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American Morning
Relief Supplies Begin Arriving in Haiti; Wall Street Bankers Questioned on Capitol Hill
Aired January 14, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks for joining us on this Thursday, the 14th of January, the Most News in the Morning. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry.
We're following the rescue and the relief efforts going on right now in Haiti. We have correspondents on the ground to bring you every development and - like no other network can.
Help, thank goodness, is on the way right now. There are cargo planes from around the world bringing food, water and medicine. But, as we've been talking about all morning, every minute really counts.
Countless victims remain trapped under the rubble, and we're getting reports of looting and some chaos in the capital city of Port- au-Prince.
ROBERTS: The youngest victims of disaster, nonprofits here worried about children they care for in Haiti. So many are sobbing on the streets, their families gone, their schools crushed.
We'll speak to one woman who's dedicated her life to kids there, what she is hearing about the conditions on the ground.
CHETRY: And right now the world is moving to save the people of Haiti. There is no power, no water, bodies are stacked in the streets. It's a humanitarian crisis that our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta says is unlike anything he's ever seen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: As a doctor, as a journalist who's traveled around the world, I've never seen anything quite like this. It's astonishing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: We're going to be going live to Sanjay in just a moment. And there are thousands fear dead; countless others still trapped alive in the rubble. And hope is in short supply in Haiti this morning -- so is the food, the water, medical supplies, search dogs, all of that needed to try to make some sense of the situation and start putting things back together. That help is supposed to arrive today. The city of Port-au-Prince leveled; schools, hospitals, homes, flattened; and there is anguish everywhere. Dazed survivors are wondering the streets aimlessly. There were bodies filed up. You may find some of the pictures that we're about to show you difficult to watch.
(VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Difficult pictures to watch and you can just imagine the sheer terror that those people are experiencing after the rubble came down like that.
The full global resources of CNN are covering the rescue and recovery efforts in Haiti like no one else can. Our team of reporters are on the ground. Anderson Cooper was one of the very first journalists in Port-au-Prince after the quake struck. Along with him, our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Susan Candiotti, as well as Ivan Watson, and working the latest updates from our special Haiti desk in Atlanta, CNN International's Jim Clancy.
And first, let's go to Anderson Cooper. He is in Port-au-Prince as we said. An amazing program that he had last night, showing us what the scenes were like on the streets and what the situation is there like, and he joins us now with more.
Hi, Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, residents of (INAUDIBLE) City woke up to a welcome sight to U.S. Coast Guard cutters parked offshore -- a sign perhaps that today, we'll start to see a big uptake in the relief efforts.
Late last night, around -- almost around midnight or so, we saw four large truckloads of what we believe were Norwegian search and rescue personnel. We believe there's a lot more search and rescue personnel in the pipeline from countries around the world and the United States.
That is certainly a key need at this point as we saw yesterday. And as all of our correspondents saw yesterday when we were out in the streets of Port-au-Prince, there was a struggle of life and death happening in just about every street. Still at this hour, there are still people trapped under the rubble. We don't know how many -- we don't know how many of them may still be alive. There are an awful lot of bodies just piled up on the streets.
I just saw a number of people walking down the street with a little boy on some sort of a stretcher. I don't know if he was alive or dead.
But every now and then, a miracle seems to occur, and a person still alive trapped in the rubble is brought out. We saw that firsthand yesterday.
Take a look at what happened on one block.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Atop a pile of rubble that used to be a building, we find a small group of men who have been digging here for more than five hours to rescue a teenager girl. Her feet are the only part of her still visible.
(on camera): It's 13-year-old girl who's trapped here. Her name is Bea (ph). She's clearly alive and you can hear her crying out. You can see two of her feet at this point.
She's clearly in pain. They discovered her early this morning. It's now past 12:00, and they're still digging.
It's not clear how they're going to get her out. They only have this one shovel. They don't have any heavier equipment.
They are being very careful, though, about what they are moving. They are afraid if they move this big slab that seems to be on top of her, that other stones, other pieces of slabs (ph) would fall her and crush her. So, they are arguing over what to do next.
But (INAUDIBLE)
(voice-over): Bea's brother can do nothing. He just stands by listening to her sister's cries.
This man says his father is also trapped in the building but he's already dead.
"I don't have a father anymore," he cries. "Gone. Have I been in the house, I wouldn't be here anymore either."
Worried more after shocks may come and destroy the building more, Bea's family and friends work frantically.
Finally, after being trapped for more than 18 hours, the men make a small hole and pull Bea out. She is alive. She is finally free.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: The Bea, the little girl in that story who we saw being rescued yesterday believes she has a broken leg. Her family believes that as well. But they are not taking her to a hospital or a clinic because, frankly, there's very little chance that they would get that treated.
