NBC Nightly News - 2005-10-08
Channel: malgent
Transcript
Language: English (YouTube automatic captions)
[0:00] ers the severe [music] weather team only
[0:03] on channel 4 news
[0:08] [music]
[0:09] >> John
[0:10] earthquake thousands killed as a major
[0:13] quake strikes Pakistan and India and the
[0:16] [music] death toll is rising tonight
[0:19] terror alert how real is the reported
[0:21] plot against the New York City subway
[0:23] system and is there a link to insurgents
[0:26] in Iraq
[0:28] bird flu as New suspected cases turn up
[0:31] in ducks in Eastern Europe. The Bush
[0:33] administration drafts a plan. If there
[0:36] is an outbreak here
[0:38] in depth, high-flying [music] fairs. If
[0:41] you think you can find an airfare
[0:43] bargain for the upcoming holiday season,
[0:45] think again.
[0:47] And Desert Storm, a high techch race
[0:49] [music] to find a way to save the lives
[0:51] of US troops.
[0:56] [music]
[0:57] From NBC News World Headquarters in New
[1:00] York, this is NBC Nightly News with John
[1:04] Seanthaler.
[1:06] >> Good evening everyone. We begin tonight
[1:07] with an enormous humanitarian disaster
[1:09] halfway around the world. A devastating
[1:12] earthquake hit the Pakistan India
[1:14] border, burying thousands of people
[1:16] under debris. The 7.6 magnitude quake
[1:19] was centered just 60 miles northeast of
[1:22] the Pakistan capital of Islamabad. It
[1:25] was also felt as far away as the
[1:27] capitals of India and Afghanistan.
[1:30] Residents across the region spent the
[1:32] day desperately digging through the
[1:33] rubble of homes, schools, and businesses
[1:36] racing to find survivors. And landslides
[1:39] triggered by the quake have blocked
[1:41] highways, hindering the search for
[1:43] survivors. Tonight, there are reports
[1:45] that some 3,000 have been killed, but
[1:48] officials say the death toll is likely
[1:50] to be much higher. Hundreds may be
[1:52] trapped alive in the wreckage. and
[1:54] entire mountain villages have been wiped
[1:56] out. We get the latest from NBC's
[1:58] Charles Sabi.
[2:02] >> It was 8:50 in the morning when the
[2:04] earthquake shook the north of Pakistan
[2:06] and India for more than a minute.
[2:10] In the mountainous Himalayan region of
[2:11] Pakistan, where the epicenter lay,
[2:14] helicopter crews are reporting entire
[2:16] villages wiped out. In one northwest
[2:19] frontier town, police reported pulling
[2:21] the bodies of 350 girls from one school
[2:24] alone.
[2:26] 60 mi to the south in the capital
[2:28] Islamabad. One 19story building
[2:31] collapsed in seconds.
[2:33] >> There are people inside and uh we're
[2:35] trying to get them out and there are so
[2:38] many alive.
[2:41] >> Survivors clawed through broken concrete
[2:43] with bare hands, cheering every rescue.
[2:48] I felt the building was going to
[2:49] collapse and I just ran out and after 5
[2:52] seconds the building came down.
[2:55] >> Pakistan's president Mashara mobilized
[2:58] the country's military describing the
[3:00] disaster as a national test. With 80% of
[3:05] mudbuilt homes in some areas destroyed
[3:07] and mass graves spilling quickly, the
[3:10] severity of that test is emerging.
[3:17] In neighboring Indian ruled Kashmir, the
[3:19] scenes are equally tragic.
[3:22] As in Pakistan, hundreds of thousands of
[3:25] India's troops are stationed in the
[3:26] region. A legacy of a decadesl long
[3:29] border dispute. They, like their enemy,
[3:31] are now thinking only of rescue.
[3:35] But the task is huge for both countries.
[3:37] In many towns, electrical fires have
[3:39] been breaking out and telephone, water,
[3:42] and power lines have been cut. In the
[3:44] mountainous region, where villages are
[3:46] inaccessible at best, roads blocked by
[3:48] landslides [music] mean some communities
[3:50] might not be reached for days. Only when
[3:53] they are will the true extent of this
[3:54] disaster unfold.
