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CNN Live At Daybreak

U.S. Help; Missing Americans; Animal Concerns; Survivor's Story; Slower Support; Abdul's Journey

Aired January 05, 2005 - 05:30   ET

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

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello with Chad Myers.
Here are the latest tsunami-related developments.

Miles and miles of devastation, these are new pictures in to CNN within the past hour or so, and you can see tsunami-ravaged Indonesia by air. Just hours ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell toured the hard hit Banda Aceh Province by air. Powell says he's seen wars and natural disasters but never anything this bad.

In the meantime, Indonesia is trying to prevent child traffickers from preying on kids displaced by the tsunamis. Authorities now barring people from leaving the country with young children from Aceh Province.

In the meantime, desperate survivors in Aceh will see more relief helicopters in the coming days. The U.S. military doubling its chopper fleet in the region to more than 90.

And Saudi Arabia this morning is tripling the aid it's promised to tsunami victims. The Saudis are now pledging $30 million and holding a fund raising telethon. They have been criticized for not offering more.

For all the latest developments on the tsunami disaster, you can go to CNN.com/quake. When you log on, you can also make a personal appeal for a missing friend or family member and find out how to donate relief efforts.

To the Forecast Center now and Chad.

Good morning.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: All right, thank you -- Chad.

MYERS: You bet.

COSTELLO: The U.S. delegation headed by Colin Powell and Jeb Bush has been talking with officials in the region about more help.

Our Atika Shubert following that part of the visit. She joins us now with what came out of it.

Hello -- Atika.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.

Well, Secretary of State Colin Powell had a chance to look at the devastation firsthand today. He flew in a U.S. Navy Seahawk, which has been one of the critical keys of the relief effort because it's able to get into some of the most hard hit but inaccessible areas. And Mr. Powell traveled with the helicopter overlooking parts of the city of Banda Aceh, which was very hard hit. And he told the press afterwards that it was unlike anything he had ever seen before, the devastation was so great.

And for that reason, he promised that the United States would help Indonesia any way it could, including increasing the announced helicopters freeze (ph) and also making sure that there is enough of food, medicine and water coming in on America's T-130 planes. But still getting it to the people who need it most will be difficult because infrastructure here is just overwhelming -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So what's the next stop for Colin Powell?

SHUBERT: Well the next step for him is the donor conference at the end of the week. This is the conference where all the donors giving money to the countries affected by this tsunami crisis will be meeting, discussing what is the best coordinate effort. And coordination has been a problem because of the extent of this crisis reaching (INAUDIBLE) countries and devastating, especially poor countries, that coordination can be a big problem and that's why this conference is very important.

COSTELLO: Atika Shubert, reporting live for us this morning, thank you.

The U.S. State Department has confirmed fewer than 20 Americans killed in this disaster, but it is uncertain how many more are victims.

CNN's Brian Todd has more on the search for sons, daughters, fathers, friends and adventurers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The State Department won't release their names because their families haven't signed privacy waivers. Through phone calls, wire service and affiliate reports, we get their stories from those they've left behind.

BRUCE ANDERSON, SISTER DIED IN TSUNAMI: Bizarrely enough, the most beautiful place that she's always wanted to go is where her life ended.

TODD: That was near a beach lodge in southeastern Sri Lanka where Bruce Anderson was told his 42-year-old sister, Kristi (ph), spent the last moments of a well-traveled life. Bruce tends to Kristi's affairs in Las Vegas, makes funeral arrangements, tries to cope. He says mornings are his worst time.

Same for Janet Nicholas.

JANET NICHOLAS, BROTHER DIED IN TSUNAMI: My quiet moments and when I wake up in the morning and first open my eyes that I realize it's very real, it's not just a bad nightmare.

TODD: Janet's brother, 59-year-old Brian King (ph), an Alaskan commercial fisherman with a wanderlust who had gone on vacation to Thailand and e-mailed his sister just before she believes he was swept under water in his sleep.

NICHOLAS: Hi, Janet and Mark (ph), don't worry, I'm fine. I'm at a dive beach resort about 100 kilometers north of Phuket. I'm going to start diving lessons soon.

