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Pentagon Launches Relief Mission; Could Future Tsunami Hit West Coast?

Aired December 29, 2004 - 14:59   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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Right "Now in the News."
The Saudi capital of Riyadh has been hit by two explosions in the last few hours. That first bomb or rather the blast was caused by a car bomb which shook the area around the government's interior ministry. Several people were injured. About three minutes later, a second explosion occurred on the far eastern edge of the city.

And President Bush is offering U.S. aid and condolences to people affected by the Asian tsunami disaster. In his first public comments, Mr. Bush called the devastation "beyond our comprehension." We are going to have the latest update from the disaster zone in just a moment.

And at least 300 people have been evacuated after flooding hit the Arizona tourist town of Sedona. A 14 mile stretch of highway was closed between Sedona and Flagstaff. And authorities are warning about possible rock slides.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Tending to the living, burying the dead, both are top priorities in the horrific wake of the Indian Ocean tsunamis. But the World Health Organization says the former is far more urgent.

Though rotting corpses are prevalent, especially here in the Aceh Province of Indonesia, the WHO says homeless, helpless survivors pose more of a health risk to one another than they actually face from the dead.

Now, as for the dead, they now exceed 80,000, by CNN count, though the Red Cross fears the toll will hit six figures when all the victims are finally found. The staggering rise in the death toll today has much to do with Indonesia. Since this time yesterday, the number of dead there confirmed by CNN has risen by more than 25,000.

Reporter Dan Rivers is on the Indonesian island of Sumatra with the horrible story there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN RIVERS, ITN REPORTER (voice-over): This was the moment of impact in Banda Aceh, this staggering footage taken by a family on a second-floor apartment as the sea swallowed their town. Terrified, the family think they will surely die. Somehow, they escape.

Four days on, this is the scene in the port area, perhaps one of the most devastated sectors of this crippled town. We picked our way through with our guide, missing person posters pinned to upturned trawlers. It was surreal, obscene, stranded boats, the twisted wreckage of a once thriving fishing community.

In the town center, corpses are being pulled by the hundreds from the ruins of Banda Aceh. There is a nauseating stench everywhere, death and decay at every turn. The army is ferrying in troops, but they are facing apocalyptic destruction, entire neighborhoods razed to the ground. Like many, this man has lost everything, his home, his family.

(on camera): Nothing left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely nothing left.

RIVERS: Nothing at all?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My house has been destroyed, as you can see.

RIVERS: Destroyed?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

RIVERS: If you want a graphic illustration of the sheer power of this tsunami, have a look at this. This trawler was smashed a mile and a half into the center of Banda Aceh. The locals say the tsunami was 60 feet high.

(voice-over): Those that survived are trying to clear the streets. but so far there is Apparently little outside help. Banda Aceh is now in acute crisis. They are desperate for basic supplies.

The destruction is relentless, street after street utterly destroyed. Survivors stupefied by this carnage. In some places, only dogs survived, waiting in vain for their owners. But, out of town, the horror of all those deaths is concentrated at one place, lorries streaming in, carrying body after body.

(on camera): I've seen some terrible, awful sights today, but this is by far the worst. They are burying bodies by lorry loads here in mass graves. They estimate there will be tens of thousands of corpses here by the end of the week.

Dan Rivers, ITV news, in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Well, here is literally another way of viewing what happened on Sunday, two satellite photos of the coast of Sri Lanka from before and now after the massive waves hit. Shortly, you are about to see that. The before picture was taken almost a year ago. And there is the after, the photograph snapped on Sunday. It is hard to make out the structural damage. But, if you look closely enough, all that brown area there, you can see flooded streets and pools of water going far inland from the ocean.

You can also see gullies and huge channels of water draining from the city and running back out to sea. Remarkable pictures, indeed.

All right, today, in Sri Lanka, the death toil there is now rising past 23,000. And the number of people left homeless could eventually top a million.

CNN's Hugh Riminton is in the capital city of Colombo. And he has just sent us this update.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tens of thousands of Sri Lankans, certainly, and, in all probability, hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans, have now spent their fourth night out in the open without adequate shelter. These are people who either fled their homes or lost their homes in these tsunamis on Sunday, this on a day when there have been mass graves dug in many parts of the island, particularly in the south.

We've also been gaining new information about what's been going on the remote east coast of Sri Lanka. This is an area that hasn't been adequately assessed even now. The first camera vision has been shot by CNN in the last few hours, giving some insights into what has happened on this coastline. Rescue officials believe it is here that the worst ratio of the dead to the living from this disaster will emerge.

