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Sri Lankans Resilient in Face of Tragedy; Aid Workers Working to Prevent Epidemics; U.S. Navy Flies Relief Missions; Laser Incidents Most Likely Accidents, Military Analyst Says; U.S. West Coast Hit Hard by Snow

Aired January 03, 2005 - 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.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: Help falling from the skies. U.S. Navy helos dropping aid to tsunami survivors. Live this hour, we'll talk with a pilot who's flying the missions.
MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: The only survivor. He is literally the last man left in his village. This hour, we're in depth on the efforts to get supplies to people like him.

PHILLIPS: High-profile fund raisers. President Bush calls on former presidents to get you to donate cash. Your money for the relief effort could help save lives.

O'BRIEN: Lasers and airplanes. More potentially dangerous incidents. We'll try to enlighten you with our CNN military analyst Don Shepperd about who or what might be behind the beams.

From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

After the death and destruction, amid the search and recovery, supply and demand. The former is growing, the latter still staggering a week and a day after unmitigated disaster on the Indian Ocean rim.

With almost 155,000 people now reported dead, food, medicine and other supplies are finding their way to some of the hardest hit, hardest to reach locations.

What you see is just a tiny fraction of the $2 billion now pledged by outside governments and the World Bank. Private donations are building up, too. And if you've been watching CNN, you saw President Bush enlist his two immediate predecessors to drum up more. Mr. Bush says the former presidents will ask Americans to donate to reliable charities already providing help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Americans have a history of rising to meet great humanitarian challenges and of providing hope to suffering peoples. As men and women across the devastated region begin to rebuild, we offer our sustained compassion and our generosity and our assurance that America will be there to help. (END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: En route to Thailand today, Secretary of State Colin Powell says the official U.S. aid package, now worth $350 million, can and will be scaled up if necessary. Powell and Florida Governor Jeb Bush are surveying damage, meeting with officials, coordinating relief, and in the words of Governor Bush, providing encouragement.

CNN correspondents are watching it all, from southern India to northern Indonesia.

O'BRIEN: In Sri Lanka where the dead number 46,000, help is coming in fits and starts, despite an insurgency that has divided that island nation for years.

CNN's Hugh Riminton in the southern city of Beruwala -- Hugh.

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

Well, some U.N. officials have been saying to us that this disaster represents the biggest challenge in terms of psychological warfare anywhere in the world in a generation. They see the easing of mental suffering as being as important as the reconstruction of buildings or the restoring of food supplies.

And certainly, in Sri Lanka, the trauma, especially among children, has been enormous.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIMINTON (voice-over): Children at Beruwala (ph) Temple laugh as children do, though each night now they sleep 40 to a room.

They don't talk about why they're here. They are homeless now.

Twelve-year-old Ganga (ph) and her 9-year-old sister, Juwani (ph), now rely utterly on their elderly grandparents.

"When the water came, I was frightened," said Ganga (ph). "We ran and our home is gone."

Every day the grandmother travels hours to a hospital to be with the girls' 13-year-old brother. Since the wave, he has spoken not a single word.

The nurses care for him, along with so many other wounded boys. No one can guess when he might start to speak again.

At the temple camp, children have had to grow up this week.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All houses, dress, anything lost, we are -- we are very -- very sad.

RIMINTON (on camera): It is a sanctuary but it can't last long. This is a school and kindergarten complex, and a week from now, all of these families must be moved on. (voice-over) But to where?

SUJEEWA SAMARASINGHA, TSUNAMI VICTIM: Where you go? Nothing. Go on the road? Nobody help us, to help us out.

RIMINTON: To ease the trauma for her sister's children, she's told them their mother has gone away for work. Their mother is missing. The elder girl has guessed it.

But how tough is this grandmother? No home, no work, no prospects. But she says she is happy to raise these children. She says it will make her life better.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIMINTON: So the suffering is great in Sri Lanka, this beautiful island of 40,000 dead. But we saw in that story and personified by that grandmother, the resilience of the people is also great -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Hugh, what about the areas that are controlled by the insurgency? Has the insurgency tried to help out? Is this an opportunity for them to attempt to vie for more support?

Or is there possibly some sort of arrangement that will come out of this which might allay the concerns about the insurgency in the future?

RIMINTON: Well, a bit of just about all of those things, Miles.

By and large, there have remained these tensions. The -- the Tamil Tigers, the rebel group that controls the north and a large part of the east of this island, are still insisting that they, and they alone, are the ones who must distribute the aids.

There have been reports of some village buildings being destroyed by the Tamil Tigers because the people who lived there had accepted aid directly from the government. Are being punished, if you like, by their own rebel movement.

There are still those optimists, though, Miles, who do hold the view that the common suffering that they have all had to bear across this island might break through in some way where diplomacy in the past has failed.

O'BRIEN: Hugh Riminton, thank you very much -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Indonesia still accounts for most of the known dead: 94,000 at last report. But aid is arriving in devastated Aceh province, largely via U.S. military helicopters that fly in supplies and fly out survivors.

CNN's Mike Chinoy is in the provincial capital that now exists in name only.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what is left of the central business and residential district of Banda Aceh, a bustling community of shops, markets and homes that was totally flattened by the tsunami.

You can see the devastation stretches literally as far as the eye can see. There is one tractor out there, and in it, in an orange body bag is one corpse, one of the many thousands, tens of thousands of victims of this disaster here just in Banda Aceh itself. Throughout the rest of the province, the total is even greater.

People who lived here, who worked here, can be seen picking their way through this rubble, trying to salvage something of their personal possessions. We talked to some members of one family who got in their car as the tsunami approached, eight of them with all their valuable documents.

They drove a few meters and realized they weren't going to be able to out drive the waves, so they jumped out. Five of them died or are missing. Three survived. And they were back, picking through the rubble, trying to see whether any of their important personal papers and documents were salvageable. But they couldn't manage to turn the car over in order to do so.

The big concern now is public health, especially preventing the spread of disease. With so many bodies still buried in the rubble here and with the water supply contaminated, fresh drinking water is a top priority.

The Australian military has now begun to provide purified water, potable water, 20,000 liters a day, bringing in purification equipment and taking water from the city's polluted water supply.

But aid workers say already there's been an increase in diarrheal diseases, other stomach disorders, as well as fevers, respiratory ailments. And it's a race against time to clean up the copses, the rotting, bloated corpses, try and get enough drinking water to enough people to make sure that epidemics don't become a really serious hazard here.

Mike Chinoy, CNN, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, the last time you heard about the USS Abraham Lincoln was during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Bombing runs and strike planning for war were the missions day and night. Now that battle has changed.

Pilots and their crews aboard this carrier are battling to save lives and feed thousands of desperate tsunami victims.

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Greg Knutson flies the H-60 Seahawk. His squadron, the Golden Falcons, is getting no rest. For three days straight Greg has been flying his helicopter all over the devastated coastal region, delivering food and water, bringing in disaster relief teams, and saving lives.

He joins us now by phone aboard the Lincoln.

Can you hear me OK, Greg?

LT. GREG KNUTSON, U.S. NAVY: Yes, I can, Kyra. How can you hear me?

PHILLIPS: It's perfect. Thank you so much for your time. I know you've been obviously quite busy.

Tell me about the drops. Tell me how many pounds of goods you've been delivering and what's in the boxes.

