm -- that's just a rough estimate, but I can't imagine any more in this location that we were in, so if, in fact, there are 7,000 that have been buried so far, they must be in different locations as well.
O'BRIEN: And it could be anybody. I mean obviously Haitian citizens who have died in the street, American citizens, anyone who was there.
COOPER: Absolutely.
O'BRIEN: Was gathered -- oh that is so disturbing.
COOPER: Yes. Yes.
O'BRIEN: Go ahead, Anderson.
COOPER: Well yes, absolutely, it could be any citizen of any country. And the thing is, of course, is even once you go -- I mean even if a loved one was to go to this site and try to see the bodies before they get buried, I mean I don't want -- I'm not going to get into too much detail, but at this point, a lot of these people, these bodies are unrecognizable.
I mean they've been out in the sun, and because of what happens to a body at this stage, you could be looking at your father or your mother or your brother or your child and not recognize them. It is -- it is -- you know, it's one of the many horrors here that people are facing.
O'BRIEN: In the tsunami, Anderson, at least in Thailand where I was, there were these giant poster boards and people had posted pictures of the folks that they were looking for. Is there anything like that at all in the streets in whatever is left of Port-au-Prince?
COOPER: I haven't seen photographs. What I have seen is, especially even in the park behind me, sometimes there are people in sort of trucks who have loud speakers and this is actually something you see during a carnival here. And so it's individuals who have these trucks and these loudspeakers go around and they're trying to help connect people.
They have messages from people and they'll be in a park for hours reading off names, saying, you know this person is searching for this person and trying to help people connect that way. But, you know, no one knows, OK, you got to go to this location to get that message at a certain time. It's all done very piecemeal and these trucks move around, all around the city and you kind of run into them all throughout the day, trying to dispel rumors, trying to connect people, but again I haven't seen a central location for people to go.
I know for Americans -- I think a lot of Americans are going to the Embassy to try to get information or going to the airport in the hopes of seeing U.S. personnel there, but for Haitians it is -- it is a very piecemeal process.
O'BRIEN: And it sounds completely chaotic. Anderson Cooper in Port- au-Prince for us. Thanks, Anderson.
The U.S. Navy is dispatching the hospital ship Comfort to Haiti, the Comfort set to sail from its home port of Baltimore tomorrow afternoon. That's four days after the quake, but it's one day less than it normally takes to load and prepare that ship to go to sea.
The converted oil tanker has 250 hospital beds, medical staff of more than 500 people. This will be its biggest humanitarian mission in at least 20 years. Now Haiti of course shares the island of Hispaniola (ph) with the Dominican Republic and thousands of Haitians have been pouring across the border hoping to get some help, 2,000 so far have been treated at hospitals near the border. The Dominican Republic has been sending caravans, trucks with aid toward Port-au-Prince as well.
The White House tomorrow, President Obama is going to be meeting with former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. They're going to talk about how to lead the national volunteer relief effort for Haiti. Ed Henry joins us now with more on that -- Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well good evening, Soledad. You'll remember from the tsunami coverage that former President Clinton and the first President Bush came together then on a bipartisan basis really try to drum up aid and support all around the world, especially here in America, though, and we're going to see the same tomorrow when these two former presidents, this time the younger President Bush will be here with former President Clinton.
They'll be here with President Obama. They are officially launching a site that is called ClintonBushHaitifund.org. That is meant to raise money. That is in addition to this texting fundraising that we've seen. We're told by the White House that's raised already $8 million as of this morning just in a few days when people text Haiti to 90999.
But then of course the broader U.S. government effort you mentioned, the military assets. Also President Obama today pledging at least $100 million as a down payment in direct aid from the U.S. to Haiti. And the president made this announcement after talking to his counterpart from Haiti and saying this is really just the beginning of a massive U.S. effort.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There are going to be many difficult days ahead. So many people are in need of assistance. The port continues to be closed and the roads are damaged. Food is scarce and so is water. It will take time to establish distribution points so that we can ensure that resources are delivered safely and effectively and in an orderly fashion. But I want the people of Haiti to know that we will do what it takes to save lives and to help them get back on their feet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Now, Mr. Obama added that President Preval of Haiti was also very grateful for all of the U.S. action so far, even though there is more yet to come. Obviously a lot more that needs to be done. President Preval telling Mr. Obama, quote, "from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of the Haitian people, thank you, thank you, thank you" -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Ed, is there any expectation or any indication that either the current president or the former presidents will be going to Haiti any time soon?
