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Parts of Sumatra Completely Wiped Out; Isolated Areas Still Without Aid; Thais Assisting Tourists During Crisis; Casualty Count Reaches 116,000
Aired December 30, 2004 - 13:00 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.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We left paradise. It was a beautiful island. And we came back to just hell.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: An American couple's survival story tinged with irony. For them, the safest place was to be under the tsunami waves.
CAROL LIN, CO-HOST: The world responds to the crisis. Governments, charities, corporations spending millions. But will it get to those who really need it?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: One thing we are seeing is some action. Finally starting to see some supplies arriving. Starting to see doctors arriving, as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes you inside a survivor's camp in Sri Lanka, where help is finally arriving.
LIN: And a mother's agonizing choice when the tsunami struck. She could only hold on to one of her two young boys.
From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Carol Lin, in for Kyra Phillips.
O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
Well, if a picture is worth a thousand statistics, new views of the devastation in parts of Indonesia add a whole new dimension to the world's understanding of this tragedy.
This is northern Sumatra, still largely inaccessible by road, as seen by the British conservationist, Mike Griffiths, in a flyover yesterday. He tells us one town where 13,000 people lived a week ago is vaporized, while in a 60-mile stretch between two main cities, no villages are left. The figures cannot be ignored. More than 116,000 known dead in a dozen countries, primarily Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. Indonesia reports almost as many dead today as all the affected countries reported yesterday.
In India today, panic added to misery when officials issued a tsunami warning, and local police evacuated ravaged coastlines. India's science minister later went on TV to say it was all a false alarm. He went so far as to dismiss fears of another killer wave as hogwash.
Another statistic: Roughly $500 million in disaster relief promised and or delivered from around the world. Half of that came barely an hour ago from the World Bank. Experts say the most pressing single need: drinkable water, Followed closely by basic sanitation. As many as five million people across the region have neither.
We want to go back to those unbelievable images from Sumatra, an area that was rugged and remote to begin with, for reasons having as much to do with politics as geography.
Here's CNN's Mike Chinoy in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is ground zero, the western coast of Sumatra, a scene of unimaginable devastation. The region's largest town was Meulaboh. Around 40,000 or 50,000 people lived here. This is what's left.
Indonesian-based British conservationist Mike Griffiths flew over the area. He says conditions north of Meulaboh are even worse.
MIKE GRIFFITHS, CONSERVATIONIST: There was no villages left standing between Meulaboh and Chalang, which is about 100 kilometers north of Meulaboh. It's like a nuclear blast has hit the area. And it's completely leveled everything except just for a few stretches.
CHINOY: Virtually every sign of life was wiped out.
GRIFFITHS: All you can see basically to show that there were villages is the remains of the foundations of the more strongly constructed houses. That means built out of concrete. We see nothing at all of the ones that were built out of wood and thatched roofs. And that constitutes probably the most.
CHINOY: And in Chalang, a town of 13,000 people, nothing at all.
GRIFFITHS: It's vaporized. There's just nothing left. It's mostly -- mostly -- in fact, you wouldn't even recognize that there had been a town there unless you knew, unless you'd flown over there before and you'd seen it from the air. Then you'd realize that, in fact, a town had once existed there. All you can see now is basically a very vague outline of some of the roads that used to carry traffic.
CHINOY: On a hill, Griffiths spotted around 30 or 40 survivors. No one else in Chalang appeared to be alive. An entire region, home to hundreds of thousands, almost literally wiped off the face of the earth.
Mike Chinoy, CNN, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Relief efforts took a step backwards in the Aceh province today when the weather was so bad airplanes could not land on a key airfield.
CNN's Atika Shubert is in the Sumatran city of Medan.
Atika, what's the scene where you are right now?
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, Medan is actually the center for relief operations. This is where flights come -- are coordinated out to help those survivors in Aceh.
Unfortunately, it's raining here at the moment. And that's clearly not going to be helping relief efforts.
We were actually on a plane earlier this morning, going to the town of Meulaboh, which Mike mentioned earlier. That's a town on the west coast of Aceh, closest to the epicenter. More than 80 percent of the buildings there destroyed. We could see that as we flew over the town.
What happened was the earthquake essentially came, shattered the infrastructure and communications. Then the tsunami wave came and killed thousands.
The isolation, however, meant that the world just didn't know how devastated this area is. And as a result, Meulaboh and the town and the villages surrounding it have been the last to receive help -- Carol.
LIN: So what's going to happen next? I mean, how many people are going to be affected by this?
