CBS Evening News open - 2005-01-03

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] That's a real blessing.

[0:01] >> Chris Clark. Week nights on News Channel

[0:03] 5 at 10.

[0:09] >> Tonight from the tsunami zone, a massive

[0:13] international operation to save millions

[0:15] of lives. CBS News takes you along as

[0:18] the US Navy, Marines, and Air Force do

[0:21] their best to get tons of food to the

[0:24] hungry and homeless. And still the toll

[0:26] rises as the ocean gives up more of the

[0:30] dead.

[0:31] >> Also tonight, President Bush enlists two

[0:33] predecessors to lead a national campaign

[0:36] for tsunami relief and asks every

[0:38] American to contribute. We'll talk to

[0:40] the former presidents. And for those

[0:42] searching for a fountain of youth, a

[0:45] warning tonight about bogus Botox.

[0:55] This is the CBS Evening News with Dan

[0:59] Rather reporting tonight from Thailand

[1:02] and John Roberts in New York.

[1:06] >> Good evening. Here in Thailand and in

[1:08] coastal communities all around the

[1:10] Indian Ocean, a vast relief effort is

[1:13] ponderously gathering momentum trying to

[1:16] help victims of the Great Tsunami.

[1:19] at least 5 million people homeless and

[1:23] hungry.

[1:24] But as aid to the survivors grows, so

[1:27] does the count of the dead. The

[1:30] confirmed death toll now exceeds

[1:33] 145,000,

[1:35] nearing the 150,000 plus projected by

[1:38] the United Nations. Some estimates of

[1:41] the death toll are much higher, but the

[1:44] confirmed total includes more than

[1:46] 94,000 dead in Indonesia, 30,000 in Sri

[1:50] Lanka, 15,000 in India, and 5,000 in

[1:54] Thailand. CBS News has correspondents

[1:57] deployed across the disaster zone. We

[2:00] begin with Lee Cowan near where it all

[2:02] began in Indonesia.

[2:05] >> Closest to the epicenter, the carnage is

[2:07] eerily invisible. In the hardest hit

[2:10] areas of Indonesia, where the death toll

[2:12] is expected to climb to 100,000,

[2:15] entire villages have vanished. There are

[2:17] no buildings, no bodies, and judging

[2:19] from the foliage stripped high off the

[2:21] cliffs, the walls of water must have

[2:23] been 50 ft high.

[2:24] >> The towns were pretty much 80 to 90%

[2:27] totally demolished. And there were

[2:29] people out there in dire need of food.

[2:32] >> The plane loads of aid the world was so

[2:34] desperate to give had to come through

[2:36] Bandach's airport. But Indonesia's army,

[2:38] wary of two decades of civil war, kept

[2:41] it closed for days at a fear separatist

[2:43] might exploit the disaster. Now with it

[2:45] open, aid is finally pouring in, making

[2:48] this single runway airport the most

[2:50] important landing strip in the world.

[2:52] Close to a dozen Seahawk helicopters

[2:54] from the USS Lincoln are carrying most

[2:55] of the load, flying as many as 30

[2:58] missions a day. Any idea how long you're

[3:00] going to be doing this?

[3:01] >> Your guess is as good as mine. With this

[3:03] type of devastation, you never know.

[3:05] Yeah. two weeks, two months, couple

[3:07] years, you never know.

[3:09] >> It's not just the several hundred miles

[3:10] of coastline on Somatra, but there also

[3:12] several islands as well that the waves

[3:14] completely washed over. For many, this

[3:16] will really be the first closeand look

[3:18] to see just how bad the devastation is

[3:20] there as well. From the air, we saw

[3:22] roads and bridges washed out. Farmland

[3:25] so inundated by sea water, little if

[3:27] anything may grow here for years. Small

[3:30] bands of people walked aimlessly on

[3:32] roads to nowhere. And the makeshift

[3:34] landing zone was ringed with helpless

[3:35] survivors.