HENRY: So far Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, is saying that President Obama has no plans to attend -- you know to visit Haiti, at least in the short term. In part they do that because they realize that sending a current U.S. president there so quickly, all the security, all that can actually detract from the relief and the aid efforts in the early hours.
It's very likely, though, we've been hearing privately, though they have not made it official, maybe they will tomorrow, but privately we've gotten indications the former presidents, Clinton and Bush, are very likely to go soon. And in fact, Secretary of State Clinton is heading there as well -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right. Ed Henry for us at the White House today -- thanks Ed. And in fact as Ed just mentioned, late this afternoon Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she will be traveling to Haiti. She's going to go tomorrow.
She'll go there with the director of the U.S. Agency for International Development which is coordinating the U.S. response. This morning Jill Dougherty got an exclusive look at that operation -- Jill.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, you know when you look at those images from Haiti, the chaos and the destruction on the ground, you have to ask yourself, where do you even begin to deal with it? Well this morning here in Washington, we visited the epicenter of the United States' massive relief operation, experts who specialize in dealing with disaster and who have to answer that question.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOUGHERTY: This is the home of the Response Management Team of USAID that is set up every single time that there is a disaster. And they work 24 hours a day on shifts, and the people here, for example, they're your food experts. They're getting the food into the country as soon as possible. We have health experts. We have information experts. We have all the different sector experts that we need in order to resolve problems and get the commodities in as well as the search and rescue teams in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is he doing? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's trying to find out where the search and rescue teams right now. How do we get the search and rescue teams to the most vital areas within Port-au-Prince. He's a pivotal person right now because we know, the first 72 hours are absolutely pivotal to get those teams in. We're at about hour 60 right now. The clock is running.
So what you see here is really a battle rhythm of how do we save lives as quickly as possible and get those people and resources in there?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, here we go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's go over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is talking to her colleagues in the State Department, specifically about the staging area and getting the food operations, the food commodities in country. There will be a barge that arrives this weekend which will feed two million Haitians for up to six months. So getting that barge into the country and getting it through the distribution network.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These people are using e-mail.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right.
DOUGHERTY: OK, so how do they actually communicate?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now this is an important -- this is a very important point, because we have to use all means of communication. One of the things that this team is doing is text-messaging constantly with our team members on the ground, because as you know, the cell phones are down, phone communications are very, very difficult. Right now I'm walking into the Haiti inter-agency task force center where right now the administrator is connected to all senior policy level makers in government.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) has to be getting our routes going, getting our airport going and starting to work on developing alternative routes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got to think big, go big and go fast.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOUGHERTY: So the USAID administrator you just saw making that conference call, Rajah Shaw (ph), will be flying into Haiti tomorrow along with Secretary Clinton, looking for direct information about how this relief operation is going -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Are there any worries, Jill, as we heard Ed Henry say just a minute ago, when a sitting president goes in, it can sort of slow down and really you know confuse any kind of operations. Is there any concern, really, the same thing of the secretary of state?
DOUGHERTY: In fact she raised that issue when she was talking to reporters today and she said she's flying only into the airport. She's not going to go out into the city. She will not be using cars. And she said you know she was quite aware of the problem that that could create, but she will be at the airport. She wants to be on the ground, seeing what's happening and evaluate it and then come back and you know be able to continue to work on this.
O'BRIEN: All right. Jill Dougherty for us -- thanks, Jill.