SHUBERT: Well, this is the big question. Nobody really knows just how high the death toll is there. Right now, estimates are anywhere between 10,000 to 15,000, possibly a higher death toll. And that means a quarter -- nearly one-half -- of the town's population might have been killed.
However, it is important to note there are still quite a few survivors there. And they are trying to pick up the pieces and get by.
Fortunately, the local military command there, even though they were very badly damaged, hundreds of their colleagues killed, have actually been able to set up some sort of an infrastructure, distributing aid.
However, it's very tenuous. Their fuel is running out. And they do need a lot more help. Fortunately, helicopters and an Indonesian navy ship were able to get in today, bring in fresh food and water. Most important, of course, being water, because the concern now is that even if those survivors managed to live through the earthquake and the tsunami wave, they may well be killed by the diseases that set in afterwards -- Carol.
LIN: All right, Atika Shubert, live in Medan, Indonesia -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: The coast of Thailand today, a picture of fading hope and growing desperation, muddled by confusion.
The official Thai death count stands at just over 1,800. But one official says about 3,500 bodies have already been found on the Phang Na province. Through it all, a fervent campaign to link victims, survivors and their still unaccounted for with their families.
More on that from CNN's Aneesh Raman in Phuket.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Phuket's administrative center, this is really the heart of the relief efforts for the entire region. A massive area that is now enormously crowded with people desperately looking to find loved ones.
Now on the left, a wall of the missing. Posters being put together by relatives desperately seeking those that are displaced. Here's one of a 5-year-old German boy from Khao Lak, the area that has seen the highest casualty rate. Number's being post by his mother.
To the right, an American that remains missing. A number there, as well. For anyone that has any information on where these individuals are.
The is the side of hope. On the other side to my right is where the despair exists. These are pictures of the dead, taken so that relatives can come to identify the bodies of their loved ones.
But as we now go forward into the fourth day of these relief efforts, the bodies being found are beyond recognition at times, so decomposed. So for some relatives, even though closure, as grim as it is, will be elusive.
The entire area is sort of a tent city. Behind me, you'll see where they're distributing clean water, where they're giving out food. Also, given the large number of foreigners involved, Thais from across the country have come here who speak French, who speak German, to try and communicate.
Really, every emotion possible exists here. There is hope. There is despair. But the overriding one is a sense of collective empathy from the Thai people, who have come with such an outpouring of support for the large numbers of tourists who were displaced in a land that they do not call home.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Phuket, southern Thailand.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: All right. We've got much more on our tsunami coverage. In fact, an ironic twist to surviving the tsunami. This couple you're about to see -- there they are -- lived because they were hundreds of feet under water. They tell their story straight ahead.
And for the first time since the tsunami struck, helicopters are getting to remote areas. We're going to show you what their flights revealed, later on LIVE FROM.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC WROBLEWSKI, 705TH EOD: I got up to go get some pizza. And on my way back is when the explosion occurred.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: And a soldier remembers a devastating day in Mosul, Iraq.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: We've got the latest on the death toll, which seems to grow by the hour: 116,000-plus, most of them in Indonesia. The rest in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, and everywhere with an Indian Ocean coast.
Rescue and health care officials still crunching those numbers are well aware of the potential for even more astonishing casualty figures.
CNN's medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in southwestern Sri Lanka.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: Lots of things to talk about with regard to these epidemics. First of all, the concern is when you put a lot of people in aggregate like this, together in closed quarters, with not the most sanitary of conditions, you could have epidemics of things like cholera, dysentery, typhoid, hepatitis A and malaria. Things like that are a concern.
We haven't seen those things here in southern Sri Lanka. We have heard about some outbreaks more on the western part of the country, the eastern part of the country, as well. On the coasts, specifically talking about epidemics of dysentery, and in one case even chicken pox.
People have talked a lot about the decomposing bodies. Those in and of themselves really don't pose as much of a risk as people thought. Once the body dies, all the bacteria and the viruses die, as well. The bigger concern is living bodies, people living in unsanitary conditions.
You look around a place like this, and we don't see the utter despair that we would expect. I mean, people are smiling. They're eating. This is a real community of people. You come to the conclusion that this community of people probably existed before we actually got here and before they became displaced.
On the other hand, there almost seems to be a bit of an oblivion. People are oblivious to what the future holds for them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: That's Sanjay Gupta in Sri Lanka.
As we mentioned, the international aid campaign leapt into high gear today with a $250 million pledge from the World Bank. Private efforts are growing quickly, as well. And we'll talk more about that a little bit later in the hour.
