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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Four More Aftershocks Hit Southeast Asia

Aired December 30, 2004 - 17:00 ET

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

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

JEANNE MESERVE, GUEST HOST: Happening now, four more aftershocks hit Southeast Asia as the region tries to dig itself out. Can the survivors hang on for the help that's on the way? Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice-over): Wiped out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is like a nuclear blast has hit the area.

MESERVE: New pictures show why the death count is rising.

He leads the search for missing Americans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, next of kin.

MESERVE: But the news is usually bad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is the worst part of my job. It's really the worst part of my job.

MESERVE: Fatal mistake. Many stood mesmerized when the sea pulled back. That was the time to run.

A mother's choice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had both of them in my hands and then, we started going under.

MESERVE: She let go of one son to save the other, but her act of desperation has a stunning outcome. Fault line Manhattan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sooner or later, going to happen.

MESERVE: Is the city sitting on the line of a future disaster?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Thanks for joining us, I'm Jeanne Meserve in for Wolf Blitzer. Witnesses says it looks like Hiroshima. But this destruction spreads over a far greater are. In Indonesia, cities smashed, villages vaporized. What seemed so horrific yesterday now turns out to be just the beginning of a still unfolding nightmare as relief workers push toward remote areas. While a region has been decimated this is a world wide tragedy. 14 Americans are among the hundreds of foreigners now listed as dead, thousands more remain unaccounted for. Yet, everyday, there are new stories of survival. 1,000 people were aboard a passenger train which was smashed by the tsunami. Most perished, but, we'll hear from one who walked away.

Relentlessly and rapidly the death count is climbing. Officials in the stricken countries report more than 116,000 fatalities. The toll is likely to go much higher. Indonesia says its death toll now stands at almost 80,000. That is the figure we had for the region just yesterday. And rescuers still haven't reached some areas. Sri Lanka reports almost 25,000 dead with more than 6,500 still missing. Indonesia's island of Sumatra, an area that's always been remote and hard to reach, was hit first and hardest by the earthquake and the tsunami.

It is now the scene of a disaster of nearly unparalleled proportions. CNN's senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy reports from provincial capital, Banda Aceh.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is ground zero, the western coast of Sumatra. A scene of unimaginable devastation. The region's largest town was Malabo, around 40 or 50,000 people lived here. This is what is left. Indonesian based British conservationist Mike Griffiths flew over the area. He says conditions north of Malabo are even worse.

MIKE GRIFFITHS, BRITISH CONSERVATIONIST: There was no villages left standing between Malabo and Chalong (ph), which is about 100 kilometers north of Malabo. It is like a nuclear blast has hit the area. And it has completely leveled everything except just a few structures.

CHINOY: Virtually every sign of life is wiped out.

GRIFFITHS: All can you see, basically, to show there were villages is the remains of the foundations of the more strongly constructed houses. That means built out of concrete. We're seeing nothing at all of the homes built of wood and thatch roofs. And that constitutes probably the most.

CHINOY: And in Chalong, a town of 13,000 people, nothing at all.

GRIFFITHS: It's just vaporized. There's nothing left. It is mostly, in fact, you wouldn't recognize there had been a town there unless you'd flown over there before and you'd seen it from the air. Then you'd realize a town had once existed there. All can you see basically is a very vague outline of some of the roads that used to carry traffic.

CHINOY: On a hill, Griffith spotted around 30 or 40 survivors. No one else in Chalong appeared to be alive. An entire region, home to hundreds of thousands, almost literally wiped off the face of the earth. Mike Chinoy, CNN, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

MESERVE: They came for exotic vacations in Southeast Asia. Especially to the beach resorts of southern Thailand. Now, many of these westerners are unaccounted for, presumed dead. Adrian Britton reports from Phuket, Thailand.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ADRIAN BRITTON, ITV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was not a dramatic crash of wave, as this latest video shows. The tsunami was a mighty push of sea. A constant force consuming every object and person in its path. A man clambers to safety of what was a few seconds before a first floor balcony. And a family at the hotel in Kamala Bay looked dazed as they struggle to stay together.

Five days on, and they come to collect their dead. This is an outdoor mortuary in Karabi where the victims, both Thai and foreign tourists, are laid out for identification by relatives. Outside, westerners wearing masks to hide the stench of death view photographs of the deceased, many disfigured.

(on camera): It is nothing short of horrific for friends and relatives to see. Some of the bodies behind me have been laid out in the open heat for several days. Visual identification is now virtually impossible. It will have to be done forensically.

(voice-over): British, missing and presumed dead. Lincoln Abraham, who was on Phi Phi Beach. Today his friends viewed the mortuary photographs on the computer, an agonizing duty. Yesterday, we told you of the search for Pierce Simon (ph) from Somerset. Today, his brother Luke heard that one of the bodies at the Karabi morgue was wearing similar shorts.

LUKE SIMON, TOURIST: At the moment, we can't distinguish any (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for the features on this body in the morgue, so, I have to go down and double check.

BRITTON: There have been several false trails, but every possibility of finding his brother alive or dead must be pursued. Where recognition of corpses is impossible, close family have to give DNA to establish identity. This young man believes he may have found the body of his younger sister. It is a necessary forensic formality so the body can be released, but in their grief, it is one more unbearable task to go through before they can take their loved ones home. Adrian Britton, ITV News, Thailand.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: So far, 14 Americans have been counted among the dead from the tsunamis. Many more are unaccounted for. As frantic friends and family members search for the missing, U.S. diplomats try to help but there is only so much they can do. CNN's Hugh Riminton reports from Colombo, Sri Lanka.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the U.S. embassy in Colombo, Marc Williams leads the hunt for lost Americans.

MARC WILLIAMS, U.S. CONSUL, COLOMBO: We're planning kind of a land trip down to the south where there are areas where there is concentrations of Americans reported missing.

RIMINTON: Sometimes, there's good news.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's found.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She called her, yeah, next of kin. She is okay, thank you.

RIMINTON: But on the latest count, more than 100 U.S. citizens remain unaccounted for.

WILLIAMS: Here, you see people going through master lists of the missing. It is an ongoing process. Sometimes we think we are doing better because the number of found keep going up, but then, all of the sudden, we'll get a bunch of calls and emails saying that we need to look for more people.

RIMINTON: A fresh tsunami coast alert is immediately relayed to those in the field. As well as searching for the missing and the dead, the embassy welcomes the simply bewildered and exhausted.

(on camera): For traumatized survivors in Sri Lanka and across the entire region, home can seem like it is a long way away. The embassy here uses simple psychological tricks to try to ease the pain of that sense of dislocation.

WILLIAMS: They see the marine guard, we try to give them a Coke or a Mountain Dew, reassure them they are in safety, this is just the first step on a long process on the way home. They are truly in some ways walking wounded.

RIMINTON: One of those is Matthew O'Connell.

MATTHEW O'CONNELL, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: By the time I gotten a hold the embassy, they got a hold of my family back in America. And I haven't even contacted them here. Someone I think had taken my name in the hospital.

RIMINTON: The truth is, some Americans are beyond rescue. In a quiet moment, the consul signs the death papers.

WILLIAMS: One thing I have got to say is it is the worst part of my job. It's really the worst part of my job. The only thing that might be worse is when you have to call the families and tell them.

RIMINTON: He has no illusions. It is a task he expects to repeat. Hugh Riminton, CNN, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Well, the White House has just announced that Secretary of State Powell will be leading a delegation to the region affected by the tsunamis. Let's go now to Crawford Texas and listen to more from deputy White House press secretary Trent Duffy.

TRENT DUFFY, DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There are millions sent over the Internet by individuals, sometimes even outpacing various government contributions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What to you make of this outpouring of private citizens giving Internet donations?

DUFFY: I think it reflects what we have been talking about, which is that the American people are some of the most generous on the planet. And we certainly welcome the outpouring of support from the American people and from nations around the globe for this terrible tragedy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does it surprise you (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

DUFFY: I'm not an Internet critic, Jeff. Yes, Alicia.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today at the U.N., Kofi Annan was asked if he would go to the region, and he said, at this time, rooms, shelter that kind of thing, other resources, should really go to the people who are displaced, and things could be disrupted if in fact he were to go, was he feeling. Is the president concerned about the disruption of that Secretary Powell and Governor Bush's visit might make?