Still ahead tonight, Haiti adoptions in limbo as orphans are struggling to survive. We have got one family's heart-wrenching story -- that's when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Tonight, Haiti's littlest victims. Before the quake, the country's orphans, nearly 400,000 of them were among its most vulnerable citizens. And now with scores left homeless and without food or medicine or even clean water, caretakers are worrying that many of them won't survive. Meantime, adoptive families in the United States are left in limbo. They're frantic for news and their chance to bring their sons and daughters home to safety. Lisa Sylvester has one family's emotional tale.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lori and Noel Tugwell adopted 6-year-old Lilly from China and 4-year-old Silas (ph) from Haiti. Their third adopted child, 12-year-old Louis (ph), is still in Haiti. The Tugwells (ph) were waiting for the final immigration paperwork to bring him to their home in Arkansas when the earthquake hit.
LORI TUGWELL, ADOPTIVE MOTHER: I've been on the computer or in front of the TV really every waking moment since we found out, waiting for information. But it's -- it's a helpless feeling.
SYLVESTER: Forty-eight terrifying hours after the quake, the family received word from the adoption agency that all of the kids at his orphanage in Petionville, Haiti are alive. But their building was badly damaged. They're now in a church, quickly running out of food and water. Noel Tugwell's first instinct was to go to Haiti immediately, but working the phones, he found out it's nearly impossible to get there now.
NOEL TUGWELL, ADOPTIVE FATHER: It's very tough to you know when your son is there. You -- you it's just tough to be here.
SYLVESTER: All the more heartbreaking because they thought Louis would be home with them by Christmas. But a typo on his Haitian passport delayed things. The hardest part was leaving him last year. L. TUGWELL: That last night that we were together in Haiti, he just curled up on my lap as much as a 12-year-old can and cried, and that was definitely one of the hardest days of our life, leaving him there.
SYLVESTER: Louis's younger brother and sister are not fully aware of what's going on and wait patiently and eagerly for him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's my brother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's my brother.
SYLVESTER: While Louis's room and bed in Arkansas sit empty.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: Now, Louis was officially adopted last year. His family is worried, though, that a lot of the paperwork, including his passport was at the Minister of Interior's office when the earthquake hit. They don't know if that building is even standing, and they would like to try to find a way for U.S. Immigration Services to expedite things to try to help bring him to the United States -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: So what are they supposed to do, parents now, in the meanwhile, just sit and wait and watch TV?
SYLVESTER: And -- and you know this is the most heartbreaking thing about it, because there is not a whole lot that they can do. I mean the first 48 hours was trying to get the word to make sure that he's OK. Now they've identified where he is. He's at a Church of the Latter Day Saints in Petionville.
And now what they're trying to do is to see if somebody can go over there to make sure that there is food and water at that church for -- for -- not only for their son but for the other orphans who are there, and then they're trying to work with immigration services to try to see if they might be able to expedite things to bring him to the United States, but the problem is on the Haiti side of things the government buildings may or may not even be standing -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: A huge problem, all right. Lisa Sylvester for us -- thanks Lisa.
There have been so many stories of horror and hope too coming out of this tragedy in Haiti. One New England family has experienced both. Len Gengel's daughter, Brittany, was in Haiti at the time of the earthquake. She was part of a relief mission of students from Lynn University (ph) in Florida. Len Gengel and his wife were told that their daughter was safe and that she'd be returning to the United States, and the relieved parents flew to Florida to see their daughter. But the joy quickly turned to anguish as the couple was told that a mistake had been made and that their daughter in fact remains among the missing in the rubble of Haiti's capital. The distraught father appealed for help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LEN GENGEL, MISSING GIRL'S FATHER: We are praying that our daughter Brittany be one of the rescued today and be brought home safe and sound. And I am pleading -- I am pleading to President Obama to please, please send more people to Haiti to rescue. As a father, President Obama, you must feel our pain and what we're going through.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: The Gengels are not alone in their suffering obviously. Five other members of the University Relief Team, and you can see them in this picture, they also remain missing.
Author Edwidge Danticat was born in Port-au-Prince. She grew up in a very poor section of the city called Bellaire (ph) and tonight she is still waiting to hear from many family and many friends that she has in Haiti. She joins us live now from Miami. What kind of information are you actually getting about your family members? Thanks for being with us.