Governmental efforts are being mobilized and monitored by the United Nations, where CNN's Richard Roth checks in with the latest -- Richard.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: yes, Kofi Annan, U.N. secretary-general, breaking from his vacation for his public appearance here at U.N. headquarters. He began his day with a meeting, an interagency meeting with all the heads of the various important U.N. agencies who deal with crises like this, ranging from development to finance to UNICEF. And there was also a teleconference with people in the field.
It was at this meeting that James Wolfensohn of the World Bank said that he was going to be releasing $250 million.
Later, Annan held a press conference, flanked by his humanitarian emergency coordinator, Jan Egeland. Annan saying he is satisfied with the response so far of the world governments. But he says a lot more is going to be needed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: More than 30 countries have stepped forward to help us help millions of individuals from around the world.
As Mr. Egeland has told you, over the past few days -- and I have reported earlier -- coordination of the response is now absolutely essential. How well the international community and the affected countries work together now will determine how well we will deal with all aspects of the disaster.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: Annan said the disaster is so huge, not one country or agency can deal with it alone.
Shortly before the press conference, you see here, Annan met with the ambassadors, representatives from 11 or 12 countries affected by the tsunami waves, briefing them on what the U.N. plans to do. The secretary-general later telling the press he is not ruling out, not excluding, a trip by Mr. Annan himself to the region.
Many say the U.N. works best dealing with humanitarian relief and crises like that. They will be put to a stern test with the tsunami disaster -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: I mean, the question on, I think, most people's minds at this point is this just too big for the United Nations even, and if so, what then?
ROTH: Well, they're going to be working with this core group, Japan, the U.S., India, that was formed yesterday, Australia. He said it's going to be a strain. We're going to have to pay Peter (sic) to pay Paul. He said that it's going to be -- we're going to need more people, more resources. I don't think the U.N. has ever had to deal with something like that.
But they're relying a lot on local governments. They have people in the field already. But how long can that first wave deal with this crisis? It's going to be a big job. I think Annan knows it. And yet another crisis for the United Nations.
O'BRIEN: A crisis but also, amid calls of whether it is relevant or not, a real acid test.
ROTH: Yes. I asked Secretary-General Annan about that. He didn't want to leap to the bait, though, because more than 100,000 people are dead. But it is an opportunity, clearly, for the United Nations to prove its mettle during this crisis.
O'BRIEN: Rich Roth at the U.N., thanks very much.
The flip side of the heartbreaking stories we've had to bring you in abundance this week are those breath-taking stories of survival.
Here's one of those from CNN's Miguel Marquez in Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A family's joy: a father and son reunited. Faye Linda Wachs and her husband, Gene Kim, back home after they literally rode a tsunami.
FAYE LINDA WACHS, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: It was a pull down, but it also whited out at the same time. So it was really scary.
GENE KIM, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: It was just totally milky. You couldn't see anything at all. And I'm not sure what it was. It was probably the current ripping through.
MARQUEZ: The husband and wife were diving 12 kilometers, about seven miles, off Thailand's Phi Phi islands. They were at a shipwreck 20 meters, about 65 feet, under the Andaman Sea when the tsunami swept past them.
WACHS: We were sucked down to 40 meters very quickly.
KIM: I was getting tossed around. I bumped up a couple times against the wreck itself and swam up as hard as I could, looked at my gauge, and I was still dropping.
MARQUEZ: Their attempt to surface by inflating their life vests, thwarted by the massive current of water racing toward Thailand's shore.
KIM: This is the first time I had to do an emergency ascent...
WACHS: Yes.
KIM: ... under unusual and harsh circumstances. So it was terrifying.
MARQUEZ: Kim got separated from the others and eventually found a dive buoy and a rope. The rope became his lifeline.
KIM: It was just unbelievably lucky for us to have been in the water when we were there.
MARQUEZ: Still, they didn't know they had just survived a tsunami. So they changed locations and went for another dive. But the currents were so strong they called it a day. Only then did the gruesome reality reveal itself.
WACHS: I saw piles of bodies, both Thai and foreigners who had come to the island.
MARQUEZ: Their room and all their belongings swept out to sea. The duo helped rescue and care for the injured. Ninety hours later, they made it home, maybe the best homecoming ever.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Up next on LIVE FROM...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I knew I had to let go of one of them. And I just thought, I better let go of the one that's the oldest.
O'BRIEN: A mother of two young boys makes an agonizing choice in the midst of the swirling tsunami waters. You'll hear the rest of her story.
Later on LIVE FROM, helping tsunami victims. How can you make sure your donation really goes to those in need?