DUFFY: No. As I mentioned, they are going to be very sensitive to not interfering with the relief and recovery efforts underway. All steps will be taken to make sure whatever resources are available, not to be interfering with the recovery effort will be utilized. Yes, Jeff?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should this action be seen as a scene that the United States government doesn't think the U.N. can handle this?

DUFFY: Absolutely not. We are working in partnership with the United Nations. In fact, the core coalition of countries, which of course includes the United States, Japan, India and Australia has been meeting regularly and has being joined by United Nations officials, I believe, Mr. Egeland was part of the discussions this afternoon. They are talking on a daily basis and those efforts will just continue. So, we're working hand and glove with the United Nations effort.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When was the decision made to send Secretary Powell and Governor Bush and how long do you expect their (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to last?

DUFFY: I'll have an update on how long. The decision was made in the days following as the president began to think about what best way for the United States to respond to this tragedy. Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When Secretary Powell goes to the U.N. tomorrow to visit with the secretary general, will he urge the secretary general to also go to the region? Or does the White House agree with Kofi Annan's decision not to go to the region at this time?

DUFFY: I only speak for the United States and what our delegation is going to be doing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

DUFFY: As the statement by the president said, he has extensive experience in the State of Florida with relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts. It is also the president's brother. I think it signifies the high level of importance that the president puts on this delegation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Given to the cost of Asia, the cost of the war, is there any thought being given to toning down some of the lavish inaugural activities?

DUFFY: I think the inaugural activities are paid for out of private contributions, not governmental funds. So I would refer you to the Inaugural Committee for an answer on that. Anything further?

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

DUFFY: I think the president addressed that yesterday. The United States is doing everything both from an official standpoint as we as private contributions. We're the world's most generous country. We will continue to be. The president is very satisfied with the international coalition that is coming together to confront this tragedy. Secretary Powell said this morning this is just the beginning. This is going to be a sustained, multimillion, multinational effort for years to come.

MESERVE: You've been listening to Trent Duffy, deputy White House press secretary, announcing that Secretary of State Colin Powell and Florida Governor Jeb Bush will be leading a delegation to the affected region. They will leave on January 2nd. This after the administration has taken some criticism to the amount of money given to the relief effort and for the length of time for the president to make a public comment about the tragedy.

He was sitting on a terrace of a beachfront hotel when the tsunami hit. Hear from the American tourist who captured this video before running for his life. Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suddenly this wave took up, it must have been like 80 percent of the horizon and was coming towards us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: The train that became a sea of dead and claimed hundreds of lives. One of the few survivors tells us how he escaped. And later:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I knew I had to let go of one of them. I thought I better let go of the one that is the oldest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Forced to choose. A mother overcome by the tsunami must make a brutal decision, let one of her two children go.

And tune into a special two hour edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360. Tonight, Anderson takes an in-depth look at rescue and recovery efforts and the impact of aid arriving in the region. That's at 7:00 Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MESERVE: The Queen of the Sea traveled a coastal rain line in Sri Lanka until the tsunami struck, turning the passenger train into twisted wreckage and killing most of the 1,000 people aboard. In London, CNN's Becky Anderson caught up with one man who somehow managed to survive.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SHENTH RAVINDRA, TRAIN SURVIVOR: I felt a shunt and the train moved off the tracks. I could see it actually being dis-attached from the other carriages. And then, as the water started to rush in, the carriage started to tilt like this at which point I fell against the doorway, and water started to fill up, up into my neck.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over: Shenth Ravindra believes he may be one of only five western survivors from the train caught up in the Asian tsunami the day after Christmas.

RAVINDRA: There was a lot of panic, you know, a lot of people were hysterical. A lot of the children were grabbing hold of me and people around. Like, the mothers of children, like, there was one mother who had about three or four children around, and obviously she didn't have enough arms to hold her children. She was imploring me to grab a hold of her children and look after her children, which I did. So I was trying to grab hold as many people as possible as well secure myself on the train for when the second wave hit.

ANDERSON: He caught the queen of the south at Colombo for a trip to Galle, a journey that he describes as a pilgrimage. Then, just before the train reached the destination, disaster struck. Massive killer waves that slammed into Sri Lanka threw the train off its tracks, leaving many of its more than 1,000 passengers dead or missing.

RAVINDRA: There was like a sea of dead bodies, children and women mainly. The majority of them were children. So I had to clear a path through the water by pushing these people away and heading far inland as possible. So it was a case of survival at that moment. ANDERSON: At Heathrow Airport, on Thursday a tearful reunion for Shenth and his mother, a devout Hindu who says her son is lucky to be alive. Rescuers have so far recovered just over 200 bodies from the trains eight carriages now scattered about in a sickening wasteland of twisted metal. The dead were cremated or buried next to the railroad track that runs along the coastline.

RAVINDRA: I'm counting my lucky stars to be perfectly honest. It's really been difficult. I haven't really had time to think about exactly what's happened. But I know it is an unbelievable sequence of events that helped me escape. The train, the house, going to the farm, the line, coming back, but, I won't be complaining about being unlucky in anything in life ever again. I think I am a very lucky person.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Now, another witness account of the tsunami from an American that was vacationing on the west coast of Sri Lanka. Christopher Saxe and his girlfriend ran for their lives when water started pouring into their hotel. He's in the Netherlands now. We spoke with him by phone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: I understand you were sitting on the terrace of a beach hotel in Sri Lanka when the tsunami hit. Describe to me what you saw and what you experienced.

CHRISTOPHER SAXE, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: Well, we were sitting at the beach, and, people -- the local people came down to the beach, because they heard of a report from flooding in the south. We were not really sure what was going on but, when the waves started rolling in from the south we realized that the ocean was going to envelope into the beach. We ran off the beach onto the terrace of the hotel, and we watched the locals frantically try to pull the fishing boats to higher ground. Unfortunately, the water rose so quickly that there was really not enough time, and the ocean drove the fishing boats, and the furniture on the terrace into the hotel itself, smashing the furniture. We got off the beach, and as soon as the water started flooding into the hotel, we ran for it.

MESERVE: And then what happened?

SAXE: The waters receded, and then they came back again, and this time, we were standing -- we ran out of the hotel. We were standing on the street, and we watched the waters rise, and, pour into the streets. We then -- the water then stopped flooding onto the street, and then it was over as quickly as it started, really.

MESERVE: What did the aftermath look like?

SAXE: Well, in front of our hotel, it didn't look as bad as we thought it was. It was only when we started walking down the beach that we saw a lot of breach front homes were completely destroyed. A lot of hotels had the walls facing the beach collapse, and there was debris everywhere. Furniture, shoes, palm trees, and, corpses of dead animals, mostly farm animals and dogs.

MESERVE: How are you doing now?

SAXE: I'm very tired. We managed to get a flight out of Colombo Tuesday evening, early Wednesday morning, and the time in between the initial waves and getting on the plane, there was not much time to rest, because, there was just a fear that you didn't know what was going to happen next. And there was a lack of information where we were.

MESERVE: You were able to leave. What are your thoughts for the people who could not?

SAXE: Well, I'll be honest, this is the first time I've seen a humanitarian crisis unfold in front of my eyes. And I was speaking to people who lost their homes, and a number of fishermen have lost their livelihoods. And to be able to get on a plane and get away from it left me with a very unsettling feeling.

MESERVE: Christopher Saxe, thanks so much for joining us from Amsterdam.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: An outpouring of help from ordinary citizens, what people in the United States are doing to help the children orphaned by the tsunami.

Nightmare scenario. A fault line that runs under Manhattan. Is New York City due for a major earthquake?

And later, commercial airliners illuminated by laser beams. Is it a prank or something more sinister?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MESERVE: We heard just a few moments ago from deputy White House press secretary Trent Duffy in Crawford, Texas. Here is what he had to say about the administration's response to the tsunami tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: The president will send a delegation of experts to the affected areas to meet with regional leaders and international organizations to assess what additional aid can be provided by the United States. The delegation will be led by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Governor Jeb Bush, who has extensive experience in the State of Florida with relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts following natural disasters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Many American citizens are taking steps to help disaster victims. CNN's Mary Snow joins us from New York with that story. Mary? MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jeanne, it is estimated that one-third of the victims are children and at Save the Children, it seems as the death toll rises, so do the donations. The group says it collected are at $2 million alone, doubling its donations.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Save the Children.

