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CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK

Death Tolls Rising in Southeast Asia After Earthquake and Tsunami

Aired December 27, 2004 - 06:00   ET

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR, DAYBREAK: The waves kept crashing. Now the death toll keeps growing. Straight ahead on DAYBREAK, disaster in southeast Asia.
Also lost luggage, canceled flights, holiday travelers are not out of the woods yet.

And if you love gourmet food, get ready for some indigestion. You'll be shelling out even more for that French (INAUDIBLE) caviar. It is Monday, December 27th. You are watching DAYBREAK.

And good morning to you from the Time Warner Center in New York. I'm Carol Costello along with Chad Myers.

Now in the news, this is just a taste of the earthquake that triggered tsunamis that have ravished southeast Asia. Take a look. The death toll across the region climbing by the hour this morning. It now stands at 20,000 dead and thousands more are still missing.

A victory for the opposition in the presidential election reunion in Ukraine. With nearly all the votes counted, opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko appears to have an insurmountable lead.

More violence this morning in Baghdad. A suicide bomber blew up his car outside the headquarters of a major Shiite political party. It killed six people and wounded 33.

U.S. Airways has started delivering suitcases to their rightful owners following operation baggage meltdown. After hundreds of weekend flights were canceled, passengers were separated from their bags for as long as four days.

To the forecast center and Chad and nasty weather in the northeast.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: A little bit here this morning Carol. Light snow across a lot of the northeast. The thruway, I-87, the 81, even the I-90 getting a little bit of snow. Boston the turnpike getting some snow, but all the way around the cape, that's when the heaviest snow is and in fact a couple of problems here this morning. I-90, the Mass. Turnpike, a light snow, but U.S. 6, heavy snow in Brewster. That heads along to the cape. They had a foot of snow overnight there along the cape and so that's going to slow you down and I-87, that is the New York State thruway, down south of Albany, south of New City (ph), you get toward the New York City area, it is blocked southbound because of a rollover accident. All lanes of I-87 are blocked because of that weather related accident or incident if you will. Talking about the weather not affecting the northeast very much, just got an e-mail from Nova Scotia. Two feet on the ground and more coming down. Boy, too bad it's not bothering Boston. Maybe it wouldn't bother us so much. But Nova Scotia, you obviously are getting it, Atlantic kind of getting that big nor'easter heading up the east coast today. It did miss most of us here, a brush with some snow but not like it could have been. This storm was huge. It could have been feet of snow there. Luckily only a couple spots got some heavy snow. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Thank you Chad.

MYERS: Sure.

COSTELLO: Monster waves 40 feet high swallowed coastal areas of Sri Lanka, west of the earthquake's epicenter. More than 4500 people died in the island nation. Thousands more are missing this morning. CNN's correspondent Satinder Bindra filed this report from the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo.

SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some 3,000 people across Sri Lanka are still missing. Their family members are doing everything possible to try to locate them. This morning we've seen hundreds of people search through rubble with their bare hands, trying to find their loved ones. But all that they managed to find are dead bodies. Also people here very scared that they could be struck by more killer waves.

There is a fear in the city and all along the coast of Sri Lanka large communities have been destroyed. Homes have been just wrecked. Roofs have been torn off and right now Sri Lanka has launched a massive relief effort. It's appealed to the international community to send food, water and medical supplies. The most urgent need is safe drinking water because the sea water has contaminated a large amount of the local drinking water here. The United States is trying to send in helicopters and India has also promised six to eight helicopters to help with the relief effort. Satinder Bindra, CNN, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

COSTELLO: Some aftershocks are being felt in the area, but so far there has been no new damage reported. CNN's Andrew Brown takes us through the chain of events that left a trail of devastation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREW BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was Sunday morning, 7:00 a.m. local time that the most powerful quake in 40 years jolted northern Indonesia. Soon after, the first casualties were reported in Aceh (ph) Province where the quake demolished buildings and brought down phone lines. But that was just the beginning. The epicenter of the quake underneath the ocean off Indonesia, triggered giant waves or tsunamis that surged across the (INAUDIBLE) literally drowning coastal communities, including popular resorts.

The Malaysian island Canang (ph), including the upscale Batu Ferengi (ph) tourist area, was inundated. The Thai holiday islands of Phuket was devastated by waves up to 30 feet or 10 meters high. In the main tourist center, Catong (ph), the streets were pounded by water and debris. Witnesses say the waves were so powerful they tossed one car into a hotel lobby. Other reports say swimmers were sucked into the ocean as the tsunami approached or were dragged by waves across razor sharp coral. Thousands of people, many of them in Phuket to enjoy the Christmas holiday, fled to higher ground. Other Thai resorts, including the scenic Pipi (ph) were also hit with bungalows swept away.