Ivan Watson, a correspondent here for CNN, was at a clinic yesterday and saw people with broken legs who have been sitting out for 18 and 20-plus hours untreated. He saw a woman whose foot has been ripped off, who is sitting outside a clinic, untreated because, frankly, the medical system here is just overwhelmed.
I also want to point out that we did not use the name of the American person who that man on the street believes is trapped inside the building because we didn't want that person's relatives to learn about this on television. But we did contact the State Department with that name, and with the information that we have from the passport and hopefully, they'll be able to follow-up on that for us, John.
ROBERTS: All right. Hopefully, they will.
Anderson Cooper for us live in Port-au-Prince this morning -- Anderson, thanks.
CHETRY: The magnitude of the misery is still hard to grasp unless you're there seeing it, hundreds of thousands of people surrounded by debris, surrounded in some cases, by the bodies of their friends, neighbors and family members.
Our Sanjay Gupta has covered many wars and disaster zones, and he says that even that experience does not prepare you for the devastation he saw in Haiti.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: Right here in downtown Port-au-Prince is where we see all of the ramifications of what we've been talking about for the last day. Buildings like this, completely crumbled. And as you might imagine, lots of people devastated and have died as a result of that.
I mean, there are just bodies lying in the streets. This is what people have been talking about. I did not think that I would see what I'm showing you right now.
It's a dead body here, right here, and if you look over here, it's just -- it's even worse than maybe you could possibly imagine, 25 more bodies. People are standing around feeling completely helpless and perhaps hopeless as well.
I had -- as a doctor, as a journalist who's traveled around the world, I have never seen anything quite like this. It's just astonishing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: And two pieces of good news in all of this as well, when we landed at the airport yesterday, there were relief planes at the airport as well. There was a lot of back and forth, was the airport going to be opened, what planes are going to be able to land.
We landed and then saw these relief supplies coming in. But then trying to simply get those relief supplies from the airport to the places that need it most, that's going to be the challenge.
The second thing that I think is important is that if you look overall at the city, at the place that I visited in the past, while there's a lot of destruction, it does appear to be somewhat localized. So, you got to get those supplies to a relatively localized area.
Today, we plan on looking at how these makeshift hospitals are going to work, what the hospitals are doing right now, and how they're getting some of the most basic supplies, like pain medication to people who need it most. There are little -- there are some people lying in the streets, some of them who are salvageable, or they have what are called potentially preventable deaths, but they need to be treated quickly within minutes, hours certainly.
CHETRY: It's amazing. It's amazing, Sanjay. You really -- you have these dual -- these dual challenges right now, with the search and rescue situation taking place, as well as attending to the wounded, as you showed us. Sanjay, thank you so much.
And, again, we're continuing to follow the breaking news. It looks like some of these search and rescue teams, though, John, are actually on the ground and starting to conduct some rescues.
ROBERTS: Yes. And, in fact, one rescue team from Fairfax County, Virginia, has pulled a U.N. worker out of the rubble, and pulled him out alive.
CHETRY: Yes, right on the phone with us now is Mike Davis of the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team -- actually we just lost him.
But this is a group of individuals that have been called to some of the biggest disasters around the world. And here, they went to the Oklahoma City bombings. They were here in the wake of 9/11 as well as other things.
ROBERTS: Sure, they're on the list of first calls.
Just to give you an idea of what the situation was, 3:00 in the morning, they went to work. It was in the U.N. headquarters. He was a security employee who had been trapped under two floors of rubble. It's a five-story building that came down.
They worked for five hours, 15 members of the team, using saws and other extraction devices and they managed to pull him out alive.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: Now, they're using their listening devices, dogs, to go through that building and they will be doing this repeatedly across Port-au-Prince over the next few days as well, trying to pull survivors out.
CHETRY: That's right.
And they have the high tech equipment as you said, the search and rescue dogs, and those devices, to see if people are alive.
So, we are going to check -- actually, we have Mike back again with us. Mike Davis, this morning from the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team.
Can you hear us?
MIKE DAVIS, FAIRFAX COUNTY URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE TEAM (via telephone): Yes, ma'am. CHETRY: We talked we just talked a little bit about what you guys were able to do. But tell us in your own words how that operation went down?
DAVIS: Well, we had some information somebody was trapped in one of the buildings here. And we sent a four-person recon team out and they confirmed that with our listening devices. They just pass a 15- person rescue squad out and we were able to come here and get them on one of our cameras. And probably, I'd say we went through about two, 2 1/2, three stories down to get him and then we were able to self assist him out. He was able to walk out on his own.
ROBERTS: Wow. And, Mike, it's John Roberts.