[3:58] But tonight, as frantic efforts continue
[4:00] to reach tracked survivors, it's
[4:02] becoming apparent the death toll will be
[4:04] considerably higher even by the morning.
[4:07] Charles Sabine, NBC News, London.
[4:12] Earlier today, I spoke with Pakistan's
[4:13] Prime Minister Shaket Aziz, who wrote
[4:16] out the earthquake in Islam Islamabad
[4:18] and then toured some of the hard-hit
[4:20] areas of the city. I asked him what his
[4:22] nation needs right now.
[4:26] >> At the moment, we have requested our
[4:28] friends to give us heavy transport
[4:30] helicopters because lot of the roads,
[4:32] these are high mountainous areas, lot of
[4:35] the roads are blocked. So, the
[4:36] helicopters can transport relief goods.
[4:39] All our choppers are working uh around
[4:41] the clock and then uh we have asked for
[4:45] specialists in uh getting people out of
[4:49] collapsed buildings with heat seeeking
[4:51] equipment etc. They arriving tomorrow
[4:53] morning uh from Britain, from Turkey,
[4:56] from other friendly countries.
[4:58] >> What's the biggest challenge that you
[5:00] face right now? I think the challenge is
[5:03] to uh rebuild. Uh many schools,
[5:06] colleges, hospitals,
[5:08] uh shopping malls, homes have been
[5:10] destroyed. So a lot of people have
[5:13] nowhere to go. So we have to provide for
[5:18] emergency accommodation. We have to
[5:20] provide for food and uh uh medical
[5:24] treatment. We are setting up field
[5:26] hospitals. We've heard reports of
[5:28] several hundred children dying in one
[5:31] area. Can can you help us uh with that?
[5:34] Do you know anything about that?
[5:35] >> Yeah, we have heard similar reports. So,
[5:38] I'm awaiting confirmations, but uh I've
[5:41] heard uh exactly that that there are
[5:43] several schools where school kids are
[5:45] trapped and they are now in the process
[5:48] of being evacuated.
[5:49] >> Mr. Prime Minister, did you feel the
[5:51] earthquake?
[5:52] >> Absolutely. I was with my wife and we
[5:55] felt it and it kept coming and the
[5:57] lights were shaking, the floor was
[5:59] shaking, the ceiling was moving and it
[6:01] was a long one. I kept telling my wife
[6:04] this is this usually will go away a bit
[6:06] quickly but it was long right and 7.6 is
[6:09] not funny. That's a pretty serious
[6:11] earthquake.
[6:12] >> Pakistan Prime Minister Aziz earlier
[6:15] today now to another deadly natural
[6:17] disaster. This one in Guatemala.
[6:19] Flooding and mudslides caused by the
[6:22] remnants of Hurricane Stan have killed
[6:23] more than 500 people and at least 300
[6:26] others still missing. Relief workers are
[6:29] scrambling to help stranded survivors.
[6:31] Anna and Ez Carpio of our Spanish
[6:33] language network Telmundo is in
[6:35] Guatemala City tonight.
[6:39] >> A river runs through the town of Awa
[6:41] Escondida after days of torrential rains
[6:44] blanket a large portion of this central
[6:46] American country. Tropical storm Stan
[6:50] triggered deadly mudslides in remote
[6:52] areas outside the capital. Just today,
[6:56] relief workers were airlifted into the
[6:58] region. The death toll stands at more
[7:01] than 500, but that number is expected to
[7:04] grow. This part of Guatemala is
[7:07] particularly vulnerable to rain because
[7:09] many of the dwellings are hillside
[7:12] shanties that were easily washed away.
[7:15] Today, the food search and rescue
[7:17] workers reached the area, but those
[7:19] efforts continue to be hampered by the
[7:22] bad weather.
[7:25] >> The roads are difficult to get to. We've
[7:27] now brought in equipment to open these
[7:28] roads.