KNUTSON: We've been bringing about 2,000 pounds of food down to the different camp sites with milk, water, rice, noodles, biscuits, eggs, chicken soup. Pretty much all the above.

PHILLIPS: Have you been able to actually touch down in parts of the region, or can you only come in and hover and drop these boxes off?

KNUTSON: We've been doing both, where we've been coming just to a ten-foot hover when there's just crowds of people wanting to get food into our helicopter. So we don't want to set down on the ground.

But sometimes we will have the -- all the people over to the one side, and then we'll fly about a quarter of a mile away, set down and then we'll start putting food out. Then they'll just come out to the aircraft.

PHILLIPS: Greg, I think what's probably moved us the most as we look at the pictures taken from inside your helo and other helicopters, just the faces of the people, how they rush to the helicopter. I mean, what do they say to you? How do they react to you? Do you get a chance to interact at all with the people?

KNUTSON: With me being in the front of the pilot's chair, we're more or less sitting in the aircraft. But there are A.W.'s that are in the back, our air crewmen. They're getting out with our translator and the media, helping out bringing out the boxes of food and whatnot and medical supplies.

People are coming up to the aircraft and hugging them, holding their hands, saying, "Thank you," bowing. It's an amazing feeling.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Now I know also you've been taking the injured to get medical help. Tell me -- give me some recent examples. Tell me about the individuals, what kind of injuries and how you've been able to save their lives.

KNUTSON: There's been a few injuries when we fly back and we deliver the food and we're flying back to our home base. Along the roads, that's all battered up. Bridges lost and whatnot.

We'll come down and land. We'll have our interpreter get out of the aircraft, go and talk to the small towns. Then they will figure out if there's anybody wounded.

Today we had a woman that had a broken leg and then also we had another guy who had a laceration to one of his legs. So we flew them back to Banda Aceh for medical supplies.

PHILLIPS: Wow. What about the children? I mean, as we see these pictures, I'm curious. Any of them rush the cockpit? Do they want to get in helicopter? Do they want you to take them with you?

KNUTSON: Yes, they do. They want to try to get into the helicopter. They -- like I said earlier, they'll be hugging the air crewmen that are out giving the food and whatnot. So I mean the wave, it's amazing.

PHILLIPS: What do you think has moved you to...

KNUTSON: It's hard to explain.

PHILLIPS: No doubt. This can't be an easy mission to take on. But I want to know, out of the three days that you've been going non- stop, what sticks out in your mind the most at this point?

KNUTSON: It's just that I'm glad that we're helping and that we have a mission where we can give as much food and medical supplies to the people that are devastated with their people, loss of families and loss of homes.

PHILLIPS: U.S. Navy Lieutenant Greg Knutson flies the H-60 Seahawk. His squadron, Golden Falcons, helping deliver aid. Thanks for your time, Greg.

KNUTSON: Thank you very much, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Miles.

O'BRIEN: It's a security concern we've been following for you on CNN: laser beams shining into cockpits, potentially interfering with a pilot's ability to fly an airplane. Just ahead, we'll talk with our CNN military analyst, Don Shepperd, about this rash of recent incidents.

And snowed under. Hollywood travelers dealing with as much as eight feet. That's not eight inches. Eight feet of snow. We're live from northern California. Ted Rowlands somewhere under that snow bank, we think.

And later, the little rover still going. Still going. On a big mission. One year after they invaded the red planet, today they're doing their vital mission, sending back some good science. We'll keep you posted.

ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) O'BRIEN: Keeping your eye on security. It has happened again. Another laser beam apparently aimed at a commercial jet over the weekend, this time out of Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The FAA investigating that and a slew of other similar recent incidents.

Joining us from Tucson, Arizona, to give us his take on all of this, our military analyst, retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd.

General Shepperd, good to have you back with us.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE: My pleasure, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Let's -- I want to show people at least in one case what we're talking about here. Somebody inadvertently, near Teterboro Airport, New Jersey, New York City area, inadvertently shined a device at a police helicopter and very quickly had a lot of uninvited guests at his doorstop.

Let's look at the web site, if we could, just quickly. There you see the incident there. But the web site -- he admitted he got it from this place, Bigha, which has these lasers on here, which are designed for people who like to point out constellations, aim telescopes, aim guns, that kinds of thing. All of these are perfectly acceptable uses for the laser.

But as you can see on the web site, it repeatedly shows methods for pointing them into the sky. And we can see how using it even innocently to do that, could cause a lot of problem. It also says that it can extend out to 25,000 feet.

Do you think, General Shepperd, that maybe this is what's going on? People are getting these laser pointers, trying to point out Orion's Belt and instead are causing problems with Delta 643?

SHEPPERD: I do, Miles. I think, of course, with terrorism on our minds, everybody immediately asks, "Could this be terrorism?" It would be a terribly ineffective terrorist weapon.

I think it's, in some cases, whackos, in other cases unthinking people taking these widely available commercial lasers and pointing them at aircraft, which, you know, is certainly not a good idea as the person in New Jersey just saw.

O'BRIEN: I should say so.

Let's try to get people a sense what have we're talking about here. Because these devices are commercially available, and they are below the threshold of power after which the federal government gets involved and you need to have a license. And of all places, the food and drug administration gets in the mix.

Those lasers that require all that licensing could do some harm. But that is not something that the average person can get a hold of. Correct? SHEPPERD: That's true. Laser is an acronym. It stands for light amplification of stimulated emission of radiation. And basically, what you do is you take a substance, put it in a tube or a container. You excite that substance with heat, with electricity, with chemicals, that type of thing. And it emits electrons.

Those electrons, then, are focused usually through mirrors and emitted -- if it's in the visible spectrum -- by light.

Now that's easy to do on a low scale. But if you're talking about something for damage or something from a military weapon standpoint, very, very expensive, hard to get a hold of, Miles.

O'BRIEN: And certainly, over the years the Pentagon has looked at this as a possible weapon. We know the Pentagon uses it as a way to identify targets behind enemy lines and so forth. But that doesn't require that high power you're talking about.

To do some real damage, it takes a lot of power and a lot of setup and a lot of expertise. Correct?

SHEPPERD: It does. It's available all the way from golf carts, you know, where we look at our distance to the green, all the way to the airborne laser that the Air Force is experimenting with to burn through missiles in flight.

In the Iran-Iraq war, there were supposedly about 4,000 documented evidences of eye damage from Iraqi tanks employed against Iranians. And these were laser range finders that were strong enough and the people were close enough that it did some type of damage to the retina.

So you have to be careful with these things. But it's not an easy weapon to employ, and again, very expensive and closely held by the military.

O'BRIEN: So is it possible then -- I mean, we have people who might have these pointers either innocent or malicious, nevertheless, certainly no terrorist intent.

Is it possible some of these aircraft are flying near these fully sanctioned, licensed outdoor displays? I've talked to some people who run these displays, and they do have to consult with the FAA before they light one of these up. And presumably, controllers know about it and keep planes away.

SHEPPERD: Yes. As you said, the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration -- go figure that one out -- it regulates the type of energy that can be employed. And then the FAA consults with them.

It's true that if do you it in, around an airport, that someone could be dazzled with it. But again, the key issue from standpoint of lasers is the strength of the energy emitted, and then the dwell time.

It's very difficult to aim this at someone's face for an extended period of time, such as in an aircraft, long enough and strong enough to cause the damage, because the atmosphere attenuates that energy very, very handily. So this is difficult to do. Could be as you describe, however.

