captioning sponsored b macneil/leer productions >> lehrer: good evening. m jim lehrer. unimaginle death and destruction haiti. >> wdruff: and i'm judy woodff. on the "newsur" tonight, the death toll cou be as high as 50,000 with a further thre llion people injured or meless. >>ehrer: we'll talk with former presint clinton-- the u.n. speci envoy to haiti-- about the catastrophthat came just as iti seemed to have turned an economicorner. >> woodruff: plus, we gefirst hand accounts of t relief situation on the ground. >> lehrer: andome perspective

onhe global humanitarian effort from the present of re, helene gayle. >>oodruff: then, president obama's w plan to tax big banks to reimburseaxpayers for the federal bailt. >> lehre that's all ahead on tonight's "pbs newour." major funding for the pb newshour is provided by: ♪

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thk you. >> lehrer:here were scenes of mounti desperation in haiti today amidrantic rescue attets and halting relief efforts. as bies piled up, the red cross estimated 45,000 t50,000 dead from monday's earthque tragy. they included at lea one american and 36 u.n. peacekeers. "newshour" crespondent kwame holman bins our covera. >> reporter: 48 hourafter the earthquake, po au prince was a city crying for lp. countless people were still trapped-- in thousan of pancaked sools, hospitals, homes and offices ross the haitiacapital. >> that was my father'house, so we lose it, my moer was... >> nowe have somebody here. >> there is some persoinside the house.

>> we can't findim, we don't have a loader, digger take th out. >> reporter: people woed through a second night anday digging out debris with thr bare han to uncover survivors. one group of people used a car jack andhe light of a camera crew to free a trappedoman. and an american rescue tm joined the search at the wreed adquarters of the u.n. peacekeeping force. some 200eople remained missing there. those who d survive struggled toet help. but hoital and aid workers repoed supplies were running out and the prime minier issued aurgent appeal. >> ( transled ): we are going to need water, food and medici, because there are a lot of people inred and we ha not yet found all those people buried under thr hous. and we continue with this work, we will need a lot of medicatis and a lot of help. >> reporter: for n, injured victimwere carried on makeshift gurns made from doors in wheelbarrows to the

few hospits still stding. tents were set up, and oers of thinjured were being treated in parki lots, including some foreign aid worker >> we had eye clinic in, run by a dallas church a the church down here. and our clinic buildinwas collapsed-- concre building, concrete roof. and it injured fe of us, some of use more verely than others, she's the mo severe. >> reporter: 60 mis outside the capital,orkers at the hospital of the immaculate conception, struggd to keep up with patients pouring in. >> this is blood all over the floor. >> reporter: a pastor at near church shot this video showing some othe injured being treated. many had head wounds and bron lis. some of thinjured, turned away fr the overwhelmed hospitals had to spend theight in their cars. th faced a rising risk of

infection and complicatis from brokenones in 90-degree daytime heat. the danger of disease wa heightened by growg numbers of bodies in the street the morgue athe general hospital was full by morng 1,0 bodies were placed outside, with more coming . tent cities gr, filling up with thousan of people who lost their hom in the quake. others were to fearf of aftehocks to seek shelter indoors. >> having another afrshock and pele are waving their hands as the grod shakes. reporter: one of the larges camps s set up across from the crumbled presidential pace in the heart of the city. some people even sleptn roads outse their houses, but they faced danger, amid repor of lootg and shots being fired. there was little edence of the ci's police force. many haitis also began walking

out of t city to reach rural ars that had sustained less damage. they had to cross ads made nearly impassable byubble, twisted buses and cars, crusd by falng buildings and other debris ese images from a security came showed the moment the 7.0 quake wrecked the ci tuesday afternn. a tellite image reased by "geo-eye" gave stark evidencof the scale the damage in port au prince, a city of two million. but among the bble, there also were signs of resilien. this group of survivs set up a spontaous prayer service today. and evacuations of foreigner were continuing. by late day, more than 160 americans have left e country, with another60 scheduled to go. about 45,000 americans wer living in haiti en the earthquake strk. inside haiti, anoverseas, the urgent effort to get in avy

