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CNN Sunday Morning

Chile the Day After

Aired February 28, 2010 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, hello, everybody. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING. And it's February 28th.

Good morning. I'm Betty Nguyen.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Rob Marciano, in today for T.J. Holmes. Thanks so much for starting your day with us. It's 8:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, 10:00 in Concepcion, Chile.

A day after a devastating earthquake hit that region, hundreds are dead and many Chilean spent the night sleeping in the streets. We'll get the latest on that devastation.

NGUYEN: Plus, more of these dramatic images, including video of the moment the quake struck.

First, though, searchers are looking for anyone trapped in the rubble and assessing the damage. An aftershock registering 6.2 magnitude hit the region between Concepcion and Santiago just within the past hour. More than 300 people are dead.

The government will update its death toll at 10:00 this morning -- just abut two hours from now. We'll be following that for you.

But a little bit earlier, all tsunami warnings for the Pacific were cancelled. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton already planned to be in Latin America before the quake struck. Well, that trip, it is still on. She's scheduled in Chile on Tuesday.

Well, we do have correspondents up early this morning. Rafael Romo is on the Chile desk in the CNN newsroom. Brian Byrnes is in Santiago, Chile's capital. And Kyung Lah is in Tokyo. As well as Dan Simon, he joins us from Hawaii today.

So, let's start off, we're going live to CNN senior Latin American affairs editor, Rafael Romo, on the Chile desk here in the newsroom.

What have you learned so far a day since this quake has struck?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SR. LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Well, Betty, we just received information, a statement actually, from Carmen Fernandez. She is the director of the Office of Emergency Management there in Chile at the national level. Let me just paraphrase some of what she said in Spanish this morning. She said -- very important here -- that aftershocks could last for months. We're not talking weeks, we're talking about months.

Also, she said, some more are intense like the one we just had -- we were just talking about the 6.2 magnitude aftershock that we had this morning, she said that aftershocks will continue for months. But again, we don't know about the magnitude. You can never know that type of stuff.

And also, that communication will still be difficult. And, Betty, I want to show you a video that we have received from the town of Constitucion, one of the hardest hit areas after the earthquake. This video shows looting.

And the riot police actually having to -- instead of helping people, trying to help businesses to control the situation because you have many people who are taking advantage of the situation, unfortunately, going into stores. And you see them right there chasing people who are trying to steal merchandise from the stores -- a big reason of concern for the national authorities in Chile.

And again, this is happening in the town of Constitucion, badly damaged area. Many people who have been arrested. And this happens at a moment when Chile cannot really handle a situation like that, because number one priority, of course, is people who are still trapped in the buildings, in the rubble.

So, a very, very unfortunate situation there, Betty, this morning.

NGUYEN: Yes, that is unfortunate. And we do want to clarify, because a lot of time, these following disasters, you do see people scrounging, looking for food and some kind of substance as they may be trapped for days without any aid. This case, specifically, though, that was looting.

ROMO: Yes, Betty. We wanted to make sure that it was just not desperate families who needed food and the Chilean authorities themselves are saying that we're talking about groups of young men who are specifically doing this as an act of looting, not a desperate family with children just hungry for food who are trying to make ends meet. No, this is specifically a case of looting, Betty.

NGUYEN: OK. But many times, the electricity is out, the water is out, there's no way to get any food in until those emergency crews can get into the sites. And as we know, many of those areas are kind of sealed off because of all the devastation.

But thanks for clarifying that for us. Rafael, thank you.

ROMO: Thank you.

MARCIANO: Chile, a day after the massive earthquake and the tsunami it spawned. The shoreline, it looks like a bomb was dropped on it. Across harbors there, damaged and sinking boats. (VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: And in Hawaii, the sound of sirens waking people up across the island state. It was an early Saturday morning when the tsunami warnings began. The waves -- when they hit -- were not as bad as expected.

And in Japan, tsunami warnings had been cancelled, but the government is still asking people to be cautious.

More now from CNN's Kyung Lah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hundreds of thousands of people along Japan's coastline were told to evacuate, to get out of the low-lying areas and head to higher ground. A tsunami warning was issued by the government in the wake of the earthquake in Chile. This government issued that alarm and issued it very loudly, saying that this could be the worse tsunami that this country has seen in some 15 years. So, the country braced for the worse.

But when the waves came ashore, some of the highest waves that we saw here that were recorded were 1.2 meters. Japanese television did show some flooding in some of the poor towns in the northern part of the country. But as far as widespread damage, that did not happen. There were also no reports of any injuries, according to the National Police Agency here in Japan.