Meantime, tremendous waves surged across the Indian Ocean, traveling by some estimates at hundreds of kilometers per hour, then smashed into the Maldives, Sri Lanka and parts of southern India. In India, many homes in Madras were submerged and in Antrapadesh (ph), hundreds of fishermen were reported missing. Low lying parts of Sri Lanka were defenseless against the tsunami that ravaged the country's coast with the northeastern area especially hard hit.

What should have been a quite Sunday in Asia, turned into a day of devastation for the region, with thousands of people dead or missing. Andrew Brown, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Few of us on shore know the terror of being caught in a tsunami. Celebrity interior decorator Nate Berkus now knows it first hand. He was vacationing at a resort in Sri Lanka when the tsunami hit.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

NATE BERKUS: There was absolutely no warning. I was asleep in a beach front cottage. I heard a loud noise, all of a sudden the roof was ripped off of my cottage and my friend and I were taken out to sea, just taking in currents that were so strong with debris and cars and animals and people, tearing by. We were able to hang onto a telephone pole with a mattress wedged between us for literally 30 seconds. There was a calm in the storm and then another wave hit. Both of us were torn away from the phone pole. I finally climbed onto a roof of a home, because the water pushed me behind the home and sat out the rest of the waves on top of this structure, which luckily held but many people have died there. A lot of us are injured here. I'm very scraped up, but luckily I'm OK and I'm still missing my friend.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

COSTELLO: At last report, Berkus and others were waiting to be evacuated from Sri Lanka. Hopefully we'll have an update for you on that soon.

In news across America this morning, the Delta Airlines flight from Colombia to Atlanta made an unscheduled stop due to a case of stolen identity. The plane was diverted to a naval base in the Florida keys after a passenger's name showed up on a no-fly list. But the FBI says his name was on the list because another person on the no-fly list had stolen his identity. It was an emotional homecoming for an actor in Los Angeles. Eric Anthony Audi (ph) spent the last two years in a Pakistani prison on drug charges, but two months ago, a convicted drug dealer admitted to stashing drugs in the suitcase he was carrying. Audi played bit parts in the TV shows "Reba" and "Seventh Heaven."

Police in Tampa, Florida are investigating the shooting death of Vanderbilt University football player Quani (ph) Doster. Doster was shot while sitting in the back seat of a parked car with two friends on Sunday. Police say they don't have a motive in the drive by shooting and aren't sure if Doster was the intended target.

Does Ukraine finally have a president? Results from the latest round of voting still ahead.

And virtual reality is all the rage, but it's not just for kids. Lots of adults are choosing to explore this alternate world too. We'll take you there just ahead on DAYBREAK.

And the holidays aren't over yet and if you have a flight ahead of you this week, horror stories from the weekend may be giving you nightmares to come. We'll have tips to get you through your holiday travels. But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Monday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Jeffrey Lunstead, the U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka is on the phone lines right now. He's in the capital of Colombo. We want to get an update on the situation in Sri Lanka because we understand there are 10,000 reported dead there alone, because of those tsunamis. Good morning.

JEFFREY LUNSTEAD, U.S. AMB. TO SRI LANKA & MALDIVES: Good morning or it's evening here.

COSTELLO: Can you bring us up to date on the latest from Sri Lanka?

LUNSTEAD: Yes, well, I think the numbers are not firm yet. They're certainly a large number of dead. I've heard 6,000, 8,000, 10,000. I don't think we know yet. But certainly the destruction was massive and when you consider that that number of people in a small country of 20 million population with limited resources, coping with the disaster is obviously going to be extremely difficult. The government has put together a structure for that and foreign countries including the U.S. and U.N. agencies are now working with the government to work up what is need and what different people can provide. The United States has made an initial contribution of $100,000. That's just an initial contribution. We expect to be doing a lot more here in Sri Lanka.

There is also the situation in Maldives. We are also the embassy for Maldives and Maldives also has suffered considerable damage, although we think not as much as Sri Lanka. COSTELLO: Ambassador Lunstead, we understand that American Nate Berkus is trapped is Sri Lanka on the roof of a building there. How many more Americans do you think are in Sri Lanka or the other islands, the nations that were affected by these tsunamis?