TODD: Fifteen-year-old Khali Brish (ph), was also vacationing, reportedly inside a bungalow on a Thai beach with her 16-year-old brother when the tsunami hit. Khali's brother was badly injured. Her father and sister spent days looking for her. News of her body being found hard to process for friends back in Salt Lake City.

KILIONA PALAUNI, FRIEND DIED IN TSUNAMI: I don't know what to do right now. Not seeing her sitting in the back row, like she always did, not seeing her in the chairs like we know (ph) or we always sat and worked together.

TODD: In Chicago, a memorial service for Tamara Mendez (ph). The 55-year-old minister's wife was visiting family back home in Sri Lanka onboard that ill-fated train that was submerged, knocked off its tracks by a massive wave. Mendez was traveling with her 20-something daughter who survived but could not rescue her mother.

Parents, children, young, middle aged, adventurers, immigrants returning home, Americans lost.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: If you haven't heard the status of a loved one in the tsunami-affected regions, CNN would like to hear from you. We want to find out about your efforts to locate your missing friends or relatives and we want to know if you're still waiting to hear from them. You can call us at 404-878-1500. The phone will be staffed from 8:00 a.m. Eastern to 5:00 p.m. Eastern. And after those hours or before those hours the line will connect to voice-mail.

Well they need help but they can't ask for it. Just ahead, one dog tried to tell our Anderson Cooper that he needs some attention too. And I know that we shouldn't be talking about the animals and their survival, but some of their stories are heart breaking. Some of them have saved humans. And we'll tell you why it's so important for the animals to regain their health as well.

Also, the story of an Indonesian man whose family members were victims of the tsunami. What he's doing to help those half a world away.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Wednesday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Want to talk a little bit about the animals in South Asia. There are a lot of pets that don't have homes anymore and they're wandering around. We've heard a lot of stories about pets actually rescuing their owners. In fact, a little boy was rescued by the dog. In fact, the dog like, you know, kind of nipped him and led him on the way to safety up on a big hill. A lot of those pets, though, don't have homes, don't have food.

Anderson Cooper was doing a live shot in South Asia, and, well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Here's what happened yesterday. Anderson Cooper talking to Paula Zahn.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know going through the rubble looking for food, and you see cats going through the rubble looking for food. You know, it's one of those stories that you just don't see much about, but the animals are just all over this place. And as you can see, they're very persistent.

Paula, back to you for now.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And like so many, well, I can well understand the distraction. And I think one of the things Anderson touched on earlier today is not only are those animals hungry, you've got these hundreds of thousands of homeless people also.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The World Society for the Protection of Animals coordinating relief efforts for animals in the affected areas. Their director, Major General Peter Davies, joins us now live from London.

And you know we talk about these displaced animals when so many people are missing, but tell us why we should care right now about those dogs and cats that are wandering around.

MAJ. GEN. PETER DAVIES, DIRECTOR, WORLD SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF ANIMALS: Well, I think it's absolutely right that the priority is given to the human rescue. But somebody has to consider the animals, both for the animal's health sake and welfare sake, but also for the coronation between animal diseases and human diseases. And this is where the World Society comes in.

We are the largest federation of animal welfare groups in the world, over 400 member societies in 216 countries. And we take the lead in coordinating the effort. And we have a large experience of doing this. In recent years, we've been in Afghanistan and recently in the Caribbean after the typhoons there. And always the difficulty is to make the correct assessment before you start producing the resources to solve the problem.

This is what we're currently doing. We have teams on their way now and we are, of course, receiving reports from member societies on the spot. But Asia is not an area where there are that many member societies compared to America or Europe or Australia (ph), Asia. So getting the information and accurate information is quite difficult. But we hope to have it by the end of this week and then we will call on our member societies to support the resources that we assess we need to get them there.

Currently, wildlife is not a major problem. Most of the animals, the wildlife animals, seemed to sense it was coming, and there's lots of scientific evidence that they do, and they got out of the area. The main problem is the farm animals and the companion animals. And the immediate needs are feed and veterinary support. And that's what we'll be providing.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about that possible six sense that some animals had, because a lot of people are amazed by that. You say there is scientific evidence behind that. Tell us about it.