As far as the reason for this alarm, there was a concern here by this government that there might be a repeat of history. In 1960, there was an earthquake in Chile. There was also a tsunami that was felt here in Japan. That tsunami ended up killing 140 people. But disaster appears to have been avoided here, Japan's government ending the day downgrading the tsunami alert.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: All right. Let's go over to Bonnie Schneider. She's been monitoring the aftershocks there, and, of course, the tsunami warnings that were posted for Japan.

It looks like you have that map up, Bonnie. What do you know?

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, Rob and Betty, we are tracking just the advisories that are posted by the Japanese Meteorological Agency.

While the widespread tsunami warnings are now over, we're still monitoring the threat for a little bit more of a rise in sea level, nothing dramatic or extreme, but advisories for coastal areas are a concern -- in Japan, through the Japanese Meteorological Agency. Imagine that like your local weather forecast, just keeping an eye on your local area. So, we could see slight fluctuations, certainly. One of the factors had to do with the topography. You can see that we have a lot of curvature here on the shoreline of Japan, when you have those bays and inlands, the water can pull in and it doesn't take much, even to cause minor flooding.

Check this out: 1.2 meters, just a few feet high, and with did see flooding as a result in two parts of Japan -- nothing really extreme as I mention, but something definitely to keep a watch on. And, you know, it's fascinating, because we were able to track it since yesterday, where the earthquake was, and then the energy forecasts. It's almost like a meteorological forecast. When you're looking at the atmosphere, we're able to look at the intensity of where the wave is going and how the energy from the tsunami spreads. That's just a small bump in the ocean's sea level rise.

And the concentrated area, in the epicenter in Chile, spreads out and fans out over the entire Pacific Basin. So, Japan, all the way, far, far north from the actual event, feeling the effects.

We had a fact the sea level rises slightly in this. Australian and New Zealand as well, I had some reports from Facebook of people in New Zealand arriving in a bay, did see a slight water rise. Now, it's just a few inches but it's just amazing one epicenter can spread out mover most of the world over the Pacific.

Now, speaking of the earthquake, we are getting some strong aftershocks as you can see across Chile. Now, I've highlighted the main one here. You can see the largest one. This the main earthquake: 8.8. But the smaller dots you see here, the oranges, the yellows -- these are all aftershocks that have occurred, Rob and Betty, in the past 24 hours. We just had one 6.1 magnitude and that is a very intense magnitude.

So, we'll be watching for us this, these aftershocks will continue to rattle the area dramatically as we go through the next 24 to 48 hours, and then for months -- as you heard from officials as well -- from this point forward.

NGUYEN: Yes, that is a strong aftershock. And just a testament to that, they're still seeing some aftershocks in Haiti, and that earthquake was back in January.

OK, Bonnie, thank you.

MARCIANO: Thanks, Bonnie.

Can you imagine what it must have felt like when the earthquake actually struck?

NGUYEN: Well, no need to wonder because it's all caught on camera.

(VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) NGUYEN: Well, experts this morning are saying that the quake in Chile was 500 times more powerful than the one that leveled Haiti last month.

MARCIANO: And one of our iReporters sent us this video. It's the parking garage of an apartment building. Blurred, yes, imagine everything -- buildings, roads shaking around you. This is one of the most powerful earthquakes ever measured and it struck about 200 miles outside the capital of Santiago.

NGUYEN: And if you can see everything on that iReport, you can certainly see it in this footage of YouTube. Just look at that.

Residents woke this morning to more of this -- aftershocks. Now, this is a region that knows what powerful earthquakes are all about -- in fact, the most powerful quake on record hit the same area on May 22nd, 1960.

MARCIANO: Yes. So, 50 years since they've experienced earthquake, anything like the one this weekend.

NGUYEN: And so, for everyone caught in the earthquake, you know that feeling of helplessness. Well, we are getting in some more video from the moment when the quake struck. I want you to take a look at this.

(VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: They're saying tranquillo which means "calm down." That's got to be difficult though when the earth is shaking around you, you're seeing some of those power lines snapped. And then people were on the roadways.

MARCIANO: Right.

NGUYEN: In fact, we spoke with a lady yesterday who was driving when all of this happened.

MARCIANO: In the middle of the night, no less.

NGUYEN: Yes.

MARCIANO: So, it's dark. You can't see anything. God knows what's -- you know, falling down around you or flying through the air -- certainly, a frightening sight.

You know, catastrophes such as this magnitude, though, often bring out the best of humanity, people, you know, helping people in dire needs of this time of crisis.