SNOW (voice-over): Half a world away from the destruction in an affluent American suburb, the phones don't stop ringing. People desperate to help the smallest victims of the tsunami.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you guys have a list of things that would be useful as donations?

SNOW: People walk in the door to give, and Eileen Burke is heading out the door, destined for Indonesia.

EILEEN BURKE, SAVE THE CHILDREN: I think you kind of have to check the emotional state at the door. This is the most dangerous time for children, as well, they will be victim to diarrhea, cholera, outbreaks of disease. That is why it is incredibly important for us to get there.

SNOW: Burke is heading to help fellow staff members of Save the Children in Banda Aceh where some of the groups own aid workers were killed.

BURKE: You realize what little it takes to make a difference. It is extremely motivating.

SNOW: The group says it's seen the biggest outpouring in its 70- year history. More than $2 million in the last few days, some of it was children.

CAY LYODON, SAVE THE CHILDREN: A man called in and the dollar amount was $713. I said, $13, sounds like the piggy bank. And it was his kid's piggy bank.

SNOW: But it's not just money.

LYODON: We had a truck driver call from the Midwest. And he wanted to drive a truck because that's what he could do.

CAROLYN MILES, SAVE THE CHILDREN: I took a couple calls from people who wanted to adopt children.

SNOW: Which images that some here find hauntingly familiar.

MILES: I think it has brought back maybe some memories of 9/11, with the pictures on the wall and looking for survivors.

SNOW: Eileen Burke considers herself fortunate to be able to help survivors firsthand. Others find comfort in witnessing the generosity. MILES: Just when you think the world is rotten and can't get any worse, something horrible happens and you find out that people are okay. And, you know, that there is good in people's hearts.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SNOW: While, the group says it has received calls about adoptions, it does not handle that. It says instead it tries to find homes for children their native countries. Jeanne?

MESERVE: Mary Snow. Thank you. And now, a look at some of the reaction to this catastrophe from around the world.

Members of Sweden's royal family were among those attending a memorial for tsunami victims in Stockholm. Estimates of the number of Swedes missing in the region vary from 1400 to more than 5,000.

Mexican volunteers. A team rescue volunteers left Mexico City for Indonesia. So far the are the only Mexican team to head to Asia. They plan to spend two weeks in the zone.

People appeal. Pope John Paul II is renewing a call for global aid to the tsunami victims, noting it is the Christmas season. The pope urged his followers and quote "all people of goodwill" to give generously. And that's our look around the world.

Chilling new video of towns completely wiped off the map, how the tsunami's reduced a region that was home to thousands to mere debris. Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a warning sign for you, if you are on the coastline and you see this happening, that is a signal that something is wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Deadly deception. Natural signals of the tsunami's coming were there. So why did some victims get lured in? We'll explain ahead.

Lashing rains, heavy snowfall and avalanches. An update on a relentless weather system that is battering the West.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MESERVE: Welcome back.

Where tens of thousands of people once lived, there is now little evidence of life. We'll take you to Indonesia's impact zone.

But, first, a quick check of other stories now in the news.

With militant activity surging in the northern Iraq city of Mosul, the entire municipal electoral commission has resigned due to death threats. A spokesman says that 24 members and 672 other employees submitted their resignations after gunmen stormed their offices and said they would be killed if they didn't stop their work.

A judge has refused bail for the Kansas woman accused of strangling a pregnant acquaintance and cutting the eight-month-old fetus from her womb. A federal magistrate ruled at a hearing in Kansas City that 36-year-old Lisa Montgomery will remain in custody pending trial.

Residents are beginning to assess the damage in flood-ravaged parts of the Southwest. Heavy rainfall from a series of slow-moving storms caused flooding, road closures and evacuations in parts of Arizona, Nevada and California. More storms are forecast to move over Southern California by this evening.

The same weather system is dropping snow at higher elevations as the storms move east. Mountain regions from California to Colorado have received several inches, stranding motorists and causing avalanches in some areas. Freezing rains have led to dangerously icy roads in parts of the Northern Plains.

Another look now at those harrowing images of utter devastation from Indonesia's northern Sumatra, the first target of the earthquake and the killer waves it spawned.

Dan Rivers reports from Aceh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN RIVERS, ITN REPORTER (voice-over): The first glimpse of what the Indonesians are calling their ground zero. The west coast of Aceh Province was hardest hit. This amateur footage shows the town of Meulaboh. Officially, 3,000 died here. Unofficially, some think perhaps half the 30,000 residents have perished.

It is a town still cut off from the outside world five days after this catastrophe. This is all that remains of Tenom (ph), not a single building left standing. And this is Chalong. It's been wiped off the map.

It was filmed by conservationist Mike Griffiths. He showed it to the deputy governor of Aceh Province today. He was horrified, unaware of just how bad the west coast now is. Later, we ventured down Aceh's nightmarish seaboard, driving through mile after mile of desolation.

(on camera): This is just typical of the scenes we've encountered on this road. The tsunami smashed its way through here. You can see, before the tsunami came, you couldn't see to the horizon. Now you can see all the way out to sea.

It deposited all this debris here. And after the wave had come through, the villagers say there were screams of people still trapped alive, hadn't drowned. The next day, this entire place had fallen silent.

(voice-over): The people here are starving. This 60-year-old woman survived, but will die unless she gets food. She told me she hasn't eaten for five days.

This woman has been found on a nearby hill. She is weak and has had no water since Sunday. We helped her into an ambulance bound for Banda Aceh.

(on camera): We've just given this woman 100,000 rupee, which is a few pounds, and they say it might make the difference between surviving and not surviving. They're taking her to a hospital. She's been up in the jungle for four days with no food and no water. This example is just one of hundreds of thousands of people here.

(voice-over): This old man has been pulling corpses from the rubble without help, without water. We give him ours. He is too tired, too traumatized to talk. The bodies are everywhere, rotting in the road.

(on camera): Just horrific.

(voice-over): Laid out without ceremony, grotesquely deformed. Mike had seen this from the air, but nothing could prepare him from experiencing it up close.

It does remind me of the pictures we see of Nagasaki or Hiroshima, where there was just I think one building, one cathedral standing, a gutted cathedral standing, and the rest was leveled, a leveled plain of shards. And that's more or less is the situation here. We have one big building to our left and the rest is just nothing, except debris.

RIVERS: These people are on their own. There's no aid here yet. They're walking to escape, but this road leads nowhere.

Dan Rivers, ITN, Aceh.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Striking new satellite photos provided an illustration of the magnitude of the disaster on the remote western part of Indonesia. This photo is from before the waves hit. Two days after tsunamis, on December 28, it looked like this. At least one witness describes it as like a nuclear blast site, with whole villages, in his words, vaporized.

Four more moderate aftershocks were felt in the region in the past 24 hours. The latest series of rumblings measured from 4.9 to 5.7. The epicenters were located along a band stretching from northern Sumatra to the Andaman and Nicobar Island regions of the Bay of Bengal. The U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors global seismic activity, has recorded more than 70 aftershocks since Sunday's magnitude 9.0 earthquake, which caused the giant waves.

The tsunami's deadly deception, how victims got lured to the shoreline for a better view.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the more that the water withdraws, generally speaking, the bigger the wave that is coming at you. And it could come at you very fast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: What lures you in is exactly what should make you run.

And the 125th Street fault. Is New York City sitting on the site of a future disaster?

Plus, a mother of two young boys makes an agonizing choice in the midst of the swirling tsunami waters. Their story just ahead.

And tune in to a special two-hour edition of "ANDERSON COOPER 360." Tonight, Anderson profiles the doctors on the front lines, new stories of survival and the impact of relief efforts arriving in the region. That's CNN tonight, beginning at 7:00 Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MESERVE: U.N. officials say a global conference on disaster reduction next month in Japan will discuss setting up early warning sensors for tsunamis in the Indian Ocean region. But while such a system could have saved lives, a natural signal that huge waves were on the way actually lured some victims into the danger zone.

CNN's Brian Todd is here to explain -- Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Jeanne.