EDWIDGE DANTICAT, HAITIAN-BORN AMERICAN NOVELIST: Thank you for having me. I've actually had some news, not good at all. My -- a cousin who was living in Bellaire (ph) was found not alive with five of his children, and we're still waiting on other family members in another part of the city, but like a lot of people in this position, you know the -- when the news comes, it's sometimes good and it's sometimes bad.
O'BRIEN: You live in Miami, which obviously has a very large Haitian population, a Haitian American population. What are you doing as a community to get information?
DANTICAT: We're doing everything possible. The Internet, the TV, other people. I think a lot of us call each other and try to exchange information, but there is a sense of helplessness. This afternoon one cousin outside of the city (INAUDIBLE) called me and she described -- you know she said how they were sleeping outside and there were decomposing bodies next to her, and I kept telling her, what can I do?
What can I do right now? And there was nothing that we can do. We can't -- if you send money, there is no way for it to get there. And as individuals it's an overwhelming sense of powerlessness that you cannot -- you can't do anything for the people you love.
O'BRIEN: That has got to be so incredibly painful for you and for so many others who are just sitting here in the United States and wish you could be there.
DANTICAT: I know so many people want to be there, and there is that -- it's a great desire, but being there, you know, you get there, where do you go, what do you do, but it's -- there is a lot of people aching tonight, still waiting. I know so many people who are waiting without any word. It's extraordinarily agonizing. Certainly not as agonizing with the people we love (INAUDIBLE) going through, but it's the other side of this -- of this horror.
O'BRIEN: What is your greatest fear at this point? Many people now are focusing on potentially violence if more relief doesn't make its way in, because of course at some point people start getting desperate.
DANTICAT: Well, as more and more time goes by, of course, we -- you worry that people who could have been saved, people who are in the rubble would not be reached in time. For example, I've heard from people, one of my cousins who was in the rubble, he was asking the people in the neighborhood for water, and so he was alive for a while.
And then they stopped hearing him. So there's a fear of that and there's a fear of what happens when the first rain comes with all these people sleeping outside? And it would be great to see some effort made, for example, to try to resettle people who want to go to the countryside where they are from, who might have family there -- that these people had an opportunity to get out of the city so that after this first wave of horrible death, we don't have a second and third wave of people who are alive but exposed in a city and as we (INAUDIBLE) happen a situation that can grow worse and worse all the time.
O'BRIEN: Do you have any sort of thread of hope? I mean, when you think about Haiti, you certainly think about a place that came from absolutely nothing and has really scraped and scrapped to get ahead.
DANTICAT: I think you have to have hope. There is a picture tonight, this afternoon that was coming out of Haiti that I think lifted us all up of these -- a group of people just walking down the street and singing and showing their strength and resilience and the power of their belief. I think that did so much for our hearts today to see that. It's just -- this is Haiti.
This is what Haiti is. There's people who overcome so much but can still sing, can still do this. I mean, it's extraordinary. And it's one of the things that even at moments like this make me so proud to be Haitian.
O'BRIEN: Thanks for talking with us. We're obviously going to keep in touch as you continue to search for your family members. (INAUDIBLE) Danticat, author joining us from Miami where she lives now -- appreciate your time tonight.
DANTICAT: Thank you for having me.
O'BRIEN: Still ahead, we've got an amazing story of survival. A woman who was buried alive in the quake was finally pulled to safety today. We're going to hear what she has to say. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: She was buried alive when the earth moved on Haiti on Tuesday. Today, a woman in Port-au-Prince was rescued and incredibly, she barely had a scratch on her. But tonight she does have a horrific story to tell. CNN's Gary Tuchman was there when she was pulled to safety.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: How do you feel right now? How are you doing?
FARADHIA MOISE, RESCUED: I'm OK.
TUCHMAN: Everyone was worried about you.
(CROSSTALK)
MOISE: (INAUDIBLE) right?
TUCHMAN: You were up there for over two days.
MOISE: Uh-huh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
TUCHMAN: OK. What do you think about these heroes? These are guys from Iceland who rescued you, and women?
MOISE: (INAUDIBLE) I don't know.
TUCHMAN: They saved your life.
MOISE: (INAUDIBLE) when they came, that I really had faith that I would be rescued.