Tomorrow on LIVE FROM, a hidden danger in the midst of the tsunamis. We'll talk with a member of a group working to clear Sri Lanka of unearthed land mines.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: We've got some new developments in Iraq today. Details are emerging from Baghdad, where we're told insurgents attacked four separate police stations and set up a fake checkpoint.
No firm word on casualties. But police and insurgent fighters battled for a half hour. Now, near the scene of yesterday's deadly house explosion.
And we have a report of someone being captured. Fadil Hussein Ahmed al-Kurdi. He is described as a senior aide to suspected terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Al-Zarqawi has the public backing of Osama bin Laden as al Qaeda's leader in Iraq and remains at large himself.
And no rest in Mosul. A gun battle flared today when insurgents tried to ram an explosives-filled truck into a U.S. military post. Well, they failed. But one American soldier was killed in the firefight that followed.
And also today in Mosul, with just a month until nationwide elections in Iraq, a setback. The entire election commission representing Mosul resigned today, all 700 people. They said they'd been threatened and feared for their lives.
O'BRIEN: Well, it began as an ordinary lunch. It ended as one of the deadliest days for U.S. forces since the beginning of the Iraq war.
LIN: Well, last week, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the mess tent of Camp Marez in Mosul. Twenty-two people were killed, including 14 U.S. troops.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Jeff Koinange has one survivor's story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The big tent...
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sergeant Eric Wroblewski is proud to be a member of the U.S. Army's 705th EOD, a unit responsible for defusing bombs and mines.
On Tuesday, December 21, he had joined friends for lunch in the mess hall at Camp Marez in Mosul.
WROBLEWSKI: I got up to go get some pizza. And on my way back is when the explosion occurred. The explosion knocked me to the ground. I got up, found my glasses as soon as possible. They were about two feet behind me.
KOINANGE: Instinct took over. WROBLEWSKI: I ran around, grabbing aprons from some of the -- some of the workers, taking their aprons off them, because they didn't need them. We were using anything we could. I already took my BDU top off by then. Anything we could use to -- just to stop the bleeding.
KOINANGE: The mess hall, he says, was filled with pandemonium. In this photograph, taken by a journalist visiting the base, Wroblewski rushes to the aid of his fallen colleagues.
WROBLEWSKI: Specialist Hewitt was opposite side of the table from me, right across from me. And we sat there -- I mean, that was our normal seating spot. We always sat in the same area. That way if somebody came late, they would know where to find us and they didn't have to sit alone.
I went in one more time to look for Specialist Hewitt. I couldn't find him. And he was dead when he arrived at the hospital.
KOINANGE: Every day, he struggles with vivid memories of those moments.
WROBLEWSKI: Just to see that hole just reminds me of the fireball. I mean, the fireball was so big. I was very lucky. If I didn't get up to get pizza, I could either be with Specialist Hewitt right now or recovering next to -- next to Sergeant Voda (ph).
He's right here, Specialist Hewitt.
KOINANGE: Wroblewski is struggling to come to terms with the loss of his best buddy.
WROBLEWSKI: Specialist Hewitt was a really good soldier. He was a really good friend. I know it's hard, but I hope they're proud of what he was doing, because he was really proud of what he was doing and to be here.
The last thing Specialist Hewitt said to me -- we were talking about my wife, actually. And he said, "Your wife made some really good pancakes." And that's when I told him I was going to go get more pizza. That was the last thing he said to me.
KOINANGE: Jeff Koinange...
WROBLEWSKI: I don't know about all that.
KOINANGE: ... CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Security on the minds of New York City authorities on this, the day before the biggest New Year's Eve party in America. Live pictures now. New York City. Coming up. There it is: 59th street, Central Park West, Columbus Circle, Time Warner world headquarters. Sunny and fairly mild today, high in the mid-40s. Not bad for this time of year. Also not bad tomorrow night, even a little warmer, for the dropping of the ball over Times Square. High tomorrow, in the mid-50s. Midnight, mid-40s.
New York City's mayor spoke yesterday to the security concerns and advised visitors to button up their overcoats and all that stuff. And of course, leave the city safety to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY: There will be specialized teams to monitor the air for any abnormal readings of chemical, biological or radiological materials.
I should point out to you, as well, there's an awful lot of the security that we are going to provide that will not be visible. Things like New York City Police Department's ongoing counterterrorism intelligence operations. You'll never know who that person standing next to you is. And that's exactly the way it should be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: So CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information day and night.
Boeing has found a new ally in its battle against its archenemy, that European rival Airbus. David Haffenreffer joining us from the New York Stock Exchange with that story and much more.