[7:30] >> Officials say that some villages are
[7:32] still buried underneath 40 ft of mud.
[7:36] >> [crying]
[7:38] >> Villagers try to search for their loved
[7:40] ones, finding only small reminders of
[7:43] what was once their town. An escarpio
[7:47] for NBC News, Guatemala City, Guatemala.
[7:52] >> We turn now to the latest terror
[7:54] warnings in this country. New York City
[7:56] has been on high alert since Thursday
[7:58] after officials say they received
[8:00] specific information about a potential
[8:02] attack on the subway system. But today,
[8:05] there were more questions about the
[8:06] source of the information and whether
[8:08] there was ever a real plot plot.
[8:10] Jonathan Dean of NBC station WNBC in New
[8:13] York first broke this story and he joins
[8:15] us tonight from Time Square. Jonathan,
[8:17] an administration official tells NBC
[8:19] News preliminary questioning of three
[8:21] men arrested in Iraq earlier this week
[8:24] has turned up no evidence of any pot or
[8:26] any connection to any pot to bomb the
[8:28] subways here in New York. Some officials
[8:31] continue to question the credibility of
[8:33] the initial threat information, while
[8:35] some senior investigators say it is far
[8:37] too soon to rule anything out.
[8:41] With extra security measures in place
[8:43] for a third day, city officials say they
[8:46] plan to continue to step up patrols for
[8:48] at least another week. And the mayor
[8:50] again said the initial threat
[8:52] information appears credible. over the
[8:55] last couple days become more convinced
[8:58] that the threat was real.
[9:00] >> Flanked by his police commissioner, the
[9:02] mayor says he believes military
[9:03] operations in Iraq this week may have
[9:05] disrupted a possible terror cell that
[9:08] had wanted to strike here.
[9:09] >> There's a lot of specificity to the
[9:11] threat. We're still trying to determine
[9:13] the credibility with our federal
[9:15] partners. While having serious doubts
[9:17] about the threat, officials at the
[9:19] Department of Homeland Security today
[9:21] called the city's stepped up response
[9:23] appropriate. The department did say the
[9:26] timing of the threat was specific to the
[9:28] week of October 9th, even though
[9:30] analysts have doubts about the
[9:32] credibility of the information. those
[9:34] doubts because almost all of the
[9:36] information still comes from a single
[9:38] source, an Iraqi informant who officials
[9:40] say in just the last year provided 15
[9:43] tips about terror plots inside the US.
[9:46] All were uncorroborated, but officials
[9:49] say the informant has provided solid
[9:51] information on insurgent operations
[9:54] inside Iraq, including the arrest near
[9:56] Baghdad this week of three men who he
[9:59] claimed were involved in the subway
[10:01] plot. An administration official tells
[10:03] NBC News preliminary questioning of
[10:06] those three men has turned up no
[10:08] credible evidence that they were
[10:09] involved in any plot to target the
[10:11] subways. But investigators continue to
[10:14] track many possible leads. One senior
[10:16] investigator saying today, quote, "This
[10:19] terror threat simply has not been
[10:21] resolved." Because of these concerns,
[10:24] extra police tonight, tomorrow, and for
[10:26] the coming week as investigators stress
[10:28] and city officials stress it is safe to
[10:31] ride the subways. John
[10:33] >> Jonathan Deans. Jonathan, thank you. The
[10:35] top US health official is on his way to
[10:37] Southeast Asia tonight to discuss
[10:40] growing fears about bird flu. The trip
[10:42] comes amid word of additional infected
[10:44] birds in Europe and a report that the
[10:46] Bush administration's draft flu plan
[10:49] shows the possibility of millions of
[10:51] deaths. Here's NBC's Roselyn Jordan.
[10:56] In Romania today, thousands of birds
[10:58] slaughtered and burned after authorities
[11:00] detected three suspected cases of bird
[11:03] flu in ducks. It will take weeks to
[11:05] confirm if it's the strain that could
[11:07] infect people. this as the US government
[11:10] ramps up its public efforts to address
[11:12] the potential threat.