So, this was at the United Nations peacekeeping headquarters there. Tell us a little bit about the process to get down to this man who was trapped.
DAVIS: Well, I'd say -- it doesn't seem this time, I know our time is a little bit different, we've been working multiple hours. But I'd say about 3:30 a.m., 15-person team got here, and was a continuous operation. But it was a lot of de-layering, we got a lot of small mini breakers, and jackhammer and we had to remove multiple, multiple pieces of concrete out with just plain buckets. And unfortunately, it was in a hill that (INAUDIBLE) hill. So, everything was upside down and inverted.
CHETRY: Wow.
DAVIS: But, actually, he was in good spirit. He -- we actually passed him a tool. He had to go ahead and cut a chair blocking his exit, (INAUDIBLE), and his space was not very big space, but give him a chance to hang on as long as he did.
CHETRY: Yes. And when you say as long as he did, a lot of the questions are: how much longer can some of these survivors that are still trapped in the rubble make it, how long can they last before they perish waiting to be rescued. How do you guys prioritize? Is there a system right now for figuring this out?
DAVIS: Well, ma'am, we have our -- we are here with the USAID and we work with them and they work with the local emergency management team here. And they prioritize stuff with us, and, of course, good intel on the street, it always comes in and we channel it up. And then -- our goal is, we got here on the ground quickly and we're just trying to do some good work and do as much as we can.
ROBERTS: Mike, as you said, you were able to get down to this man by de-layering or pulling out the layers of rubble that were on top of him using your equipment. Much has been made about the fact that there's not a lot of heavy equipment there in Haiti to assist with the operation. How important is it for you to get backhoes or bobcats in there to try to assist you with your rescue efforts?
DAVIS: Well, you know, if they have them, they have them. They may have them here. We got in here late and worked through the night and the sun was coming up. You know, I can't confirm or deny that.
We're self assist and we have are our cache, and we can do our work without all of that, and we have a lot of our heavy equipment and we have it here with us. So, you know, we're just trying to work hard and see if we can do a few more hopefully.
CHETRY: Yes, hopefully. Mike, it was great to get a chance to talk to you. You guys are doing amazing stuff, really performing miracles there as you get people out of the rubble. Good luck to you guys. I know you're going to be working nonstop as well.
Mike Davis, a specialist with the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team -- thank you.
Still ahead, we're going to be...
DAVIS: Thank you.
CHETRY: We're going to be speaking with some of the people who are helping around the orphanages and the schools in Haiti. There are still children missing after this quake. We're going to be talking about issue as well. How do you save those that need help the most.
Thirteen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, there's so much suffering going on in Port-au- Prince, Haiti. Many of the sobs and pain are coming from children, who no longer have their families.
Joining us now is Susie Krabacher. She's the cofounder of the Mercy and Sharing Foundation, dedicating her life to helping the children in Haiti. She is heading there on Saturday.
Thanks so much for joining us this morning, Susie.
SUSIE KRABACHER, MERCY AND SHARING FOUNDATION: Thanks for giving us the opportunity to tell the stories.
CHETRY: Yes, absolutely. Well, your organization helps to feed, educate, you provide medical care for children in Haiti. It's one of these facilities that you care for orphans, disabled, people that are terminally ill.
What do you know about the status right now of these facilities and the children that were being cared for?
KRABACHER: Well, we know that our Williamson property -- actually, it's (INAUDIBLE) region is fine. Late last night we had someone standing in front of it Twittering us, that we trust and they told us that our guards would not let them in, which is a good thing. That's what they are supposed to do.
We believe that our clinic in Delmas and our office building was probably -- it probably collapsed. We're seeing pictures that lead us to believe that. Our orphanage in Kazo -- the orphanage and the school is standing. The wall has been partially collapsed. We have a team that are coming down on Saturday -- actually the team will arrive tonight and on Saturday we begin work. We feel that the school and (INAUDIBLE) probably had some damage.
CHETRY: It's just heartbreaking when you go down to the list. And we're looking at the status at some of the other facilities that you've been working with. This abandoned infant unit, which was part of the hospital that you said you believe collapsed, and you doubt that any of the children and the babies got out alive. You haven't heard from any of the employees there.
Also, you had a feeding program that was key to helping feed some of these children that had no way of getting food. And those vehicles have been destroyed. How are you guys moving forward? I mean, this is such a setback, this is just a tragedy.
How do you pick up the pieces and move forward?
KRABACHER: Well, we have an infrastructure that is fairly strong. Our employees are -- they're in shock but they're on the move. We are getting things done. We are getting containers -- 40 foot ocean containers of food donated. We're raising funds for shipping, raising funds for fuel, raising funds for replacement of our trucks to move the food once we get it from our warehouse to the locations up in the north of Haiti, and to the central portion of Haiti, and to anybody in Port-au-Prince that we can reach, especially in the Delmas area. We have a warehouse in city so lay that it is, we believe is unaffected.
