CHARLIE ROSE:  Tonight we continue our coverage of the tragic 
earthquake in Haiti.  Rescue and relief efforts are underway two days after 
the earthquake rocked the country.  

	The Red Cross now estimates 50,000 people may be dead.  The hardest 
hit areas in and around the capitol of Port-au-Prince are filled with 
misery, disorder, and death.  It is very difficult to get aid into the 
region.  Those who have survived are in urgent need of food, supplies and 
shelter.  

	Countries around the world have promised to help.  Earlier today 
President Obama pledged $100 million for relief evident and military 
assistance.  

	(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

	BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:  Few in the 
world have endured the hardships that you have known.  Long before this 
tragedy, daily life itself was often a bitter struggle.  And after 
suffering so much for so long, to face this new horror must cause some to 
look up and ask, have we somehow been forsaken?  

	To the people of Haiti, we say clearly and with conviction, you will 
not be forsaken, you will not be forgotten.  In this, your hour of greatest 
need, America stands with you, the world stands with you.  

	(END VIDEO CLIP)

	CHARLIE ROSE:  We begin this evening with a conversation with Anderson 
Cooper of CNN.  He has been in Haiti and he is an eye witness to what is 
going on today.  

	There’s really not a perfect question Anderson.  You -- I want to be 
our eyes and ears to what you are seeing.  

	ANDERSON COOPER:  There are large speaker trucks that are going 
around, kind of radio stations have them, people have them here.  It’s 
going around with kind of inspirational words to people and also just 
trying to reconnect families.  So if people are missing, they can go to 
these people in these trucks.  So that’s some of the noise you’re hearing.  

	They’re also trying to dispel rumors which are now rampant in the 
city.  Last night around midnight or 11:00 there was a rumor right outside 
the place I’m staying in a central park that a tsunami was coming, and 
literally we had hundreds if not thousands of people screaming and running 
through the streets afraid that a tsunami was about to hit.

	And it was basically a scam used by some people to get people to drop 
their possessions and run away, and then people would go in and take their 
possessions.  

	So there are a lot of strange things and a lot of rumors going around 
-- quickly become facts now.

	It’s day two of this, or day two-and-a-half, I guess, and each day 
seems to be getting worse in terms of just the mundane misery, the horror 
which has become commonplace on just about every street.  

	I was at the cemetery earlier today, and it is completely overwhelmed.  
We know the hospitals are overwhelmed and the clinics are overwhelmed.  The 
cemeteries simply do not have room for all these bodies.  There were about 
20 bodies without coffins just piled up on top of each other, nany of them 
small children.  

	At one point they were just taking the bodies and tossing them into 
already occupied crypts, basically using old crypts that have been around 
for, in some cases maybe a hundred years, reopening them and just shoving 
in bodies, as many bodies as they could, and then resealing them up.  
That’s what it’s come down to.  

	There is aid coming here.  There’s actually a bottle neck at the 
airport, so many flights are trying to come in.  But it is still, when 
you’re out on the streets in Port-au-Prince, you don’t see a huge 
difference than it was yesterday.  

	I saw one bulldozer today that wasn’t actually in the process of 
working.  There may be other bulldozers out there working, I just didn’t 
see them in the areas I was in, and I was driving around an awful lot.  

	But what I continue to see is a lot of bodies on the street, a lot of 
bodies being taken to cemeteries.  Right now behind me, as darkness is 
coming, there’s a man on a makeshift stretcher, it looks like he’s laid out 
on a door.  It looks like his leg is badly injured.  And people he’s with 
are trying to pass down passing vehicles to take him to a clinic.  

	But there’s not guarantee.  Once you get to a clinic, you can wait for 
days for aid.  I’ve been watching one of our correspondents who was at a 
click yesterday, and there was a woman whose foot had been ripped off, and 
she’d been there for 18 hours sitting outside and still hadn’t gotten any 
medical attention.  

	CHARLIE ROSE:  What’s the biggest fear now?  

	ANDERSON COOPER:  It depends who you talk to.  I think the biggest 
fear for people here is just the fear are they going to continue to have 
access to water, what is the food situation, what is the security 
situation, and when is, when is large scale aid going to make a difference 
in their lives, and when are, when are search and rescue teams going to be 
able to come and actually kind of look through the rubble.  