O'BRIEN: With time expiring, bottom line: is this terrorism?

SHEPPERD: No, absolutely not.

O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you. Don Shepperd. Appreciate your time.

CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned for CNN for the latest information day and night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Later on LIVE FROM, a little boy found in the debris of the tsunami and reunited with his family. Now his rescuers come forward with how they saved his life.

And later...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were designed for three months, and so they're well past their warrantee.

PHILLIPS: Mission to Mars. The little rover is still exploring the red planet one year after landing. We'll show you why Bill Nye, the Science Guy, is even more excited about this than our own Miles O'Brien.

Next on LIVE FROM, winter wallop. Parts of California buried under feet of snow. We'll take you there live.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, a one-two punch for folks in southern California and the Sierra Nevadas

Check out these live pictures. They're dealing with yet another round of record-breaking rain and snow, making for a real mess for people heading to work or trying to get to work. I really doubt this person got to work. Just one weekend after the holiday weekend -- or one day, rather.

CNN's Ted Rowlands is in the ski town of Soda Springs, California.

OK, Ted, that must not be a very happy person.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, it's wonderful up here. And the snow is beautiful. The problem, of course, is getting around and getting out, because so much snow has fallen. At some points nine feet of snow has fallen over the past week. And as you can imagine, it has caused problems not only for folks trying to move or maneuver around here but also for holiday travelers on the freeways. It has been gridlocked over this holiday weekend. It is just starting to clear up today.

But the snow continues to fall here today. And forecasters expect that it will snow continuously in some counties at least through tomorrow. There will be a little bit of break, and then there could be more snow, they're expecting, starting later this week.

The highways are one issue. The other issue is folks that live here digging themselves out, digging their vehicles out. It is a full time job.

We met one family that runs a sled dog tour company. They give folks rides into the backcountry. Well, they live in the backcountry themselves. They got snowed in. Their vehicles didn't work, so the family had to emerge on this sled with the dogs pulling them into town. They picked up some supplies and some much-need food.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So we just snow shoed up. We're going to have something to eat. And they just -- my husband decided to dog sled the kids in, because it's so deep and little kids can't walk two miles in this kind of snow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is how you get into the door.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: This is something we've seen a lot of over the past few days, folks coming out, finding their cars, first off, and then digging them out, slowly but surely.

Ski hills, as you might imagine, love the snow. But the problem there, too, it's so hard to get up here, they say the numbers were actually down during the holiday weekend. It was not only snow, but a lot of wind. Folks just stayed home rather than venturing out.

But over the long haul, the ski hills are very happy to get this dumping. And as I said, a little bit of a respite the next few days but more to come according to forecasters later this week.

PHILLIPS: All right. Our Ted Rowlands, who was air lifted in there to the ski town of Soda Springs. We'll talk to you later, Ted. Thanks.

Is there any light at the end of the tunnel for folks hit by this storm? Let's check in and go live to the CNN weather center, meteorologist Jacqui Jeras with the latest.

Hi, Jacqui.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: All right, Jacqui. Thanks so much.

Well, Wall Street calls it an early warning system. And investors will closely monitor what the market does this week. Susan Lisovicz joins us now live from the New York Stock Exchange to tell us why.

Hi, Susan.

(STOCK REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KYRA PHILLIPS: These pictures just in to CNN. The president, his wife, also former presidents George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton right now visiting the Indonesian embassy. They've been sort of making trips to all the various embassies, of the areas hardest hit there by the tsunami over in coastal regions.

It was earlier today that the three presidents made a plea, a plea to Americans, to help donate to specific charities and to help give cash to help the victims of the tsunami that ravaged those coastal regions. Once again, the presidents now just going from embassy to embassy visiting those hardest hit. Miles?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, LIVE FROM: Here is the latest on the tsunami disaster for you. Aid supplies funneling into the region but distribution on the ground is difficult with roads and bridges washed out in the hardest hit areas.

The death toll now nearing 155,000 after Indonesia estimated another 14,000 deaths. Secretary of State Colin Powell and the president's brother Jeb Bush are assessing the damage first hand in Thailand. They're trying to determine how the U.S. can help most effectively.

In Washington, 43 taps 42 and 41. You saw some more recent pictures of them just a moment ago. President Bush naming his father and former president Bill Clinton to head a major fund raising effort to help the tsunami victims. They'll ask the public and American businesses for contributions.

All three men doing the embassy tour as we showed you just a few moments ago. Some of the tape being fed into us now, signing the condolence books at those hard-hit nations.

On the roof of the White House, and across the country, Americans are lowering flags to half-staff this week in memory of the tsunami victims.

Inside the disaster zone, entire towns have been obliterated. Australian broadcasting reporter Shane McCloud (ph) found one town where 10,000 once lived, now reduced to one last man.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHANE MCCLOUD, BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA, (on camera): There are some signs of progress here in Banda Aceh, evidenced by the scores of helicopter flights going south. On a seven-hour walk to possibly the worst hit area yesterday, we found villages where no help had come at all and the handful of survivors had given up waiting.

MCCLOUD, (voice over): They're coming out now, hundreds of them. Some who have been walking up Aceh's west coast for six days living off coconuts and leaves. As we passed them walking in to try and find the town of (UNINTELLIGIBLE), we heard stories of unbelievable devastation on the road ahead.

The passage isn't easy. The coast is piled high with debris. The road pulled apart, bridges torn up. When we arrive in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) hours later we found what was once a town of around 10,000 people is now just a place name. We found (UNINTELLIGIBLE) , the last man, entirely alone. His town gone, his fellow survivors fled. His entire family killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, (through translator): I've been trying to find my mother so I don't care about help. But not even one helicopter came here.

MCCLOUD: He points out where the mosque had been and an Islamic boarding school of around 500 students, now obliterated, where restaurants and homes and shops once stood. Now there is instead kilometer after kilometer of splintered junk. It seems only around 200 or 300 people were left alive here. Two or 300 from 10,000.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (through translator): I think there are only about 30 children left. This place was crowded with children but the water was just too high.

MCCLOUD: Here is why (UNINTELLIGIBLE) was wiped off the face of the map. Further down coast the waves surged 2.5 kilometers inland. But along this stretch of coast, it crashed on to limestone cliffs just 4500 meters behind the beach. Flooded up in places 30 or 40 meters high, then roared back out to sea taking almost everyone and everything with it.

Hitting a few kilometers back north, we catch up with (UNINTELLIGIBLE) other survivors. They are heading for Banda Aceh. Around 150 refugees. But there are only around a dozen children. Shocked, speechless, they weave in and out of a nightmare landscape dotted with the skeletons of something quite inconceivable.

Ten kilometers behind them, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is walking too. It's time for the last man to leave. Now there is no one left at all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: our thanks to our Australian broadcasting reporter Shane McCloud for that report from hard-hit Indonesia.

KYRA PHILLIPS: Massive amounts of aid supplies are making their way to southern Asia. Now the struggle begins of how to get it quickly to people who need it most. Lou Brandon of Atlanta works with the Salvation Army's relief operation. She joins us now live on the phone from Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. Can you hear me OK?

LOU BRANDON, SALVATION ARMY: Yes, I can.

KYRA PHILLIPS: Thanks, Lou. Let's talk about how you have set up -- I guess your area there in Colombo, your Salvation Army has actually been converted into a distribution warehouse. Is that right?