NGUYEN: Yes. But you know what? Unfortunately, not everyone is so caring. And sadly, there are scammers out there, trying to profit at the expense of those who've already been through so much.

Josh Levs joins me now on how -- not only you can help those in Chile, but also how you can do so without being, you know, duped. JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Betty, Rob, no matter how many times I report on similar problems to this -- a little piece of me is always just amazed at what people will take advantage of. It's some -- it's unbelievable what some of these bad guys online will do out there.

And here's the perfect example: There are people out there like many of you who are looking for information and also want to help.

Let's zoom in here. There are just some of the latest photos we had of the devastation there in Chile that we posted for you at CNN.com. People see things like this and they want to learn more, and they want to see what they can do possibly to help.

Unfortunately, look at this headline from Symantec.com, which looked at security online. They also sell software, but they do a lot of studies that we follow here at CNN. "Massive Earthquake in Chile Leads to a Surge of Rogue Antivirus."

Let me show you a quote and then I'll explain what all of this means. Let's go to that first screen I have for you here. What this Web site says, Symantec, they say that "search engine results returned for terms such as 'Chile earthquake' are being poisoned to lead users to rogue antivirus Web sites."

Let's come back to me at the screen. Short version of what all that means, if you search for information or you want to help and you're looking online, it can lead you to some really, really bad things that can hurt your computer, takeover your computer, and steal your information.

Let's zoom back in here. I want to warn you about a couple of things that Symantec.com is pointing to here. Some people who are searching for information about Chile earthquake get results like this, and this looks pretty standard. I don't know how far you can get in. But basically, when you get your search results, you need to take a look at them very closely to make sure it's a domain, it's a web address that you recognize.

And sometimes, if you click on something bad, it leads you to something like this, it leads you to a screen that says, hey, here are some antivirus software to help protect your computer and it starts to download it. The problem is that antivirus software is fake and what it's actually doing is going into your computer, giving some scammer out there control over your computer and control of all sorts of information that's on your computer.

So, what do you do to not fall for this so we can help fight the people out there who were trying to do this to you?

Let's go to the second screen I have for you here. A couple of points, this comes to us from about -- Antivirus.about.com. They point to a couple of things in this case.

First of all, like I was just saying, avoid links to unfamiliar sites. Look at what the link is before you click on that. If you don't know what it is, just don't go there.

The second one, when you're talking about donations, they say don't donate in response to solicitations. So, if you get something by Facebook, Twitter or e-mail saying here's a perfect way for you to donate, it's better to ignore it. It's better to go on your own to a Web site yourself.

And that's why I'm going to show you right now the one stop shop to do that, right here at CNN.com/Impact -- CNN.com/Impact. This is our "Impact Your World" page and we're now leading with what's going on in Chile.

And we actually have a whole bunch of organizations that we link you to right here. Here's one example, Direct Relief International. It's one of the organizations that's doing a lot of work now.

So, in the coming days, CNN.com/Impact -- we'll add more and more links for you so you can help.

Let's show my screen, because I've taken all this information and I posted the warning for you on my Facebook and Twitter pages, at JoshLevsCNN. I also have that blog there, CNN.com/Josh. So, write us, tell us what you think, tell us your experiences, help warn others out there.

And hopefully, Betty and Rob, together, we can fight those scammers trying to take advantage now.

NGUYEN: Definitely.

I'm also getting some comments from viewers this morning at my Facebook and Twitter sites at BettyNguyenCNN. Let me take you first from Facebook site and basically just commenting on the situation.

Jenny (ph) says, "I'm chatting with my grandma about 20 minutes ago. There was another aftershock, apparently a magnitude of about six or so. She said it was very strong but very short. The aftershocks have been going on nonstop."

And if I go down just a little bit, there was another person here who -- Christina says, "I was born and adopted from Santiago, Chile, at four months. I'm now of age to find my birth mother, but I'm scared. She might have been harmed in the earthquake. My prayers go out to all at Chile and the world. God bless everyone." She goes on to say that she loves her mother.

And then, I'll take you quickly to my Twitter site. There are some questions on here that, maybe, Rob, you can answer. But first of all, LHNetwork says, "Just imagine if this would have happened in Haiti. That country would essentially be wiped off the map." Pointing out the fact that Chile earthquake was 8.8 magnitude, as the Haiti one was 7.0 magnitude.

But this is what I wanted to get to, Rob. This person says, "Can strong aftershocks in Chile spawn new tsunami warnings?"

MARCIANO: You know, you need -- 7.0 quake is pretty much what you need. That's the benchmark to see some sort of tsunami.

NGUYEN: OK.