Experts say it is not an optical illusion, but it is very deceptive. And in South Asia this week, it proved very dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): On a Sri Lankan beach, an amateur cameraman captures part of it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rocks used to scuba dive out to sucked away.

TODD: A suddenly receding tide, a common occurrence during tsunamis, a deadly deception.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are not to be taken likely.

TODD: Oceanographers call this wave withdrawal, a phenomenon where the tide sweeps unusually far out, sometimes, further than the eye can see. Entire bays can be drained. Witnesses say it looks like the ocean has turned into a desert.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the water was sucked out to sea 200, 300 yards. And that kind of gave everyone a sense that something very, very weird was happening.

TODD: Weird, but only in its scope. In fact, experts say this is the same effect you see every few seconds on your average beach, an undercurrent washing down away from shore, followed by a tiny wave sweeping up. In tsunamis, the wave's energy is magnified. The entire sequence takes longer and is thousands of times larger.

The more that the water withdraws, generally speaking, the bigger the wave that is coming at you. And it could come at you very fast. So, can you not outrun the wave once it is upon you.

TODD: Eddie Bernard, a veteran oceanographer at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, has studied this phenomenon for years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, what we are seeing is withdrawal away from the coastline.

TODD: Bernard and experts we spoke to from the U.S. Geological Survey say people are often lured to the shoreline to get a better view. Even fishermen get taken in when they see an easy catch flopping on the sand. Then the waves come back with a fury.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look how quick it's coming back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are on the coastline and you see this happening, that is a signal that something is wrong, and you should go away from the coastline.

TODD: In South Asia, many didn't. There are various accounts of people putting themselves in harm's way just for the view, then being swept away.

It is not clear how far this tide in Malaysia washed out, but, as it returns, children are taking in the scene and in an instant are carried several feet back and cling to a car for their lives. The size and speed of the wash-back depends on the beach itself. In shallow areas, with reefs or gradual slopes, experts say the water drains away more quickly. But, regardless of topography or depth, it always returns with force.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Experts at NOAA and U.S. Geological Survey say there are three warning signs in this situation. One is obvious, if you feel the earth shaking, second, if you see the tide receding that drastically. Or, third, if you hear a loud roar, like a freight train or a jet, move to high ground and move very fast -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: Brian, if only they'd known. Thank you.

Last weekend's tsunamis started with a massive earthquake. And that has some experts worried about the fault line that runs directly beneath the biggest city in the United States.

CNN's Alina Cho reports from New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One Hundred Twenty- Fifth Street, heart of Harlem, home to the Apollo Theater, office of former President Clinton and a fault line, seismologists say, is one to watch.

(on camera): To the people who say, listen, this is not going to happen here, you say what?

LEONARDO SEEBER, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SEISMOLOGIST: I say this is wrong. It is sooner or later going to happen.

CHO: You believe that?

SEEBER: The issue is how probable is it and how big it's going to be.

CHO (voice-over): Leonardo Seeber, senior seismologist at Columbia University, says as recently as a month ago, there were small tremors near the 125th Street fault. Seeber says these events warrant more study.

SEEBER: Is Manhattan receiving, or Manhattan and New York City receiving appropriate or a balanced attention, scientific attention, relative to other places around the world such as California?

CHO (on camera): And what's the answer to that question?

SEEBER: And the answer to that is no, because as I said before, there is risk, there's considerable risk in Manhattan.

CHRIS SNEE, ENGINEERING GEOLOGIST: Very low risk.

CHO (voice-over): Geologist Chris Snee likens the 125th Street fault to scar tissue, a relative ancient seismic activity that is now dormant.

SNEE: You need several ingredients for a major earthquake. It's not enough to say that there is a fault.

CHO: Yet residents in this Harlem neighborhood who are closely watching the devastation in Asia wonder if something similar could happen here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're surrounded around water and anything could happen.

CHO: Movie makers have fantasized about such an event and there are theories. Some argue if the volcano in the Canary Islands near Africa suddenly erupted and collapsed into the Atlantic, it could trigger a tsunami that could reach the East Coast. Seismologists like Seeber say the risk is minimal but, like the potential for earthquakes in the area, should not be ignored.

Alina Cho, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MESERVE: In a moment, a mystery that might affect safety in the skies, laser beams directed at cockpits -- what this might mean coming up in our "Security Watch."

Plus, a real-life "Sophie's Choice." How did this mother choose which child would be left to fend for himself in the tsunami?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MESERVE: On the CNN "Security Watch," disturbing reports from commercial airline pilots flying in and out of U.S. airports, laser beams shining into cockpits. An investigation is under way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice-over): Monday night, the cockpit of a Continental Airlines flight approaching Cleveland's airport was illuminated by a laser beam.

ROBERT HAWK, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: This plane was targeted. It just didn't flash for a moment inside the cockpit. The plane was traveling at about 300 miles an hour, at about 8,500 to 10,000 feet, and it followed the plane inside the cockpit for two to four seconds.

MESERVE: The same night, green lights, possibly lasers, hit the cockpits of two flights landing at Colorado Springs airport. Pilots have also reported seeing what could have been lasers in Washington, D.C., and Teterboro, New Jersey, a total of at least seven incidents in five days, according to officials.

All the flights landed safely. But a recent FAA report concluded the potential for an aviation accident definitely exists because lasers could impair vision or distract a pilot, making landing difficult, at best. The report also notes that a laser could be quickly deployed and withdrawn, leaving no obvious collateral damage or projectile residue and would be difficult to detect and defend against.

Since the advent of big laser light shows in the 1980s, pilots have been concerned. And over the years, there have been hundreds of incidents involving airplanes and lasers. Commercial lasers strong enough to reach low-level aircraft are not hard to get, though the industry says it is working with government to regulate the strongest ones.

Experts say directing a beam into the eyes of a pilot in a moving plane hardly seems feasible.

RAFI RON, AVIATION SECURITY EXPERT: I don't think, though, at this point that we should consider this a major risk to our flights. And, in terms of our priorities, I think that this should not be at the top of our priorities.

MESERVE: In a bulletin last month, the Department of Homeland Security and FBI said the U.S. intelligence community has no specific or credible evidence that terrorists intend to use lasers, although they have expressed interest in them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: An administration official says the recent spate of incidents has not heightened the government's concerns, but the FBI is investigating to see if they were pranks, accidents or something more sinister.

Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

A report from the Associated Press just in to CNN say legendary jazz man Artie Shaw is dead after a long illness. Shaw was a clarinetist and band leader. And fans say his 1938 recording of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" is one of the greatest of the big band era. He wives included actresses Lana Turner and Ava Gardner. Artie Shaw was 94 years old.

A mother's agonizing decision and new images of the tsunami's power coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MESERVE: It is perhaps the most difficult decision any mother can face. An Australian family was on vacation in Phuket, Thailand, when the tsunami struck. The mother was on the beach with her two young children, but she could hold on to only one of them.

Reese Whitby (ph) of Australia Channel 7 has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (voice-over): Home at last and pent-up survival instincts dissolve into tears. Jillian Searle from Willetton was at her hotel pool with Lachie, 5, and Blake, 2, when the tsunami hit, her husband watching helpless from their first floor hotel room.

JILLIAN SEARLE, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: Just saw this wall of water just coming straight for us and we just started running. I had both of them in my hands, and one in each arm and then we start going under.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jillian was forced to make a horrible decision, let go of one son to save the other.

SEARLE: I knew I had to let go of one of them. And I just thought, I had better let go of one that is the oldest. And a lady grabbed hold of him for a moment, but she had to let him go because she was going under. And, I was screaming trying to find him. And we thought he was dead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two hours later, Lachie was found alive.

SEARLE: He clung to a door. He said it just swept him into a bar or something and he said he was holding on to a door.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (on camera): Does he know how to swim?

SEARLE: No. He can't swim. That's why...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How did he keep his head above water?

SEARLE: He said he was doggy-paddling in the water. And he said that the door kept him up. It was just horrible. I'm just so thankful that I have still got my two kids with me. I never thought that both would survive.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: That boy deserves his name, Lachie, that report from Reese Whitby (ph) of Australia's News Channel 7.