This was the area that was orientated directly towards the epicenter of the earthquake, and therefore to the tsunami. It is low- lying coastline area, in many cases, little more than a sand bank with lagoons along much of the coast behind. It appears from the aerial vision the place is almost empty of people in many areas.

The wave simply swept through, destroying buildings along the way, sweeping people away and carrying them into the lagoons behind. We have reports of one doctor who, since the tsunami, has been trying to handle 4,000 casualties at a single damaged hospital. They are trying to airlift more doctors in there to help him out. Two other hospitals have been simply wiped from the face of the earth in that area alone.

In other areas of Sri Lanka, in the safe areas, there has been a mass effort, a mobilization by volunteers, by ordinary families offering what aid they can find to try to have them trucked in to the worst affected areas while there still remains this wait for the much promised international aid really to feature in sufficient numbers to make an enormous degree of difference.

Hugh Riminton reporting for CNN, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush offered condolences today for the victims of the tsunami disaster. And he said the loss and grief to the world are beyond comprehension. He also announced plans to coordinate relief efforts with other nations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Based on these discussions, we have established a regional core group with India, Japan and Australia to help coordinate relief efforts. I'm confident more nations will join this core group in short order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: It was President Bush's first public comment about the disaster. So far, the U.S. has pledged $35 million in cash assistance to the stricken areas.

The U.S. military also mobilizing a large-scale relief effort from the air, from the sea and on the ground. U.S. officials briefed reporters a short while ago about the initial plans.

Jamie McIntyre joining us now with an overview.

Hello, Jamie McIntyre.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

Well, the Pentagon is dispatching ships, helicopters, planes and troops to the affected region, but it will be days before much of the help arrives. Still, U.S. officials are rejecting any notion that the U.S. response is too little, too late.

At the Kadena Air Base in Japan, U.S. Air Force personnel have been loading C-130 cargo planes with critical supplies. Some of the first planes have now arrived in Thailand. But many of them are still being loaded and being sent to the region. Once they get there, they will also be used to ferry supplies from one location to another.

U.S. officials reject any suggestion that they were slow to react to this crisis, insisting that planning began within hours of the first reports of the disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW NATSIOS, USAID ADMINISTRATOR: The Pentagon was informed. They began planning on Sunday to do this. You don't just send people out in two hours. You begin mobilizing. You start the planning and you start sending. We did that on Sunday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: They said, within three hours after getting that word, the assistance teams were being mobilized. The Pentagon was beginning its preliminary planning. But these things do take time. Some of the ships the Pentagon are sending are still up to seven to 11 days away. That includes the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, which was in Hong Kong.

It will take almost a week to get on station. The Bonhomme Richard amphibious assault ship and its escort ship, which have critical facilities, like helicopters and medical facilities, earth- moving equipment, they are still as much as a week away from their location, which will probably be Sri Lanka.

The closest ships which have water purification capability, 90,000 gallons a day, are in Diego Garcia. They are about four days away. But the relief officials also make the point that, a lot of times, the most important aid is not the aid that comes on the first day. It's the long-term reconstruction. That's where the countries often have the hardest time dealing with it. And that's the point where the United States wants to be in a position to be able to, as they said today, not tell the countries what to do, but to be in a position to be able to assist them with what they need over the long term.

And this is going to be a long-term project. And, as you heard the president say, the U.S. is also hopeful that many other countries will pitch in and join this effort -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon, thank you very much -- Carol.

LIN: All right, well, a Chicago woman -- or Chicago family's, actually, vacation turned into a nightmare when that tsunami struck. We are going to hear how they actually made it through the mayhem.

O'BRIEN: Also ahead, we have seen some amazing video of the tsunami shot very vacationers. The man who took these pictures describes what happened when the storm hit.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER UPDATE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Well, the areas already decimated by tsunamis must now brace for waves of disease expected to hit survivors.

CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta traveled to the devastated island nation of Sri Lanka, where the prognosis is pretty grim.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The biggest goal here in Sri Lanka is to ensure those who survive the tsunami stay living. Health officials warning tonight that as many people may die from disease in these tsunami-devastated areas as died from the actual tsunami itself. And from what we've seen on the ground in Sri Lanka, we'd have to agree. You see, the public health system struggles in the best of times. Now it seems practically nonexistent. Makeshift morgues, burial sites often overflowing with the gruesome sight of decomposing bodies. Hospitals without reliable electricity, running water or communication systems now treating everything from broken bones and infections to dehydration and heat stroke. But it's an epidemic of infectious diseases that worries doctors here most.