MARCIANO: So, if we get an aftershock that large, it would be really big.

NGUYEN: So, some of them are in, you know, in the six range.

MARCIANO: Yes, that's not really going to spawn any sort of tsunami.

NGUYEN: Not enough.

MARCIANO: Unless it were to release some loose land on the coastline, and you get a -- you get a landslide into the ocean, that would create a wave of some sort locally. But as far as creating a larger scale tsunami, it would have to be at least a 7.0 or greater.

NGUYEN: Well, that's good news, because I think the largest one that they've had occurred yesterday, and that was 6.9 in magnitude.

MARCIANO: And they should pretty much stay in that range in the next few days and then start to decrease in intensity and frequency as we go over the next few weeks.

NGUYEN: All right. Well, you know, the day's other top stories -- that's coming up when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: We'll get back to our coverage of Chile in just a second. But first, our top stories this morning.

President Obama has signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the Patriot Act. It would have expired today. The Patriot Act is the nation's main counterterrorism law. It allows the government, among other things, to monitor Americans in the interest of national security.

NGUYEN: Well, police in Mexico say a third suspect has been arrested in a house party massacre that left 15 people dead last month in Juarez. And it's someone quite familiar with the local police there. Accused drug cartel hitman Aldo Favio Hernandez Lozano was picked up on Thursday. Mexican federal authorities say Lozano was a former Juarez police officer until he failed a lie detector test back in 2008.

MARCIANO: Go USA. The Winter Olympic Games wrapped today in Vancouver with the United States racking up the medal. The count now stands at 37. That's the most ever won by any country in the Winter Games. They have a chance to push even further today with the U.S. taking on Canada and the gold medal hockey match. That is going to be hotly contested on the cold ice.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) NGUYEN: All right. No doubt, the big story across the northeast this weekend: the nasty weather. It is the third strong storm to hit this month for some areas. Check out the scene in Maine. They got pounded with gusty winds and heavy rains. Some 75,000 people are without power. Utility crews -- well, they're working to get the lights turned back on.

MARCIANO: Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider has been tracking it all -- and guess what? The pattern is set up, she tell me. We could be seeing another storm rolling down across the south.

NGUYEN: Say it isn't so.

MARCIANO: Maybe up the eastern seaboard.

NGUYEN: Really?

MARCIANO: Fun for us. But you know what? It's even getting old for me and Bonnie.

SCHNEIDER: Yes, we are. We are definitely looking at a threat for a severe weather over a good portion of the U.S. We are looking at the threat of cold temperatures into the northeast as well, and the pattern will exists to possibly bring out even some wintry weather across the northeast.

Let's show you New England now. We have some video to show you of what it looks like with snow and wind damage across Maine. You know, wind in Maine has been particularly bad. We have seen some of those really fierce wind gusts across much of Maine and New Hampshire. That's where some of the worse of it occurred. So, we're watching for that.

We're also expecting the chance for nasty weather to work its way even through the south. The current temperatures in the northeast are pretty cold. It's definitely in the 30s across much of Philadelphia, and into areas of the Carolinas, to the south as well. So, the stage is set for more wintry weather.

It's hard to believe as we wrap up the month of February that we're still looking at the threat. But it's true. You can see snow showers across a good portion of the region, well into New England and into Philadelphia, and then back out towards Buffalo, some lake-effect snow coming through, and into Washington, D.C.

Now, as we slide off further to the southwest, you can see rain across Arizona. And you're probably wondering what does this have to do with areas in the southeast, but it does because the energy here in the southwest has a tendency, especially this year with this El Nino pattern, to work its way across the country. The typical track of this El Nino storms are to get going in California, through the southwest, ride the southern jet all the way up into the southeast.

And when the air is cold enough and have you a storm rolling through, you can see the threat for more wintry weather -- as we know down here in Atlanta, where we now have a 70 percent chance the forecast has gotten worse for a wintry mix even on March 2nd in Atlanta and the southeast, another snow day as possible. So, watch out. We're not done with winter yet.

Stay tuned. We have a lot more coming up on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: I am Rob Marciano.

NGUYEN: Yes, thanks for joining us this morning. I'm Betty Nguyen.

OK. Our top story, obviously, the earthquake in Chile. Right now, aftershocks are rumbling through the region and they, in fact, could last not for weeks or day, but for months.

Meanwhile, though, searchers are looking for anyone trapped in the rubble, and they're assessing the damage. This is one of the fires that -- well, that video was -- one of the fires that erupted after yesterday's 8.8 magnitude quake. Here's some of it.