CHETRY: You also have some other challenges ahead as you guys are mobilizing. You're getting ready to head down to Haiti, as we said on Saturday. We want to make sure that you have everything that you need as you head down there.
The security situation, I mean, you've been working there for 16 years. You say you're a little bit nervous about some of the things like the fact that the prisoners, I mean, some of these prisons have collapsed, convicts are free now. And you believe there is going to be a heightened problem with security.
KRUBACHER: Yes, this is the first time in 16 years that I've actually been trepidatious (ph) about my own security.
We've worked in Cite Soleil, which is where a lot of the gang activity originates. We've worked there for 16 years. It was my very first project in Haiti. And a lot of the gang members' children were aided by our school and our feeding centers there. So they would pretty much leave us alone.
We hope that our facility is still standing and that we can use that facility in Cite Soleil. I won't know that until Saturday night.
CHETRY: All right. If people want to donate to your organization, it's HaitiChildren.com. We're going to link it up with our web site, as well. I know that you guys really very little over head and are giving most of the money to the immediate need on the ground.
Good luck. You're going to need it as you head to Haiti, on Saturday. Susie Krabacher, the co-founder of Mercy and Sharing Foundation.
KRABACHER: Also 100 percent of every donation does go directly to the cause. We cover all overhead with the founders and the board.
CHETRY: All right. And it's again, HaitiChildren.com, where people can go to donate.
Thanks so much, Susie.
KRABACHER: Thanks.
CH: And stay with CNN for updates on the situation in Haiti. We do have a special section of our web site -- CNN.com/Haiti. For more information on how can you help, you can go to our Impact Your World page. That's at CNN.com/impact. Send stories, images and iReports to ireport.com. And you can stay connected, again, on social networking like Twitter. That's #HaitiCnn and that's where you can find your requests.
ROBERTS: More than 100 U.N. staff still missing after a Haiti quake, as we found out from talking with a member of the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue team. One has been pulled alive from the rubble, but what about the rest? We'll get an update coming up. It's 21 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOICE OF LOUIS ST. GERMAIN, PASTOR, RUNS ORPHANAGE IN LES CAYES: It is a catastrophe, it is terrible. The access to Port-au-Prince now is impossible by car. Any car who wants to get to Port-au-Prince is impossible because there's a big mountain called Montaigne Peon (ph). It collapsed. It collapsed and you can only access Port-au-Prince by motorbike. So the whole city's in panic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The earthquake in Haiti dealt a devastating blow to the United Nations, the worst in its history. 17 United Nations peacekeepers have been killed. Their Port-au-Prince mission crumbling when the earth began to shake on Tuesday. It was at the Hotel Christopher. About 140 United Nations workers are still missing. One trapped worker was rescued a short time ago, pulled from the rubble alive by an Urban Search and Rescue Team from Fairfax, Virginia.
They told us a little while ago on the telephone that hotel had actually tumbled over down the hillside and it completely up-ended itself. The team was running listening devices and using dogs to search for other survivors.
CHETRY: Haiti's main prison also collapsed in Tuesday's earthquake and the U.N. says it is not getting reports of escaped inmates roaming the streets of Port-au-Prince. Police have been overwhelmed by the scope of the catastrophe and are desperate for help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF MARIO ANDERSON, HAITIAN NATIONAL POLICE: The prison was broken last night, and we have many prisoners, you know, escaped from the prison. And the security is (INAUDIBLE) from the police now to be in control of the situation. And besides of that, we do have, you know, the whole situation, the global situation, with people living in the streets, you see what I mean? And I think we need help here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: There were reports of scattered looting in Port-au- Prince this morning. Officials fear if help doesn't arrive fast things could even get more chaotic.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the State Department has now raised close to $3 million in an effort to help those in Haiti.
ROBERTS: Yes, it's easy. You just text Haiti to 90999 on your cell phone. It will automatically put a $10 charge on your cell phone bill, and that goes directly to Haiti relief.
Earlier, I spoke with Secretary Clinton about America's role in the relief effort.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: The next 24 hours is critical to save those lives that can be saved. We know that from other earthquake and other disasters. But then we have a long way back to try to deal with the devastation of the loss of, you know, life and infrastructure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Secretary Clinton went on to say re-establishing security and providing immediate medical relief is critical to saving lives.
CHETRY: Still ahead, we're going to be looking at more powerful images from social networks and from iReporters, some people putting up the faces and images of their loved ones looking for help. Others just posting pictures that they have been able to capture in Haiti of the disaster.
