CBS Evening News Online Edition - 2004-12-28

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Hello, I'm Dan Rather and welcome to the

[0:02] CBS Evening News online edition. Just

[0:04] ahead, eyewitness to disaster. We'll

[0:07] take you to a Thai paradise turn

[0:09] wasteland by the tsunami to hear

[0:11] firsthand accounts from survivors. We

[0:13] also be taking you to India and

[0:15] Indonesia. The world's relief efforts.

[0:18] Is enough being given and will it get to

[0:20] those who need it in time? Also, airport

[0:23] patdowns. Hundreds of women have

[0:25] complained and now the rules are

[0:27] changing. We'll show you how on

[0:30] tonight's inside story. It's all

[0:32] starting now on the CBS Evening News

[0:34] online edition.

[0:37] In Thailand, the death toll is at least

[0:39] 1,500 with 7,000 others injured. The

[0:43] targets of the seismic sea wave included

[0:46] a popular Thai resort for foreign

[0:47] tourists. CBS News correspondent Barry

[0:50] Peterson has the stories of life and

[0:52] death in Thailand.

[0:54] Cowac was one of Phuket's premier

[0:56] resorts. A paradise that turned to

[0:59] apocalypse amid this horror one miracle.

[1:02] His name is Hannis Bergstrom. Found

[1:04] huddled on a hillside by an American

[1:06] couple.

[1:07] >> When we had him, he he didn't even

[1:08] couldn't even say a word.

[1:10] >> Yeah, we just thought

[1:11] >> we thought his whole family was washed

[1:13] out to see.

[1:14] >> The family was not dead, but scattered

[1:16] in various hospitals and now they are

[1:19] together again. just to see his grandma

[1:21] in there and you know I mean I I cried.

[1:24] >> A miracle that so many others pray for

[1:26] as they gather at Bouet's city hall to

[1:29] check the names of the dead or injured.

[1:31] Here a poster from distraught parents.

[1:34] Have you seen our baby? This is the wall

[1:37] where hope ends. Faces of the

[1:39] unidentified dead. Among them babies

[1:42] that so far have no names. So many of

[1:45] the dead were children, the most

[1:47] vulnerable and the least able to run or

[1:49] swim to safety.

[1:52] Across Phuket, the massive cleanup is

[1:54] underway to get life back to normal and

[1:56] find any more dead. There are debris

[1:59] fields like this all over the island,

[2:01] full of personal effects, bits of

[2:03] houses, things of that sort. And here's

[2:05] the most amazing thing. We're about two

[2:07] or 30 hundred yards from the ocean. And

[2:09] the wave lifted this boat out, brought

[2:12] it here, and just dropped it in the

[2:14] middle of nowhere. After their beach

[2:16] house was demolished, the Slavin family

[2:18] learned that something much more sturdy

[2:20] held them together. Daughter Alex was

[2:23] swimming in the pool. She barely escaped

[2:25] with her life.

[2:26] >> I heard a Thai uh younger male yell,

[2:29] "Run!" And that's when I just got up and

[2:30] just ran.

[2:31] >> Mother Beth jogging on the beach may be

[2:34] alive because she stopped for a cup of

[2:36] coffee. Thai people were waving at me,

[2:38] telling me, "Stay away. Stay away." I

[2:40] had no idea what they were talking

[2:41] about. And I saw what I had just missed.

[2:45] >> Larry was golfing and dashed back to

[2:47] find his beach house in ruins and yet

[2:49] considers himself one of Phuket's

[2:51] luckiest men.

[2:53] >> I don't care about the house. I just

[2:54] care about that everybody was safe.

[2:56] >> But as more and more people are rescued

[2:58] from remote islands, there is a terrible

[3:01] waiting. Is there still hope for the

[3:03] missing ones you love? or have all the

[3:06] miracles come to an end? Barry Peterson,

[3:09] CBS News, Phuket, Thailand. Keep in mind

[3:13] and repeating for emphasis, the death

[3:14] toll and the damage is believed to be

[3:17] highest in Indonesia and India. One

[3:20] insurance industry analyst estimated

[3:22] property damage overall from the tsunami

[3:24] at more than 13.5 billion dollars.

[3:27] That's an early and rough calculation at

[3:29] best. No one really knows what it's

[3:32] going to take to deal with such a

[3:33] widespread disaster. CBS's Lee Cowan

[3:36] reports tonight that the people and

[3:38] government of the United States and

[3:40] other countries are trying to help.

[3:44] >> There aren't enough hands or long enough

[3:46] arms to offer comfort to the millions

[3:48] who need it. But that's not for lack of

[3:50] trying. Every country that can is

[3:52] sending what they can.

[3:54] >> Our goal is to get the the right stuff

[3:55] to the right people at the right time in

[3:57] a very complicated environment. The US

[4:00] announced it was doubling the amount of

[4:01] assistance it promised, bringing the

[4:03] total to $35 million. But the scope and

[4:06] the logistics of the worldwide relief

[4:08] effort is mind-numbing to comprehend.