Aftershocks registering 6.2 magnitude hit the region between Concepcion and Santiago, just within the last two hours. Aftershocks could continue, as I mentioned, for months.

And more than 300 people are dead. The government will update its death toll at 10:00 Eastern.

Now, earlier this morning, all tsunami warnings for the Pacific -- they were canceled.

And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to visit Chile on Tuesday.

We want to take you to our Chile desk and senior Latin American Affairs editor Rafael Romo.

Rafael, what about those aftershocks? Because it seems like I was just reading on, you know, the social media, my Twitter and Facebook sites -- that they're coming, you know, within hours of each other?

RAFAEL ROMO, SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Exactly and they are creating more damage. And we were just talking about that new significant aftershock of 6.2 magnitude. Well, we now have fresh video of the area where it hit. It's the town of Constitucion which is located right in between the capital of Santiago and the town of Concepcion, the site of the epicenter of yesterday's earthquake.

And here we can show you the devastation that caused in the town of Constitucion. Here, you see their church and many other buildings that have been badly damaged.

The good news is that Chilean authorities have been able to send the military in to help in areas like search and rescue -- some of the relief efforts there, but it is a very complicated situation. And we're beginning to hear some of the numbers from Chilean authorities regarding this earthquake.

For example, they are telling us that as many as two million people in the entire country had been affected one way or another by the earthquake. They are also talking about half a million buildings that had been damaged not only in the capital, but also in the towns of Constitucion, the one we just saw, and also the town of Concepcion the site of the epicenter.

The number of people who -- the fatal victims as the result of the earthquake -- we're talking at about more than 300 now and they're still counting, Betty. So still a very, very difficult situation for Chilean authorities.

NGUYEN: Yes, no doubt and we're going to get an update on that death toll at 10:00 Eastern, about an hour and a half from now. But, in the meantime, what kind of information are people being told about these aftershocks? Should they stay in their homes or are there shelters that they need to go to? Do you know what kind of word is being given out right now?

ROMO: There was a statement by the Office of Emergency Management, Carmen Fernandez, the National Director in Chile about an hour ago and she was saying that people have to closely look at the structural soundness of their homes and try to get out if they see any sort of cracks.

But by the same token, if their homes are structurally sound stay home because Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has issued an order that for the next 72 hours, all public gatherings are forbidden because we're seeing a lot of instances of looting in some places like Vina Del Mar, so people are, you can say, are getting mixed signals. But at the same it's all about safety, Betty. It's all about safety --

NGUYEN: Yes.

ROMO: If your home is structurally sound, stay there, otherwise try to find a place where you can be safe with your family.

NGUYEN: Which you might find some of those public gatherings of people are just going to be sleeping outside for fear of being in any kind of a building when those aftershocks come.

All right, thank you so much, Rafael. We appreciate it.

MARCIANO: Now, to one of our first reporters on the ground, let's get to CNN correspondent, Brian Byrnes. He had been traveling from Buenos Aires and is now on his way to Concepcion. He toured some of the damage and filed this report from Santiago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN BYRNES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): It's just after 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. We just arrived here to downtown Santiago, we're on Avenida Providencia (ph) which is one of the main drags in downtown Santiago. And we went by this church, Nuestra Senora Dela Davina Providencia (ph), it's a church from the late 19th century.

And as you can see, the top of the church is completely destroyed. I don't know how well the light arrives up there. Well, the chapel part just has fallen down; it looks like you're seeing from one of those Roland Emmerich disaster movies.

And it's literally hanging there on the thread, I assume that was the steeple if you will of the church. And it's just hanging down so they have parts of the front of the entrance here locked up and taped off.

And there are some securities -- private security it seems, not even public police but it's a private security monitoring this neighborhood. This is definitely one of the upper scale neighborhoods in Santiago. But this is very dangerous.

What I mean, I'm sure a little bit more movement and the rest of that will just come crashing down. I'm curious what it's like inside and I don't think we can get in.

But, this is just -- we've just been in town for a few minutes and we're already witnessing this and we're just here in Santiago, far from the epicenter. I'm sure we're going to see a lot more.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Yes, no doubt and we're still waiting for some of those pictures to come into the CNN Newsroom of that damage around Concepcion and some of the other areas that are right there where the epicenter is.

Ok, unlike Chile, Hawaii was spared the worse of the tsunami, but there were still some very tense moments while the island waited for the waves to hit.

Our Dan Simon went out during the tsunami alert. He has more now about the mood on the big island after the sirens went off.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as soon as we heard about the tsunami threat here on Hawaii. My crew and I -- we basically raced to the airport. I was sort of expecting to see a lot of empty seats on my flight, and instead it was completely full, that a lot of people were anxious, that is until the pilot came on loud speaker midway through the flight and said that famous, "were fine here on the island" and of course, there was a huge round of applause.