As we've been doing all week, we end this hour with a look at some of the enduring images of the tsunami disaster captured in photographs.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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

Aired December 30, 2004 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JEANNE MESERVE, GUEST HOST: Happening now, four more aftershocks hit Southeast Asia as the region tries to dig itself out. Can the survivors hang on for the help that's on the way? Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice-over): Wiped out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is like a nuclear blast has hit the area.

MESERVE: New pictures show why the death count is rising.

He leads the search for missing Americans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, next of kin.

MESERVE: But the news is usually bad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is the worst part of my job. It's really the worst part of my job.

MESERVE: Fatal mistake. Many stood mesmerized when the sea pulled back. That was the time to run.

A mother's choice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had both of them in my hands and then, we started going under.

MESERVE: She let go of one son to save the other, but her act of desperation has a stunning outcome. Fault line Manhattan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sooner or later, going to happen.

MESERVE: Is the city sitting on the line of a future disaster?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Thanks for joining us, I'm Jeanne Meserve in for Wolf Blitzer. Witnesses says it looks like Hiroshima. But this destruction spreads over a far greater are. In Indonesia, cities smashed, villages vaporized. What seemed so horrific yesterday now turns out to be just the beginning of a still unfolding nightmare as relief workers push toward remote areas. While a region has been decimated this is a world wide tragedy. 14 Americans are among the hundreds of foreigners now listed as dead, thousands more remain unaccounted for. Yet, everyday, there are new stories of survival. 1,000 people were aboard a passenger train which was smashed by the tsunami. Most perished, but, we'll hear from one who walked away.

Relentlessly and rapidly the death count is climbing. Officials in the stricken countries report more than 116,000 fatalities. The toll is likely to go much higher. Indonesia says its death toll now stands at almost 80,000. That is the figure we had for the region just yesterday. And rescuers still haven't reached some areas. Sri Lanka reports almost 25,000 dead with more than 6,500 still missing. Indonesia's island of Sumatra, an area that's always been remote and hard to reach, was hit first and hardest by the earthquake and the tsunami.

It is now the scene of a disaster of nearly unparalleled proportions. CNN's senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy reports from provincial capital, Banda Aceh.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is ground zero, the western coast of Sumatra. A scene of unimaginable devastation. The region's largest town was Malabo, around 40 or 50,000 people lived here. This is what is left. Indonesian based British conservationist Mike Griffiths flew over the area. He says conditions north of Malabo are even worse.

MIKE GRIFFITHS, BRITISH CONSERVATIONIST: There was no villages left standing between Malabo and Chalong (ph), which is about 100 kilometers north of Malabo. It is like a nuclear blast has hit the area. And it has completely leveled everything except just a few structures.

CHINOY: Virtually every sign of life is wiped out.

GRIFFITHS: All can you see, basically, to show there were villages is the remains of the foundations of the more strongly constructed houses. That means built out of concrete. We're seeing nothing at all of the homes built of wood and thatch roofs. And that constitutes probably the most.

CHINOY: And in Chalong, a town of 13,000 people, nothing at all.

GRIFFITHS: It's just vaporized. There's nothing left. It is mostly, in fact, you wouldn't recognize there had been a town there unless you'd flown over there before and you'd seen it from the air. Then you'd realize a town had once existed there. All can you see basically is a very vague outline of some of the roads that used to carry traffic.

CHINOY: On a hill, Griffith spotted around 30 or 40 survivors. No one else in Chalong appeared to be alive. An entire region, home to hundreds of thousands, almost literally wiped off the face of the earth. Mike Chinoy, CNN, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

MESERVE: They came for exotic vacations in Southeast Asia. Especially to the beach resorts of southern Thailand. Now, many of these westerners are unaccounted for, presumed dead. Adrian Britton reports from Phuket, Thailand.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ADRIAN BRITTON, ITV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was not a dramatic crash of wave, as this latest video shows. The tsunami was a mighty push of sea. A constant force consuming every object and person in its path. A man clambers to safety of what was a few seconds before a first floor balcony. And a family at the hotel in Kamala Bay looked dazed as they struggle to stay together.

Five days on, and they come to collect their dead. This is an outdoor mortuary in Karabi where the victims, both Thai and foreign tourists, are laid out for identification by relatives. Outside, westerners wearing masks to hide the stench of death view photographs of the deceased, many disfigured.

(on camera): It is nothing short of horrific for friends and relatives to see. Some of the bodies behind me have been laid out in the open heat for several days. Visual identification is now virtually impossible. It will have to be done forensically.

(voice-over): British, missing and presumed dead. Lincoln Abraham, who was on Phi Phi Beach. Today his friends viewed the mortuary photographs on the computer, an agonizing duty. Yesterday, we told you of the search for Pierce Simon (ph) from Somerset. Today, his brother Luke heard that one of the bodies at the Karabi morgue was wearing similar shorts.

LUKE SIMON, TOURIST: At the moment, we can't distinguish any (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for the features on this body in the morgue, so, I have to go down and double check.

BRITTON: There have been several false trails, but every possibility of finding his brother alive or dead must be pursued. Where recognition of corpses is impossible, close family have to give DNA to establish identity. This young man believes he may have found the body of his younger sister. It is a necessary forensic formality so the body can be released, but in their grief, it is one more unbearable task to go through before they can take their loved ones home. Adrian Britton, ITV News, Thailand.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: So far, 14 Americans have been counted among the dead from the tsunamis. Many more are unaccounted for. As frantic friends and family members search for the missing, U.S. diplomats try to help but there is only so much they can do. CNN's Hugh Riminton reports from Colombo, Sri Lanka.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the U.S. embassy in Colombo, Marc Williams leads the hunt for lost Americans.

MARC WILLIAMS, U.S. CONSUL, COLOMBO: We're planning kind of a land trip down to the south where there are areas where there is concentrations of Americans reported missing.

RIMINTON: Sometimes, there's good news.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's found.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She called her, yeah, next of kin. She is okay, thank you.

RIMINTON: But on the latest count, more than 100 U.S. citizens remain unaccounted for.

WILLIAMS: Here, you see people going through master lists of the missing. It is an ongoing process. Sometimes we think we are doing better because the number of found keep going up, but then, all of the sudden, we'll get a bunch of calls and emails saying that we need to look for more people.

RIMINTON: A fresh tsunami coast alert is immediately relayed to those in the field. As well as searching for the missing and the dead, the embassy welcomes the simply bewildered and exhausted.

(on camera): For traumatized survivors in Sri Lanka and across the entire region, home can seem like it is a long way away. The embassy here uses simple psychological tricks to try to ease the pain of that sense of dislocation.

WILLIAMS: They see the marine guard, we try to give them a Coke or a Mountain Dew, reassure them they are in safety, this is just the first step on a long process on the way home. They are truly in some ways walking wounded.

RIMINTON: One of those is Matthew O'Connell.

MATTHEW O'CONNELL, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: By the time I gotten a hold the embassy, they got a hold of my family back in America. And I haven't even contacted them here. Someone I think had taken my name in the hospital.

RIMINTON: The truth is, some Americans are beyond rescue. In a quiet moment, the consul signs the death papers.

WILLIAMS: One thing I have got to say is it is the worst part of my job. It's really the worst part of my job. The only thing that might be worse is when you have to call the families and tell them.

RIMINTON: He has no illusions. It is a task he expects to repeat. Hugh Riminton, CNN, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Well, the White House has just announced that Secretary of State Powell will be leading a delegation to the region affected by the tsunamis. Let's go now to Crawford Texas and listen to more from deputy White House press secretary Trent Duffy.

TRENT DUFFY, DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There are millions sent over the Internet by individuals, sometimes even outpacing various government contributions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What to you make of this outpouring of private citizens giving Internet donations?

DUFFY: I think it reflects what we have been talking about, which is that the American people are some of the most generous on the planet. And we certainly welcome the outpouring of support from the American people and from nations around the globe for this terrible tragedy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does it surprise you (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

DUFFY: I'm not an Internet critic, Jeff. Yes, Alicia.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today at the U.N., Kofi Annan was asked if he would go to the region, and he said, at this time, rooms, shelter that kind of thing, other resources, should really go to the people who are displaced, and things could be disrupted if in fact he were to go, was he feeling. Is the president concerned about the disruption of that Secretary Powell and Governor Bush's visit might make?