ROBERTS: And in other important news this morning not related to Haiti, bankers were on the defensive on Capitol Hill yesterday, taking a grilling over the financial crisis. We're going to talk with Mark Zandi and William Cohan, coming up next, to find out if we're actually learning anything from these hearings. And if this commission that's looking into the financial crisis will come up with some recommendations that might help us in the future.
It's 27 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOICE OF MIKE GOOFREY, DIRECTOR, U.S. AGENGY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: I ran out into the courtyard and began to cry out to other people in apartment buildings to come in this courtyard. The shaking was severe and it went on for what I thought was quite a long time, but I guess it was 15 or 20 seconds. It delivered one heck of a jolt. And I'm very pleased to have made it through that. It was very scary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: You can just hear the panic in his voice. And he's a professional. He's with the USAID organization. So you can imagine what people went through when the earth began to shake like that.
CH: It was just a real terrifying time for many people. And now, still knowing that there are people alive trapped in the rubble, as these rescue teams get there. As we talked about, they made one really amazing, amazing recovery today at the United Nations center there, and they were able to pull somebody from the rubble.
ROBERTS: And hopefully they'll be able to pull more. But there are still about 139 people missing from the U.N. contingent.
Half past the hour now in checking our top stories. We are following the breaking news out of the disaster zone in Haiti this morning. The injured lining up next to the dead desperately seeking medical attention that just really is not there.
But help is not on the way. A U.S. cargo plane arrived there last night. More rescue teams scheduled to land in the next few hours. President Obama is expected to update us on the relief efforts at 10:00 this morning.
CHETRY: In other news, a new threat from Al Qaeda in Yemen. U.S. officials say there is credible intelligence suggesting the terror group is planning another attack here in the U.S. There are no specifics on a possible target or timeframe.
ROBERTS: President Obama and some top Democrats say they are making progress in shaping a final health care overhaul bill. They met all day yesterday to try to hammer out a final compromise between a House and Senate plans. One difference that still needs to be resolved, how to pay for the reform.
Another day of desperate, grim scenes from Haiti, scenes of people digging through piles of earthquake rubble often with their bare hands to search for survivors. Food, water, and medical supplies only just now beginning to trickle into the island nation.
Our Susan Candiotti is live on the ground in Port-au-Prince, and she joins us live. How does it look, Susan?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I know everybody is waiting for that trickle of aid to become a full flowing stream of aid, but it has not happened yet.
I want to give you a little behind the scenes look to see how it is that people are trying to help each other. They are helping to dig people out of the rubble. Here is how one hotel is trying to help. This is a behind-the-scenes look of the terrace that overlooks the main plaza.
Let me show you what they're doing. You see this hose here. It's strung up from the hotel's water system, you follow it along, and it goes along here, forget all the wires and the cords, and as you swing over the balcony here, this is what we are seeing nonstop all morning long.
That hose is hooked up to the water supply, and people are using it, being offered for free, and they are filling up any kind of water container they can find. Jugs, individual bottles, vats, anything they can use it to pull it away.
And then they are using it for drinking water, using that to wash their face. We have seen people brushing their teeth, anything to try and help.
At one point we saw a man look up and gesture to us, saying as though I am happy about the water, but he pointed to his stomach and mouth, and almost made a cross around his neck as to say if we don't get food maybe we will die, rubbing his stomach.
People here need food, they need water, and they are trying to get it whatever way they can.
This is the plaza where it was pitch dark at night but for one light set up to provide some kind -- some way for them to see. And during the night, this was filled with hundreds, if not thousands of people. You can see it's breaking up a bit as people continue to walk along the streets to and from.
Why are they here? In many cases they don't have a home to go back to, and in other cases it's heavily damaged, and in still others they are here because they're simply afraid and don't want to be back in the homes.
But people are gathering up and down the streets of neighborhoods because they can't often go inside any buildings. There are no stores open, there is no place to buy food unless you already have some. And so it is another long day of this and seeing what lies ahead. There are bodies lying in the street.
And then there are aftershocks. For example, last night we felt a few, a big jolt at 2:00 in the morning. When we were driving around yesterday and felt it, you heard that one aid worker describing what it felt like during the major earthquake, so that is one thing. The minor aftershocks can be also scary. As we were sitting in the car we felt one, and it felt as though somebody had hit the car with something. That's the best way to describe it. And last night it sure woke you up and gave you a start.
So back here we will watch and wait to see when some of that assistance starts to come in the airport aboard those cargo jets and they can get it to the people here, and that will be, of course, one tall order. How are they going to distribute all of this? We are waiting to see how they are going to try and do that. John?