Of course, there were some tense moments earlier in the day, 6:00 in the morning, the sirens go off, a terrible wake up call for these folks. The hotel staff here, where we are at the Hilton Hotel, sort of knocking on all of the individual room doors getting people to higher ground.

Then, of course, residents -- whatever they can prepare for something like this, whenever there's an impending tragedy, that they think they can prepare for. People start going to gas stations and grocery stores and we saw lines at the various stores of people stocking up on supplies.

But then, the afternoon came and there was no damage, a little bit of wave activity, but no damage to speak of and then things sort of started quickly returning back to normal on the island.

Dan Simon, CNN, on Hawaii's big island.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Well, that is definitely some good news. And you know, all of those tsunami warnings have been canceled, what -- that happened on about couple hours ago.

MARCIANO: Yes, so things are beginning to calm down as far as the tsunami threat goes. The aftershock threat unfortunately will continue.

NGUYEN: Yes, unfortunately and they're still having them. Large ones too, the last one is about 6.2 in Magnitude. But amid the rubble in Chile, a sacred loss for the folks there.

MARCIANO: All the more reason to keep the faith.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, just a few minutes ago Pope Benedict asked the Catholic Church to play a role in the relief effort for Chile's earthquake victims. He told survivors to be courageous. In Chile's capital of Santiago, this particular church is centuries old but it looks a lot different after the earthquake.

Many people have written to us and mentioned online how the bell tower crumbled under the quake's pressure. Well, we're also hearing from families of Mormon missionaries serving in Chile and workers serving in nine missions in that country are now all accounted for.

MARCIANO: Of course, the stark reality is many major metropolitan cities are built on fault lines. Newer architecture may sustain earthquakes' wrath but treasures like that bell tower in Chile may be able to endure time, but not a powerful quake.

Let's get a little bit more perspective on that. Engineering seismologist, Walter Hays, joins us live from Washington this morning. Thanks for sticking around there Mr. Hays.

I've got to ask you, many this morning, this Sunday morning after so many recent earthquakes maybe reaching for a higher power. A general question is, is all -- are all these quakes recently part of something larger that may be going on with the earth.

WALTER HAYS, SEISMOLOGIST: Well, we know that heat drives -- it's the engine that drives all these earthquakes. It causes the plates to move and there's the period of activity and then there's periods of quiescence because of the lesser rebound periods. Stress builds up and the strain is released and we start all over again. So we have a cycle that just keeps repeating itself and indeed the higher power is driving it.

MARCIANO: Ok, good answer to there. We just saw some pictures of an old church badly damaged. Many major cities lie on major fault lines. Are we at risk of losing some of our history with these old buildings?

HAYS: There's no question making an old building, a historic building, one that was built a long -- a good while ago before modern codes were implemented are always more vulnerable than those that was built yesterday with all the right things being attended to. So we could lose some of them.

MARCIANO: Now there are -- Haiti -- you know, almost completely wiped out -- or at least Port-au-Prince where the quake happened, now they have the opportunity to rebuild. Is it that much more costly to build just a little bit better, at least for simple low rise, residential structures, can we just have a cheap solution or cheaper solution, maybe better concrete, maybe just letting it cure a little bit longer. Is that at all a possibility?

HAYS: Indeed, one of my engineering friends told me some time ago they just kind to like the cost of carpet in the house when you do it right and carpet in the house we treat as almost incidental.

So the corrections are very small indeed and just knowing that they're stack of cubes really in our buildings -- so if we could just make them more resistant to motion, then we would -- and that's very inexpensive, about 15 percent to make that happen and then we have all of them standing and a lot less loss of life.

MARCIANO: That certainly seems more doable.

Getting back to a U.S. angle here, besides San Francisco and L.A., we know they lie in active zones. Are there any other U.S. cities that are a risk to earthquakes?

HAYS: Well, it may be unknown in general, but 46 of the states are at high -- at a very high risk and you start on the West Coast and move from California upward. You've got the San Andreas Fault, which is track slip and a sheer fault moving into Oregon and Washington, Seattle and Portland and then, on into Alaska, there you have the chance of tsunamis, as well as large up to magnitude 9 or greater earthquakes.

Then you move inside to Salt Lake and cities along the inner mountain seismic belt and Salt Lake is a city that's been waiting for an earthquake for a long time, it just hasn't happened yet. Then on to the (INAUDIBLE) and the Central United States where the area is under compression and a (INAUDIBLE) earthquake would affect about half the country.