Hello, David.
(STOCK REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired December 30, 2004 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We left paradise. It was a beautiful island. And we came back to just hell.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: An American couple's survival story tinged with irony. For them, the safest place was to be under the tsunami waves.
CAROL LIN, CO-HOST: The world responds to the crisis. Governments, charities, corporations spending millions. But will it get to those who really need it?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: One thing we are seeing is some action. Finally starting to see some supplies arriving. Starting to see doctors arriving, as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes you inside a survivor's camp in Sri Lanka, where help is finally arriving.
LIN: And a mother's agonizing choice when the tsunami struck. She could only hold on to one of her two young boys.
From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Carol Lin, in for Kyra Phillips.
O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
Well, if a picture is worth a thousand statistics, new views of the devastation in parts of Indonesia add a whole new dimension to the world's understanding of this tragedy.
This is northern Sumatra, still largely inaccessible by road, as seen by the British conservationist, Mike Griffiths, in a flyover yesterday. He tells us one town where 13,000 people lived a week ago is vaporized, while in a 60-mile stretch between two main cities, no villages are left. The figures cannot be ignored. More than 116,000 known dead in a dozen countries, primarily Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. Indonesia reports almost as many dead today as all the affected countries reported yesterday.
In India today, panic added to misery when officials issued a tsunami warning, and local police evacuated ravaged coastlines. India's science minister later went on TV to say it was all a false alarm. He went so far as to dismiss fears of another killer wave as hogwash.
Another statistic: Roughly $500 million in disaster relief promised and or delivered from around the world. Half of that came barely an hour ago from the World Bank. Experts say the most pressing single need: drinkable water, Followed closely by basic sanitation. As many as five million people across the region have neither.
We want to go back to those unbelievable images from Sumatra, an area that was rugged and remote to begin with, for reasons having as much to do with politics as geography.
Here's CNN's Mike Chinoy in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is ground zero, the western coast of Sumatra, a scene of unimaginable devastation. The region's largest town was Meulaboh. Around 40,000 or 50,000 people lived here. This is what's left.
Indonesian-based British conservationist Mike Griffiths flew over the area. He says conditions north of Meulaboh are even worse.
MIKE GRIFFITHS, CONSERVATIONIST: There was no villages left standing between Meulaboh and Chalang, which is about 100 kilometers north of Meulaboh. It's like a nuclear blast has hit the area. And it's completely leveled everything except just for a few stretches.
CHINOY: Virtually every sign of life was wiped out.
GRIFFITHS: All you can see basically to show that there were villages is the remains of the foundations of the more strongly constructed houses. That means built out of concrete. We see nothing at all of the ones that were built out of wood and thatched roofs. And that constitutes probably the most.
CHINOY: And in Chalang, a town of 13,000 people, nothing at all.
GRIFFITHS: It's vaporized. There's just nothing left. It's mostly -- mostly -- in fact, you wouldn't even recognize that there had been a town there unless you knew, unless you'd flown over there before and you'd seen it from the air. Then you'd realize that, in fact, a town had once existed there. All you can see now is basically a very vague outline of some of the roads that used to carry traffic.
CHINOY: On a hill, Griffiths spotted around 30 or 40 survivors. No one else in Chalang appeared to be alive. An entire region, home to hundreds of thousands, almost literally wiped off the face of the earth.
Mike Chinoy, CNN, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Relief efforts took a step backwards in the Aceh province today when the weather was so bad airplanes could not land on a key airfield.
CNN's Atika Shubert is in the Sumatran city of Medan.
Atika, what's the scene where you are right now?
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, Medan is actually the center for relief operations. This is where flights come -- are coordinated out to help those survivors in Aceh.
Unfortunately, it's raining here at the moment. And that's clearly not going to be helping relief efforts.
We were actually on a plane earlier this morning, going to the town of Meulaboh, which Mike mentioned earlier. That's a town on the west coast of Aceh, closest to the epicenter. More than 80 percent of the buildings there destroyed. We could see that as we flew over the town.
What happened was the earthquake essentially came, shattered the infrastructure and communications. Then the tsunami wave came and killed thousands.
The isolation, however, meant that the world just didn't know how devastated this area is. And as a result, Meulaboh and the town and the villages surrounding it have been the last to receive help -- Carol.
LIN: So what's going to happen next? I mean, how many people are going to be affected by this?
SHUBERT: Well, this is the big question. Nobody really knows just how high the death toll is there. Right now, estimates are anywhere between 10,000 to 15,000, possibly a higher death toll. And that means a quarter -- nearly one-half -- of the town's population might have been killed.