ROBERTS: As you wait for that relief aid to come in, Susan, are you getting any indication of how long it might be?
CANDIOTTI: No indication yet. I think that you have been hearing I think stateside more information than we are hearing on the ground here. We asked the president that yesterday. He wasn't quite sure.
Obviously they are trying to get it in as quickly as they can, but how long will it take? Will there be different areas where people can come to get the food and water? Will they drive water tanker trucks throughout the streets to try and distribute water in that way? We have seen that happen in the past.
So it's a blank slate at this point as we wait to find out, more importantly, the Haitian people wait to find out how they are going to get the way.
ROBERTS: All right, well, the cavalry certainly is on the way, Susan, I imagine over the next 24 to 48 hours, I imagine the situation on the ground there should change rather dramatically. Susan Candiotti for us in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Susan, thanks so much.
CANDIOTTI: You're welcome.
CHETRY: Well, survivors, concerned relatives, even officials are turning to social media now more than in any other disaster. We are monitoring all these stories and messages coming in and bringing you video. Jim Clancy is standing by right now at a special Haiti desk at our Atlanta headquarters. Hi, Jim.
JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kiran, I am here at the international desk. We call it the Haiti desk right now because that's the focus of this and has been for the last 38 hours. We are trying to show you and bring you things. There are people working the phones here nonstop.
Right now some of the best images we are getting. What Susan was talking about, yes, the absolutely need the supplies to come in, the U.S. military will play a huge role. Humanitarian aid will move into there.
But I want to take you down to ground zero really in Haiti, and the work of one of our iReporters, who did a tour, if you will, of the streets. And this shows us what it's like inside some of the major hospitals there. The pictures aren't pretty.
He narrated this, telling us what he had seen on the streets and was it was like. He showed us inside some of the hospitals where the situation is really quite dire.
They are operating outside in a tent right now to deliver aid to people. They had three surgeries. They were damaged and they are facing other problems as well, also social networking.
People are making a connection, Kiran, and they're making the connection by going out to iReport.com. You can see some of the people if I get it up here, that are missing right now. And then if they post out where they were missing. That's the most important thing, where they were inside, whether it was in Port-au-Prince or some other city, to help us help them. We are trying to pass that information along.
I am hearing the conversations going ahead right here at the Haiti desk. For now, back to you, Kiran.
CHETRY: All right, thanks so much, Jim Clancy monitoring all of it for us there from Atlanta.
ROBERTS: We are obviously keeping a very close eye on what is going on in Haiti and the relief efforts as aid will begin to flood in over the next 24 to 48 hours.
But there is other important news to tell you about, specifically dealing with the financial crisis here in the United States. Bankers on the defense on Capitol Hill yesterday, taking a grilling over the genesis of the financial crisis and the problems and the behavior that led to it. We will break that all down for you coming up next.
It's 39 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: It's 41 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
We have a quick update for you and some breaking news coming out of Haiti and the disaster zone there. The good news some help began to arrive early this morning, but in the meantime there is virtually no medical care. In many cases some people using bare hands to move rubble, turning doors into stretchers.
Police are actually using pickup trucks as ambulances. President Obama will update us on the relief effort at 10:00 a.m. eastern.
And one other quick now, the real specialized team out of Fairfax County, Virginia has arrived. They were on the scene working hours overnight and were able to rescue a U.N. security detail employee trapped in the rubble of the U.N. mission building there in Port-au- Prince. They said he was able to walk away on his own.
And they have much more sophisticated equipment. They will try to replay scenes like that today in Port-au-Prince. John?
ROBERTS: Some fireworks, but no bombshells as the nation's top bankers testified in Washington about the 2008 financial collapse. Sworn in, they admitted yesterday to pushing the risk envelope, but they claim it was not all their fault.
Here to help us break it all down this morning, somebody that testified himself before the commission, Mark Zandi. He is the chief economists and cofounder of Moodyseconomy.com. He's in West Chester, Pennsylvania for us this morning.
And here in New York is William Cohen of "Fortune" magazine and "The Daily Beast," also author of "House of Cards, a Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street."
Mark, let's start with you since you did testify there yesterday. The bank CEOs certainly got a grilling from the commission members. Some of the expected fireworks there -- they were likened to used car salesman at one point. But did we learn anything out of the hearings?
MARK ZANDI, COFOUNDER, MOODY'SECONOMY.COM: What I learned was there was still a significant amount of uncertainty and disparities of views of how we got in the mess. So a lot of different perspectives, and we still have not come together on why we got into the situation.
ROBERTS: What else do we need to learn, though, Mark, to know how we got in the situation? There certainly seems to be clear lines from what we learned over the last year.