DAVIES: Yes, there are. There is evidence that has come from France recently which says that their observations are that the tremors preceding a disaster reach the animals and they sense it's coming. Elephants squeal and start moving away from the affected areas, birds remove themselves. Small animals, like rabbits, seem to sense it's coming and start withdrawing from the area. There are even reports that bats, who rely on their sonar system, somehow pick up that things are changing and start to take evasive action.

COSTELLO: You know but other animals, like dogs and cats, for example, who stayed around the danger zones, and they did find the bodies of many dogs and cats, why don't they sense it too?

DAVIES: Well, first of all, they're so dependent on humans that they tend to stay with the humans, their owners. But there is evidence that some of the dogs refused to come inside shortly before the waves struck in certain areas and that cats became very distressed. But they are living much closer to where the water came in because they are cohabiting with humans. And so I'm afraid a large number of them died with their owners.

COSTELLO: Major General Peter Davies, joining us live from London this morning, thank you.

The stories of how some people managed to cheat death during the tsunamis are fascinating and touching.

CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour is in Sri Lanka where she met one little boy who still isn't sure what really happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bodies are still being pulled from the train wreck that was the west coast's single biggest disaster. Families and survivors are still looking, hoping against hope for a miracle.

Seven-year-old Shihan (ph) is the Perumavalanga (ph) family's little miracle. Along with his father, he shows us the site where his mother, two sisters and cousin were killed by the monstrous sea. In his soft child's voice, he recounts the horror and how he survived.

"We were going on an outing to the beach, when suddenly the train stopped," says Shihan. "Then a huge wave hit us, and our carriage flipped over. I hung on to the luggage rack. That was the last time I saw my mother and my two sisters."

And he shows us how terrified and floating in water up to his chest, he clung on until the tidal wave subsided and he was rescued. It is an extraordinary triumph of survival when so many of the smallest, the youngest, the frailest have perished.

Ranjit (ph), Shihan's father, is a fisherman. He had been working and didn't join them that day. This is the first time he has seen the wreck that decimated his family.

RANJIT, SHIHAN'S FATHER (through translator): As soon as I heard, I rushed to the hospitals and temples. I could not find them. Then at another village hospital, I saw the bodies of my wife and daughters being unloaded from a truck full of corpses.

AMANPOUR (on camera): More than 1,200 people were killed when the tsunami flipped this train as if it was just a tin can. Ranjit had already found the bodies of his wife, his two daughters and his niece, and he had buried them. And he still didn't know whether his son had survived.

(voice-over): As Sri Lanka's armed forces and ordinary volunteers buried truckloads of bodies in mass graves, Ranjit said that he gave up hope of finding his son, fearing that he too had been buried without a trace.

But, two days later, officials called to say his son had been found, and today he shares the nice big family home he built just with Shihan. And all they have left are pictures and shared memories. His wife, Amita (ph), they had been married for 15 years. His two daughters, the oldest one wanted to be a dance teacher.

(on camera): This is you, yes?

(voice-over): With the women of the family gone, a motherless little boy and a bereft husband cling to each other now.

"I'm alone," says Shihan, "except for my father."

He turned 7 as they buried his mother and sisters. He refused to believe they were dead until his father showed him their graves, the two sisters buried in one coffin because there are too few of them for so many dead. Ranjit says he has just one reason left to live.

RANJIT: Because of my son only I am living today, because my wife has gone. My daughter's gone. So because of son only, I am living now.

AMANPOUR: And Shihan, he has not yet shed a tear.

Christiane Amanpour, Beruwala, Sri Lanka.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: CNN looks deeper into the effects of this disaster on the young. Our prime time special, "SAVING THE CHILDREN," airs Thursday night at 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

And be sure to stay with CNN for tonight's prime time special report, "TURNING THE TIDE." Our live reports from Asia begin at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

We're back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A bit of breaking news to tell you about right now. A suicide car bomb has exploded in Hilla, Iraq. That's south of Baghdad. It exploded right outside of a police academy as cadets were graduating. This is according to The Associated Press. At least 20 people were killed, 25 or more wounded, and of course that blast comes just one day after a truck bomb exploded at a police commando headquarters in Baghdad. That blast killed 11 people.