LUNSTEAD: Right. Well, in Sri Lanka, we're not sure of the number of American tourists who were here, since most tourists don't register with the embassy, but we, from inquiries we've received from relatives, we think there are about 100 people whom we are still trying to locate. We located quite a few. Our information right now is that there are five Americans who died here in Sri Lanka, due to the tidal wave. Many of the Americans were beach hotels on the coast here. Most of them watched everything. They are coming - we have sent the team down to try to locate as many as we can. Some of them are showing up in Colombo. We had 10 show up today. We are working to get them travel documents, tickets and money so that they can return to the United States.

COSTELLO: Ambassador, when you say you sent a team out, what exactly does that mean?

LUNSTEAD: Well, we put a couple people from the embassy, an American and some of our Sri Lankan employees and we put them in a jeep and we sent them down the road to Gall (ph) which is about 100 miles south of here and was the hardest hit area and they're checking on the way. But communications are totally washed out to all these hotels. It's very, very difficult to get updated information quickly.

COSTELLO: Ambassador Lunstead, the U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka joining us live this morning. Thank you very much sir.

Your news, money, weather and sports at 6:14 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning. Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko has claimed victory in Ukraine's second try at a presidential election. The results from November's vote were thrown out due to allegations of fraud. Yushchenko held a commanding 9 point lead with the vote count nearing completion.

In money news, the tsunami disaster in Asia fueled a slip in the yen to its lowest point against the euro in 18 months. Uncertainty over the scale of the disaster also led to drops in the major Asian stock markets.

In culture, it was a good weekend to "Meet the Fockers." The sequel to "Meet the Parents" set a Christmas Day record at the box office with $19 million. The Fockers took in almost $45 million for the holiday weekend.

In sports, former NFL great Reggie White died in his sleep. He was only 43 years old. The cause of death isn't yet known, but an autopsy is planned. White was also an ordained minister, played 15 years in the NFL with Philadelphia, Green Bay and Carolina.

To the forecast center now and Chad, good morning.

MYERS: Good morning Carol. A little bit of snow out there this morning, Hartford, Boston, even (INAUDIBLE) New York. We have a lot shot. You can kind of see the flags over one of the car dealerships there. WABC, our affiliate there in New York City, showing the snow in Long Island and it's snowing in the cape and it's snowing in Boston and you may have a little bit of a tough drive across parts of the northeast this morning. That snow is going to continue for a while. It's going to change into some lake effect snow though for upstate New York.

Thanks to our affiliate there, 13 Boston, 19 right now in St. Louis, 30 in Atlanta, 32 Mobile and only 41 this morning in Orlando. Clear skies though across all of the southeast today. We will see a couple of showers possible for most of Orlando, back into about Melbourne. Temperatures there for the rest of the afternoon 41 St. Louis, 41 Memphis and a sunny day, pretty good, all the way across the west until you get to the extreme west coast and that's where the big weather is, lots of rain and lots of snow in the Sierra again. That's the next storm Carol. We'll talk about that in a few minutes.

COSTELLO: All right. We'll be here. Thank you Chad. Those are the latest headlines for you this morning. Time now for a little business buzz. The pre-holiday shopping season is over meaning it's now time for the post-holiday shopping season. By now you've hit the stores to return unwanted gifts or take advantage of the sales or maybe you haven't, because it was Sunday yesterday. Our Sasha Salama is at the Nasdaq marketsite with more. I guess stores would have been open on Sunday, but I doubt it somehow.

SASHA SALAMA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know what, there's still time Carol to take advantage of those discounts because the nation's retailers are really trying to lure us in to make up for what's been kind of a lackluster holiday season so far. It won't be a total wash though, at least according to the projections of what's expected.

For the month of November and December, the National Retail Federation expects a 4 1/2 percent gain in total sales. That does not include some online purchases and it does not include gift cards. Another survey, according to the "Wall Street Journal," (INAUDIBLE) Master Card says that retail sales will rise more than 8 percent in November and December compared to that same period a year ago and that includes online shopping and gift cards.

Now speaking of gift cards, those have been a really hot item, expected to account for about 8 percent of total sales this holiday season or more than $17 billion. That, those gift cards expected to boost January and February figures because they're not counted as sales until they're redeemed. Carol.

COSTELLO: Sasha Salama, live from the Nasdaq market site. Thank you.

Live events on Friday kept us from showing you the final installment of our video games, the series. When it comes to some video games, it's not whether you win or lose. It's how you develop your own virtual reality. Our technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg gives us a glimpse of some people who spend a lot of time in those other worlds.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIE BELL: My name is Christie Bell. I play (INAUDIBLE) den mother, which is a small (INAUDIBLE). This version of (INAUDIBLE) is a shamanist, which means that she's one of the priestly types. She works more with the spiritual nature than the outright clerics and so forth.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Would you play a video game that didn't involve winning or losing? The Ever Quest series is more about developing your character, working as a team and interacting with the online community. And sometimes that interaction goes a little further.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My character actually officiated at several wedding ceremonies. I and the players involved would sit down and actually write vows and plan out a whole ceremony.