lifting equipment anmedical supplies escalat today. but logistical cllenges were dating. with power out, communicatns barely functioning and facilities orwhelmed. as the day began, humanitaan fligs arrived at the port-au- prince airport. frch aid workers applauded when their plane touched dow it brought a team of 6 specialists in clearing bble and their six sniffer dogs the ench foreign minister spoke in paris. >> ( translated ): o three planes that rived in haiti via martinique he landed with an impressive number of rescu team firstly, a team from the cil secuty, with the means equipmento search for rvivors in the second plane and medical equipmen with doctors and nurses, in thehird ple. reporter: flights from chin spain and the u.s. ao landed. the chine cargo taking six hourto unload because of a

shortage of neededquipment. incoming planes begato circle overhead, and by midday,he airport ran ouof space on the tarmac and fuel. for a time, all flights fromhe u.s. thaiti were halted. air shipments of aidesumed later in the day. in washingto president obama calledhe haiti crisis a moment for americ leadership. he announced ainitial stallment of $100 million in help for the count. >> this will mean more of th lifeving equipment, food water and medicine that ll be needed. this investment ll grow over the coming year as we emba on the long-term recovery from is unimagable tragedy. >> reporr: the first wave of e u.s. effort involved a detachment of some 100oldiers fromhe army's 82nd airborne division. th left fort bragg, north carolina today. their main task is to epare for tharrival friday of more than 800 other u. military personnel. and thousands of additional s. troops arexpected to head to

hai in the coming days. athe same time, the president warned a relief effort othis magnitude will notappen all at once >> eveas we move as quickly as possible, it wl take hours and in many cases da, to get alof our people and resources on the ground. >> reporter: underoring the u.s. commitment, sectary of ste hillary clinton cut short her tripo asia to return to washington. bushe acknowledged huge lostical hurdl facing the relief mission. >> when you' on the ground and see the roads that are tally impassiblean airport that was knocked out of commiion, no air traffic control, ting to piece together thetep-by-step patient work that is nessary to minimize the loss of th life and to try to g people ba into some semblance of normalcy is just very hard. reporter: some civilian tea already were in action including a search and rescu squad from frfax, virginia. its members rived late last

night and immediaty began to assess theamage. >>he ride here was devastating,arly this morning, obviously, we had e first chance to see what was hapning over the whole entire this se of the entire country and was amazing. >> reporter: despite the logistical problems, british scuers were expected tarrive today. packed boxes of aid sulies for the viims. prime minister gorn brown. >> i can say that ou64 firefighters, whwere flown out urgently with the he of gatwick airport being en for that to happen, gether with 10 tons of lifting eqpment to lp, and search and rescue dogs, have arriv in haiti, in port-au-prince and will working immediately to helget >> reporter: in israela litary delegation was headin toaiti to erect a field hospital in the disaster are thfacility could treat 500 patien each day with 40 doctors, 25 nursessurgical facilities, and pharmacy.

>> israel has quite a lot of experience in these kis of earthquakes. we have been in several ples in the world. we're bringing our knowlge and we're coming to asst the peoplever there and to save lives. as fast as we cod we will be ov there. >>eporter: australia came forward with fancial support. >> australia wilprovide initially 10 milli australian dolls worth of assistance to haiti. five million dollarsf that ll be allocated immediately foemergency humanitarian assistce. >> reporr: and the international monery fund pledd $100 million in emergey financing for haiti. the i.m.f. managindirector also cled for new long-term approaches to the cotry's chronic eds. >>robably, we will need to do something totally new with hti the national level and try dene a global plan to help the recovery of the country, becse 's obvious now that the piemeal approach-- one crisis

aftethe other-- is not enough to get rid of the proble of the country. >> reporter: in ct, the red cross estimated ree million people in hai will need aid of some sort, many of them r a full year. >> woodruff: n for what it is like on the ound in haiti. i spoke earliewith a reporter and an emergcy relief codinator for the salvation army. firs tony winton, a broadcast porter for the associated press. tony winton, thank y very much for talking wi us. we're now a fullwo days into this how would you describe the situation? it's still pretty grim and grave. there are stilbodies lying in streets. saw a makeshift grave operation on hillside in port-au-prce where people were burying people in shallow grav, perhaps just a foot deep. meanwhile, pple are still living out in the open uer tent cities at have popped up l over the town, fearful of getting inside.