BRANDON: Yes, it has. Our local worship center here at the territorial headquarters has been turned into a depot.

KYRA PHILLIPS: What exactly do you have there?

BRANDON: We have various things. We've received quite a bit of clothing and food and those types of things from Hong Kong actually. And we're sending things out from here.

KYRA PHILLIPS: I know you've been distributing sleeping mats and clothing. What do you think the biggest needs are right now?

BRANDON: Right now we hear that medication. There are some things coming in, but I understand that it's just not sufficient for the needs that are out there.

KYRA PHILLIPS: What type of medication, Lou?

BRANDON: Well, we have a lot of the diarrhea that's going on. So you would need anti-diarrhea medications. Antibiotics. Those types of things to cover the injuries that have taken place. Lot of -- my goodness. They've called for so many things actually. I'm not in the office at present. If I was in the office, I could even read off some of the things for you.

KYRA PHILLIPS: Wet me ask you this. How do folks -- obviously there are so many people that want to give, Lou. What's the best way to go about finding out exactly what you need and donating things like the antibiotics, other medical supplies, clothes, other things?

BRANDON: Well, if the people could get in touch with their local Salvation Army office in their neighborhoods or in their cities I'm sure that someone there can give them the information that they need.

KYRA PHILLIPS: They just specifically need to say the Colombo Sri Lanka facility.

BRANDON: Yes.

KYRA PHILLIPS: I got to ask you, we've looked at some pretty amazing pictures that you e-mailed to us. I want to ask you just about one or two. This one of the relief goods that were given to a mother and child. Obviously just devastated by what's taken place. Put in perspective this child, thank God still has her mother. But we've been hearing so much about the orphans. Are there a lot? Can you put that into perspective for us?

BRANDON: Yes. There are quite a few children that have lost their mother and their fathers. So our people here are entertaining the idea of doing some things along those lines as well.

KYRA PHILLIPS: Have you just seen an amazing -- I guess looking at the other side of this, just an amazing side to these people and the power of the human spirit and how they are still just continuing on and believing that people like you can help them get started again?

BRANDON: Yes. It's pretty amazing. I guess in a situation like this if someone shows you kindness and love, you just accept it and run with.

KYRA PHILLIPS: Lou Brandon, I know you're doing a lot of that. Works for the Salvation Army's relief operation. You heard Lou. If you want to help, if you want to get involved, contact your local Salvation Army and find out how you can donate to the facility there in Sri Lanka.

Much as the tsunami has grabbed the attention worldwide, 2.5 years ago, all eyes were focused on a small town in Pennsylvania. Nine miners -- you'll remember this -- trapped beneath the earth's surface. Up next, you'll hear from some of those men as we begin a yearlong look back at some of the biggest stories in CNN's history.

And a landmark event in space exploration one year later. What have we learned from the mars rovers? Miles probes beyond the surface and other things when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. We're ringing in the New Year with something new here at LIVE FROM. CNN celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2005. Throughout the year, we'll have a series called "Then and Now" looking back at some of the big stories we've covered over this quarter century.

We begin with a dramatic chapter in our history. It happened July 2002 when nine Pennsylvania coal miners found themselves trapped hundreds of feet underground.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All nine are alive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first miner has been pulled from the mine. His name is Randy Fogle.

RANDY FOGLE: That's just awesome. To know you can see another sunrise or have another day with your family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Number two miner at 1:15 a.m. Harry Mayhugh

HARRY BLAINE MAYHUGH: There still isn't a day that goes by that you don't think of what happened, what could have happened. Just your outlook on life is a lot better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ninth and final miner.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His name is Mark Popernack.

MARK POPERNACK: When I first got out of the mine, I wouldn't even step on an ant walking down the sidewalk because it was something that God created and that was life and I didn't want to take that away.

MAYHUGH: No, haven't worked in the mines ever since the incident.

FOGLE: I stayed out of the mines for six months after the accident. Then I went back to work and that's what I've been doing ever since. I work underground all the time.

POPERNACK: When Randy went back to the mines I was going to go back also. And that night, my oldest son Lucas had nightmares about it. And I just decided right then that I wasn't going to go back underground because it affected my kids so much.

FOGLE: There is a lot of technology and a lot of manpower with all the people working up there. But there had to be a higher power, I do believe.

POPERNACK: Life is precious and we got a second chance at it and we don't forget it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: Stay tuned to CNN to find out what happened on more of the big newsmakers from the past 25 years. We're sort of mining our library. Our series "Then and Now" will be here all throughout the year.

KYRA PHILLIPS: Weather still providing remarkable information beyond their life expectancy, up next Miles probes the mars rover program to find out what we've learned about the red planet.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange. Coming up, some employers are offering a new incentive for workers to get healthy this year. Good old cash. I'll have that story coming up so stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: Let's go to White House briefing. Scott McClellan talking to reporters, as they are able to do so.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: I would encourage people to do so. This is a disaster of unlike any we have seen in recent history. And the American people are rising to the occasion and showing the world that we are the most compassionate and generous nation around the globe. And in terms of the outreach efforts here, I mean the former presidents will be reaching out to corporations, they'll be reaching out to foundations, reaching out to the American people.

I think you can expect they will reach out to people to give smaller contributions, as well as others that can give bigger contributions to this effort. And no, there is not a specific goal at this point. But we want to maximize all the support we can for the international organizations that are in the region.

As you heard the president say, those organizations who are currently operating in the region have a good understanding of what the needs are and how to meet those needs. And that's why he called on people to give cash donations. That's the best way to support what's go on now in the region.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: is there some plan for how they're going to go about doing this? In other words, is somebody going to divide up all this, who they're going to call?

MCCLELLAN: You heard the president talk earlier did about how the USA Freedom Corps will be assisting them in their efforts. Two leaders are now private citizens. They volunteered at the request of the president to spearhead this effort. They're very distinguished individuals who enjoy wide respect and we're confident they'll be able to help build even greater support from the United States for the relief efforts that are under way and for the longer-term reconstruction.

Like I said, there is the immediate response, there is the nearer term response, then there is the longer-term response. This is going to be a long process as the people of that region work to rebuild their lives and recover from this great tragedy.

MILES O'BRIEN: Scott McClellan at the White House. Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS: Some employers are offering a cash incentive for workers to get a little healthy. Susan Lisovicz joins us now live from the New York Stock Exchange -- or live from -- yes, New York Stock Exchange with that story. Hi, Susan.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

KYRA PHILLIPS: We have two very, very important stories coming up in the next hour-and-a-half. Right Miles?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes. Can't remember what they are though.

KYRA PHILLIPS: I'll tell you the first one. That's a woman who broke barriers in Washington and she even ran for president. But -- go ahead.

MILES O'BRIEN: Then there mars -- you know. The White House briefing messed up my mars story. My nose is a little out of joint. But that's how it goes here at CNN. The news comes first. The news of earth always supersedes news of mars.

Back with more in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: Meeting urgent needs. Volunteers from all over the world bringing food to tsunami victims. This hour, relief workers tell their stories.

KYRA PHILLIPS: He left the comforts of America to help orphans in Sri Lanka. Now he needs help rebuilding his orphanage. He tells the amazing story of how the children survived.

MILES O'BRIEN: Rebuilding their lives. Just a week after the tsunamis struck, people in one village determined to carry on.

KYRA PHILLIPS: A new year brings renewed violence in Iraq just weeks before elections. We'll talk with our CNN Military Analyst about whether that country is ready.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, hello everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips.