MARCIANO: Yes.

HAYS: -- because the (INAUDIBLE) is colder and it could carry the energy a lot farther.

MARCIANO: So you pretty much nailed it all there. A little bit eye opening answer there Mr. Hays as far as much of the U.S. being at risk. And we certainly hope that these active period that you speak of will get a little bit less active as we go through time.

HAYS: Indeed.

MARCIANO: Walter Hays, engineering seismologist, thanks again for your time, sir.

HAYS: You're welcome.

NGUYEN: And there is much more ahead right here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

Small businesses trying to stay afloat and accusing the president and a "Broken Government" of dragging them down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: All right. There she is, coming up at 9:00 Eastern, "STATE OF THE UNION WITH CANDY CROWLEY".

NGUYEN: Yes. With health care reform back on the agenda, a lot of people are asking questions about the process of reconciliation. That's a nice word. Let's see if it plays out in Washington.

Candy Crowley joins us now live. And Candy I know you're going to be talking a lot about health care coming up on the show.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": We are. We have House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi; we have the head of the Republicans on the Senate side, Mitch McConnell. Both of them talking about health care.

We are in a crunch time now. We really are. A lot of people up on the Hill that I spoke with over this say if it doesn't happen by the end of this month, that is, before Congress goes off on Easter vacation, it may not happen at all.

So it's getting very contentious. It's all about reconciliation as you say, which is basically a way for the majority Democrats to get around needing a 60-vote margin; they can just do a simple majority 51 to get this thing through. Republicans objecting, as you might imagine. That has been the big process fight.

But the reality is if there is going to be some sort of health care reform, it's probably going to have to happen before the end of the month.

MARCIANO: You always have some great guests on the show, Candy. Who do you have lined up today?

CROWLEY: We have House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. We have the majority (SIC) leader, Mitch McConnell. Both of them very involved in the whole health care debate. Both of them were with the president in the health care summit that we saw last week. Both of them have very different ideas of how that summit went and about health care. We will see if there is any meeting of the minds, but I wouldn't be betting on it right now.

NGUYEN: Yes. And I think a lot of people watched that health care summit and kind of wondering, "All right. Now that it's all out there, now that we've had the summit and went through all the motions here, what happens next?"

CROWLEY: What happens next is the Democrats -- what we are expecting first just in terms of next week is the president has said that he was going to try to take some of the Republican ideas, none of which should have been new to him that he heard in that meeting and maybe incorporate some in a bill that will still largely be a Democratic product.

That he will then present to the Hill, and then it's up to the Senate leadership, the Democratic leadership and the House Democratic leadership to try to figure out a way to get that through.

And part of the problem is going to be the Republicans on the House side, it's going to be the Democrats because there are some things in the Senate bill which the House maybe forced to take which many Democrats don't like and it may cause them to vote against it.

So there will be a lot happening but again, it will happen in a fairly short period of time. We are coming to some sort of conclusion.

NGUYEN: Good to hear.

MARCIANO: All right. You always have powerhouse couple of hours. We're looking forward to that. Thank you, Candy. We will see you in just a few minutes. 9:00 a.m. Eastern time is where you will see "STATE OF THE UNION" with Candy. It begins right here every Sunday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: All right. So, looking out for small businesses by helping them with funding to stay afloat. Many experts say it's one way to help fix a broken government, but some business owners say they have not seen a dime. So what is the government waiting for?

Our Ted Rowlands explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): We are in Petaluma, California on Kentucky Street which is lined with small businesses. A lot of these business owners say that they are struggling to stay open. It is that bad. They also say they are upset with the lack of support they think they're getting from the federal government.

(voice-over): At the Starstruck Boutique (ph), Melanie Stammler says she is barely hanging on. Business is so bad she can't pay this month's rent. And she is disgusted with politicians, including the president for talking up small businesses but doing nothing, in here opinion, to help them.

MELANIE STAMMLER, SMALL BUSINESS OWNER: I am livid. I am shocked that the big bankers are bailed out and we are stuck footing the bill. It's just not right.

ROWLANDS: Up the street at the BC Sport bike store, owner Andrew Christiansen says government to him means payroll taxes, paperwork and empty rhetoric.

ANDREW CHRISTIANSEN, SMALL BUSINESS OWNER: Politicians are always going to say whatever to help themselves out.

ROWLANDS: And practically all of them promise to help small businesses.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We should start where most new jobs do, in small businesses.

ROWLANDS: But the reality is it takes both the White House and Congress to get anything accomplished in Washington.