	There are a lot of people who still believe their family members are 
alive trapped under the rubble.  I saw less of that today.  People seemed 
in some places just kind of resigned, just kind of standing around the 
rubble of their homes or their businesses.  

	But some people are still searching with their hands, with pick axes, 
with a few shovels, and literally with chisels, trying to get through 
several floors of concrete that have collapsed and pancaked one on top of 
the other.  So there’s that fear.  

	For aid workers, I talked to a man from the American Red Cross last 
night.  There’s real concern about the security situation.  If the security 
situation, if people become angry and more frantic as is very natural for 
them to be, if the security situation gets worse, that will have a big 
impact on aid organizations ability to get out aid.  

	So far we haven’t seen too many problems, and that is certainly a 
blessing.  

	There’s, as I said, I’ve heard there’s a bottleneck at the airport.  
There’s a lot of aircraft in the skies.  I almost coming in yesterday, 
almost had a collision in the chopper I was in with a six wing aircraft.  
Air traffic control yesterday was a real problem.  I don’t know if they’ve 
been able to sort that out today.  

	But there’s a lot of different fears and a lot of different concerns.  
I was just really struck last night by how one little rumor that a tsunami 
is coming, which was not true, caused just massive panic in a very short 
amount of time to the point where people were dropping their possessions.  

	And I mean these are people whose homes have been destroyed, whose 
possessions are all they can carry and are very precious to them, they were 
dropping them in the streets and just running in panic.  I really never 
have seen anything like that.  

	CHARLIE ROSE:  Do they expect more aftershocks?  

	ANDERSON COOPER:  Aftershocks continue.  I felt one probably about an 
hour ago.  It was a very small one.  

	I don’t know.  I haven’t been able to talk to meteorologists, so I 
don’t know factually what is to come.  There’s certainly a lot of rumors, 
there was a big rumor last night among people, people in Port-au-Prince 
that a major aftershock was going to come.  

	And we were told by our meteorologist that that was not going to 
occur.  But again, that’s one of those rumors that just cause widespread 
panic, and that can lead to people getting killed.  It can lead to hysteria 
and people being trampled to death.  So there’s a lot of fear of 
aftershocks.  

	And when an aftershock does occur, especially yesterday what was so 
eerie is the people behind me in this park, there are several hundred here 
in central park in downtown Port-au-Prince, but in open space you will find 
hundreds of people congregating.  That’s where they’re living, that’s where 
they’re sleeping and eating.

	But when the aftershock hits, this wail, this scream, cries go up from 
the crowd.  And it’s very strange, particularly at night if there’s an 
aftershock, to hear these cries echoing through the city streets.  It’s 
like a wave through the city.  It’s a very strange sound.  

	CHARLIE ROSE:  What’s the power situation in terms of light and 
electricity and water and sewage?  

	ANDERSON COOPER:  The power situation is very dicey.  Most places do 
not have power.  Some of the hotels that are still operating, we’ve been 
able to find a hotel that is still operating.  They were able to, they had 
a lot of damage but were able to -- the structure was intact.  They were 
able to clean up the rooms and the broken glass and let us stay here.  

	They have a generator which they’re only able to run for six hours at 
a time.  So even for in place where reporters are congregating, power for 
us is essential.  Basically power and water you can operate, you can do the 
job and you can function for several days.  

	So we have water, but we have very limited power basically off 
generators.  Most people in the city do not have generators and city power 
is out as well as phone service as well.  

	But some people are just starting to get, be able to send text 
messages, and that would be a huge benefit for a lot of people who are 
still trying to get to messages to folks.  

	But power is a real problem, a real concern.  And at night, I mean the 
city is very, very dark.  You cannot see very far.  And, again, it lends to 
this surreal, scary feeling.  

	CHARLIE ROSE:  Once again, thank you very much for giving us an 
opportunity to get a sense of what’s going on.  

	ANDERSON COOPER:  I’m glad to be able to tell you what’s going on 
Charlie, thanks.  

	CHARLIE ROSE:  Thank you, see you soon.