MILES O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Happy New Year to you. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM begins right now.

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

Aired January 3, 2005 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: Help falling from the skies. U.S. Navy helos dropping aid to tsunami survivors. Live this hour, we'll talk with a pilot who's flying the missions.
MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: The only survivor. He is literally the last man left in his village. This hour, we're in depth on the efforts to get supplies to people like him.

PHILLIPS: High-profile fund raisers. President Bush calls on former presidents to get you to donate cash. Your money for the relief effort could help save lives.

O'BRIEN: Lasers and airplanes. More potentially dangerous incidents. We'll try to enlighten you with our CNN military analyst Don Shepperd about who or what might be behind the beams.

From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

After the death and destruction, amid the search and recovery, supply and demand. The former is growing, the latter still staggering a week and a day after unmitigated disaster on the Indian Ocean rim.

With almost 155,000 people now reported dead, food, medicine and other supplies are finding their way to some of the hardest hit, hardest to reach locations.

What you see is just a tiny fraction of the $2 billion now pledged by outside governments and the World Bank. Private donations are building up, too. And if you've been watching CNN, you saw President Bush enlist his two immediate predecessors to drum up more. Mr. Bush says the former presidents will ask Americans to donate to reliable charities already providing help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Americans have a history of rising to meet great humanitarian challenges and of providing hope to suffering peoples. As men and women across the devastated region begin to rebuild, we offer our sustained compassion and our generosity and our assurance that America will be there to help. (END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: En route to Thailand today, Secretary of State Colin Powell says the official U.S. aid package, now worth $350 million, can and will be scaled up if necessary. Powell and Florida Governor Jeb Bush are surveying damage, meeting with officials, coordinating relief, and in the words of Governor Bush, providing encouragement.

CNN correspondents are watching it all, from southern India to northern Indonesia.

O'BRIEN: In Sri Lanka where the dead number 46,000, help is coming in fits and starts, despite an insurgency that has divided that island nation for years.

CNN's Hugh Riminton in the southern city of Beruwala -- Hugh.

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

Well, some U.N. officials have been saying to us that this disaster represents the biggest challenge in terms of psychological warfare anywhere in the world in a generation. They see the easing of mental suffering as being as important as the reconstruction of buildings or the restoring of food supplies.

And certainly, in Sri Lanka, the trauma, especially among children, has been enormous.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIMINTON (voice-over): Children at Beruwala (ph) Temple laugh as children do, though each night now they sleep 40 to a room.

They don't talk about why they're here. They are homeless now.

Twelve-year-old Ganga (ph) and her 9-year-old sister, Juwani (ph), now rely utterly on their elderly grandparents.

"When the water came, I was frightened," said Ganga (ph). "We ran and our home is gone."

Every day the grandmother travels hours to a hospital to be with the girls' 13-year-old brother. Since the wave, he has spoken not a single word.

The nurses care for him, along with so many other wounded boys. No one can guess when he might start to speak again.

At the temple camp, children have had to grow up this week.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All houses, dress, anything lost, we are -- we are very -- very sad.

RIMINTON (on camera): It is a sanctuary but it can't last long. This is a school and kindergarten complex, and a week from now, all of these families must be moved on. (voice-over) But to where?

SUJEEWA SAMARASINGHA, TSUNAMI VICTIM: Where you go? Nothing. Go on the road? Nobody help us, to help us out.

RIMINTON: To ease the trauma for her sister's children, she's told them their mother has gone away for work. Their mother is missing. The elder girl has guessed it.

But how tough is this grandmother? No home, no work, no prospects. But she says she is happy to raise these children. She says it will make her life better.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIMINTON: So the suffering is great in Sri Lanka, this beautiful island of 40,000 dead. But we saw in that story and personified by that grandmother, the resilience of the people is also great -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Hugh, what about the areas that are controlled by the insurgency? Has the insurgency tried to help out? Is this an opportunity for them to attempt to vie for more support?

Or is there possibly some sort of arrangement that will come out of this which might allay the concerns about the insurgency in the future?

RIMINTON: Well, a bit of just about all of those things, Miles.

By and large, there have remained these tensions. The -- the Tamil Tigers, the rebel group that controls the north and a large part of the east of this island, are still insisting that they, and they alone, are the ones who must distribute the aids.

There have been reports of some village buildings being destroyed by the Tamil Tigers because the people who lived there had accepted aid directly from the government. Are being punished, if you like, by their own rebel movement.

There are still those optimists, though, Miles, who do hold the view that the common suffering that they have all had to bear across this island might break through in some way where diplomacy in the past has failed.

O'BRIEN: Hugh Riminton, thank you very much -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Indonesia still accounts for most of the known dead: 94,000 at last report. But aid is arriving in devastated Aceh province, largely via U.S. military helicopters that fly in supplies and fly out survivors.

CNN's Mike Chinoy is in the provincial capital that now exists in name only.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what is left of the central business and residential district of Banda Aceh, a bustling community of shops, markets and homes that was totally flattened by the tsunami.

You can see the devastation stretches literally as far as the eye can see. There is one tractor out there, and in it, in an orange body bag is one corpse, one of the many thousands, tens of thousands of victims of this disaster here just in Banda Aceh itself. Throughout the rest of the province, the total is even greater.

People who lived here, who worked here, can be seen picking their way through this rubble, trying to salvage something of their personal possessions. We talked to some members of one family who got in their car as the tsunami approached, eight of them with all their valuable documents.

They drove a few meters and realized they weren't going to be able to out drive the waves, so they jumped out. Five of them died or are missing. Three survived. And they were back, picking through the rubble, trying to see whether any of their important personal papers and documents were salvageable. But they couldn't manage to turn the car over in order to do so.

The big concern now is public health, especially preventing the spread of disease. With so many bodies still buried in the rubble here and with the water supply contaminated, fresh drinking water is a top priority.

The Australian military has now begun to provide purified water, potable water, 20,000 liters a day, bringing in purification equipment and taking water from the city's polluted water supply.

But aid workers say already there's been an increase in diarrheal diseases, other stomach disorders, as well as fevers, respiratory ailments. And it's a race against time to clean up the copses, the rotting, bloated corpses, try and get enough drinking water to enough people to make sure that epidemics don't become a really serious hazard here.

Mike Chinoy, CNN, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, the last time you heard about the USS Abraham Lincoln was during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Bombing runs and strike planning for war were the missions day and night. Now that battle has changed.

Pilots and their crews aboard this carrier are battling to save lives and feed thousands of desperate tsunami victims.

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Greg Knutson flies the H-60 Seahawk. His squadron, the Golden Falcons, is getting no rest. For three days straight Greg has been flying his helicopter all over the devastated coastal region, delivering food and water, bringing in disaster relief teams, and saving lives.

He joins us now by phone aboard the Lincoln.

Can you hear me OK, Greg?

LT. GREG KNUTSON, U.S. NAVY: Yes, I can, Kyra. How can you hear me?

PHILLIPS: It's perfect. Thank you so much for your time. I know you've been obviously quite busy.

Tell me about the drops. Tell me how many pounds of goods you've been delivering and what's in the boxes.

KNUTSON: We've been bringing about 2,000 pounds of food down to the different camp sites with milk, water, rice, noodles, biscuits, eggs, chicken soup. Pretty much all the above.

