10 days ago, an earthquake hit Haiti resulting
in one of the worst natural disasters
in the western hemisphere.
Joining us live from Haiti, please welcome
the amazing, amazing Anderson Cooper.
[CHEERING]
Hey, Ellen, how's it going?
[CHEERING]
First of all, I love you, and I love what you're doing.
So 10 days since it happened.
What's happening?
Anything-- is it getting better?
We've heard the frustrations.
Yeah, there's clearly a lot of frustration still,
and people are still dying who don't need to die.
There are people that are dying of--
in need of life saving surgery.
Little kids who have a broken limb maybe
with an open wound that's going to get infected--
and unless they have that limb removed through surgery
immediately, they can die from that infection.
And so that's incredibly frustrating for a lot
of the doctors and nurses here who have
come from all around the world.
It is getting better day by day.
I mean, we're seeing signs of progress,
but nobody is is content with the pace of this thing.
And it's incredibly frustrating every single day
for the Haitian people to know that help is sort of coming
but that it's not here, and it's not
going to save the life of their family member.
So there's food, but they're having a hard time.
They can distribute food, but they
can't distribute the supplies?
The supplies are there, right?
Supplies are coming, and there's a lot of supplies
coming in to the airport.
The airport's been overwhelmed.
They haven't really prioritized the flights probably as well
as they should.
A lot of the medical supplies, which probably should
have been immediately brought in, a lot of those flights
get diverted.
Doctors Without Borders, which was one of-- an excellent aid
organization-- they won the Nobel Prize.
They've had a number of their flights diverted
to the Dominican Republic.
That means they have to bring those medical supplies,
including mobile surgical theaters overland,
taking an extra half day.
And I mean, a couple of hours can
make the difference between several people
living and dying.
And the rescues in the last few days
have been really miraculous.
Tell us about a couple of those.
Yeah, I mean, just incredible.
You know, I was there when an elderly lady in her '70s
was pulled out of the rubble alive.
This after she had been in there for seven days.
The fact that a woman of that age could have survived,
she came out thanking God.
I mean, that's the rescue right there.
It was just incredible.
All the rescue workers broke into applause.
Those folks were from Mexico and from South Africa.
There were German rescue workers.
I also went out with rescue workers
from the Los Angeles Fire Department.
These men and women-- there's 75 of them here from Los Angeles.
They got here the day after the the earthquake started.
They have saved a number of lives.
They're just extraordinary.
And on Wednesday, I saw a five-year-old boy
brought into the hospital.
I was at the hospital on another story.
His uncle brought him in.
His uncle had dug him out of the rubble after eight days.
Look at that little boy.
His name is Monley Elize.
He was extremely dehydrated.
Nurses and doctors from the International Medical Corps,
an American aid organization, immediately
began working on him.
He just kept saying, I'm thirsty.
I want juice, he said.
And they had to be very careful about not giving him
too much too quickly, but last we heard, he's doing OK.
I can't even believe that, because you
hear that people can't survive for three days without water,
and yet you're hearing these stories of an elderly woman
and a little boy.
Tell us about the little boy-- you were reporting on a story,
and then you, yourself, actually helped save a little boy.
Well, I mean, I was very lucky to be in the right place
at the right time.
We were in sort of a looting melee.
Some looters had taken over a store,
and things were getting kind of hairy.
People were starting to bring weapons to it.
And looters on top of the roof-- somebody
threw a concrete block, and it hit this little boy.
They just threw it into the crowd,
and this little boy had blood gushing from his head.
And he'd fallen down, and he couldn't get up.
He would try to get up, and he was clearly stunned.
And I was just lucky to be there.
I just grabbed him and just brought him over.
I mean, anybody would have done the same thing.
But for people here, there are so
many people who are finding themselves in need
and just caught up in situations.
And it's hard to describe what it's like.
Yeah, I can't imagine what you're
seeing every moment of the day.
And you've been there since--
immediately, you were on the scene.
But tell us about--
this is what's incredible.
The spirit of the people in Haiti
must be just so inspiring for you.
Yeah, first of all, in those immediate days afterward--
I mean, the day after that we were here,
the morning after the earthquake,
we saw Haitians digging through the rubble with their hands.
And we've seen this for days now--
to get their loved ones that were still alive.
People that didn't even know each other
were helping each other.
That's the one thing.
Just the other day, though, I saw something.
Even in the midst of all of this,
people's faith is so strong here,
and faith in God and faith in each other and faith
that better days are ahead.
I saw this woman--
she sort of reminded me a little bit of you.
She was dancing on the street corner there.
And all of her friends and her family were with her.
They were sleeping on that street.
But they were singing songs--
religious songs.
And this was just something we drove by,
and we stopped, we got out, and we watched them a little bit.
And it was just one of those moments
where you couldn't help but be moved
by the power of these people.
Wow, that's incredible.
All right, we have to take a break.
And, Anderson, I can't tell you how much we all
love you and love what you're doing there.
We'll be back.
More with Anderson after this.
Anderson, are you in front of-- it
looks like where everyone is living right now?
How many people are in those tents behind you?
Right now there are probably in the area of 400 or so people
behind me.
The numbers kind of go up and down depending on the day.
But they've been there, of course,
since the earthquake hit.
There's tens of thousands, at least,
of people who are sleeping out in parks right now--
any open space that's not next to a building.
Because there's-- as you know, there have been a number
of aftershocks.
And any time there's an aftershock,
people in this park start screaming and run away
from any other--
any building that might be nearby that still
might collapse.
Yeah, I would imagine that would be scary for all of you
there when you when you feel another aftershock, which
basically is just an earthquake.
It's a huge-- I mean, these are huge numbers--
the aftershocks.
It was interesting.
Today, there was an aftershock, and I was at a hospital.
And it wasn't a bad aftershock, but it
was interesting-- the reaction of some of the Haitians
who I was around.
They just sort of raised their hands
in sort of a religious gesture and just waited
until it passed.
And so, I think, it scares people,
but people are kind of now--
the abnormal has become normal here.
Yeah, so let's talk about tonight.
Wyclef Jean and George Clooney are putting together this
telethon that you will be a part of, I will be a part of-- a lot
of people are--
Hope for Haiti.
And tell people why we continue.
I know a lot of people are thinking, well, a lot of money
has been raised.
But what will that impact--
people donating tonight.
Yeah, I mean, the infrastructure here in Haiti
is really just nonexistent, and that's
been part of the problem in this.
So there are so many needs that have not been met.
And I know there's a lot of attention on this now,
but a week from now, and two weeks from now,
and three months from now, and a year from now,
there's still going to be almost as much need.
Because a lot of, for instance, the surgeries we're seeing now
are basically just amputations of children are having--
the limbs amputated because they can't stop the infection
in time with antibiotics.
So they have to take off a limb.
But that needs follow on care.
And we're talking months and years of follow on care.
So even though there's a bunch of doctors
here now and still not enough, six months from now,
they're still going to need as many doctors doing
follow on care.
So they're trying to raise as much money as they can.
It's my job to just report on what's happening here,
and that's my part of this event.
But I'm glad to be a part of it and just tell people.
I feel lucky to be here and bear witness to this
and to witness the courage of the Haitian people
in spite of what is just the worst thing that has ever
happened to this country.