We'll update you with more information as we get it in here to CNN.

More than $2 billion in aid has already been pledged for relief efforts. At first there was criticism that the amount was too little, too late. But now is the outpouring too much, too fast?

CNN correspondent Beth Nissen looks at the aid bottleneck.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The reports have been coming in for two days of full cargo planes headed to Banda Aceh turned away from the crowded airport there. Of critical supplies, food, water purification equipment, tents, anti-malarial medication, sitting in huge piles on the airport tarmac while thousands of those in need suffer, hungry, homeless, increasingly sick.

DR. RICHARD BRENNAN, INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE: Logistics is a critical component of the relief effort right now and all that entails, transport, warehousing, communications, people with the right skills.

NISSEN: Many established relief agencies, such as the International Rescue Committee, have advanced teams in Aceh that are keeping key personnel in Jakarta where they can better see the big picture of distribution problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the moment we've got bottlenecks up here. We've got no access along here or very limited.

NISSEN: Almost 10 days after the disaster, reports of the numbers of dead are more reliable than reports on the numbers of living and their locations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we're hearing is that there are significant numbers who may well have pushed up into the higher ground, but we're still getting reports of isolated pockets of people.

NISSEN: Unknown thousands of survivors are thought to have left devastated coastal areas for the Sumatran interior where they are thought to be crammed together with little food or water, a perfect breeding ground for infectious diseases, from measles to malaria to cholera.

BRENNAN: Certainly tens to hundreds of thousands of people are at risk, so we need to get the aid to these people very soon indeed.

NISSEN: To do that, the score of major non-governmental organizations and hundreds of smaller aid groups here are struggling to coordinate their efforts amongst themselves and with local government ministries and provincial community groups, asking what they need, listening to the answers, adjusting their plans.

BRENNAN: What proportion of the population get free health service?

Give them the resources and the support necessary for them to serve their communities best, because they're the guys that are going to be here for the long term.

NISSEN: Long term meaning months, years and it has only been days.

BRENNAN: It always takes days to weeks to gear up a large scale relief effort. The scale of this relief effort is something that I haven't seen before. I mean this is just enormous.

NISSEN: Beth Nissen, CNN, Jakarta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And still to come on DAYBREAK, what's going to happen to your Social Security benefits. In the next hour, we take a closer look at the Bush administration's plan to overhaul your benefits. Find out how much it will impact you.

And sometimes personalities clash with their diet plans. In the next hour, which diets go best with your personality.

You are watching DAYBREAK for a Wednesday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Now the story of a man who lives in Queens, New York, but he grew up in Indonesia. Several of his family members are homeless, dead or missing after the tsunami. And now he's doing all he can to help.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABDUL ZAINUDOIN, FAMILY IN INDONESIA: I don't know what to do when I get there. I just try to...

EVIE ZAINUDOIN, WIFE: Stay together.

A. ZAINUDOIN: I try to call back to my country, to Indonesia, to my hometown, but no connection. Busy all the time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sad because he's leaving us and who knows what might happen over there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, especially since the conditions there, like the situation is really bad, so I'm nervous that he's leaving.

E. ZAINUDOIN: Just being there for a good thing. So I keep praying for him and his family, for all of us.

A. ZAINUDOIN: The house is destroyed and my ancestor's home was destroyed, my brother's home destroyed.

E. ZAINUDOIN: No, see there, here.

A. ZAINUDOIN: This is me and this is my sister who pass away four day after the tsunami and this is my young brother is lost, we don't know, missing maybe. I know they need medicine because in this person you know everybody in the hospital maybe.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that it.

A. ZAINUDOIN: That's it.

I, 20 years, I never come back to my country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have a nice flight.

