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American Morning
Iran Earthquake Relief
Aired December 31, 2003 - 07:07 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's turn to Iran now, where the official death toll from last week's earthquake now stands at 30,000, but Iranian officials expect that number will rise sharply. Disease prevention is now a top priority, along with helping survivors combat the bitter cold.
Ryan Chilcote is live for us by videophone in Bam, Iran, this morning.
Good morning to you -- Ryan.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the death toll rose to 30,000 today -- that according to Iranian State Media is the number of bodies -- it's an astonishing number -- the number of bodies that they have recovered from underneath the rubble since this earthquake happened on Friday here in the city of Bam.
Now, this is day six of the relief effort. And very sadly, a lot of the aid workers are saying there is very little chance for anyone to be rescued alive underneath the rubble at this point.
There are some 1,100 aid workers here from outside of Iran. There are also a lot of Iranian aid workers in the city of Bam. But there is also today a U.S. team, a team from the United States that is setting up camp here. They arrived about an hour ago. Their goal is to set up a field hospital. They have some 14 surgeons with them and 20 nurses, and they want to treat some of the injured from this earthquake.
Now, this is perhaps a milestone moment. This is the first time that a delegation from the United States has visited Iran openly in more than two decades. And so far, they've been greeted quite enthusiastically. In fact, one soldier from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard actually came up to them and gave them some flowers.
President Mohammad Khatami, however, said that just because the U.S. has sent this delegation that doesn't mean that this patches up U.S.-Iranian relations completely. You'll remember, of course, that U.S. President George W. Bush put Iran on the list of countries in the axis of evil, and that, of course, did very little for U.S.-Iranian -- the goodness of U.S.-Iranian relations.
At this point now, the president, Khatami, has said that the number of dead here could rise to 50,000. The biggest problem here, of course, is homelessness. This city of 200,000 was almost completely flattened -- Bill (sic).
O'BRIEN: All right, Ryan Chilcote for us this morning. Ryan, thank you for that update.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired December 31, 2003 - 07:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's turn to Iran now, where the official death toll from last week's earthquake now stands at 30,000, but Iranian officials expect that number will rise sharply. Disease prevention is now a top priority, along with helping survivors combat the bitter cold.
Ryan Chilcote is live for us by videophone in Bam, Iran, this morning.
Good morning to you -- Ryan.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the death toll rose to 30,000 today -- that according to Iranian State Media is the number of bodies -- it's an astonishing number -- the number of bodies that they have recovered from underneath the rubble since this earthquake happened on Friday here in the city of Bam.
Now, this is day six of the relief effort. And very sadly, a lot of the aid workers are saying there is very little chance for anyone to be rescued alive underneath the rubble at this point.
There are some 1,100 aid workers here from outside of Iran. There are also a lot of Iranian aid workers in the city of Bam. But there is also today a U.S. team, a team from the United States that is setting up camp here. They arrived about an hour ago. Their goal is to set up a field hospital. They have some 14 surgeons with them and 20 nurses, and they want to treat some of the injured from this earthquake.
Now, this is perhaps a milestone moment. This is the first time that a delegation from the United States has visited Iran openly in more than two decades. And so far, they've been greeted quite enthusiastically. In fact, one soldier from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard actually came up to them and gave them some flowers.
President Mohammad Khatami, however, said that just because the U.S. has sent this delegation that doesn't mean that this patches up U.S.-Iranian relations completely. You'll remember, of course, that U.S. President George W. Bush put Iran on the list of countries in the axis of evil, and that, of course, did very little for U.S.-Iranian -- the goodness of U.S.-Iranian relations.
At this point now, the president, Khatami, has said that the number of dead here could rise to 50,000. The biggest problem here, of course, is homelessness. This city of 200,000 was almost completely flattened -- Bill (sic).
O'BRIEN: All right, Ryan Chilcote for us this morning. Ryan, thank you for that update.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