TUCHMAN: Faradhia, we're so happy you're alive. The whole world knows about you.
MOISE: The only thing I can say is thank you very much and (INAUDIBLE).
TUCHMAN: Thank you, Faradhia.
(APPLAUSE)
MOISE: And, when it happened, I was very trapped.
TUCHMAN: Did you know what -- did you know what happened?
MOISE: Well, I presumed it was an earthquake, but I would not be 100 percent sure, because it happened so fast. My God, this is something I heard of. It's -- I never thought how fast it would happen.
TUCHMAN: Were you screaming and yelling for a long time?
MOISE: Well, you know what? I did not even have the time to scream, because, as I told you, I just...
(CROSSTALK)
TUCHMAN: Afterwards. I mean, afterwards, while you were trapped, afterwards. Were you screaming while you were trapped?
MOISE: When that just happened, I was really under shock, because, when it happened, at first, I had one leg that was totally, you know (INAUDIBLE) and the other one was right under my other leg.
And I managed to have it back like to both to the same position. And ever since, I have been praying. And, to be honest, I even slept. I did not want to have that feeling where I could not breathe. And, luckily, I breathed all the time. And I even could smell fresh air.
TUCHMAN: Was there a time where you thought that...
MOISE: And that's -- no. (INAUDIBLE) said to myself, dear God gave all these possibilities to be on a place where I could lay down, turn on the side, both sides, even be able to get some sleep.
I communicate also with people that were in other places. And, unfortunately, many of them did not make it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: It's remarkable to see her without even a scratch on her, practically, among all the tragedy and struggle, a story of hope to share, that's some good news. I'll be reporting from Haiti beginning on Sunday. I hope you'll catch my reports, then.
Coming up tonight, the challenge of getting desperately needed medical care to the thousands of people who have been injured in Haiti. We've got that story coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Haiti's government is now saying that Tuesday's earthquake left 1.5 million people homeless. Tonight they're living on the sidewalks, on the streets and in city parks and as Ivan Watson reports for us, they're still making heroic efforts to try to rescue others who are trapped in the rubble.
Ivan, how is it going?
IVAN WATSON, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's another tough night here in Port-au-Prince. Before me -- behind me, the thousands of homeless people here in the park. You can hear some of them singing and clapping. We have the story today of one baby that was discovered by an affiliate, a CNN affiliate news crew.
They were out and they heard cries of a child, and they went hunting through the rubble and found, at the bottom of a hole, Soledad, a baby, an 18-month-old girl, they estimate, by the name of Winnie. And their translator, he crawled in and managed to pull out this baby who was somehow abandoned there, covered in dust and looking rather strong considering it may have been a three-day ordeal that she was in. She was passed off to her uncle who we were told was in complete despair because he had lost very many of his loved ,ones as a result of Tuesday's earthquake, but one glimmer of hope amid all this misery, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Oh, how awful. And, of course, you have a terrible story an update that we thought had ended so well. WATSON: Well, we did have -- we were repeating a warning here that -- there was a girl that we met yesterday driving around Port-au-Prince. We were called over by parents and relatives, and this 11-year-old girl, Aniaka San Luis was trapped underneath a collapsed house and surrounded by the cadavers of loved ones and relatives. And the little girl was active, she was screaming and talking to us. And as volunteers were trying to cut her free, I spoke with her.
She was, of course, very scared and in a lot of pain. And when the men would start to cut at the bar that was holding her still, she would reach back with her left hand, and at one point grabbed hold of my hand just to have someone to hold onto her while she was going through this. It didn't matter who. Somebody holding her hand while she was going through this. Didn't matter who, somebody holding her hand, and asked for water from time to time. And after two days that she'd been trapped, after sunset last night, Soledad, the family told me that they succeed in cutting Aniaka free, and we thought this was a wonderful development, of course. She was taken to a first aid station, but we were told this evening by an uncle that she passed away shortly after arriving there, that she did not survive that ordeal, the 48 hours she was trapped there.