A. ZAINUDOIN: OK, thanks so much. Thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And the next hour of DAYBREAK starts right now.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired January 5, 2005 - 05:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello with Chad Myers.
Here are the latest tsunami-related developments.

Miles and miles of devastation, these are new pictures in to CNN within the past hour or so, and you can see tsunami-ravaged Indonesia by air. Just hours ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell toured the hard hit Banda Aceh Province by air. Powell says he's seen wars and natural disasters but never anything this bad.

In the meantime, Indonesia is trying to prevent child traffickers from preying on kids displaced by the tsunamis. Authorities now barring people from leaving the country with young children from Aceh Province.

In the meantime, desperate survivors in Aceh will see more relief helicopters in the coming days. The U.S. military doubling its chopper fleet in the region to more than 90.

And Saudi Arabia this morning is tripling the aid it's promised to tsunami victims. The Saudis are now pledging $30 million and holding a fund raising telethon. They have been criticized for not offering more.

For all the latest developments on the tsunami disaster, you can go to CNN.com/quake. When you log on, you can also make a personal appeal for a missing friend or family member and find out how to donate relief efforts.

To the Forecast Center now and Chad.

Good morning.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: All right, thank you -- Chad.

MYERS: You bet.

COSTELLO: The U.S. delegation headed by Colin Powell and Jeb Bush has been talking with officials in the region about more help.

Our Atika Shubert following that part of the visit. She joins us now with what came out of it.

Hello -- Atika.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.

Well, Secretary of State Colin Powell had a chance to look at the devastation firsthand today. He flew in a U.S. Navy Seahawk, which has been one of the critical keys of the relief effort because it's able to get into some of the most hard hit but inaccessible areas. And Mr. Powell traveled with the helicopter overlooking parts of the city of Banda Aceh, which was very hard hit. And he told the press afterwards that it was unlike anything he had ever seen before, the devastation was so great.

And for that reason, he promised that the United States would help Indonesia any way it could, including increasing the announced helicopters freeze (ph) and also making sure that there is enough of food, medicine and water coming in on America's T-130 planes. But still getting it to the people who need it most will be difficult because infrastructure here is just overwhelming -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So what's the next stop for Colin Powell?

SHUBERT: Well the next step for him is the donor conference at the end of the week. This is the conference where all the donors giving money to the countries affected by this tsunami crisis will be meeting, discussing what is the best coordinate effort. And coordination has been a problem because of the extent of this crisis reaching (INAUDIBLE) countries and devastating, especially poor countries, that coordination can be a big problem and that's why this conference is very important.

COSTELLO: Atika Shubert, reporting live for us this morning, thank you.

The U.S. State Department has confirmed fewer than 20 Americans killed in this disaster, but it is uncertain how many more are victims.

CNN's Brian Todd has more on the search for sons, daughters, fathers, friends and adventurers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The State Department won't release their names because their families haven't signed privacy waivers. Through phone calls, wire service and affiliate reports, we get their stories from those they've left behind.

BRUCE ANDERSON, SISTER DIED IN TSUNAMI: Bizarrely enough, the most beautiful place that she's always wanted to go is where her life ended.

TODD: That was near a beach lodge in southeastern Sri Lanka where Bruce Anderson was told his 42-year-old sister, Kristi (ph), spent the last moments of a well-traveled life. Bruce tends to Kristi's affairs in Las Vegas, makes funeral arrangements, tries to cope. He says mornings are his worst time.

Same for Janet Nicholas.

JANET NICHOLAS, BROTHER DIED IN TSUNAMI: My quiet moments and when I wake up in the morning and first open my eyes that I realize it's very real, it's not just a bad nightmare.

TODD: Janet's brother, 59-year-old Brian King (ph), an Alaskan commercial fisherman with a wanderlust who had gone on vacation to Thailand and e-mailed his sister just before she believes he was swept under water in his sleep.

NICHOLAS: Hi, Janet and Mark (ph), don't worry, I'm fine. I'm at a dive beach resort about 100 kilometers north of Phuket. I'm going to start diving lessons soon.