ZANDI: There are a lot of different parties involved and a lot of blame to go around. I think it's important for this commission to really dig in. They have subpoena power. They can get a lot of information, records, data, and get it together and get a consensus of where to apportion the blame and how to move forward.
ROBERTS: Bill Cohen, there was some responsibility from some of the banks yesterday. Brian Moynihan, the new CEO of Bank of America is quoted it was clear how poor business judgments we have made have affected main street, which many people might say, duh. Did they really mean it?
WILLIAM COHAN, AUTHOR, "HOUSE OF CARDS": I think they mean it to some degree, but they don't go far enough. "The New York Times" headline really had it right. The ethos of Wall Street is under scrutiny now through this commission, and I think the commission is determined to examine that.
But, for instance, with Lloyd Blankfein, who is the CEO of Goldman Sachs, who was really on the firing line yesterday, as probably he should be. He was asked about selling mortgage backed securities at the same time that he was shoring the mortgage market.
And he said we did that because there were investors who wanted to buy those mortgage securities. If you know they are not right, why are you selling them? And that elicited the comment from Angelidis (ph) about the used car salesmen... ROBERTS: Right.
COHAN: ... selling a car with bad breaks. And I think that's the kind of ethos that really needs to be challenged and explored.
And when people start hearing that I don't think they're going to like what they hear and that hopefully will lead to change.
ROBERTS: I was just about to play that exchange, but since you have so faithfully re-produced it let's just throw it back over to Mark.
You know basically, Blankfein was saying Mark, there's a market for this stuff. We had people who wanted to buy it. There's still a market for it. We were just being good business people and providing what people wanted.
ZANDI: Yes, well, they didn't control -- they didn't account for all of the different receipt we're going on. We're certainly not well enough and I think this is why it's important that companies like Goldman Sachs and other financial institutions that didn't have significant regulatory oversight have some oversight so that regulators can come in and really take a good look and make sure that these companies are performing good risk management.
It's clear that -- yes, there is a market, but unless you control risks well, you can cause a great deal of damage and so we need regulators in there and we need regulators that will be tough and really take a good look.
ROBERTS: Another big issue that came up yesterday, Bill, bonuses, compensation, you know, the amounts that -- it's bonus season here -- and the amounts that we're going to see to some of these brokerage and banks -- brokerage houses and banks pay out. And I think at Goldman it's an average of $500,000 or something per employee.
COHAN: $500,000.
ROBERTS: Some will get less obviously, some will get a lot more. You've been a big critic of all of this.
We've seen some minor changes in the way their compensation will be handed out to some people. But do you think we're really going to see meaningful change here? Or are we still trapped in a system that rewards extreme risks?
COHAN: I think it not only rewards extreme risks, it rewards risks without any accountability for the risks that they are taking, being taken with other peoples' money. So until you do that, until you change that and get them to have more skin in the game like they did once upon a time when they are private partnerships.
And Peter Solomon who testified yesterday who has his own private partnership got to a little bit of this. And that is a really important concept that we've lost and we need to regain and there are ways to do that...
ROBERTS: Right.
COHAN: ... but I don't see anybody leaping to do that unfortunately.
ROBERTS: Yes, you know Mark, the country had to take a similar exercise back in the 1930s and then at the middle of depression...
ZANDI: Right.
ROBERTS: ... that the Core (ph) report, the Glass-Steagall Act came out of that and lasted until the late 1990s. Do you see a similar result from this, do you think Congress will wait for the final report in December? Or do you think that Barney Frank and his colleagues just don't want to wait and we'll see some financial regulatory reform prior to that?
ZANDI: Yes, I don't think they're going to wait. I think the process is in full swing. But the commission can have an impact on the process. I mean, the reform legislation is moving through Congress, going through the Senate. There's a long way to go. And the information comes -- that comes out of the commission's hearings can play a role.
So it's not going to be the same as what happened in the wake of the Core commission, but it could still have a significant impact.
ROBERTS: All right. Day two with the commission today, we'll be watching that closely. Mark Zandi and William Cohan as always...
COHAN: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Thanks for being with us this morning. I appreciate it -- Kiran.
ZANDI: Thank you.
CHETRY: We're updating the situation in Haiti right now in the aftermath of that earthquake. We're learning that aftershocks have rocked Haiti within the last hour. Our Rob Marciano tracking all of that for us; he's going to join us next.
It's 48 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Breaking news just in to CNN: more aftershocks rattling buildings and of course nerves in Haiti's capital. For more, we're going to turn to our Rob Marciano; he's covering the latest right now with that situation. And Rob, as we understand it, aftershocks reported within the last hour. How strong, do we know?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: This one was 4.8, the average over the last day and a half has been about 5. So that's two scales lower than the 7. And it doesn't sound like a lot, but as far as the amount of energy released it's about 1,000 times less. So they do feel them.