PHILLIPS: Have you been able to actually touch down in parts of the region, or can you only come in and hover and drop these boxes off?

KNUTSON: We've been doing both, where we've been coming just to a ten-foot hover when there's just crowds of people wanting to get food into our helicopter. So we don't want to set down on the ground.

But sometimes we will have the -- all the people over to the one side, and then we'll fly about a quarter of a mile away, set down and then we'll start putting food out. Then they'll just come out to the aircraft.

PHILLIPS: Greg, I think what's probably moved us the most as we look at the pictures taken from inside your helo and other helicopters, just the faces of the people, how they rush to the helicopter. I mean, what do they say to you? How do they react to you? Do you get a chance to interact at all with the people?

KNUTSON: With me being in the front of the pilot's chair, we're more or less sitting in the aircraft. But there are A.W.'s that are in the back, our air crewmen. They're getting out with our translator and the media, helping out bringing out the boxes of food and whatnot and medical supplies.

People are coming up to the aircraft and hugging them, holding their hands, saying, "Thank you," bowing. It's an amazing feeling.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Now I know also you've been taking the injured to get medical help. Tell me -- give me some recent examples. Tell me about the individuals, what kind of injuries and how you've been able to save their lives.

KNUTSON: There's been a few injuries when we fly back and we deliver the food and we're flying back to our home base. Along the roads, that's all battered up. Bridges lost and whatnot.

We'll come down and land. We'll have our interpreter get out of the aircraft, go and talk to the small towns. Then they will figure out if there's anybody wounded.

Today we had a woman that had a broken leg and then also we had another guy who had a laceration to one of his legs. So we flew them back to Banda Aceh for medical supplies.

PHILLIPS: Wow. What about the children? I mean, as we see these pictures, I'm curious. Any of them rush the cockpit? Do they want to get in helicopter? Do they want you to take them with you?

KNUTSON: Yes, they do. They want to try to get into the helicopter. They -- like I said earlier, they'll be hugging the air crewmen that are out giving the food and whatnot. So I mean the wave, it's amazing.

PHILLIPS: What do you think has moved you to...

KNUTSON: It's hard to explain.

PHILLIPS: No doubt. This can't be an easy mission to take on. But I want to know, out of the three days that you've been going non- stop, what sticks out in your mind the most at this point?

KNUTSON: It's just that I'm glad that we're helping and that we have a mission where we can give as much food and medical supplies to the people that are devastated with their people, loss of families and loss of homes.

PHILLIPS: U.S. Navy Lieutenant Greg Knutson flies the H-60 Seahawk. His squadron, Golden Falcons, helping deliver aid. Thanks for your time, Greg.

KNUTSON: Thank you very much, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Miles.

O'BRIEN: It's a security concern we've been following for you on CNN: laser beams shining into cockpits, potentially interfering with a pilot's ability to fly an airplane. Just ahead, we'll talk with our CNN military analyst, Don Shepperd, about this rash of recent incidents.

And snowed under. Hollywood travelers dealing with as much as eight feet. That's not eight inches. Eight feet of snow. We're live from northern California. Ted Rowlands somewhere under that snow bank, we think.

And later, the little rover still going. Still going. On a big mission. One year after they invaded the red planet, today they're doing their vital mission, sending back some good science. We'll keep you posted.

ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) O'BRIEN: Keeping your eye on security. It has happened again. Another laser beam apparently aimed at a commercial jet over the weekend, this time out of Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The FAA investigating that and a slew of other similar recent incidents.

Joining us from Tucson, Arizona, to give us his take on all of this, our military analyst, retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd.

General Shepperd, good to have you back with us.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE: My pleasure, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Let's -- I want to show people at least in one case what we're talking about here. Somebody inadvertently, near Teterboro Airport, New Jersey, New York City area, inadvertently shined a device at a police helicopter and very quickly had a lot of uninvited guests at his doorstop.

Let's look at the web site, if we could, just quickly. There you see the incident there. But the web site -- he admitted he got it from this place, Bigha, which has these lasers on here, which are designed for people who like to point out constellations, aim telescopes, aim guns, that kinds of thing. All of these are perfectly acceptable uses for the laser.

But as you can see on the web site, it repeatedly shows methods for pointing them into the sky. And we can see how using it even innocently to do that, could cause a lot of problem. It also says that it can extend out to 25,000 feet.

Do you think, General Shepperd, that maybe this is what's going on? People are getting these laser pointers, trying to point out Orion's Belt and instead are causing problems with Delta 643?

SHEPPERD: I do, Miles. I think, of course, with terrorism on our minds, everybody immediately asks, "Could this be terrorism?" It would be a terribly ineffective terrorist weapon.

I think it's, in some cases, whackos, in other cases unthinking people taking these widely available commercial lasers and pointing them at aircraft, which, you know, is certainly not a good idea as the person in New Jersey just saw.

O'BRIEN: I should say so.

Let's try to get people a sense what have we're talking about here. Because these devices are commercially available, and they are below the threshold of power after which the federal government gets involved and you need to have a license. And of all places, the food and drug administration gets in the mix.

Those lasers that require all that licensing could do some harm. But that is not something that the average person can get a hold of. Correct? SHEPPERD: That's true. Laser is an acronym. It stands for light amplification of stimulated emission of radiation. And basically, what you do is you take a substance, put it in a tube or a container. You excite that substance with heat, with electricity, with chemicals, that type of thing. And it emits electrons.

Those electrons, then, are focused usually through mirrors and emitted -- if it's in the visible spectrum -- by light.

Now that's easy to do on a low scale. But if you're talking about something for damage or something from a military weapon standpoint, very, very expensive, hard to get a hold of, Miles.

O'BRIEN: And certainly, over the years the Pentagon has looked at this as a possible weapon. We know the Pentagon uses it as a way to identify targets behind enemy lines and so forth. But that doesn't require that high power you're talking about.

To do some real damage, it takes a lot of power and a lot of setup and a lot of expertise. Correct?

SHEPPERD: It does. It's available all the way from golf carts, you know, where we look at our distance to the green, all the way to the airborne laser that the Air Force is experimenting with to burn through missiles in flight.

In the Iran-Iraq war, there were supposedly about 4,000 documented evidences of eye damage from Iraqi tanks employed against Iranians. And these were laser range finders that were strong enough and the people were close enough that it did some type of damage to the retina.

So you have to be careful with these things. But it's not an easy weapon to employ, and again, very expensive and closely held by the military.

O'BRIEN: So is it possible then -- I mean, we have people who might have these pointers either innocent or malicious, nevertheless, certainly no terrorist intent.

Is it possible some of these aircraft are flying near these fully sanctioned, licensed outdoor displays? I've talked to some people who run these displays, and they do have to consult with the FAA before they light one of these up. And presumably, controllers know about it and keep planes away.

SHEPPERD: Yes. As you said, the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration -- go figure that one out -- it regulates the type of energy that can be employed. And then the FAA consults with them.

It's true that if do you it in, around an airport, that someone could be dazzled with it. But again, the key issue from standpoint of lasers is the strength of the energy emitted, and then the dwell time.

It's very difficult to aim this at someone's face for an extended period of time, such as in an aircraft, long enough and strong enough to cause the damage, because the atmosphere attenuates that energy very, very handily. So this is difficult to do. Could be as you describe, however.

O'BRIEN: With time expiring, bottom line: is this terrorism?

SHEPPERD: No, absolutely not.