SIEBERG: Now somebody who doesn't know anything about Ever Quest at all might think that was a little strange. I mean they think characters getting married in the game.

BELL: It's just a part of the entertainment. I mean it's fun and if you have any sort of creative bent, it's a story. It's an interactive story.

SIEBERG: Christie started with Dungeons and Dragons years ago, a precursor to many video games. Then she stumbled across a similar world on her computer.

BELL: I like stories. I like fantasy. I live role playing. The ability to get in and run around in a fantasy world.

SIEBERG: This is where so many online entertainment tries to keep about 3/4 of a million people happy across all its different games. If someone has a problem, they can ask a question. One of these folks who were kind of like a demigod or a god, they can show up in the game and help them out. It's all part of keeping a virtual world running smoothly.

What's the most number of people you see online at one time who are playing one of these games?

ADAM JOFFE, CTO, SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT: Every night we fill two full football stadiums full of people playing our games every single night.

SIEBERT: Every single night?

JOFFE: Every single night.

SIEBERT: Ever Quest is based in the mythical world of Norat (ph) while other games like the Sims (ph) are based in modern reality. Even the mundane has a role here, like cleaning your house, going to the bathroom or acquiring furniture. And players can often get very attached to their so-called Sims. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the emotional connection the players have with the Sims is such a key part of the game play. So in Sims 2, you have facial expressions. They laugh. They cry. You experience their ups and downs, their joys, their sorrows. The player also projects so much more into that because they're projecting experiences from their own life. So it magnifies anything that you're seeing on the screen.

SIEBERG: Of course these types of games may not be for everyone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody has a different idea of what is fun. In fact a couple of my family members are a little bit perplexed about this game thing that I do. A lot of people don't understand and that's fine. I don't understand golf.

SIEBERG: Daniel Sieberg, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: More U.S. troops are heading to Iraq. We'll bring you the latest right after a break. Plus, disaster in southeast Asia, in Sri Lanka alone, more than 10,000 people are dead this morning. We'll have more as the enormity of this story continues to unfold.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Senior military officials tell CNN more troops will be sent to Mosul as the January elections get closer in Iraq. This comes in the wake of last week's deadly mess hall tent attack. In the meantime, the group linked to the Iraq insurgents released a video tape that appears to show the bombing being planned and carried out. More on that story from CNN's Jeff Koinange in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CNN cannot independent verify the authenticity of the video that purportedly shows a bone chilling prelude to what would become the deadliest attack on a U.S. military base in Iraq.

In the video, three members claiming to belong to the radical Islamic group Ansur Al-Sunnah (ph) clad in black, wearing face masks and carrying automatic weapons are discussing an attack on Canmaris (ph) in Mosul. Among them, the would be suicide bomber, identified here as Abu Omar al-Mossuli (ph).

TRANSLATOR: We the army of Ansur Al-Sunnah are carrying out a destructive attack which will terrorize the hearts of Americans, crusaders and their helpers.

KOINANGE: The same man even includes the time of day the attack would take place.

TRANSLATOR: Our lion (ph) will wait until the lunch area is crowded with the crusader and then he will execute the operation.

KOINANGE: The people making the tape then purportedly make their way to an undetermined vantage point somewhere near what appears to be the cafeteria at camp Marez seen here in the foreground. They continue to film. While CNN cannot validate the time on the tape as authentic, it does coincide with the time the attack took place. Seconds pass, then the explosion that appeared to rip the mess hall's roof off, killing 22 and wounding scores.

The members then drive off while still filming the devastating outcome. The attack on camp Marez is a hugely embarrassing security breach for the U.S. military. But the video does appear to confirm what the U.S. said earlier this week, that the attack was a coordinated and premeditated strike.

Late Sunday, a sign the U.S. military won't be taking any chances in the run up to the January 30th elections. A senior U.S. military source in the region told CNN that both U.S. and Iraq troop levels in Mosul would be increased by an addition 6 to 8,000, bringing the total number in that volatile region to close to 30,000. Jeff Koinange, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Thousands are dead due to tsunamis triggered by a 9.0 earthquake off Indonesia. It happened about 24 hours ago. We will bring you the latest from India after a break.

And will the third time be a charm? Viktor Yushchenko is telling his supporters they're witnessing the beginning of a new political era. The latest on that story is just ahead. You are watching DAYBREAK for Monday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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