But how much more damage they're doing is speculative; it does depend on exactly where it is. This last, this last aftershock occurred right about here so fairly far away from Port-au-Prince now. Now, the main epicenter is here. And most of the aftershocks thank goodness, have been a little bit west of that epicenter towards the coastline where the soil is just a little bit more loose.
But nonetheless, we have seen over 40 aftershocks since this thing rang through the other day. Again, the plates are shifting. And once that main snap happened, now they're just kind of adjusting to basically the land's new home. So that's going to continue. And in some cases, in these bigger - these bigger quakes, aftershocks can continue for months and then sometimes a year.
So that obviously creates a lot of fear on the street. When they feel that, rumors can spread about tsunamis, all that kinds of thing so it's a frightening experience no doubt about that and on top of that very dangerous for rescue efforts.
The positive side of rescue efforts it will be dry, dry and warm during day, kind of cool at night for folks who in most cases are sleeping outside. So that's why you see people scrambling for blankets when they can get them as well. So the weather could be worse, but it could always be better for these rescue efforts. No rain in the forecast.
John and Kiran back over to you.
ROBERTS: Rob thanks so much. And any help they can get down there, any help they can get.
Later on this morning, we are going to hear more from President Obama about the relief efforts in Haiti. He's going to be speaking at 10:05 Eastern from the White House. Of course you can catch that live right here on CNN or if you're away from you're television you can catch it online all the time CNN.com/live.
Thousands of sick and injured people waiting desperately for medical attention; our Ivan Watson takes us inside a medical clinic down there to show you the extraordinary need.
Fifty-three minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: We're looking at live pictures at the Port-au-Prince airport where just moments ago an aid plane landed and you already see them unloading some of the supplies off of the aid plane right now, desperately needed as we've been talking about all morning but a challenge though even after they've landed there to actually get it to the places where it's needed most.
ROBERTS: Yes, that's a big American -- looks like a C-17, and they can carry an awful lot of gear. It can also carry vehicles if they need something to get around as well. And you can expect that those planes are going to be landing pretty much nonstop for the next few days as massive amounts of military aid come in to Haiti. It's so, so desperately needed.
We lost the picture there, but of course, many more of those pictures will be repeated in the coming days and weeks here.
For so many people it's already too late but thousands of sick and injured are laying in the streets waiting for medical attention in Haiti. And for some unfortunately, it may not come soon enough.
Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world and their hospitals have collapsed. There is virtually no medical care. Ivan Watson is taking a closer look at the desperate and overwhelming situation. But we do want to let you know that some of the images that Ivan's going to be bringing us are very disturbing.
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IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the reality of the situation here in Port-au-Prince. This is a small medical clinic. There are so many patients, so many victims of this earthquake that they are treating them in the halls and the entryway of the clinic.
And look here, we have wounded people waiting for treatment right now. Let's look at this woman right here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amelika (ph).
WATSON: This is Amelika.
She says that her leg is broken and -- and she has been here since last night, waiting for treatment.
And she is not the only one. If we come and take a look over here, there are more wounded people and even the corpse of a small child who could not get treatment. And it is just overwhelming to see over here, the bodies of at least 13 people stacked up on the sidewalk right outside.
And we have seen these images elsewhere in this overwhelmed city right now. Doctors are telling me they don't have enough medicine to treat these patients. They don't have enough gas to run the generators, to run the medical machines to treat these patients.
And the people of Port-au-Prince are out in the streets, not in their homes, for fear that they, too, could become victims of this earthquake if the aftershocks bring down what's left of their homes.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Port-au-Prince in Haiti.
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CHETRY: As we just reported moments ago, there was a pretty strong aftershock. I believe Rob said a 4.8 magnitude aftershock hit within the hour so that is a very, very possibility. ROBERTS: Yes. It particularly affects the rescuers as well, because they are in those unstable environments, trying to get people out. An aftershock comes along, 4.0 or greater, it can shake what is left of the rubble and collapse it down further. So very, very tenuous operations that those search and rescue teams will be engaging in over the next couple of days.
CHETRY: Absolutely they're risking their own lives trying to save others.
We're going to have much more. We're going to be right back. It's 58 minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: That's going to do it for us this morning. We will be back bright and early first thing tomorrow morning 6:00 a.m. Eastern with the latest in our coverage of the earthquake in Haiti.
CHETRY: Glad you are with us today. And we hope to see you back here tomorrow.
Meanwhile the special coverage of the earthquake in Haiti continues; "CNN NEWSROOM" now with Heidi Collins. Good morning Heidi.