It's the water supply that now poses the biggest danger to those who survived the killer waves of water that swept ashore here Sunday. Water and food contaminated by human waste and saltwater from the sea can lead to diseases like cholera, and dysentery, which can be fatal.

Standing water from the flooding can attract mosquitoes, spawning outbreaks of malaria and Dungee fever. Those left homeless, those trying to survive on the streets, also facing a threat of respiratory illness from bacteria and viruses that quickly spread when unsanitary conditions exist.

Relief efforts now focus on water purification systems and distribution of bottled water being flown in by aid groups, quick burial of bodies and cleanup of sewage and debris, the providing safe and sanitary shelter to those who have been left homeless, as well as clean, temporary medical clinics to treat the sick as well as the injured.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Now, over the last few days, we have heard harrowing tales of helplessness and heroism, survival, but mostly of terror and tragedy. Not a single person was expecting that massive wave to crash ashore Sunday morning. Very little stayed put. Everything and everybody on thousands of miles of beach and coastal villages swept away in seconds.

Now, earlier today, we spoke by telephone with Frederic Bornesand from Sweden. He and his girlfriend were swimming in a resort hotel pool in Thailand when the tsunami struck.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREDERIC BORNESAND, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: We saw a lot of water coming in and after the first wave, I don't think anyone thought that it could come with more water. So after the first wave, I just went down to see if I could help someone. And while trying to do that, the second wave was coming.

When the first wave came, I went up and after the first wave I got back down again and the second wave was much, much larger than the first one. So when the second wave came, I was forced toward the windows and to the lobby and when I came back again, there was so much to do to help the old man and to clear the way to get him up one or two floors. It was hard work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Wow. Well, that was Frederic Bornesand talking there. He and his girlfriend are safe. And, as you know by now, tens of thousands of others were not so lucky.

O'BRIEN: The Heydemann family of Chicago was on the last day of their Thai vacation when disaster struck Sunday morning. The force of the tsunami dragged Dr. Peter Heydemann into the sea.

Earlier today, on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING," he described his amazing tale of survival.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PETER HEYDEMANN, SURVIVED TSUNAMI: We were on the veranda at the resort hotel we were at, which was on the high ground overlooking a small street and overlooking the beach, a relatively small beach. And we saw several smaller rises and recessions of water. Then -- and those rises and recessions seemed to get farther and farther apart. And they were never too bad. They went up over the beach and to street level and the beach equipment, such as the umbrellas and beach chairs, all floated away. The bottoms of the stores were all hurt.

And it seemed like it was over. And I walked down there to the street level behind the beach and on the far side of the street were these stores and I was looking in one. In fact, it was a store that we had just purchased something at the day before and I was looking at how much destruction there was in the store just from the low levels of water that had hit it in the past few minutes. I didn't know the big one was still coming. And suddenly I heard somebody yell, I assumed it was something like run but I had no place to run to.

And suddenly I was in water above my head. I might have stayed under water except the buildings were fairly weakly built and the builds disintegrated around me, the roof went away and I floated up to the treetop level where I finally got my head back above water. And I was pleased to see a tree branch nearby. I grabbed for it.

I didn't know my left hand wasn't going to be able to do any grabbing at that point but it didn't. I grabbed for it, the tree branch broke a moment later. The utility lines were right in front of me and I really didn't want to put my head back under the water but I did to try to get underneath the utility lines but I don't quite get far enough underneath and I came up and one was left in front of me, which I couldn't avoid, but fortunately there was no power in it.

I held on to that for a second but didn't want to really hold on to that. And then the power of the recession of the water took me out into the bay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: You can read more amazing stories like that of survival on the Web. CNN.com has a special section devoted to the tsunami catastrophe. If you are looking for a loved one, also, the site contains hot line numbers from all around the region. You can also send e-mails to tsunami@CNN.com.

LIN: Well, the earthquake out there and the resulting tsunami occurred in the Indian Ocean. So, could a tsunami strike right here in the United States? Well, it measure surprise you to know that it already has. And scientists say it's not a matter of if it will happen again, but when.

National correspondent Frank Buckley is in Los Angeles with that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The devastation in Southern Asia came without warning, as it did in 1946 in Hawaii, when more than 150 people died from a tsunami, as it did in 1964, after an earthquake in Alaska created tsunamis, killing at least 130 people.

Both events prompted the creation of tsunami warning centers, this one in Hawaii and another in Alaska. Scientists at the center say a tsunami will again someday hit the Western U.S.