DUFFY: No. As I mentioned, they are going to be very sensitive to not interfering with the relief and recovery efforts underway. All steps will be taken to make sure whatever resources are available, not to be interfering with the recovery effort will be utilized. Yes, Jeff?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should this action be seen as a scene that the United States government doesn't think the U.N. can handle this?

DUFFY: Absolutely not. We are working in partnership with the United Nations. In fact, the core coalition of countries, which of course includes the United States, Japan, India and Australia has been meeting regularly and has being joined by United Nations officials, I believe, Mr. Egeland was part of the discussions this afternoon. They are talking on a daily basis and those efforts will just continue. So, we're working hand and glove with the United Nations effort.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When was the decision made to send Secretary Powell and Governor Bush and how long do you expect their (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to last?

DUFFY: I'll have an update on how long. The decision was made in the days following as the president began to think about what best way for the United States to respond to this tragedy. Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When Secretary Powell goes to the U.N. tomorrow to visit with the secretary general, will he urge the secretary general to also go to the region? Or does the White House agree with Kofi Annan's decision not to go to the region at this time?

DUFFY: I only speak for the United States and what our delegation is going to be doing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

DUFFY: As the statement by the president said, he has extensive experience in the State of Florida with relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts. It is also the president's brother. I think it signifies the high level of importance that the president puts on this delegation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Given to the cost of Asia, the cost of the war, is there any thought being given to toning down some of the lavish inaugural activities?

DUFFY: I think the inaugural activities are paid for out of private contributions, not governmental funds. So I would refer you to the Inaugural Committee for an answer on that. Anything further?

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

DUFFY: I think the president addressed that yesterday. The United States is doing everything both from an official standpoint as we as private contributions. We're the world's most generous country. We will continue to be. The president is very satisfied with the international coalition that is coming together to confront this tragedy. Secretary Powell said this morning this is just the beginning. This is going to be a sustained, multimillion, multinational effort for years to come.

MESERVE: You've been listening to Trent Duffy, deputy White House press secretary, announcing that Secretary of State Colin Powell and Florida Governor Jeb Bush will be leading a delegation to the affected region. They will leave on January 2nd. This after the administration has taken some criticism to the amount of money given to the relief effort and for the length of time for the president to make a public comment about the tragedy.

He was sitting on a terrace of a beachfront hotel when the tsunami hit. Hear from the American tourist who captured this video before running for his life. Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suddenly this wave took up, it must have been like 80 percent of the horizon and was coming towards us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: The train that became a sea of dead and claimed hundreds of lives. One of the few survivors tells us how he escaped. And later:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I knew I had to let go of one of them. I thought I better let go of the one that is the oldest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Forced to choose. A mother overcome by the tsunami must make a brutal decision, let one of her two children go.

And tune into a special two hour edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360. Tonight, Anderson takes an in-depth look at rescue and recovery efforts and the impact of aid arriving in the region. That's at 7:00 Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MESERVE: The Queen of the Sea traveled a coastal rain line in Sri Lanka until the tsunami struck, turning the passenger train into twisted wreckage and killing most of the 1,000 people aboard. In London, CNN's Becky Anderson caught up with one man who somehow managed to survive.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SHENTH RAVINDRA, TRAIN SURVIVOR: I felt a shunt and the train moved off the tracks. I could see it actually being dis-attached from the other carriages. And then, as the water started to rush in, the carriage started to tilt like this at which point I fell against the doorway, and water started to fill up, up into my neck.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over: Shenth Ravindra believes he may be one of only five western survivors from the train caught up in the Asian tsunami the day after Christmas.

RAVINDRA: There was a lot of panic, you know, a lot of people were hysterical. A lot of the children were grabbing hold of me and people around. Like, the mothers of children, like, there was one mother who had about three or four children around, and obviously she didn't have enough arms to hold her children. She was imploring me to grab a hold of her children and look after her children, which I did. So I was trying to grab hold as many people as possible as well secure myself on the train for when the second wave hit.

ANDERSON: He caught the queen of the south at Colombo for a trip to Galle, a journey that he describes as a pilgrimage. Then, just before the train reached the destination, disaster struck. Massive killer waves that slammed into Sri Lanka threw the train off its tracks, leaving many of its more than 1,000 passengers dead or missing.

RAVINDRA: There was like a sea of dead bodies, children and women mainly. The majority of them were children. So I had to clear a path through the water by pushing these people away and heading far inland as possible. So it was a case of survival at that moment. ANDERSON: At Heathrow Airport, on Thursday a tearful reunion for Shenth and his mother, a devout Hindu who says her son is lucky to be alive. Rescuers have so far recovered just over 200 bodies from the trains eight carriages now scattered about in a sickening wasteland of twisted metal. The dead were cremated or buried next to the railroad track that runs along the coastline.

RAVINDRA: I'm counting my lucky stars to be perfectly honest. It's really been difficult. I haven't really had time to think about exactly what's happened. But I know it is an unbelievable sequence of events that helped me escape. The train, the house, going to the farm, the line, coming back, but, I won't be complaining about being unlucky in anything in life ever again. I think I am a very lucky person.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Now, another witness account of the tsunami from an American that was vacationing on the west coast of Sri Lanka. Christopher Saxe and his girlfriend ran for their lives when water started pouring into their hotel. He's in the Netherlands now. We spoke with him by phone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: I understand you were sitting on the terrace of a beach hotel in Sri Lanka when the tsunami hit. Describe to me what you saw and what you experienced.

CHRISTOPHER SAXE, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: Well, we were sitting at the beach, and, people -- the local people came down to the beach, because they heard of a report from flooding in the south. We were not really sure what was going on but, when the waves started rolling in from the south we realized that the ocean was going to envelope into the beach. We ran off the beach onto the terrace of the hotel, and we watched the locals frantically try to pull the fishing boats to higher ground. Unfortunately, the water rose so quickly that there was really not enough time, and the ocean drove the fishing boats, and the furniture on the terrace into the hotel itself, smashing the furniture. We got off the beach, and as soon as the water started flooding into the hotel, we ran for it.

MESERVE: And then what happened?

SAXE: The waters receded, and then they came back again, and this time, we were standing -- we ran out of the hotel. We were standing on the street, and we watched the waters rise, and, pour into the streets. We then -- the water then stopped flooding onto the street, and then it was over as quickly as it started, really.

MESERVE: What did the aftermath look like?

SAXE: Well, in front of our hotel, it didn't look as bad as we thought it was. It was only when we started walking down the beach that we saw a lot of breach front homes were completely destroyed. A lot of hotels had the walls facing the beach collapse, and there was debris everywhere. Furniture, shoes, palm trees, and, corpses of dead animals, mostly farm animals and dogs.

MESERVE: How are you doing now?

SAXE: I'm very tired. We managed to get a flight out of Colombo Tuesday evening, early Wednesday morning, and the time in between the initial waves and getting on the plane, there was not much time to rest, because, there was just a fear that you didn't know what was going to happen next. And there was a lack of information where we were.

MESERVE: You were able to leave. What are your thoughts for the people who could not?

SAXE: Well, I'll be honest, this is the first time I've seen a humanitarian crisis unfold in front of my eyes. And I was speaking to people who lost their homes, and a number of fishermen have lost their livelihoods. And to be able to get on a plane and get away from it left me with a very unsettling feeling.

MESERVE: Christopher Saxe, thanks so much for joining us from Amsterdam.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: An outpouring of help from ordinary citizens, what people in the United States are doing to help the children orphaned by the tsunami.

Nightmare scenario. A fault line that runs under Manhattan. Is New York City due for a major earthquake?

And later, commercial airliners illuminated by laser beams. Is it a prank or something more sinister?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MESERVE: We heard just a few moments ago from deputy White House press secretary Trent Duffy in Crawford, Texas. Here is what he had to say about the administration's response to the tsunami tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: The president will send a delegation of experts to the affected areas to meet with regional leaders and international organizations to assess what additional aid can be provided by the United States. The delegation will be led by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Governor Jeb Bush, who has extensive experience in the State of Florida with relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts following natural disasters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Many American citizens are taking steps to help disaster victims. CNN's Mary Snow joins us from New York with that story. Mary? MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jeanne, it is estimated that one-third of the victims are children and at Save the Children, it seems as the death toll rises, so do the donations. The group says it collected are at $2 million alone, doubling its donations.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Save the Children.