[11:14] >> We've actually been working on this for
[11:15] months. It's become prominent because of
[11:17] the activity uh people being sick and
[11:20] birds becoming infected.
[11:22] >> According to today's New York Times, the
[11:24] Bush administration is drafting a report
[11:27] that spells out how serious a flu
[11:29] pandemic could be. The Times says
[11:31] according to the draft, the casualties
[11:33] could be high, as many as 2 million
[11:36] deaths. another 8.5 million sent to the
[11:38] hospital. Secretary Levit said the
[11:41] government has to plan for the worst.
[11:43] >> The world is not well prepared. Um we're
[11:46] not alone in this. This is a a very
[11:49] difficult prospect.
[11:51] >> The draft calls for the US to stockpile
[11:53] medicines, beef up healthc care
[11:55] facilities, and most controversial, be
[11:57] ready to impose a quarantine and use the
[11:59] military to enforce it. But NBC News
[12:02] military analyst Barry McAffrey thinks
[12:04] that's a job for civilians, not the
[12:06] military.
[12:07] >> They can help. There's no question. But
[12:10] nonetheless, we need to rebuild the
[12:12] public health service. That's the
[12:14] solution to a problem of this nature.
[12:16] >> The administration stresses there has
[12:18] been no outbreak of bird flu in the US.
[12:21] So why all this attention from the Bush
[12:23] White House? This is an important thing
[12:25] for the president to do in terms of
[12:27] containing a potentially devastating
[12:29] disease, but it's also good politics.
[12:31] He's on top of things. He's addressing a
[12:33] problem before most people are even
[12:35] aware that it exists. So, this this is a
[12:37] twofer.
[12:38] >> Secretary Levit is flying to Southeast
[12:40] Asia this weekend to see how countries
[12:42] there are trying to stop the spread of a
[12:44] deadly bird flu and to try to lay the
[12:46] groundwork to stop the spread of the
[12:48] disease worldwide. Rosalyn Jordan, NBC
[12:51] News, the White House. When nightly news
[12:54] continues this Saturday, NBC News in
[12:56] depth holiday airfares. Can you still
[12:59] find a ticket that isn't skyhigh
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[15:42] >> NBC News in depth tonight. Soaring
[15:44] holiday fairs. If you were hoping for
[15:47] cheap flights this holiday season, you
[15:49] might have to scramble to get a good
[15:50] deal. NBC's Michelle Kosinski takes a
[15:53] look at what's sending ticket prices to
[15:55] the stratosphere in depth.
[15:59] >> Already the hard to find item this
[16:01] holiday season, cheap airfares. Amy
[16:04] Clinky in Ann Arbor, Michigan thought
[16:05] she was booking early to see her
[16:07] grandparents in Reno. Last year, she
[16:09] waited until 2 weeks before Christmas
[16:11] and paid $450.
[16:14] But now, three months early, it's the
[16:16] same price, nearly breaking her holiday
[16:19] spirit.
[16:20] >> I've lost my sticker shock. There's this
[16:22] like acceptance. Like, h gosh, it's so
[16:25] expensive.
[16:26] >> And she still needs to find a deal for
[16:27] her parents. Analysts say she may be out
[16:30] of luck.
[16:31] >> And some of the stories that we're
[16:32] hearing is where the fairs are three,
[16:33] four, $500 more. That simply means that
[16:36] the lower fairs are sold out and these
[16:39] planes are almost full. Terry Tripler
[16:41] with cheap tickets.com says prices are
[16:43] starting out about $50 higher this year
[16:46] for one main reason.
[16:48] >> Fuel is the is number one. The reason
[16:50] airfares are going up is fuel.
[16:53] >> He says consumers realized after
[16:55] hurricanes Katrina and Rita that fuel
[16:57] costs would drive up airfares. So they
[17:00] bought early. Last year the lowest fair
[17:03] offered from New York to Denver on
[17:05] December 21st was $199. If you book
[17:08] today on Orbits, the best you could do
[17:10] is $351.
[17:12] Philadelphia to LA up from 198 to $387.