CHARLES MCCREERY, DIRECTOR, PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER: We don't know whether it's going to come tomorrow or whether it could be another 10 or 20 years before the next one. But it will come.

BUCKLEY: Experts say coastal residents in the Western U.S. are at risk, a million in California alone. But in the hours it would take a large tsunami to cross the Pacific Ocean, deep ocean sensors and other instruments would provide enough information to the warning centers to allow scientists to predict where and when water would come ashore, so that emergency management officials could warn local residents of impending danger.

JEFF LADOUCE, CHAIRMAN, INTERNATIONAL TSUNAMI INFORMATION CENTER: Although there will be casualties, I don't believe the casualties will be anywhere near as extensive as what they are. Obviously, the goal is no casualties.

BUCKLEY: Jeff LaDouce of the National Weather Service heads an effort to reduce the potentially devastating effects of tsunamis. He works with state emergency management officials, like George Crawford of Washington state, who has developed evacuation routes and other plans based on projections like this one illustrating a potential event in Seattle, Washington, of where a tsunami would go.

GEORGE CRAWFORD, MANAGER, WASHINGTON EARTHQUAKE PROGRAM: Where do I see potential traffic problems? Where's the best place to do mass care?

BUCKLEY (on camera): But emergency management officials say coastal residents should also listen to the warnings from the earth itself. They say people along a coastline who experience an earthquake strong enough that it makes it difficult to stand should immediately move to higher ground.

(voice-over): Quakes like those might generate local tsunamis that could come ashore within minutes of a temblor, which is why LaDouce and others say coastal residents should always be prepared to evacuate immediately after a quake.

LADOUCE: We probably will not be able to save everyone, but we will save people's lives based on the work that we've done.

BUCKLEY: Because a tsunami could happen here and will happen again.

Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Iraqi police called to a Baghdad house and find themselves in an explosive trap. We're going to have details from Baghdad straight ahead.

And Toyota gets ready to drive some big competition off the road. That story ahead, as we make our final lap on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Iraqi police are among the 28 killed in Baghdad today after they entered what authorities believe was a booby-trapped house. Police say the officers were lured there by an anonymous tip.

We get the latest now on that and much more from CNN's Jeff Koinange in the Iraqi capital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It happened in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Ghazaliya in western Baghdad. Police received an anonymous tip that a man was standing on the roof of a building firing at residents.

Police rushed to the scene, entered the building, and the building exploded, killing 28, including the nine policeman. U.S. military intelligence officers tell us that death toll is set to rise because the bomb weighed as much as 1,000 kilograms and leveled several buildings. And rescue workers were still sifting through the rubble.

Now, this booby-trap attack is the first of its kind in Baghdad. Such attacks were very common in Falluja, when the U.S. military overran that town several months ago. There, everything from buildings to dead bodies to cars to entire streets were booby-trapped. The U.S. fears that, if this is the trend, then it doesn't augur well in the coming elections.

Elsewhere across the country, in the last 24 hours, dozens of Iraqi policeman and National Guardsmen were killed. In the town of Tikrit, former President Saddam Hussein's stronghold, insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade into a police station, then calmly walked in and executed all 12 policeman, including three commanders.

Further south, in Baquba, National Guardsmen were on a routine patrol when they noticed an improvised explosive device. It went off, injuring three. As soon as they got out to rescue their colleagues, they noticed another device which hadn't exploded. When they went to defuse it, a suicide bomber rammed them, killing five, injuring 26. And here in Baghdad, a suicide bomber calmly sat in his vehicle waiting for the convoy of the commander of the Iraqi National Guard to pass. The convoy did pass and the bomb exploded, wounding five. But the commander was uninjured. First Cavalry commander Brigadier General Jeffrey Hammond, in a press statement, indicated that he did expect the insurgent attacks to increase in the coming days, before the January 30 election.

But he did say that, no matter what, the elections will go ahead.

Jeff Koinange, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: News across America now.

Another resignation today at the CIA. Jami Miscik, the spy agency's deputy director for intelligence, is stepping down. It is unclear whether Miscik's resignation was voluntary or forced. At least five other top officials have resigned since Porter Goss was appointed director.

And Broadway theaters will dim their lights tonight in honor of actor Jerry Orbach. Orbach lost his battle with prostate cancer last night. He was 69. He was a star on stage and screen on television. His younger fans know him best as Detective Lenny Briscoe from the hit series "Law & Order."

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

LIN: "INSIDE POLITICS" is up next.