SNOW (voice-over): Half a world away from the destruction in an affluent American suburb, the phones don't stop ringing. People desperate to help the smallest victims of the tsunami.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you guys have a list of things that would be useful as donations?

SNOW: People walk in the door to give, and Eileen Burke is heading out the door, destined for Indonesia.

EILEEN BURKE, SAVE THE CHILDREN: I think you kind of have to check the emotional state at the door. This is the most dangerous time for children, as well, they will be victim to diarrhea, cholera, outbreaks of disease. That is why it is incredibly important for us to get there.

SNOW: Burke is heading to help fellow staff members of Save the Children in Banda Aceh where some of the groups own aid workers were killed.

BURKE: You realize what little it takes to make a difference. It is extremely motivating.

SNOW: The group says it's seen the biggest outpouring in its 70- year history. More than $2 million in the last few days, some of it was children.

CAY LYODON, SAVE THE CHILDREN: A man called in and the dollar amount was $713. I said, $13, sounds like the piggy bank. And it was his kid's piggy bank.

SNOW: But it's not just money.

LYODON: We had a truck driver call from the Midwest. And he wanted to drive a truck because that's what he could do.

CAROLYN MILES, SAVE THE CHILDREN: I took a couple calls from people who wanted to adopt children.

SNOW: Which images that some here find hauntingly familiar.

MILES: I think it has brought back maybe some memories of 9/11, with the pictures on the wall and looking for survivors.

SNOW: Eileen Burke considers herself fortunate to be able to help survivors firsthand. Others find comfort in witnessing the generosity. MILES: Just when you think the world is rotten and can't get any worse, something horrible happens and you find out that people are okay. And, you know, that there is good in people's hearts.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SNOW: While, the group says it has received calls about adoptions, it does not handle that. It says instead it tries to find homes for children their native countries. Jeanne?

MESERVE: Mary Snow. Thank you. And now, a look at some of the reaction to this catastrophe from around the world.

Members of Sweden's royal family were among those attending a memorial for tsunami victims in Stockholm. Estimates of the number of Swedes missing in the region vary from 1400 to more than 5,000.

Mexican volunteers. A team rescue volunteers left Mexico City for Indonesia. So far the are the only Mexican team to head to Asia. They plan to spend two weeks in the zone.

People appeal. Pope John Paul II is renewing a call for global aid to the tsunami victims, noting it is the Christmas season. The pope urged his followers and quote "all people of goodwill" to give generously. And that's our look around the world.

Chilling new video of towns completely wiped off the map, how the tsunami's reduced a region that was home to thousands to mere debris. Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a warning sign for you, if you are on the coastline and you see this happening, that is a signal that something is wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Deadly deception. Natural signals of the tsunami's coming were there. So why did some victims get lured in? We'll explain ahead.

Lashing rains, heavy snowfall and avalanches. An update on a relentless weather system that is battering the West.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MESERVE: Welcome back.

Where tens of thousands of people once lived, there is now little evidence of life. We'll take you to Indonesia's impact zone.

But, first, a quick check of other stories now in the news.

With militant activity surging in the northern Iraq city of Mosul, the entire municipal electoral commission has resigned due to death threats. A spokesman says that 24 members and 672 other employees submitted their resignations after gunmen stormed their offices and said they would be killed if they didn't stop their work.

A judge has refused bail for the Kansas woman accused of strangling a pregnant acquaintance and cutting the eight-month-old fetus from her womb. A federal magistrate ruled at a hearing in Kansas City that 36-year-old Lisa Montgomery will remain in custody pending trial.

Residents are beginning to assess the damage in flood-ravaged parts of the Southwest. Heavy rainfall from a series of slow-moving storms caused flooding, road closures and evacuations in parts of Arizona, Nevada and California. More storms are forecast to move over Southern California by this evening.

The same weather system is dropping snow at higher elevations as the storms move east. Mountain regions from California to Colorado have received several inches, stranding motorists and causing avalanches in some areas. Freezing rains have led to dangerously icy roads in parts of the Northern Plains.

Another look now at those harrowing images of utter devastation from Indonesia's northern Sumatra, the first target of the earthquake and the killer waves it spawned.

Dan Rivers reports from Aceh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN RIVERS, ITN REPORTER (voice-over): The first glimpse of what the Indonesians are calling their ground zero. The west coast of Aceh Province was hardest hit. This amateur footage shows the town of Meulaboh. Officially, 3,000 died here. Unofficially, some think perhaps half the 30,000 residents have perished.

It is a town still cut off from the outside world five days after this catastrophe. This is all that remains of Tenom (ph), not a single building left standing. And this is Chalong. It's been wiped off the map.

It was filmed by conservationist Mike Griffiths. He showed it to the deputy governor of Aceh Province today. He was horrified, unaware of just how bad the west coast now is. Later, we ventured down Aceh's nightmarish seaboard, driving through mile after mile of desolation.

(on camera): This is just typical of the scenes we've encountered on this road. The tsunami smashed its way through here. You can see, before the tsunami came, you couldn't see to the horizon. Now you can see all the way out to sea.

It deposited all this debris here. And after the wave had come through, the villagers say there were screams of people still trapped alive, hadn't drowned. The next day, this entire place had fallen silent.

(voice-over): The people here are starving. This 60-year-old woman survived, but will die unless she gets food. She told me she hasn't eaten for five days.

This woman has been found on a nearby hill. She is weak and has had no water since Sunday. We helped her into an ambulance bound for Banda Aceh.

(on camera): We've just given this woman 100,000 rupee, which is a few pounds, and they say it might make the difference between surviving and not surviving. They're taking her to a hospital. She's been up in the jungle for four days with no food and no water. This example is just one of hundreds of thousands of people here.

(voice-over): This old man has been pulling corpses from the rubble without help, without water. We give him ours. He is too tired, too traumatized to talk. The bodies are everywhere, rotting in the road.

(on camera): Just horrific.

(voice-over): Laid out without ceremony, grotesquely deformed. Mike had seen this from the air, but nothing could prepare him from experiencing it up close.

It does remind me of the pictures we see of Nagasaki or Hiroshima, where there was just I think one building, one cathedral standing, a gutted cathedral standing, and the rest was leveled, a leveled plain of shards. And that's more or less is the situation here. We have one big building to our left and the rest is just nothing, except debris.

RIVERS: These people are on their own. There's no aid here yet. They're walking to escape, but this road leads nowhere.

Dan Rivers, ITN, Aceh.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Striking new satellite photos provided an illustration of the magnitude of the disaster on the remote western part of Indonesia. This photo is from before the waves hit. Two days after tsunamis, on December 28, it looked like this. At least one witness describes it as like a nuclear blast site, with whole villages, in his words, vaporized.

Four more moderate aftershocks were felt in the region in the past 24 hours. The latest series of rumblings measured from 4.9 to 5.7. The epicenters were located along a band stretching from northern Sumatra to the Andaman and Nicobar Island regions of the Bay of Bengal. The U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors global seismic activity, has recorded more than 70 aftershocks since Sunday's magnitude 9.0 earthquake, which caused the giant waves.

The tsunami's deadly deception, how victims got lured to the shoreline for a better view.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the more that the water withdraws, generally speaking, the bigger the wave that is coming at you. And it could come at you very fast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: What lures you in is exactly what should make you run.

And the 125th Street fault. Is New York City sitting on the site of a future disaster?

Plus, a mother of two young boys makes an agonizing choice in the midst of the swirling tsunami waters. Their story just ahead.

And tune in to a special two-hour edition of "ANDERSON COOPER 360." Tonight, Anderson profiles the doctors on the front lines, new stories of survival and the impact of relief efforts arriving in the region. That's CNN tonight, beginning at 7:00 Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MESERVE: U.N. officials say a global conference on disaster reduction next month in Japan will discuss setting up early warning sensors for tsunamis in the Indian Ocean region. But while such a system could have saved lives, a natural signal that huge waves were on the way actually lured some victims into the danger zone.

CNN's Brian Todd is here to explain -- Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Jeanne.