[17:17] Boston to Miami from 172 to 314. People
[17:22] snapped up the cheaper fairs which are
[17:24] in shorter supply this year as many
[17:25] airlines face financial troubles.
[17:27] Several are cutting the number of
[17:29] flights, so there's more competition for
[17:32] fewer great rates. But even the lowcost
[17:35] carriers are hurting right now uh
[17:37] because of high fuel prices.
[17:39] >> Then again, analysts say if no one buys
[17:41] the price he fares, the airlines will
[17:42] likely have to drop them.
[17:44] >> One way or another, they'll fill that
[17:46] airplane.
[17:47] >> But he doesn't recommend waiting for a
[17:49] bargain. At this rate, experts say the
[17:51] last minute shoppers may find no seats
[17:54] left at any price. Michelle Kosinski,
[17:57] NBC News, New York.
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[20:27] >> In the aftermath of the hurricanes, NBC
[20:29] News has been taking a hard look at
[20:31] response failures by government
[20:33] officials, and there are plenty to go
[20:34] around. We've already brought you
[20:36] reviews of federal and city actions.
[20:39] Well, tonight NBC senior investigative
[20:41] correspondent Lisa Myers focuses on the
[20:43] performance of Louisiana Governor
[20:44] Kathleen Blanco.
[20:47] [applause]
[20:48] >> It was Governor Blanco's first big
[20:50] disaster and on that Saturday, less than
[20:53] 48 hours before Katrina hit, she
[20:56] reassured the state.
[20:58] >> I believe that we are really prepared.
[21:01] That's the one thing that I've always
[21:02] been able to brag about.
[21:04] >> Though experts had warned it would take
[21:05] 48 hours to evacuate New Orleans. Blanco
[21:09] did not order a mandatory evacuation
[21:11] that Saturday.
[21:12] >> And we're going to pray that that the uh
[21:15] impact will soften.
[21:16] >> She and the mayor waited until Sunday,
[21:18] only 20 hours before Katrina came ashore
[21:21] to order a mandatory evacuation. The
[21:24] first of what disaster experts and
[21:26] Louisiana insiders say were serious
[21:29] mistakes by the governor. It certainly
[21:31] appeared that there was a lot of uh in
[21:34] indecisiveness exhibited by the governor
[21:37] in the early stages of the disaster.
[21:39] >> A key criticism, the governor's slowness
[21:42] in requesting federal troops. She told
[21:44] the president she needed help, but it
[21:46] wasn't until Wednesday that she
[21:48] specifically asked for 40,000 troops.
[21:51] That day, in a whispered conversation
[21:53] with her staff caught on camera, the
[21:55] governor appears to second guessess
[21:57] herself. I I really need to call for the
[22:00] military and I should have started that
[22:02] in the first call.
[22:04] >> Another key mistake, experts say,
[22:06] Blanco's lateness in getting the
[22:08] Louisiana National Guard, which she
[22:10] commands, on the streets to try to
[22:13] establish security.
[22:14] >> It would have been better if it had
[22:16] happened sooner.
[22:19] >> And remember the chaos at the convention
[22:21] center? We now know there were at least
[22:23] 250 guardsmen deployed in another part
[22:25] of that building, but they were
[22:28] engineers, not police. So, they were not
[22:30] directed to help restore order or even
[22:32] to share their food and water.
[22:35] >> I think we would have hurt a lot of
[22:37] people who tried to take that on. The
[22:39] governor would not say whether she made
[22:41] the decision not to use these troops and
[22:43] tells NBC News that her state's response
[22:46] to Katrina was quote very well planned
[22:49] and executed with great precision and
[22:52] effectiveness.
[22:53] >> How can any governor argue that they
[22:55] have done what they can do when people
[22:57] were left on an interstate without food
[22:59] and water for a week? The governor has
[23:02] said she takes responsibility for what
[23:04] went wrong, but insists her biggest
[23:06] mistake was believing FEMA officials who
[23:09] told her help was on the way. Lisa
[23:12] Meyers, NBC News, Washington.
