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Live From...
Iran Earthquake
Aired December 31, 2003 - 23:25 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Recovery, relief, and the mad dash to ward off disease in earthquake-ravaged Iran. Amid the devastation, word of what officials are call a miracle. Four people pulled from the ruins alive.
CNN's Kasra Naji is on the phone now with us in Bam.
Kasra, hello.
KASRA NAJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Heidi.
Actually, I am at a location in a neighborhood in Bam, which is -- or used to be a well-to-do neighborhood. But now. it's basically a huge heap of rubble. The last four or five hours, we've been witnessing a huge frantic search and rescue operations here, because apparently, somebody had heard a voice from under the rubble here and had notified the Iranian red Crescent, which is like the Red Cross in the west. And they came with the sniffing dog. And apparently they had the thing -- the dogs smelled the same thing. And they called the Danish and American search and rescue teams, who are here as part of the international effort to help with the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and the aftermath of this earthquake.
So this has been going on in the last four or five hours. There's a whole lot of them, Iranians, Danes, and the Americans, who are here in a big way. Some 200 people, onlookers, journalists, and they are using shovels, they're using the latest technology and equipment, they're using sniffer dogs, they're using bulldozers, they're using heavy mechanical figures. And there's a truck here from the Iranian Fire Brigade with (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on to the thing, because it's nighttime here, it's about 10:00 now. This has been going on for four hours, five hours. They haven't found anybody alive yet. So they are using, now, the heavy mechanical thing to dig deeper into the rubble. Maybe they find something.
This has been going on, of course, for the last five or six days, since Friday's earthquake. Nothing new in this. The interesting thing here, today, is that the Americans are here working shoulder to shoulder with the Iranians, saving lives. This is something we haven't seen before. This is what has come out of this huge catastrophe here. And this is something we haven't seen before in Iran. The Americans have arrived here yesterday. This is their first job, in fact. Men here are from a Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team. And they are, as I say, shoulder to shoulder with Iranians. Very interesting -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Kasra, just wondering if you can talk to us at all -- and we know how devastating this must be, of course, for the rescue workers as well. But after those four people were found yesterday, was there any sense of a morale boost of any kind that is helping people to get through as this time goes on?
NAJI: Yes, until the Iranian army announced that they had found four people from under the rubble yesterday and they said -- they had found through their own soldiers, who have been part of this effort, the search and rescue here. Until then, hopes were fast fading for finding anybody alive under the rubble. In fact, there had been two or three days without anybody being found alive from under the rubble.
So in that sense, you're right, it has given a morale boost there, in a sense that search and rescue teams who have come from corners of the world, basically, from 60 countries are here. Some of them have been packing up, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE), some of them have gone already, Because they haven't found anybody. And certainly, four people were found, and today, this thing. So it's -- I guess, it's a reason for them to stay a bit longer, try a little bit harder, and maybe they will find somebody alive -- Heidi.
COLLINS: We certainly hope so. Kasra Naji, thanks so very much. Appreciate it.
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 December 31, 2003 - 23:25 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Recovery, relief, and the mad dash to ward off disease in earthquake-ravaged Iran. Amid the devastation, word of what officials are call a miracle. Four people pulled from the ruins alive.
CNN's Kasra Naji is on the phone now with us in Bam.
Kasra, hello.
KASRA NAJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Heidi.
Actually, I am at a location in a neighborhood in Bam, which is -- or used to be a well-to-do neighborhood. But now. it's basically a huge heap of rubble. The last four or five hours, we've been witnessing a huge frantic search and rescue operations here, because apparently, somebody had heard a voice from under the rubble here and had notified the Iranian red Crescent, which is like the Red Cross in the west. And they came with the sniffing dog. And apparently they had the thing -- the dogs smelled the same thing. And they called the Danish and American search and rescue teams, who are here as part of the international effort to help with the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and the aftermath of this earthquake.
So this has been going on in the last four or five hours. There's a whole lot of them, Iranians, Danes, and the Americans, who are here in a big way. Some 200 people, onlookers, journalists, and they are using shovels, they're using the latest technology and equipment, they're using sniffer dogs, they're using bulldozers, they're using heavy mechanical figures. And there's a truck here from the Iranian Fire Brigade with (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on to the thing, because it's nighttime here, it's about 10:00 now. This has been going on for four hours, five hours. They haven't found anybody alive yet. So they are using, now, the heavy mechanical thing to dig deeper into the rubble. Maybe they find something.
This has been going on, of course, for the last five or six days, since Friday's earthquake. Nothing new in this. The interesting thing here, today, is that the Americans are here working shoulder to shoulder with the Iranians, saving lives. This is something we haven't seen before. This is what has come out of this huge catastrophe here. And this is something we haven't seen before in Iran. The Americans have arrived here yesterday. This is their first job, in fact. Men here are from a Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team. And they are, as I say, shoulder to shoulder with Iranians. Very interesting -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Kasra, just wondering if you can talk to us at all -- and we know how devastating this must be, of course, for the rescue workers as well. But after those four people were found yesterday, was there any sense of a morale boost of any kind that is helping people to get through as this time goes on?
NAJI: Yes, until the Iranian army announced that they had found four people from under the rubble yesterday and they said -- they had found through their own soldiers, who have been part of this effort, the search and rescue here. Until then, hopes were fast fading for finding anybody alive under the rubble. In fact, there had been two or three days without anybody being found alive from under the rubble.
So in that sense, you're right, it has given a morale boost there, in a sense that search and rescue teams who have come from corners of the world, basically, from 60 countries are here. Some of them have been packing up, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE), some of them have gone already, Because they haven't found anybody. And certainly, four people were found, and today, this thing. So it's -- I guess, it's a reason for them to stay a bit longer, try a little bit harder, and maybe they will find somebody alive -- Heidi.
COLLINS: We certainly hope so. Kasra Naji, thanks so very much. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