[4:11] >> A very, very major, perhaps one of the

[4:15] most uh devastating natural disasters

[4:18] ever.

[4:19] >> Nearly a dozen countries across two

[4:21] continents are in need of emergency

[4:23] supplies. Areas hard to reach on a good

[4:25] day. Now with roads washed out,

[4:28] communications networks destroyed,

[4:30] coordinating such a massive effort is

[4:32] difficult at best with resources that

[4:34] are dwindling fast.

[4:36] >> We've had recently a number of

[4:37] calamities around the world including

[4:39] cyclones in Haiti in the Philippines a

[4:41] very short time ago. So there's a lot of

[4:43] stress and this is just adding to it.

[4:45] >> So are thousands of good- intentioned,

[4:47] good Samaritans who've been collecting

[4:48] food and clothing. A well-meaning

[4:50] effort, say aid agencies, but put to the

[4:53] wrong use. It can take weeks or months

[4:55] for them to get over there at great

[4:57] cost.

[4:58] >> But the most immediate need is also the

[5:00] most basic, clean drinking water. The

[5:02] sources have been contaminated either

[5:03] with bacteria or massive amounts of

[5:05] seawater. The short-term fix obviously

[5:07] is to send bottled water like this. But

[5:09] a longerterm fix would be water

[5:11] purification systems like this one. The

[5:13] components are obviously available.

[5:14] What's missing is the money to ship

[5:16] them.

[5:17] >> We've got all the big serving spoons.

[5:19] It's the same problem with these mobile

[5:21] kitchens being ready for shipment in

[5:23] Texas.

[5:23] >> We can prepare off of the kitchen unit

[5:26] probably about 3,000 meals a day.

[5:28] >> Without pots and pans, food donations

[5:31] only go so far. Money may seem like an

[5:34] impersonal way to help, but in this hour

[5:36] of need, cash rings loudest of all. Lee

[5:40] Cowen, CBS News, Dallas. Some female

[5:43] travelers have been complaining about

[5:45] being subjected to patowns by airport

[5:47] security that they consider to be

[5:49] intrusive. Now, government officials say

[5:52] 16 airports around the nation will be

[5:54] testing some new explosive detecting

[5:56] equipment that may limit the need for

[5:58] these intrusive searches. In the

[6:00] meantime, they're revising screening

[6:02] procedures. CBS's Wyatt Andrews gives

[6:05] you the inside story.

[6:08] The TSA changed its patown policy after

[6:11] more than 200 women complained they had

[6:14] been groped. Patricia Sturm, whose

[6:16] insulin pump often sets off the metal

[6:18] detector, was asked to step aside in the

[6:21] Newark airport for what she says was a

[6:23] patown.

[6:24] >> I got a breast exam

[6:25] >> and then some.

[6:26] >> While I'm standing there in the

[6:27] spreading position, she's feeling my

[6:29] breast. She's she's like, "What's this?"

[6:31] I'm like, she's going like this with her

[6:33] palm of her hand and I'm like, "That's

[6:35] my breast. What do you think it is?

[6:37] >> The new rules change the policy a

[6:39] little. Now only women who set off the

[6:42] alarm while being wanded or whose

[6:45] clothing appears misshapen will be

[6:46] subject to a full pat down. The agent

[6:49] should be female and use the back of her

[6:52] hand. Other patowns are still permitted,

[6:54] but only around the abdomen and back.

[6:57] >> I says, "Why are you doing?" She says,

[6:58] "Well, we don't want another rush to

[6:59] happen."

[7:00] It's believed that women terrorists by

[7:03] smuggling plastic explosives under their

[7:05] clothes caused the crash of two Russian

[7:08] airliners last summer. The pat down

[7:10] procedure which takes place in secondary

[7:12] screening is necessary for us to get at

[7:14] a specific threat. Bodyorn explosives.

[7:17] The TSA promises, however, that patowns

[7:19] are temporary, that brand new equipment

[7:22] straight out of the space age will make

[7:24] hands-on searches obsolete.

[7:27] This machine here being tested at JFK

[7:30] fires powerful shots of air

[7:34] >> and then sniffs the passengers body heat

[7:37] for traces of explosives.

[7:39] >> Had the feeling I was being fumigated.

[7:41] >> But until these next generation machines

[7:43] are deployed, TSA agents following the

[7:46] new guidelines can still let their

[7:48] fingers do some walking. Wyatt Andrews,

[7:52] CBS News, Washington. More stories are

[7:54] just a click away, but be sure to join

[7:56] me on television for the on air edition

[7:58] of the CBS Evening News. On Wednesday's

[8:01] broadcast, the future of medicine, we'll

[8:03] give you a look at new advances in the

[8:05] treatment of cancer and heart disease

[8:07] when our week-long series, The Year

[8:09] Ahead, rolls on. For cbsnews.com,

[8:13] I'm Dan Rather.