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Aired December 29, 2004 - 14:59   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Right "Now in the News."
The Saudi capital of Riyadh has been hit by two explosions in the last few hours. That first bomb or rather the blast was caused by a car bomb which shook the area around the government's interior ministry. Several people were injured. About three minutes later, a second explosion occurred on the far eastern edge of the city.

And President Bush is offering U.S. aid and condolences to people affected by the Asian tsunami disaster. In his first public comments, Mr. Bush called the devastation "beyond our comprehension." We are going to have the latest update from the disaster zone in just a moment.

And at least 300 people have been evacuated after flooding hit the Arizona tourist town of Sedona. A 14 mile stretch of highway was closed between Sedona and Flagstaff. And authorities are warning about possible rock slides.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Tending to the living, burying the dead, both are top priorities in the horrific wake of the Indian Ocean tsunamis. But the World Health Organization says the former is far more urgent.

Though rotting corpses are prevalent, especially here in the Aceh Province of Indonesia, the WHO says homeless, helpless survivors pose more of a health risk to one another than they actually face from the dead.

Now, as for the dead, they now exceed 80,000, by CNN count, though the Red Cross fears the toll will hit six figures when all the victims are finally found. The staggering rise in the death toll today has much to do with Indonesia. Since this time yesterday, the number of dead there confirmed by CNN has risen by more than 25,000.

Reporter Dan Rivers is on the Indonesian island of Sumatra with the horrible story there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN RIVERS, ITN REPORTER (voice-over): This was the moment of impact in Banda Aceh, this staggering footage taken by a family on a second-floor apartment as the sea swallowed their town. Terrified, the family think they will surely die. Somehow, they escape.

Four days on, this is the scene in the port area, perhaps one of the most devastated sectors of this crippled town. We picked our way through with our guide, missing person posters pinned to upturned trawlers. It was surreal, obscene, stranded boats, the twisted wreckage of a once thriving fishing community.

In the town center, corpses are being pulled by the hundreds from the ruins of Banda Aceh. There is a nauseating stench everywhere, death and decay at every turn. The army is ferrying in troops, but they are facing apocalyptic destruction, entire neighborhoods razed to the ground. Like many, this man has lost everything, his home, his family.

(on camera): Nothing left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely nothing left.

RIVERS: Nothing at all?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My house has been destroyed, as you can see.

RIVERS: Destroyed?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

RIVERS: If you want a graphic illustration of the sheer power of this tsunami, have a look at this. This trawler was smashed a mile and a half into the center of Banda Aceh. The locals say the tsunami was 60 feet high.

(voice-over): Those that survived are trying to clear the streets. but so far there is Apparently little outside help. Banda Aceh is now in acute crisis. They are desperate for basic supplies.

The destruction is relentless, street after street utterly destroyed. Survivors stupefied by this carnage. In some places, only dogs survived, waiting in vain for their owners. But, out of town, the horror of all those deaths is concentrated at one place, lorries streaming in, carrying body after body.

(on camera): I've seen some terrible, awful sights today, but this is by far the worst. They are burying bodies by lorry loads here in mass graves. They estimate there will be tens of thousands of corpses here by the end of the week.

Dan Rivers, ITV news, in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Well, here is literally another way of viewing what happened on Sunday, two satellite photos of the coast of Sri Lanka from before and now after the massive waves hit. Shortly, you are about to see that. The before picture was taken almost a year ago. And there is the after, the photograph snapped on Sunday. It is hard to make out the structural damage. But, if you look closely enough, all that brown area there, you can see flooded streets and pools of water going far inland from the ocean.

You can also see gullies and huge channels of water draining from the city and running back out to sea. Remarkable pictures, indeed.

All right, today, in Sri Lanka, the death toil there is now rising past 23,000. And the number of people left homeless could eventually top a million.

CNN's Hugh Riminton is in the capital city of Colombo. And he has just sent us this update.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tens of thousands of Sri Lankans, certainly, and, in all probability, hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans, have now spent their fourth night out in the open without adequate shelter. These are people who either fled their homes or lost their homes in these tsunamis on Sunday, this on a day when there have been mass graves dug in many parts of the island, particularly in the south.

We've also been gaining new information about what's been going on the remote east coast of Sri Lanka. This is an area that hasn't been adequately assessed even now. The first camera vision has been shot by CNN in the last few hours, giving some insights into what has happened on this coastline. Rescue officials believe it is here that the worst ratio of the dead to the living from this disaster will emerge.