(on camera): And many entrepreneurs believe that the federal government is fundamentally broken when it comes to dealing with small businesses.

This is Lloyd Chapman. He's the president of the American Small Business League and he says he has been battling Congress and the federal government for years on behalf of entrepreneurs.

(voice-over): Chapman is trying to get Washington to fix a specific problem many believe is costing small businesses millions of dollars a year. By law, 23 percent of all federal contracts are supposed to go to small businesses, but loopholes allow some of the money to go to large corporations.

The inspector general of the Small Business Administration has called the problem the most serious management and performance challenge facing the SBA.

In 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama acknowledged the issue saying in a statement, quote, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants."

Chapman estimates that last year more than $10 billion that should have gone to small businesses ended up going to large corporations. And fixing the problem, he says, could help unemployment.

LLOYD CHAPMAN, AMERICAN SMALL BUSINESS LEAGUE: This is more money that will create more jobs than anything President Obama or Congress have proposed so far.

Chapman says the Small Business League has been trying to get Congress to do something about this issue for eight years but there does seem to be recent progress. A few weeks ago Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana said that quote, "By increasing contracts to small businesses by just 1 percent, we can create more than 100,000 new jobs."

In the House, there's a bill ready to go that would potentially solve the problem with a long list of cosponsors, but it is stuck in committee.

CHAPMAN: I am just so tired, just like so many people. I am so disappointed, but it's time that that needs to change.

OBAMA: Through shear grit and determination these companies have weathered the recession and they're ready to grow.

ROWLANDS: Whether the federal government will help them grow or in some cases stay open, remains to be seen.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Petaluma, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: Well, the president is taking orders this morning, "Open wide and say ahh." President Obama is getting a routine medical exam this morning at the Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland. He's also visiting wounded troops at the hospital.

Tomorrow he announces new steps he says will improve our schools. On Tuesday, he is in Savannah, Georgia for the next stop on his Main Street tour to talk about the economy. Wednesday through Friday, he's in several meetings at the White House.

NGUYEN: Well, if your schedule has you traveling this week, there is one airport that you may want to avoid.

MARCIANO: Yes. A big change happening tomorrow could slow things down for months.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Take a look at this. In Japan -- well, this is not Japan, this is Chile. But we did want to talk about the tsunami waves that have been coming ashore in Japan. They were smaller than expected. And in fact all of the tsunami warnings have been cancelled. That happened about a couple of hours ago.

MARCIANO: My goodness. Look at these. These are new pictures -- still pictures coming in to the CNN Newsroom of some of the damage and destruction, and in some cases devastated areas of not only Santiago, but places a little closer to the coastline; people kind of walking around in disarray and disbelief.

When you look at some of these roads, Betty -- my goodness -- that is beyond just damaged. There is no way of getting over top of that and you have to go around.

NGUYEN: Especially when it comes to getting aid into the affected areas.

MARCIANO: Exactly. The same kind of situation in spots that we saw in Haiti where it's going to be difficult to get the things the people -- that they need because of the roadways that are damaged there.

NGUYEN: Well, the death toll right now is at 300 people. That unfortunately is expected to go higher. We are going to get a update on that from a news conference that's going to be taking place in about an hour from now.

So of course, you want to stay here with CNN for the latest on the situation in Chile.

Also want to let you know, Candy Crowley is coming up at the top of the hour with the latest on "STATE OF THE UNION".

But in the meantime, here's a check of some of your morning's headlines.

The northeast is digging out of its third heavy winter storm in one month. They have just been getting slammed with this stuff, and the cold snap not expected to go anywhere anytime soon.

New York set records for the most amount of snow in a single month. Thousands of people across the Northeast were also left without electricity, absolutely what they do not need after all of this cold stuff.

Singer Marie Osmond and family are asking for privacy after authorities in Los Angeles confirmed her son Michael has died. His body was found Friday night in front of his apartment building. Police say they are investigating.

Also, I want to tell you about this, especially if you're doing some flying some time soon. There are more delays ahead for travelers flying into New York's JFK Airport starting tomorrow. The busiest runway there will close for four months of reconstruction. That $376 million project will widen the bay runway. And it's also going to add taxi ways in hopes at easing traffic congestion at one of the world's busiest airports.

We do invite you to stay tuned because as we've been mentioning we're going to have much more on the situation in Chile right here on CNN. The death toll at this moment stands at 300. We are going to have a news conference, or at least be hearing from officials in Chile at 10:00 Eastern on that.

But right now we want to take you Washington and CNN's Candy Crowley with "STATE OF THE UNION".