However, it is important to note there are still quite a few survivors there. And they are trying to pick up the pieces and get by.
Fortunately, the local military command there, even though they were very badly damaged, hundreds of their colleagues killed, have actually been able to set up some sort of an infrastructure, distributing aid.
However, it's very tenuous. Their fuel is running out. And they do need a lot more help. Fortunately, helicopters and an Indonesian navy ship were able to get in today, bring in fresh food and water. Most important, of course, being water, because the concern now is that even if those survivors managed to live through the earthquake and the tsunami wave, they may well be killed by the diseases that set in afterwards -- Carol.
LIN: All right, Atika Shubert, live in Medan, Indonesia -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: The coast of Thailand today, a picture of fading hope and growing desperation, muddled by confusion.
The official Thai death count stands at just over 1,800. But one official says about 3,500 bodies have already been found on the Phang Na province. Through it all, a fervent campaign to link victims, survivors and their still unaccounted for with their families.
More on that from CNN's Aneesh Raman in Phuket.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Phuket's administrative center, this is really the heart of the relief efforts for the entire region. A massive area that is now enormously crowded with people desperately looking to find loved ones.
Now on the left, a wall of the missing. Posters being put together by relatives desperately seeking those that are displaced. Here's one of a 5-year-old German boy from Khao Lak, the area that has seen the highest casualty rate. Number's being post by his mother.
To the right, an American that remains missing. A number there, as well. For anyone that has any information on where these individuals are.
The is the side of hope. On the other side to my right is where the despair exists. These are pictures of the dead, taken so that relatives can come to identify the bodies of their loved ones.
But as we now go forward into the fourth day of these relief efforts, the bodies being found are beyond recognition at times, so decomposed. So for some relatives, even though closure, as grim as it is, will be elusive.
The entire area is sort of a tent city. Behind me, you'll see where they're distributing clean water, where they're giving out food. Also, given the large number of foreigners involved, Thais from across the country have come here who speak French, who speak German, to try and communicate.
Really, every emotion possible exists here. There is hope. There is despair. But the overriding one is a sense of collective empathy from the Thai people, who have come with such an outpouring of support for the large numbers of tourists who were displaced in a land that they do not call home.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Phuket, southern Thailand.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: All right. We've got much more on our tsunami coverage. In fact, an ironic twist to surviving the tsunami. This couple you're about to see -- there they are -- lived because they were hundreds of feet under water. They tell their story straight ahead.
And for the first time since the tsunami struck, helicopters are getting to remote areas. We're going to show you what their flights revealed, later on LIVE FROM.
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ERIC WROBLEWSKI, 705TH EOD: I got up to go get some pizza. And on my way back is when the explosion occurred.
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LIN: And a soldier remembers a devastating day in Mosul, Iraq.
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LIN: We've got the latest on the death toll, which seems to grow by the hour: 116,000-plus, most of them in Indonesia. The rest in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, and everywhere with an Indian Ocean coast.
Rescue and health care officials still crunching those numbers are well aware of the potential for even more astonishing casualty figures.
CNN's medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in southwestern Sri Lanka.
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GUPTA: Lots of things to talk about with regard to these epidemics. First of all, the concern is when you put a lot of people in aggregate like this, together in closed quarters, with not the most sanitary of conditions, you could have epidemics of things like cholera, dysentery, typhoid, hepatitis A and malaria. Things like that are a concern.
We haven't seen those things here in southern Sri Lanka. We have heard about some outbreaks more on the western part of the country, the eastern part of the country, as well. On the coasts, specifically talking about epidemics of dysentery, and in one case even chicken pox.
People have talked a lot about the decomposing bodies. Those in and of themselves really don't pose as much of a risk as people thought. Once the body dies, all the bacteria and the viruses die, as well. The bigger concern is living bodies, people living in unsanitary conditions.
You look around a place like this, and we don't see the utter despair that we would expect. I mean, people are smiling. They're eating. This is a real community of people. You come to the conclusion that this community of people probably existed before we actually got here and before they became displaced.
On the other hand, there almost seems to be a bit of an oblivion. People are oblivious to what the future holds for them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: That's Sanjay Gupta in Sri Lanka.
As we mentioned, the international aid campaign leapt into high gear today with a $250 million pledge from the World Bank. Private efforts are growing quickly, as well. And we'll talk more about that a little bit later in the hour.