This was the area that was orientated directly towards the epicenter of the earthquake, and therefore to the tsunami. It is low- lying coastline area, in many cases, little more than a sand bank with lagoons along much of the coast behind. It appears from the aerial vision the place is almost empty of people in many areas.

The wave simply swept through, destroying buildings along the way, sweeping people away and carrying them into the lagoons behind. We have reports of one doctor who, since the tsunami, has been trying to handle 4,000 casualties at a single damaged hospital. They are trying to airlift more doctors in there to help him out. Two other hospitals have been simply wiped from the face of the earth in that area alone.

In other areas of Sri Lanka, in the safe areas, there has been a mass effort, a mobilization by volunteers, by ordinary families offering what aid they can find to try to have them trucked in to the worst affected areas while there still remains this wait for the much promised international aid really to feature in sufficient numbers to make an enormous degree of difference.

Hugh Riminton reporting for CNN, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush offered condolences today for the victims of the tsunami disaster. And he said the loss and grief to the world are beyond comprehension. He also announced plans to coordinate relief efforts with other nations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Based on these discussions, we have established a regional core group with India, Japan and Australia to help coordinate relief efforts. I'm confident more nations will join this core group in short order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: It was President Bush's first public comment about the disaster. So far, the U.S. has pledged $35 million in cash assistance to the stricken areas.

The U.S. military also mobilizing a large-scale relief effort from the air, from the sea and on the ground. U.S. officials briefed reporters a short while ago about the initial plans.

Jamie McIntyre joining us now with an overview.

Hello, Jamie McIntyre.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

Well, the Pentagon is dispatching ships, helicopters, planes and troops to the affected region, but it will be days before much of the help arrives. Still, U.S. officials are rejecting any notion that the U.S. response is too little, too late.

At the Kadena Air Base in Japan, U.S. Air Force personnel have been loading C-130 cargo planes with critical supplies. Some of the first planes have now arrived in Thailand. But many of them are still being loaded and being sent to the region. Once they get there, they will also be used to ferry supplies from one location to another.

U.S. officials reject any suggestion that they were slow to react to this crisis, insisting that planning began within hours of the first reports of the disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW NATSIOS, USAID ADMINISTRATOR: The Pentagon was informed. They began planning on Sunday to do this. You don't just send people out in two hours. You begin mobilizing. You start the planning and you start sending. We did that on Sunday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: They said, within three hours after getting that word, the assistance teams were being mobilized. The Pentagon was beginning its preliminary planning. But these things do take time. Some of the ships the Pentagon are sending are still up to seven to 11 days away. That includes the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, which was in Hong Kong.

It will take almost a week to get on station. The Bonhomme Richard amphibious assault ship and its escort ship, which have critical facilities, like helicopters and medical facilities, earth- moving equipment, they are still as much as a week away from their location, which will probably be Sri Lanka.

The closest ships which have water purification capability, 90,000 gallons a day, are in Diego Garcia. They are about four days away. But the relief officials also make the point that, a lot of times, the most important aid is not the aid that comes on the first day. It's the long-term reconstruction. That's where the countries often have the hardest time dealing with it. And that's the point where the United States wants to be in a position to be able to, as they said today, not tell the countries what to do, but to be in a position to be able to assist them with what they need over the long term.

And this is going to be a long-term project. And, as you heard the president say, the U.S. is also hopeful that many other countries will pitch in and join this effort -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon, thank you very much -- Carol.

LIN: All right, well, a Chicago woman -- or Chicago family's, actually, vacation turned into a nightmare when that tsunami struck. We are going to hear how they actually made it through the mayhem.

O'BRIEN: Also ahead, we have seen some amazing video of the tsunami shot very vacationers. The man who took these pictures describes what happened when the storm hit.

Stay with us.

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(WEATHER UPDATE)

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LIN: Well, the areas already decimated by tsunamis must now brace for waves of disease expected to hit survivors.

CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta traveled to the devastated island nation of Sri Lanka, where the prognosis is pretty grim.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The biggest goal here in Sri Lanka is to ensure those who survive the tsunami stay living. Health officials warning tonight that as many people may die from disease in these tsunami-devastated areas as died from the actual tsunami itself. And from what we've seen on the ground in Sri Lanka, we'd have to agree. You see, the public health system struggles in the best of times. Now it seems practically nonexistent. Makeshift morgues, burial sites often overflowing with the gruesome sight of decomposing bodies. Hospitals without reliable electricity, running water or communication systems now treating everything from broken bones and infections to dehydration and heat stroke. But it's an epidemic of infectious diseases that worries doctors here most.