O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you. Don Shepperd. Appreciate your time.

CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned for CNN for the latest information day and night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Later on LIVE FROM, a little boy found in the debris of the tsunami and reunited with his family. Now his rescuers come forward with how they saved his life.

And later...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were designed for three months, and so they're well past their warrantee.

PHILLIPS: Mission to Mars. The little rover is still exploring the red planet one year after landing. We'll show you why Bill Nye, the Science Guy, is even more excited about this than our own Miles O'Brien.

Next on LIVE FROM, winter wallop. Parts of California buried under feet of snow. We'll take you there live.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, a one-two punch for folks in southern California and the Sierra Nevadas

Check out these live pictures. They're dealing with yet another round of record-breaking rain and snow, making for a real mess for people heading to work or trying to get to work. I really doubt this person got to work. Just one weekend after the holiday weekend -- or one day, rather.

CNN's Ted Rowlands is in the ski town of Soda Springs, California.

OK, Ted, that must not be a very happy person.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, it's wonderful up here. And the snow is beautiful. The problem, of course, is getting around and getting out, because so much snow has fallen. At some points nine feet of snow has fallen over the past week. And as you can imagine, it has caused problems not only for folks trying to move or maneuver around here but also for holiday travelers on the freeways. It has been gridlocked over this holiday weekend. It is just starting to clear up today.

But the snow continues to fall here today. And forecasters expect that it will snow continuously in some counties at least through tomorrow. There will be a little bit of break, and then there could be more snow, they're expecting, starting later this week.

The highways are one issue. The other issue is folks that live here digging themselves out, digging their vehicles out. It is a full time job.

We met one family that runs a sled dog tour company. They give folks rides into the backcountry. Well, they live in the backcountry themselves. They got snowed in. Their vehicles didn't work, so the family had to emerge on this sled with the dogs pulling them into town. They picked up some supplies and some much-need food.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So we just snow shoed up. We're going to have something to eat. And they just -- my husband decided to dog sled the kids in, because it's so deep and little kids can't walk two miles in this kind of snow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is how you get into the door.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: This is something we've seen a lot of over the past few days, folks coming out, finding their cars, first off, and then digging them out, slowly but surely.

Ski hills, as you might imagine, love the snow. But the problem there, too, it's so hard to get up here, they say the numbers were actually down during the holiday weekend. It was not only snow, but a lot of wind. Folks just stayed home rather than venturing out.

But over the long haul, the ski hills are very happy to get this dumping. And as I said, a little bit of a respite the next few days but more to come according to forecasters later this week.

PHILLIPS: All right. Our Ted Rowlands, who was air lifted in there to the ski town of Soda Springs. We'll talk to you later, Ted. Thanks.

Is there any light at the end of the tunnel for folks hit by this storm? Let's check in and go live to the CNN weather center, meteorologist Jacqui Jeras with the latest.

Hi, Jacqui.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: All right, Jacqui. Thanks so much.

Well, Wall Street calls it an early warning system. And investors will closely monitor what the market does this week. Susan Lisovicz joins us now live from the New York Stock Exchange to tell us why.

Hi, Susan.

(STOCK REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KYRA PHILLIPS: These pictures just in to CNN. The president, his wife, also former presidents George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton right now visiting the Indonesian embassy. They've been sort of making trips to all the various embassies, of the areas hardest hit there by the tsunami over in coastal regions.

It was earlier today that the three presidents made a plea, a plea to Americans, to help donate to specific charities and to help give cash to help the victims of the tsunami that ravaged those coastal regions. Once again, the presidents now just going from embassy to embassy visiting those hardest hit. Miles?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, LIVE FROM: Here is the latest on the tsunami disaster for you. Aid supplies funneling into the region but distribution on the ground is difficult with roads and bridges washed out in the hardest hit areas.

The death toll now nearing 155,000 after Indonesia estimated another 14,000 deaths. Secretary of State Colin Powell and the president's brother Jeb Bush are assessing the damage first hand in Thailand. They're trying to determine how the U.S. can help most effectively.

In Washington, 43 taps 42 and 41. You saw some more recent pictures of them just a moment ago. President Bush naming his father and former president Bill Clinton to head a major fund raising effort to help the tsunami victims. They'll ask the public and American businesses for contributions.

All three men doing the embassy tour as we showed you just a few moments ago. Some of the tape being fed into us now, signing the condolence books at those hard-hit nations.

On the roof of the White House, and across the country, Americans are lowering flags to half-staff this week in memory of the tsunami victims.

Inside the disaster zone, entire towns have been obliterated. Australian broadcasting reporter Shane McCloud (ph) found one town where 10,000 once lived, now reduced to one last man.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHANE MCCLOUD, BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA, (on camera): There are some signs of progress here in Banda Aceh, evidenced by the scores of helicopter flights going south. On a seven-hour walk to possibly the worst hit area yesterday, we found villages where no help had come at all and the handful of survivors had given up waiting.

MCCLOUD, (voice over): They're coming out now, hundreds of them. Some who have been walking up Aceh's west coast for six days living off coconuts and leaves. As we passed them walking in to try and find the town of (UNINTELLIGIBLE), we heard stories of unbelievable devastation on the road ahead.

The passage isn't easy. The coast is piled high with debris. The road pulled apart, bridges torn up. When we arrive in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) hours later we found what was once a town of around 10,000 people is now just a place name. We found (UNINTELLIGIBLE) , the last man, entirely alone. His town gone, his fellow survivors fled. His entire family killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, (through translator): I've been trying to find my mother so I don't care about help. But not even one helicopter came here.

MCCLOUD: He points out where the mosque had been and an Islamic boarding school of around 500 students, now obliterated, where restaurants and homes and shops once stood. Now there is instead kilometer after kilometer of splintered junk. It seems only around 200 or 300 people were left alive here. Two or 300 from 10,000.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (through translator): I think there are only about 30 children left. This place was crowded with children but the water was just too high.

MCCLOUD: Here is why (UNINTELLIGIBLE) was wiped off the face of the map. Further down coast the waves surged 2.5 kilometers inland. But along this stretch of coast, it crashed on to limestone cliffs just 4500 meters behind the beach. Flooded up in places 30 or 40 meters high, then roared back out to sea taking almost everyone and everything with it.

Hitting a few kilometers back north, we catch up with (UNINTELLIGIBLE) other survivors. They are heading for Banda Aceh. Around 150 refugees. But there are only around a dozen children. Shocked, speechless, they weave in and out of a nightmare landscape dotted with the skeletons of something quite inconceivable.

Ten kilometers behind them, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is walking too. It's time for the last man to leave. Now there is no one left at all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: our thanks to our Australian broadcasting reporter Shane McCloud for that report from hard-hit Indonesia.

KYRA PHILLIPS: Massive amounts of aid supplies are making their way to southern Asia. Now the struggle begins of how to get it quickly to people who need it most. Lou Brandon of Atlanta works with the Salvation Army's relief operation. She joins us now live on the phone from Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. Can you hear me OK?

LOU BRANDON, SALVATION ARMY: Yes, I can.

KYRA PHILLIPS: Thanks, Lou. Let's talk about how you have set up -- I guess your area there in Colombo, your Salvation Army has actually been converted into a distribution warehouse. Is that right?

BRANDON: Yes, it has. Our local worship center here at the territorial headquarters has been turned into a depot.

KYRA PHILLIPS: What exactly do you have there?