TODD: Fifteen-year-old Khali Brish (ph), was also vacationing, reportedly inside a bungalow on a Thai beach with her 16-year-old brother when the tsunami hit. Khali's brother was badly injured. Her father and sister spent days looking for her. News of her body being found hard to process for friends back in Salt Lake City.

KILIONA PALAUNI, FRIEND DIED IN TSUNAMI: I don't know what to do right now. Not seeing her sitting in the back row, like she always did, not seeing her in the chairs like we know (ph) or we always sat and worked together.

TODD: In Chicago, a memorial service for Tamara Mendez (ph). The 55-year-old minister's wife was visiting family back home in Sri Lanka onboard that ill-fated train that was submerged, knocked off its tracks by a massive wave. Mendez was traveling with her 20-something daughter who survived but could not rescue her mother.

Parents, children, young, middle aged, adventurers, immigrants returning home, Americans lost.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: If you haven't heard the status of a loved one in the tsunami-affected regions, CNN would like to hear from you. We want to find out about your efforts to locate your missing friends or relatives and we want to know if you're still waiting to hear from them. You can call us at 404-878-1500. The phone will be staffed from 8:00 a.m. Eastern to 5:00 p.m. Eastern. And after those hours or before those hours the line will connect to voice-mail.

Well they need help but they can't ask for it. Just ahead, one dog tried to tell our Anderson Cooper that he needs some attention too. And I know that we shouldn't be talking about the animals and their survival, but some of their stories are heart breaking. Some of them have saved humans. And we'll tell you why it's so important for the animals to regain their health as well.

Also, the story of an Indonesian man whose family members were victims of the tsunami. What he's doing to help those half a world away.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Wednesday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Want to talk a little bit about the animals in South Asia. There are a lot of pets that don't have homes anymore and they're wandering around. We've heard a lot of stories about pets actually rescuing their owners. In fact, a little boy was rescued by the dog. In fact, the dog like, you know, kind of nipped him and led him on the way to safety up on a big hill. A lot of those pets, though, don't have homes, don't have food.

Anderson Cooper was doing a live shot in South Asia, and, well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Here's what happened yesterday. Anderson Cooper talking to Paula Zahn.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know going through the rubble looking for food, and you see cats going through the rubble looking for food. You know, it's one of those stories that you just don't see much about, but the animals are just all over this place. And as you can see, they're very persistent.

Paula, back to you for now.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And like so many, well, I can well understand the distraction. And I think one of the things Anderson touched on earlier today is not only are those animals hungry, you've got these hundreds of thousands of homeless people also.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The World Society for the Protection of Animals coordinating relief efforts for animals in the affected areas. Their director, Major General Peter Davies, joins us now live from London.

And you know we talk about these displaced animals when so many people are missing, but tell us why we should care right now about those dogs and cats that are wandering around.

MAJ. GEN. PETER DAVIES, DIRECTOR, WORLD SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF ANIMALS: Well, I think it's absolutely right that the priority is given to the human rescue. But somebody has to consider the animals, both for the animal's health sake and welfare sake, but also for the coronation between animal diseases and human diseases. And this is where the World Society comes in.

We are the largest federation of animal welfare groups in the world, over 400 member societies in 216 countries. And we take the lead in coordinating the effort. And we have a large experience of doing this. In recent years, we've been in Afghanistan and recently in the Caribbean after the typhoons there. And always the difficulty is to make the correct assessment before you start producing the resources to solve the problem.

This is what we're currently doing. We have teams on their way now and we are, of course, receiving reports from member societies on the spot. But Asia is not an area where there are that many member societies compared to America or Europe or Australia (ph), Asia. So getting the information and accurate information is quite difficult. But we hope to have it by the end of this week and then we will call on our member societies to support the resources that we assess we need to get them there.

Currently, wildlife is not a major problem. Most of the animals, the wildlife animals, seemed to sense it was coming, and there's lots of scientific evidence that they do, and they got out of the area. The main problem is the farm animals and the companion animals. And the immediate needs are feed and veterinary support. And that's what we'll be providing.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about that possible six sense that some animals had, because a lot of people are amazed by that. You say there is scientific evidence behind that. Tell us about it.