The uncle says that the wounds were just too serious. The doctor told the family they had to move on to another hospital with better medical care. He said that her last words before she passed away were, (speaking foreign language) which were, "Mother don't let me die." And we're told she was buried today in her mother's hometown, about a three hour's drive away from here, and she's been buried unlike so many other victims of this terrible catastrophe, whose bodies are being unceremoniously dumped away. So, it's a difficult day for this family, of course, and for the rest of Port-au-Prince.
O'BRIEN: Oh, and how many stories like that where people are able to get out, but their injuries are so severe and the medical care is just not enough that they can't be saved even once they've been rescued. I was so cheering for that little girl when I saw your report.
WATSON: Yeah, it's very tough to hear, and unfortunately, this whole population of the city is suffering through dramas and tragedies like that. I mean, the people who are sleeping under the stars on the concrete, behind me, some of them are wounded from their injuries and maybe they're OK today, maybe they're OK tomorrow, but infection can set in and there's simply not enough doctors or equipment to treat these people, as we saw in the case of poor little 11-year-old Anika.
O'BRIEN: Ivan Watson for us tonight. Ivan, thanks for that update, appreciate it.
We've been, of course, reporting on the urgent need for medical care and supplies in Haiti, as you can tell from that story. But relief organizations are still facing this tremendous challenge in treating the tens of thousands of people now injured in Tuesday's earthquake. Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen spent some time at clinic in Port-au-Prince, today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A moment to celebrate. After eight hours of waiting, this group of doctors from the University of Miami finally made it in to help save lives in Haiti. I accompanied them on the flight in.
No one was happier to see these physicians than Dr. Enrique Ginsberg, who had been working in this makeshift hospital, on the United Nations compound near the airport, for two days.
(on camera): So, last night, you had three doctors for how many patients?
DR ENRIQUE GINSBERG, WORKING IN HAITIAN MAKESHIFT HOSPITAL: Probably 250.
COHEN: Three doctors for 250 patients. Are you kidding me?
Let me show you around this makeshift hospital in a tent. The screams of the woman that you're hearing right now -- she's six months pregnant and during the earthquake, a boulder fell on her stomach and now she's miscarrying.
This little boy over here, he has a bleed in his brain. The doctors say he hasn't been conscious since he arrived here, and they don't think there's very much that he can do for him. You hear children crying, you hear orphans crying through the night, "Mommy, mommy."
(voice-over): Dr. Ginsberg gives the Florida doctors (INAUDIBLE) an assessment on each patient.
GINSGERG: She also has a pelvic fracture, I think. We need one person to change the dressings on this child. We need an IV on this girl.
COHEN (on camera): Now, the new doctors will help, but there is a limit to what they can do. And that's because they're missing even the most basic of supplies. For example, when they do amputations, they don't have general anesthesia, so they cut off the limb while the person is still awake. One doctor I talked to calls it "Civil War medicine."
(voice-over): In all this pain, in all this trauma, there is one bright light and his name is Reggie.
(on camera): This little boy just came out of the rubble two hours ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just came out, just came out. His grandmother, his brother and two of his cousins.
COHEN: And they were all dead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were all dead.
COHEN: How did he live for more than two days all alone crushed under dead bodies?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm telling you, that's God. That's the only thing I can say. That's God.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN: Now, I mentioned amputations being done. I actually witnessed someone today getting her foot amputated, no general anesthesia. This was done by the side of the road. She had a local anesthetic and she had a sedative, but she was awake while it happened -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Oh, that sounds absolutely horrific. When do they expect that reasonable numbers of physicians and more supplies will make their way into the country?
Well, you know, the problem isn't actually the physicians. They actually have a fair number of doctors, here. What they don't have a is an operating room, and that's a huge problem. Unless they can operate on their wounds, they will fester, we heard Ivan Watson talk about infection. That's what they're worried about. But there was some good news, today. Some Israelis came to visit, they said they're opening up a surgical hospital. They expect to be operating in the morning -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Oh, that's excellent news. All right, Elizabeth Cohen for us. Thanks, Elizabeth, for the update.