BRANDON: We have various things. We've received quite a bit of clothing and food and those types of things from Hong Kong actually. And we're sending things out from here.

KYRA PHILLIPS: I know you've been distributing sleeping mats and clothing. What do you think the biggest needs are right now?

BRANDON: Right now we hear that medication. There are some things coming in, but I understand that it's just not sufficient for the needs that are out there.

KYRA PHILLIPS: What type of medication, Lou?

BRANDON: Well, we have a lot of the diarrhea that's going on. So you would need anti-diarrhea medications. Antibiotics. Those types of things to cover the injuries that have taken place. Lot of -- my goodness. They've called for so many things actually. I'm not in the office at present. If I was in the office, I could even read off some of the things for you.

KYRA PHILLIPS: Wet me ask you this. How do folks -- obviously there are so many people that want to give, Lou. What's the best way to go about finding out exactly what you need and donating things like the antibiotics, other medical supplies, clothes, other things?

BRANDON: Well, if the people could get in touch with their local Salvation Army office in their neighborhoods or in their cities I'm sure that someone there can give them the information that they need.

KYRA PHILLIPS: They just specifically need to say the Colombo Sri Lanka facility.

BRANDON: Yes.

KYRA PHILLIPS: I got to ask you, we've looked at some pretty amazing pictures that you e-mailed to us. I want to ask you just about one or two. This one of the relief goods that were given to a mother and child. Obviously just devastated by what's taken place. Put in perspective this child, thank God still has her mother. But we've been hearing so much about the orphans. Are there a lot? Can you put that into perspective for us?

BRANDON: Yes. There are quite a few children that have lost their mother and their fathers. So our people here are entertaining the idea of doing some things along those lines as well.

KYRA PHILLIPS: Have you just seen an amazing -- I guess looking at the other side of this, just an amazing side to these people and the power of the human spirit and how they are still just continuing on and believing that people like you can help them get started again?

BRANDON: Yes. It's pretty amazing. I guess in a situation like this if someone shows you kindness and love, you just accept it and run with.

KYRA PHILLIPS: Lou Brandon, I know you're doing a lot of that. Works for the Salvation Army's relief operation. You heard Lou. If you want to help, if you want to get involved, contact your local Salvation Army and find out how you can donate to the facility there in Sri Lanka.

Much as the tsunami has grabbed the attention worldwide, 2.5 years ago, all eyes were focused on a small town in Pennsylvania. Nine miners -- you'll remember this -- trapped beneath the earth's surface. Up next, you'll hear from some of those men as we begin a yearlong look back at some of the biggest stories in CNN's history.

And a landmark event in space exploration one year later. What have we learned from the mars rovers? Miles probes beyond the surface and other things when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. We're ringing in the New Year with something new here at LIVE FROM. CNN celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2005. Throughout the year, we'll have a series called "Then and Now" looking back at some of the big stories we've covered over this quarter century.

We begin with a dramatic chapter in our history. It happened July 2002 when nine Pennsylvania coal miners found themselves trapped hundreds of feet underground.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All nine are alive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first miner has been pulled from the mine. His name is Randy Fogle.

RANDY FOGLE: That's just awesome. To know you can see another sunrise or have another day with your family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Number two miner at 1:15 a.m. Harry Mayhugh

HARRY BLAINE MAYHUGH: There still isn't a day that goes by that you don't think of what happened, what could have happened. Just your outlook on life is a lot better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ninth and final miner.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His name is Mark Popernack.

MARK POPERNACK: When I first got out of the mine, I wouldn't even step on an ant walking down the sidewalk because it was something that God created and that was life and I didn't want to take that away.

MAYHUGH: No, haven't worked in the mines ever since the incident.

FOGLE: I stayed out of the mines for six months after the accident. Then I went back to work and that's what I've been doing ever since. I work underground all the time.

POPERNACK: When Randy went back to the mines I was going to go back also. And that night, my oldest son Lucas had nightmares about it. And I just decided right then that I wasn't going to go back underground because it affected my kids so much.

FOGLE: There is a lot of technology and a lot of manpower with all the people working up there. But there had to be a higher power, I do believe.

POPERNACK: Life is precious and we got a second chance at it and we don't forget it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: Stay tuned to CNN to find out what happened on more of the big newsmakers from the past 25 years. We're sort of mining our library. Our series "Then and Now" will be here all throughout the year.

KYRA PHILLIPS: Weather still providing remarkable information beyond their life expectancy, up next Miles probes the mars rover program to find out what we've learned about the red planet.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange. Coming up, some employers are offering a new incentive for workers to get healthy this year. Good old cash. I'll have that story coming up so stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: Let's go to White House briefing. Scott McClellan talking to reporters, as they are able to do so.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: I would encourage people to do so. This is a disaster of unlike any we have seen in recent history. And the American people are rising to the occasion and showing the world that we are the most compassionate and generous nation around the globe. And in terms of the outreach efforts here, I mean the former presidents will be reaching out to corporations, they'll be reaching out to foundations, reaching out to the American people.

I think you can expect they will reach out to people to give smaller contributions, as well as others that can give bigger contributions to this effort. And no, there is not a specific goal at this point. But we want to maximize all the support we can for the international organizations that are in the region.

As you heard the president say, those organizations who are currently operating in the region have a good understanding of what the needs are and how to meet those needs. And that's why he called on people to give cash donations. That's the best way to support what's go on now in the region.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: is there some plan for how they're going to go about doing this? In other words, is somebody going to divide up all this, who they're going to call?

MCCLELLAN: You heard the president talk earlier did about how the USA Freedom Corps will be assisting them in their efforts. Two leaders are now private citizens. They volunteered at the request of the president to spearhead this effort. They're very distinguished individuals who enjoy wide respect and we're confident they'll be able to help build even greater support from the United States for the relief efforts that are under way and for the longer-term reconstruction.

Like I said, there is the immediate response, there is the nearer term response, then there is the longer-term response. This is going to be a long process as the people of that region work to rebuild their lives and recover from this great tragedy.

MILES O'BRIEN: Scott McClellan at the White House. Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS: Some employers are offering a cash incentive for workers to get a little healthy. Susan Lisovicz joins us now live from the New York Stock Exchange -- or live from -- yes, New York Stock Exchange with that story. Hi, Susan.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

KYRA PHILLIPS: We have two very, very important stories coming up in the next hour-and-a-half. Right Miles?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes. Can't remember what they are though.

KYRA PHILLIPS: I'll tell you the first one. That's a woman who broke barriers in Washington and she even ran for president. But -- go ahead.

MILES O'BRIEN: Then there mars -- you know. The White House briefing messed up my mars story. My nose is a little out of joint. But that's how it goes here at CNN. The news comes first. The news of earth always supersedes news of mars.

Back with more in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: Meeting urgent needs. Volunteers from all over the world bringing food to tsunami victims. This hour, relief workers tell their stories.

KYRA PHILLIPS: He left the comforts of America to help orphans in Sri Lanka. Now he needs help rebuilding his orphanage. He tells the amazing story of how the children survived.

MILES O'BRIEN: Rebuilding their lives. Just a week after the tsunamis struck, people in one village determined to carry on.

KYRA PHILLIPS: A new year brings renewed violence in Iraq just weeks before elections. We'll talk with our CNN Military Analyst about whether that country is ready.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, hello everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips.

MILES O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Happy New Year to you. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM begins right now.

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