DAVIES: Yes, there are. There is evidence that has come from France recently which says that their observations are that the tremors preceding a disaster reach the animals and they sense it's coming. Elephants squeal and start moving away from the affected areas, birds remove themselves. Small animals, like rabbits, seem to sense it's coming and start withdrawing from the area. There are even reports that bats, who rely on their sonar system, somehow pick up that things are changing and start to take evasive action.

COSTELLO: You know but other animals, like dogs and cats, for example, who stayed around the danger zones, and they did find the bodies of many dogs and cats, why don't they sense it too?

DAVIES: Well, first of all, they're so dependent on humans that they tend to stay with the humans, their owners. But there is evidence that some of the dogs refused to come inside shortly before the waves struck in certain areas and that cats became very distressed. But they are living much closer to where the water came in because they are cohabiting with humans. And so I'm afraid a large number of them died with their owners.

COSTELLO: Major General Peter Davies, joining us live from London this morning, thank you.

The stories of how some people managed to cheat death during the tsunamis are fascinating and touching.

CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour is in Sri Lanka where she met one little boy who still isn't sure what really happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bodies are still being pulled from the train wreck that was the west coast's single biggest disaster. Families and survivors are still looking, hoping against hope for a miracle.

Seven-year-old Shihan (ph) is the Perumavalanga (ph) family's little miracle. Along with his father, he shows us the site where his mother, two sisters and cousin were killed by the monstrous sea. In his soft child's voice, he recounts the horror and how he survived.

"We were going on an outing to the beach, when suddenly the train stopped," says Shihan. "Then a huge wave hit us, and our carriage flipped over. I hung on to the luggage rack. That was the last time I saw my mother and my two sisters."

And he shows us how terrified and floating in water up to his chest, he clung on until the tidal wave subsided and he was rescued. It is an extraordinary triumph of survival when so many of the smallest, the youngest, the frailest have perished.

Ranjit (ph), Shihan's father, is a fisherman. He had been working and didn't join them that day. This is the first time he has seen the wreck that decimated his family.

RANJIT, SHIHAN'S FATHER (through translator): As soon as I heard, I rushed to the hospitals and temples. I could not find them. Then at another village hospital, I saw the bodies of my wife and daughters being unloaded from a truck full of corpses.

AMANPOUR (on camera): More than 1,200 people were killed when the tsunami flipped this train as if it was just a tin can. Ranjit had already found the bodies of his wife, his two daughters and his niece, and he had buried them. And he still didn't know whether his son had survived.

(voice-over): As Sri Lanka's armed forces and ordinary volunteers buried truckloads of bodies in mass graves, Ranjit said that he gave up hope of finding his son, fearing that he too had been buried without a trace.

But, two days later, officials called to say his son had been found, and today he shares the nice big family home he built just with Shihan. And all they have left are pictures and shared memories. His wife, Amita (ph), they had been married for 15 years. His two daughters, the oldest one wanted to be a dance teacher.

(on camera): This is you, yes?

(voice-over): With the women of the family gone, a motherless little boy and a bereft husband cling to each other now.

"I'm alone," says Shihan, "except for my father."

He turned 7 as they buried his mother and sisters. He refused to believe they were dead until his father showed him their graves, the two sisters buried in one coffin because there are too few of them for so many dead. Ranjit says he has just one reason left to live.

RANJIT: Because of my son only I am living today, because my wife has gone. My daughter's gone. So because of son only, I am living now.

AMANPOUR: And Shihan, he has not yet shed a tear.

Christiane Amanpour, Beruwala, Sri Lanka.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: CNN looks deeper into the effects of this disaster on the young. Our prime time special, "SAVING THE CHILDREN," airs Thursday night at 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

And be sure to stay with CNN for tonight's prime time special report, "TURNING THE TIDE." Our live reports from Asia begin at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

We're back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A bit of breaking news to tell you about right now. A suicide car bomb has exploded in Hilla, Iraq. That's south of Baghdad. It exploded right outside of a police academy as cadets were graduating. This is according to The Associated Press. At least 20 people were killed, 25 or more wounded, and of course that blast comes just one day after a truck bomb exploded at a police commando headquarters in Baghdad. That blast killed 11 people.