Coming up tonight, we'll take a look at the dark side of disaster relief. Tonight, the FBI has a warning for people who want to contribute to earthquake relief efforts. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Relief organizations are on the ground in Haiti to help with water and shelter and other emergency needs. Samaritan's Purse is one of those organizations. And with us now is the president of Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Franklin Graham, nice to see you.
Thanks for talking with us tonight.
FRANKLIN GRAHAM, SAMARITAN'S PURSE: Thank you, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about what you're sending in. I know this has obviously been a big project for you from the get-go. What's going in now?
GRAHAM: Well, we've had difficulty getting, of course, like everybody else, Soledad, getting in. Yesterday, we could not get any flights in. Today, we were able to get three flights in, and we will have three to four flights a day now for the remainder of this week and we'll have more next week.
Soledad, the No. 1 thing right now, we've got to protect those that are living. We're bringing in shelter material. We're going to have enough shelter by the end of next week for 6,000 temporary shelters. Water is a huge issue. By the end of next week we'll be able to produce close to half a million fresh gallons of water per day. We'll be able to have enough medicine by the end of this week for about 60,000 people, and we have doctors coming in and nurses, and we're working with existing mission hospitals that we have been working with for over 30 years, there in Haiti, and some of them are right there in Port-au-Prince.
It is desperate, and I just want to say thank you to CNN and to you, Soledad, for showing this to the world because what you all are doing is helping to generate a tremendous response, and so we thank you and, of course, we pray for the people of Haiti that God would comfort those that have lost so much and that the hands of those that are coming to bring relief that God would protect them and give them wisdom as they deal with so much tragedy that are in front of them. They need our prayers, and I just want to thank you.
O'BRIEN: They need your prayers and they need your supplies that are coming. It really is, at this point, a race against the clock. I mean, those water purification systems, you know, folks really need the water, they need the shelter and they kind of need it now. How quickly do you think you'll be able to get all of that up and running?
GRAHAM: Every day, Soledad, it's going to get better, OK? Yesterday it was chaos. Today, the chaos is a little bit less. It's still chaotic, but I think every day there's going to be more and more and more flights arriving into the country. The ports will be up and running soon. We'll be able to get ships in there. And I think each day you're going to see a little bit of progress, but for some it's going to be too little, too late, unfortunately. There are people that are still alive, and the race against the clock, it's unfortunate, but we're just not going to be able to get to them quick enough.
But, I'm concerned about those that are alive. You have disease that can set in without fresh water, without some type of shelter. Children are at risk from getting wet, getting cold, and then, of course, pneumonia can set in. There is a lot of problems that are going to come as a result of this earthquake that we've got to begin to think about, prepare for and take action to meet it.
O'BRIEN: You spent a lot of time in Haiti, you've been in the country, really, for decades with your missions. As you know, the poverty there is entrenched. How is that going to compromise what you're going to be able to do ultimately there? I mean, realistically, can this country really come back?
GRAHAM: It's going to take a miracle, but guess what, you know, God is in the miracle business, and if the whole world is focusing on Haiti, I believe that with God's help and with the United Nations, the United States taking the lead, we can see some great improvements in Haiti, but it's going to take time. It's not going to happen this year or next year, it's going to take time.
But it can change, no question. There are some wonderful people down there, some wonderful Christians, some great churches, so I'm hopeful that out of all of this, maybe there is maybe a little bit of a silver lining that Haiti's future may be brighter. That's my prayer.
O'BRIEN: I like to hear that you're in the miracle business. All right, Franklin Graham, nice to talk to you as always, sir. Thanks for being with us. We appreciate it.
GRAHAM: Thank you and God bless you.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.
Coming up, our next guest will tell you exactly where you can donate money to help with the relief effort in Haiti. Stay with us, that's straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Americans have opened their hearts and their wallets donating $97 million in the wake of Tuesday's earthquake, but with new relief Web sites popping up literally every day, the FBI is now issuing a warning to beware of scam artists. Ken Berger is the president and CEO of Charity Navigator, he joins us now with some tips on how to choose a charity wisely.
Nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us.
KEN BERGER, CHARITY NAVIGATOR: Oh, it's my pleasure.
O'BRIEN: (INAUDIBLE) response in Katrina and the tsunami. Does that surprise you?