Governmental efforts are being mobilized and monitored by the United Nations, where CNN's Richard Roth checks in with the latest -- Richard.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: yes, Kofi Annan, U.N. secretary-general, breaking from his vacation for his public appearance here at U.N. headquarters. He began his day with a meeting, an interagency meeting with all the heads of the various important U.N. agencies who deal with crises like this, ranging from development to finance to UNICEF. And there was also a teleconference with people in the field.
It was at this meeting that James Wolfensohn of the World Bank said that he was going to be releasing $250 million.
Later, Annan held a press conference, flanked by his humanitarian emergency coordinator, Jan Egeland. Annan saying he is satisfied with the response so far of the world governments. But he says a lot more is going to be needed.
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KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: More than 30 countries have stepped forward to help us help millions of individuals from around the world.
As Mr. Egeland has told you, over the past few days -- and I have reported earlier -- coordination of the response is now absolutely essential. How well the international community and the affected countries work together now will determine how well we will deal with all aspects of the disaster.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: Annan said the disaster is so huge, not one country or agency can deal with it alone.
Shortly before the press conference, you see here, Annan met with the ambassadors, representatives from 11 or 12 countries affected by the tsunami waves, briefing them on what the U.N. plans to do. The secretary-general later telling the press he is not ruling out, not excluding, a trip by Mr. Annan himself to the region.
Many say the U.N. works best dealing with humanitarian relief and crises like that. They will be put to a stern test with the tsunami disaster -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: I mean, the question on, I think, most people's minds at this point is this just too big for the United Nations even, and if so, what then?
ROTH: Well, they're going to be working with this core group, Japan, the U.S., India, that was formed yesterday, Australia. He said it's going to be a strain. We're going to have to pay Peter (sic) to pay Paul. He said that it's going to be -- we're going to need more people, more resources. I don't think the U.N. has ever had to deal with something like that.
But they're relying a lot on local governments. They have people in the field already. But how long can that first wave deal with this crisis? It's going to be a big job. I think Annan knows it. And yet another crisis for the United Nations.
O'BRIEN: A crisis but also, amid calls of whether it is relevant or not, a real acid test.
ROTH: Yes. I asked Secretary-General Annan about that. He didn't want to leap to the bait, though, because more than 100,000 people are dead. But it is an opportunity, clearly, for the United Nations to prove its mettle during this crisis.
O'BRIEN: Rich Roth at the U.N., thanks very much.
The flip side of the heartbreaking stories we've had to bring you in abundance this week are those breath-taking stories of survival.
Here's one of those from CNN's Miguel Marquez in Los Angeles.
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MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A family's joy: a father and son reunited. Faye Linda Wachs and her husband, Gene Kim, back home after they literally rode a tsunami.
FAYE LINDA WACHS, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: It was a pull down, but it also whited out at the same time. So it was really scary.
GENE KIM, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: It was just totally milky. You couldn't see anything at all. And I'm not sure what it was. It was probably the current ripping through.
MARQUEZ: The husband and wife were diving 12 kilometers, about seven miles, off Thailand's Phi Phi islands. They were at a shipwreck 20 meters, about 65 feet, under the Andaman Sea when the tsunami swept past them.
WACHS: We were sucked down to 40 meters very quickly.
KIM: I was getting tossed around. I bumped up a couple times against the wreck itself and swam up as hard as I could, looked at my gauge, and I was still dropping.
MARQUEZ: Their attempt to surface by inflating their life vests, thwarted by the massive current of water racing toward Thailand's shore.
KIM: This is the first time I had to do an emergency ascent...
WACHS: Yes.
KIM: ... under unusual and harsh circumstances. So it was terrifying.
MARQUEZ: Kim got separated from the others and eventually found a dive buoy and a rope. The rope became his lifeline.
KIM: It was just unbelievably lucky for us to have been in the water when we were there.
MARQUEZ: Still, they didn't know they had just survived a tsunami. So they changed locations and went for another dive. But the currents were so strong they called it a day. Only then did the gruesome reality reveal itself.
WACHS: I saw piles of bodies, both Thai and foreigners who had come to the island.
MARQUEZ: Their room and all their belongings swept out to sea. The duo helped rescue and care for the injured. Ninety hours later, they made it home, maybe the best homecoming ever.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Up next on LIVE FROM...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I knew I had to let go of one of them. And I just thought, I better let go of the one that's the oldest.
O'BRIEN: A mother of two young boys makes an agonizing choice in the midst of the swirling tsunami waters. You'll hear the rest of her story.
Later on LIVE FROM, helping tsunami victims. How can you make sure your donation really goes to those in need?