We'll update you with more information as we get it in here to CNN.

More than $2 billion in aid has already been pledged for relief efforts. At first there was criticism that the amount was too little, too late. But now is the outpouring too much, too fast?

CNN correspondent Beth Nissen looks at the aid bottleneck.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The reports have been coming in for two days of full cargo planes headed to Banda Aceh turned away from the crowded airport there. Of critical supplies, food, water purification equipment, tents, anti-malarial medication, sitting in huge piles on the airport tarmac while thousands of those in need suffer, hungry, homeless, increasingly sick.

DR. RICHARD BRENNAN, INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE: Logistics is a critical component of the relief effort right now and all that entails, transport, warehousing, communications, people with the right skills.

NISSEN: Many established relief agencies, such as the International Rescue Committee, have advanced teams in Aceh that are keeping key personnel in Jakarta where they can better see the big picture of distribution problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the moment we've got bottlenecks up here. We've got no access along here or very limited.

NISSEN: Almost 10 days after the disaster, reports of the numbers of dead are more reliable than reports on the numbers of living and their locations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we're hearing is that there are significant numbers who may well have pushed up into the higher ground, but we're still getting reports of isolated pockets of people.

NISSEN: Unknown thousands of survivors are thought to have left devastated coastal areas for the Sumatran interior where they are thought to be crammed together with little food or water, a perfect breeding ground for infectious diseases, from measles to malaria to cholera.

BRENNAN: Certainly tens to hundreds of thousands of people are at risk, so we need to get the aid to these people very soon indeed.

NISSEN: To do that, the score of major non-governmental organizations and hundreds of smaller aid groups here are struggling to coordinate their efforts amongst themselves and with local government ministries and provincial community groups, asking what they need, listening to the answers, adjusting their plans.

BRENNAN: What proportion of the population get free health service?

Give them the resources and the support necessary for them to serve their communities best, because they're the guys that are going to be here for the long term.

NISSEN: Long term meaning months, years and it has only been days.

BRENNAN: It always takes days to weeks to gear up a large scale relief effort. The scale of this relief effort is something that I haven't seen before. I mean this is just enormous.

NISSEN: Beth Nissen, CNN, Jakarta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And still to come on DAYBREAK, what's going to happen to your Social Security benefits. In the next hour, we take a closer look at the Bush administration's plan to overhaul your benefits. Find out how much it will impact you.

And sometimes personalities clash with their diet plans. In the next hour, which diets go best with your personality.

You are watching DAYBREAK for a Wednesday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Now the story of a man who lives in Queens, New York, but he grew up in Indonesia. Several of his family members are homeless, dead or missing after the tsunami. And now he's doing all he can to help.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABDUL ZAINUDOIN, FAMILY IN INDONESIA: I don't know what to do when I get there. I just try to...

EVIE ZAINUDOIN, WIFE: Stay together.

A. ZAINUDOIN: I try to call back to my country, to Indonesia, to my hometown, but no connection. Busy all the time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sad because he's leaving us and who knows what might happen over there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, especially since the conditions there, like the situation is really bad, so I'm nervous that he's leaving.

E. ZAINUDOIN: Just being there for a good thing. So I keep praying for him and his family, for all of us.

A. ZAINUDOIN: The house is destroyed and my ancestor's home was destroyed, my brother's home destroyed.

E. ZAINUDOIN: No, see there, here.

A. ZAINUDOIN: This is me and this is my sister who pass away four day after the tsunami and this is my young brother is lost, we don't know, missing maybe. I know they need medicine because in this person you know everybody in the hospital maybe.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that it.

A. ZAINUDOIN: That's it.

I, 20 years, I never come back to my country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have a nice flight.

A. ZAINUDOIN: OK, thanks so much. Thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And the next hour of DAYBREAK starts right now.

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