BERGER: Yes, we've never, ever seen anything like it. The response in the past couple of days has they've been breaking all the records in terms of the amount of support coming in. small donations as well as large, $10 donations, millions and millions of dollars.
O'BRIEN: Do you think it's technology that's allowing that? You know, now that people can say, OK, I'll give $5, I can do it by texting on my cell phone?
BERGER: Yes, and it's a -- we've never -- it's a tipping point, the technologies of social media, Twitter and FaceBook and text messaging. They were usually very miniscule amounts for charities. This is the first time we've seen millions, tens of millions of dollars coming in from these sources, so definitely this technology is helping. It's making it very easy for people to give quickly and in whatever amounts they want to.
O'BRIEN: It's so depressing to have our next part of this conversation be about people who are trying to rip people off, who want to give money, but you've got some tips. Because, really, what your Web site does is navigate this for folks.
So, I want to read though them and then we'll talk about them. You say to choose your charity, pick one well-established charity that you already know, on the ground in Haiti and that has a good record of disaster relief. Do you go with the biggies? Is that the way to do it? BERGER: Not necessarily. There is a combination of them. There are some very smaller agencies that are nimble, that are flexible, that have been on the ground in Haiti for 20, 30 or even 50 years, that can help to deal with some of the logistic problems you were talking about before because they know the people, they know the landscape and they know where to go to get the resources. So, we recommend some small as well some large organizations.
O'BRIEN: What's your process for rating? I mean, how do you gauge between the four, which is your highest rating, and the zero, which is basically run like hell.
BERGER: Yeah, that's correct, run, run away. Well, right now our analysis is really focused on the financials of the organization. We get information from the IRS directly and then we do analytics that look at, is this a strong organization that's sustainable for the long-term.
When it came to some of the charities we recommend and the list that we gave you, those charities, we were also looking at other critical things like, is this an effective organization? That's a critical question. Do they really have a track record of having meaningful impact in people's lives and in emergencies like this? And then also just, are they transparent, accountable to you? Will you get a clear sense of what they're doing with your money? Do they respond to donors well? So, those are the things that we put into this.
O'BRIEN: If you're a donor, can you pick and choose? If I say, OK, I want to help the children in that orphanage that I just saw on camera. I mean, can you direct it that way?
BERGER: Yes, but, our recommendation is...
O'BRIEN: What's the but?
BERGER: The but is, we recommend you find an organization you feel good about, you think is going to really be able to help people and give them some leeway, give them the flexibility. Save the Children is really focused, for example, on creating safe spaces for children. So, you might want to target an organization that specializes that way. But give them as much room as you can.
O'BRIEN: We listed the charities that you rate as four-star charities. Partners in Health, Save the Children, which you're mentioning now, Direct Relief International, Care, Americares, Samaritan's Purse, as well. Do you also rate the texting? Because I've seen a lot, you know, text this number and you can give $5, it will be billed to your cell phone.
BERGER: We recommend that people use that. It's not part of the rating system, but we certainly think that it's one of the quickest ways to get money to people in need. And really, money is the best way to do this, by the way. When it comes to food and other things like that...
O'BRIEN: It's too hard to ship. BERGER: Yeah. I mean, with all the logistics that are going on, the best thing to do it is instantaneously through on line and through text messaging.
O'BRIEN: All right, Ken Berger is the president and CEO of Charity Navigator. Thanks, I really appreciate the information.
BERGER: It's a pleasure.
O'BRIEN: So, whether you would like to make a donation or you just want to stay informed, CNN online has you covered, of course. You can go to CNN.com/Haiti for the very latest news from the ground, or CNN.com/impact to find out how you can help, right now. CNNiReport.com, lets you share stories and your images and if you want to connect with us on Twitter, you can search for #HaitiCNN, that's all one word.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: It's now three days into the tragedies in Haiti and the images of destruction and despair and devastation keep pouring out of that country. "Time" magazine is releasing a special edition, "Haiti's Tragedy." We'd like to leave you now with some of those images.
Our coverage of the rescue and recovery effort in Haiti continues. Campbell Brown is up next.