Experts say it is not an optical illusion, but it is very deceptive. And in South Asia this week, it proved very dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): On a Sri Lankan beach, an amateur cameraman captures part of it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rocks used to scuba dive out to sucked away.

TODD: A suddenly receding tide, a common occurrence during tsunamis, a deadly deception.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are not to be taken likely.

TODD: Oceanographers call this wave withdrawal, a phenomenon where the tide sweeps unusually far out, sometimes, further than the eye can see. Entire bays can be drained. Witnesses say it looks like the ocean has turned into a desert.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the water was sucked out to sea 200, 300 yards. And that kind of gave everyone a sense that something very, very weird was happening.

TODD: Weird, but only in its scope. In fact, experts say this is the same effect you see every few seconds on your average beach, an undercurrent washing down away from shore, followed by a tiny wave sweeping up. In tsunamis, the wave's energy is magnified. The entire sequence takes longer and is thousands of times larger.

The more that the water withdraws, generally speaking, the bigger the wave that is coming at you. And it could come at you very fast. So, can you not outrun the wave once it is upon you.

TODD: Eddie Bernard, a veteran oceanographer at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, has studied this phenomenon for years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, what we are seeing is withdrawal away from the coastline.

TODD: Bernard and experts we spoke to from the U.S. Geological Survey say people are often lured to the shoreline to get a better view. Even fishermen get taken in when they see an easy catch flopping on the sand. Then the waves come back with a fury.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look how quick it's coming back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are on the coastline and you see this happening, that is a signal that something is wrong, and you should go away from the coastline.

TODD: In South Asia, many didn't. There are various accounts of people putting themselves in harm's way just for the view, then being swept away.

It is not clear how far this tide in Malaysia washed out, but, as it returns, children are taking in the scene and in an instant are carried several feet back and cling to a car for their lives. The size and speed of the wash-back depends on the beach itself. In shallow areas, with reefs or gradual slopes, experts say the water drains away more quickly. But, regardless of topography or depth, it always returns with force.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Experts at NOAA and U.S. Geological Survey say there are three warning signs in this situation. One is obvious, if you feel the earth shaking, second, if you see the tide receding that drastically. Or, third, if you hear a loud roar, like a freight train or a jet, move to high ground and move very fast -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: Brian, if only they'd known. Thank you.

Last weekend's tsunamis started with a massive earthquake. And that has some experts worried about the fault line that runs directly beneath the biggest city in the United States.

CNN's Alina Cho reports from New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One Hundred Twenty- Fifth Street, heart of Harlem, home to the Apollo Theater, office of former President Clinton and a fault line, seismologists say, is one to watch.

(on camera): To the people who say, listen, this is not going to happen here, you say what?

LEONARDO SEEBER, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SEISMOLOGIST: I say this is wrong. It is sooner or later going to happen.

CHO: You believe that?

SEEBER: The issue is how probable is it and how big it's going to be.

CHO (voice-over): Leonardo Seeber, senior seismologist at Columbia University, says as recently as a month ago, there were small tremors near the 125th Street fault. Seeber says these events warrant more study.

SEEBER: Is Manhattan receiving, or Manhattan and New York City receiving appropriate or a balanced attention, scientific attention, relative to other places around the world such as California?

CHO (on camera): And what's the answer to that question?

SEEBER: And the answer to that is no, because as I said before, there is risk, there's considerable risk in Manhattan.

CHRIS SNEE, ENGINEERING GEOLOGIST: Very low risk.

CHO (voice-over): Geologist Chris Snee likens the 125th Street fault to scar tissue, a relative ancient seismic activity that is now dormant.

SNEE: You need several ingredients for a major earthquake. It's not enough to say that there is a fault.

CHO: Yet residents in this Harlem neighborhood who are closely watching the devastation in Asia wonder if something similar could happen here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're surrounded around water and anything could happen.

CHO: Movie makers have fantasized about such an event and there are theories. Some argue if the volcano in the Canary Islands near Africa suddenly erupted and collapsed into the Atlantic, it could trigger a tsunami that could reach the East Coast. Seismologists like Seeber say the risk is minimal but, like the potential for earthquakes in the area, should not be ignored.

Alina Cho, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MESERVE: In a moment, a mystery that might affect safety in the skies, laser beams directed at cockpits -- what this might mean coming up in our "Security Watch."

Plus, a real-life "Sophie's Choice." How did this mother choose which child would be left to fend for himself in the tsunami?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MESERVE: On the CNN "Security Watch," disturbing reports from commercial airline pilots flying in and out of U.S. airports, laser beams shining into cockpits. An investigation is under way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice-over): Monday night, the cockpit of a Continental Airlines flight approaching Cleveland's airport was illuminated by a laser beam.

ROBERT HAWK, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: This plane was targeted. It just didn't flash for a moment inside the cockpit. The plane was traveling at about 300 miles an hour, at about 8,500 to 10,000 feet, and it followed the plane inside the cockpit for two to four seconds.

MESERVE: The same night, green lights, possibly lasers, hit the cockpits of two flights landing at Colorado Springs airport. Pilots have also reported seeing what could have been lasers in Washington, D.C., and Teterboro, New Jersey, a total of at least seven incidents in five days, according to officials.

All the flights landed safely. But a recent FAA report concluded the potential for an aviation accident definitely exists because lasers could impair vision or distract a pilot, making landing difficult, at best. The report also notes that a laser could be quickly deployed and withdrawn, leaving no obvious collateral damage or projectile residue and would be difficult to detect and defend against.

Since the advent of big laser light shows in the 1980s, pilots have been concerned. And over the years, there have been hundreds of incidents involving airplanes and lasers. Commercial lasers strong enough to reach low-level aircraft are not hard to get, though the industry says it is working with government to regulate the strongest ones.

Experts say directing a beam into the eyes of a pilot in a moving plane hardly seems feasible.

RAFI RON, AVIATION SECURITY EXPERT: I don't think, though, at this point that we should consider this a major risk to our flights. And, in terms of our priorities, I think that this should not be at the top of our priorities.

MESERVE: In a bulletin last month, the Department of Homeland Security and FBI said the U.S. intelligence community has no specific or credible evidence that terrorists intend to use lasers, although they have expressed interest in them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: An administration official says the recent spate of incidents has not heightened the government's concerns, but the FBI is investigating to see if they were pranks, accidents or something more sinister.

Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

A report from the Associated Press just in to CNN say legendary jazz man Artie Shaw is dead after a long illness. Shaw was a clarinetist and band leader. And fans say his 1938 recording of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" is one of the greatest of the big band era. He wives included actresses Lana Turner and Ava Gardner. Artie Shaw was 94 years old.

A mother's agonizing decision and new images of the tsunami's power coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MESERVE: It is perhaps the most difficult decision any mother can face. An Australian family was on vacation in Phuket, Thailand, when the tsunami struck. The mother was on the beach with her two young children, but she could hold on to only one of them.

Reese Whitby (ph) of Australia Channel 7 has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (voice-over): Home at last and pent-up survival instincts dissolve into tears. Jillian Searle from Willetton was at her hotel pool with Lachie, 5, and Blake, 2, when the tsunami hit, her husband watching helpless from their first floor hotel room.

JILLIAN SEARLE, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: Just saw this wall of water just coming straight for us and we just started running. I had both of them in my hands, and one in each arm and then we start going under.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jillian was forced to make a horrible decision, let go of one son to save the other.

SEARLE: I knew I had to let go of one of them. And I just thought, I had better let go of one that is the oldest. And a lady grabbed hold of him for a moment, but she had to let him go because she was going under. And, I was screaming trying to find him. And we thought he was dead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two hours later, Lachie was found alive.

SEARLE: He clung to a door. He said it just swept him into a bar or something and he said he was holding on to a door.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (on camera): Does he know how to swim?

SEARLE: No. He can't swim. That's why...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How did he keep his head above water?

SEARLE: He said he was doggy-paddling in the water. And he said that the door kept him up. It was just horrible. I'm just so thankful that I have still got my two kids with me. I never thought that both would survive.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: That boy deserves his name, Lachie, that report from Reese Whitby (ph) of Australia's News Channel 7.

As we've been doing all week, we end this hour with a look at some of the enduring images of the tsunami disaster captured in photographs.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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