Tomorrow on LIVE FROM, a hidden danger in the midst of the tsunamis. We'll talk with a member of a group working to clear Sri Lanka of unearthed land mines.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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LIN: We've got some new developments in Iraq today. Details are emerging from Baghdad, where we're told insurgents attacked four separate police stations and set up a fake checkpoint.
No firm word on casualties. But police and insurgent fighters battled for a half hour. Now, near the scene of yesterday's deadly house explosion.
And we have a report of someone being captured. Fadil Hussein Ahmed al-Kurdi. He is described as a senior aide to suspected terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Al-Zarqawi has the public backing of Osama bin Laden as al Qaeda's leader in Iraq and remains at large himself.
And no rest in Mosul. A gun battle flared today when insurgents tried to ram an explosives-filled truck into a U.S. military post. Well, they failed. But one American soldier was killed in the firefight that followed.
And also today in Mosul, with just a month until nationwide elections in Iraq, a setback. The entire election commission representing Mosul resigned today, all 700 people. They said they'd been threatened and feared for their lives.
O'BRIEN: Well, it began as an ordinary lunch. It ended as one of the deadliest days for U.S. forces since the beginning of the Iraq war.
LIN: Well, last week, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the mess tent of Camp Marez in Mosul. Twenty-two people were killed, including 14 U.S. troops.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Jeff Koinange has one survivor's story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The big tent...
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sergeant Eric Wroblewski is proud to be a member of the U.S. Army's 705th EOD, a unit responsible for defusing bombs and mines.
On Tuesday, December 21, he had joined friends for lunch in the mess hall at Camp Marez in Mosul.
WROBLEWSKI: I got up to go get some pizza. And on my way back is when the explosion occurred. The explosion knocked me to the ground. I got up, found my glasses as soon as possible. They were about two feet behind me.
KOINANGE: Instinct took over. WROBLEWSKI: I ran around, grabbing aprons from some of the -- some of the workers, taking their aprons off them, because they didn't need them. We were using anything we could. I already took my BDU top off by then. Anything we could use to -- just to stop the bleeding.
KOINANGE: The mess hall, he says, was filled with pandemonium. In this photograph, taken by a journalist visiting the base, Wroblewski rushes to the aid of his fallen colleagues.
WROBLEWSKI: Specialist Hewitt was opposite side of the table from me, right across from me. And we sat there -- I mean, that was our normal seating spot. We always sat in the same area. That way if somebody came late, they would know where to find us and they didn't have to sit alone.
I went in one more time to look for Specialist Hewitt. I couldn't find him. And he was dead when he arrived at the hospital.
KOINANGE: Every day, he struggles with vivid memories of those moments.
WROBLEWSKI: Just to see that hole just reminds me of the fireball. I mean, the fireball was so big. I was very lucky. If I didn't get up to get pizza, I could either be with Specialist Hewitt right now or recovering next to -- next to Sergeant Voda (ph).
He's right here, Specialist Hewitt.
KOINANGE: Wroblewski is struggling to come to terms with the loss of his best buddy.
WROBLEWSKI: Specialist Hewitt was a really good soldier. He was a really good friend. I know it's hard, but I hope they're proud of what he was doing, because he was really proud of what he was doing and to be here.
The last thing Specialist Hewitt said to me -- we were talking about my wife, actually. And he said, "Your wife made some really good pancakes." And that's when I told him I was going to go get more pizza. That was the last thing he said to me.
KOINANGE: Jeff Koinange...
WROBLEWSKI: I don't know about all that.
KOINANGE: ... CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Security on the minds of New York City authorities on this, the day before the biggest New Year's Eve party in America. Live pictures now. New York City. Coming up. There it is: 59th street, Central Park West, Columbus Circle, Time Warner world headquarters. Sunny and fairly mild today, high in the mid-40s. Not bad for this time of year. Also not bad tomorrow night, even a little warmer, for the dropping of the ball over Times Square. High tomorrow, in the mid-50s. Midnight, mid-40s.
New York City's mayor spoke yesterday to the security concerns and advised visitors to button up their overcoats and all that stuff. And of course, leave the city safety to him.
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MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY: There will be specialized teams to monitor the air for any abnormal readings of chemical, biological or radiological materials.
I should point out to you, as well, there's an awful lot of the security that we are going to provide that will not be visible. Things like New York City Police Department's ongoing counterterrorism intelligence operations. You'll never know who that person standing next to you is. And that's exactly the way it should be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: So CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information day and night.
Boeing has found a new ally in its battle against its archenemy, that European rival Airbus. David Haffenreffer joining us from the New York Stock Exchange with that story and much more.
Hello, David.
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