It's the water supply that now poses the biggest danger to those who survived the killer waves of water that swept ashore here Sunday. Water and food contaminated by human waste and saltwater from the sea can lead to diseases like cholera, and dysentery, which can be fatal.

Standing water from the flooding can attract mosquitoes, spawning outbreaks of malaria and Dungee fever. Those left homeless, those trying to survive on the streets, also facing a threat of respiratory illness from bacteria and viruses that quickly spread when unsanitary conditions exist.

Relief efforts now focus on water purification systems and distribution of bottled water being flown in by aid groups, quick burial of bodies and cleanup of sewage and debris, the providing safe and sanitary shelter to those who have been left homeless, as well as clean, temporary medical clinics to treat the sick as well as the injured.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

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LIN: Now, over the last few days, we have heard harrowing tales of helplessness and heroism, survival, but mostly of terror and tragedy. Not a single person was expecting that massive wave to crash ashore Sunday morning. Very little stayed put. Everything and everybody on thousands of miles of beach and coastal villages swept away in seconds.

Now, earlier today, we spoke by telephone with Frederic Bornesand from Sweden. He and his girlfriend were swimming in a resort hotel pool in Thailand when the tsunami struck.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREDERIC BORNESAND, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: We saw a lot of water coming in and after the first wave, I don't think anyone thought that it could come with more water. So after the first wave, I just went down to see if I could help someone. And while trying to do that, the second wave was coming.

When the first wave came, I went up and after the first wave I got back down again and the second wave was much, much larger than the first one. So when the second wave came, I was forced toward the windows and to the lobby and when I came back again, there was so much to do to help the old man and to clear the way to get him up one or two floors. It was hard work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Wow. Well, that was Frederic Bornesand talking there. He and his girlfriend are safe. And, as you know by now, tens of thousands of others were not so lucky.

O'BRIEN: The Heydemann family of Chicago was on the last day of their Thai vacation when disaster struck Sunday morning. The force of the tsunami dragged Dr. Peter Heydemann into the sea.

Earlier today, on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING," he described his amazing tale of survival.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PETER HEYDEMANN, SURVIVED TSUNAMI: We were on the veranda at the resort hotel we were at, which was on the high ground overlooking a small street and overlooking the beach, a relatively small beach. And we saw several smaller rises and recessions of water. Then -- and those rises and recessions seemed to get farther and farther apart. And they were never too bad. They went up over the beach and to street level and the beach equipment, such as the umbrellas and beach chairs, all floated away. The bottoms of the stores were all hurt.

And it seemed like it was over. And I walked down there to the street level behind the beach and on the far side of the street were these stores and I was looking in one. In fact, it was a store that we had just purchased something at the day before and I was looking at how much destruction there was in the store just from the low levels of water that had hit it in the past few minutes. I didn't know the big one was still coming. And suddenly I heard somebody yell, I assumed it was something like run but I had no place to run to.

And suddenly I was in water above my head. I might have stayed under water except the buildings were fairly weakly built and the builds disintegrated around me, the roof went away and I floated up to the treetop level where I finally got my head back above water. And I was pleased to see a tree branch nearby. I grabbed for it.

I didn't know my left hand wasn't going to be able to do any grabbing at that point but it didn't. I grabbed for it, the tree branch broke a moment later. The utility lines were right in front of me and I really didn't want to put my head back under the water but I did to try to get underneath the utility lines but I don't quite get far enough underneath and I came up and one was left in front of me, which I couldn't avoid, but fortunately there was no power in it.

I held on to that for a second but didn't want to really hold on to that. And then the power of the recession of the water took me out into the bay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: You can read more amazing stories like that of survival on the Web. CNN.com has a special section devoted to the tsunami catastrophe. If you are looking for a loved one, also, the site contains hot line numbers from all around the region. You can also send e-mails to tsunami@CNN.com.

LIN: Well, the earthquake out there and the resulting tsunami occurred in the Indian Ocean. So, could a tsunami strike right here in the United States? Well, it measure surprise you to know that it already has. And scientists say it's not a matter of if it will happen again, but when.

National correspondent Frank Buckley is in Los Angeles with that.

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FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The devastation in Southern Asia came without warning, as it did in 1946 in Hawaii, when more than 150 people died from a tsunami, as it did in 1964, after an earthquake in Alaska created tsunamis, killing at least 130 people.

Both events prompted the creation of tsunami warning centers, this one in Hawaii and another in Alaska. Scientists at the center say a tsunami will again someday hit the Western U.S.