[23:16] >> In his weekly radio address, President
[23:18] Bush again tried to stem the tide of
[23:20] conservative criticism with more praise
[23:22] for Supreme Court nominee Harriet
[23:23] Meyers. The nomination battle will be
[23:26] one of the topics tomorrow on NBC's Meet
[23:28] the Press with Tim Russard. When NBC
[23:30] Nightly News continues this Saturday,
[23:33] battling bots, the military stages a
[23:36] [music] robot race in the desert.
[23:40] >> If you ran [music] a drug company, what
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[25:57] Monday, [music] new guidelines for
[25:58] parents to prevent sudden infant death.
[26:00] And Tuesday for 1 hour, Matts with
[26:03] George and [music] Laura Bush, live from
[26:04] the hurricane zone. On today, storm
[26:07] insurance. Are you covered? NBC Nightly
[26:09] News Monday.
[26:12] >> And finally tonight, some unusual
[26:14] military maneuvers in the Nevada desert.
[26:16] It was a race for robots sponsored by
[26:18] the Defense Department. And while it
[26:20] might sound like science fiction, the
[26:22] military is looking for vehicles that
[26:24] don't need drivers. Part of an effort to
[26:26] save the lives of American troops.
[26:28] Here's NBC's George Lewis.
[26:32] >> At sunrise this morning in the Nevada
[26:34] desert about 40 miles south of Las
[26:36] Vegas, the robots got ready to race.
[26:39] >> And we have movement from Stanley,
[26:41] ladies and gentlemen. 23 machines
[26:44] ranging from tiny allterrain vehicles to
[26:47] a 16-tonon monster truck called Terramax
[26:51] and no humans behind the wheel. These
[26:54] robo cars drive themselves using a
[26:56] combination of onboard sensing devices
[26:59] and satellite navigation systems.
[27:02] Running over a rugged desert course
[27:03] spanning 132 mi. It's a huge desert with
[27:08] great mountains, hostile terrain, very
[27:11] difficult for a machine to do. No one
[27:14] knows what will happen. In sponsoring
[27:16] this race and offering a $2 million
[27:18] prize, the Pentagon is thinking of a
[27:20] different kind of hostile terrain. The
[27:22] war in Iraq and all those convoys that
[27:25] have been ambushed. The Defense
[27:27] Department reasons that if the job of
[27:29] driving some of its vehicles could be
[27:31] automated, fewer soldiers would be put
[27:33] at risk. When we first were in Iraq,
[27:35] Private Jessica Lynch, who you might
[27:37] remember, would never have been captured
[27:39] if we had had this technology because
[27:41] she wouldn't have been in the truck.
[27:42] >> Two of the teams in the competition are
[27:44] from Louisiana. Before he got here,
[27:47] Scott Wilson of the Cinjunbot crew was
[27:50] piloting a boat, rescuing victims of
[27:52] Hurricane Katrina. He compares that to
[27:55] competing here.
[27:56] >> A lot of things are going bad, and
[27:57] you're trying to do the best you can
[27:59] with very limited sleep.
[28:00] >> This is the second year the Pentagon has
[28:02] run this race. Last year, none of the
[28:04] robots finished. They all broke down on
[28:06] route. This year, the racers say they've
[28:08] learned from their mistakes.
[28:10] And 7 hours later, an SUV dubbed Stanley
[28:14] from Stanford University won the race
[28:16] and the 2 million.
[28:19] [cheering]
[28:21] >> This is a beginning. We have shown that
[28:23] he can build cars that can drive
[28:24] themselves. The impossible has been
[28:26] achieved.
[28:27] >> And he predicted someday soon there will
[28:29] be robotic cars on the nation's
[28:31] highways. George Lewis, NBC News, Prim,
[28:34] Nevada.
[28:37] >> That's NBC Nightly News for this
[28:38] Saturday. Thanks for watching. I'm John
[28:40] Siginthler reporting tonight from New
[28:42] York. I'll see you back here again
[28:43] tomorrow night.
[28:53] [music]
[28:57] NBC [music] News, America's news leader.
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