CHARLES MCCREERY, DIRECTOR, PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER: We don't know whether it's going to come tomorrow or whether it could be another 10 or 20 years before the next one. But it will come.

BUCKLEY: Experts say coastal residents in the Western U.S. are at risk, a million in California alone. But in the hours it would take a large tsunami to cross the Pacific Ocean, deep ocean sensors and other instruments would provide enough information to the warning centers to allow scientists to predict where and when water would come ashore, so that emergency management officials could warn local residents of impending danger.

JEFF LADOUCE, CHAIRMAN, INTERNATIONAL TSUNAMI INFORMATION CENTER: Although there will be casualties, I don't believe the casualties will be anywhere near as extensive as what they are. Obviously, the goal is no casualties.

BUCKLEY: Jeff LaDouce of the National Weather Service heads an effort to reduce the potentially devastating effects of tsunamis. He works with state emergency management officials, like George Crawford of Washington state, who has developed evacuation routes and other plans based on projections like this one illustrating a potential event in Seattle, Washington, of where a tsunami would go.

GEORGE CRAWFORD, MANAGER, WASHINGTON EARTHQUAKE PROGRAM: Where do I see potential traffic problems? Where's the best place to do mass care?

BUCKLEY (on camera): But emergency management officials say coastal residents should also listen to the warnings from the earth itself. They say people along a coastline who experience an earthquake strong enough that it makes it difficult to stand should immediately move to higher ground.

(voice-over): Quakes like those might generate local tsunamis that could come ashore within minutes of a temblor, which is why LaDouce and others say coastal residents should always be prepared to evacuate immediately after a quake.

LADOUCE: We probably will not be able to save everyone, but we will save people's lives based on the work that we've done.

BUCKLEY: Because a tsunami could happen here and will happen again.

Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.

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LIN: Iraqi police called to a Baghdad house and find themselves in an explosive trap. We're going to have details from Baghdad straight ahead.

And Toyota gets ready to drive some big competition off the road. That story ahead, as we make our final lap on LIVE FROM.

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O'BRIEN: Iraqi police are among the 28 killed in Baghdad today after they entered what authorities believe was a booby-trapped house. Police say the officers were lured there by an anonymous tip.

We get the latest now on that and much more from CNN's Jeff Koinange in the Iraqi capital.

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JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It happened in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Ghazaliya in western Baghdad. Police received an anonymous tip that a man was standing on the roof of a building firing at residents.

Police rushed to the scene, entered the building, and the building exploded, killing 28, including the nine policeman. U.S. military intelligence officers tell us that death toll is set to rise because the bomb weighed as much as 1,000 kilograms and leveled several buildings. And rescue workers were still sifting through the rubble.

Now, this booby-trap attack is the first of its kind in Baghdad. Such attacks were very common in Falluja, when the U.S. military overran that town several months ago. There, everything from buildings to dead bodies to cars to entire streets were booby-trapped. The U.S. fears that, if this is the trend, then it doesn't augur well in the coming elections.

Elsewhere across the country, in the last 24 hours, dozens of Iraqi policeman and National Guardsmen were killed. In the town of Tikrit, former President Saddam Hussein's stronghold, insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade into a police station, then calmly walked in and executed all 12 policeman, including three commanders.

Further south, in Baquba, National Guardsmen were on a routine patrol when they noticed an improvised explosive device. It went off, injuring three. As soon as they got out to rescue their colleagues, they noticed another device which hadn't exploded. When they went to defuse it, a suicide bomber rammed them, killing five, injuring 26. And here in Baghdad, a suicide bomber calmly sat in his vehicle waiting for the convoy of the commander of the Iraqi National Guard to pass. The convoy did pass and the bomb exploded, wounding five. But the commander was uninjured. First Cavalry commander Brigadier General Jeffrey Hammond, in a press statement, indicated that he did expect the insurgent attacks to increase in the coming days, before the January 30 election.

But he did say that, no matter what, the elections will go ahead.

Jeff Koinange, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: News across America now.

Another resignation today at the CIA. Jami Miscik, the spy agency's deputy director for intelligence, is stepping down. It is unclear whether Miscik's resignation was voluntary or forced. At least five other top officials have resigned since Porter Goss was appointed director.

And Broadway theaters will dim their lights tonight in honor of actor Jerry Orbach. Orbach lost his battle with prostate cancer last night. He was 69. He was a star on stage and screen on television. His younger fans know him best as Detective Lenny Briscoe from the hit series "Law & Order."

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LIN: "INSIDE POLITICS" is up next.

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