>> woodruff: do you have a sense of how many peop are still alivunder the rubble of the collsed buildings? >> we have seen a few aces where there a frantic activity by haitians ting to t someone out. but for e most part, a lot of these collapsestructures there's no aivity going on. it doesn'tean there's not anyone alive the, there just ist somethinwe can see . >> couric: to what extenis there enough equipment, engh people to get to theeople still trap >> it would be hard for me t assess that. i know wve seen large continnts of trained urban rescue professnals come in suchs the ones from miami-dade and los angeles that came in port-au-prince tay. they certainly have the skil. one of them told mit's not common to have a rescue as la as seven days after an earthquake. >> woodruff: tony wion, what are you fosing your reporting on now? >> well, today we were focing on theelief efforts, the delivery of basic supplies. weere in one neighborhood

where aftetwo days finally a water truck showed up and hundreds ohaitians came out with pails to have the truc fill tm up. in te haitian fashion, a lile entrepreneurship, someone set up a fried doug stannext to theater truck so that was scene wherpeople were trying to make the best oit. >> woouff: tony winton with the a.p., we thank youor talking with us. m talking now with bob poff with the salvation ay there in port-aprince. mr. poff, what is ur main chalnge right now? >> the main allenge is getting the vital s. is innocent that the people need. we need to get tm food and water, we ne to get them some shelter and we need to gethem to them quickly. need medical first aid as well. we're seeing hundredof people ming to our compound that ne medical assistance rightway and we're out of suppls. so we need idesperately >> woodruff: and what aryou hearinin terms of when this teriel is going to be there?

>> the first pla is due to rive any minute, actually. they've d some difficulties getting into the airport a well. we haven't actuallseen them yet, so they're not onhe ground as r as we know, but hopefully any minute now we' going get word that our first plane with somfood, water, and medical sulies has arrived. >> woodruff: for you, r someone whhas been living in hait what are you seeing of the peopleround you? >>'m seeing several things that really amazme. i'm seeing pple who are very very strg, who are very urageous. i'm seng them fight against all the things that have happened tthem with this destation. and then i'm seeg a number of people whose bodies have bn banged and bruised. one boy came tour compound day with his hands severed a the bone sticking t of his arm and yet not a whper. the boy wasn't crying,e wasn't scheme screaming. i know hd been like this for a few days a he came... they finally brought him to us

th terrible condition. so, yes, it's a very difficu situation. yes, people e very anxious. they need to know they're going to he food and watern the coming hours but see peopleho are also quitstrong and quite willing to do whatt takes to make a difference. >> woouff: bob poff with the salvation army. thank you. >> lehrer: for the record, misspokearlier when i said the earthquake hpened monday night, obviously it s late tuesday afrnoon. now onmore perspective from port-au-prince. earlier today,ari sreenivasan spoke via ype to matthew marek head of programs f the american red crossn haiti. he started by aski him what challenges t organization fas. >> what we're expeing over the next few days arour emergency response unit ams, medical telecommunications, logistic relief units and wtever supplies we can identifyhe population nee ght now it what's most important is what's happing in the search-and-rescue ctors. a lot of the pulation and family and neiborhoods are

trying to get still wounded victims oufrom under rubble. one of the major concerns is that all othe international community ha including the red cross, ialso to tend to the deceased which are very dly littering the streets of po-au-prince right now. sreenivasan: which causes a larger health concn for the population thas still alive. >> absolutely. and we he to take that into consideration immediately fo our short-rm relief efforts and our long-tm planning. the population needs to be concerned with that as well. >> sreenivasan: whe are people getting their wat? >> there's... tt's a very good estion. wherev they can get their water from . it's rht now in haiti's economy there's a large inrmal sector on a lot of the sll market women thaoccupy the streets and the market kioskon

the side of the road. i would sume that a lot of their ocks are dwindling where haitians would normally go to fowater and drinks and small fooddems. a lot of the lger markets have beenestroyed by the earthquake we can assume that a lotf the warehous that have housed shipments of food prior the earthquakehat normally are imported into haiti ve also incurred a lot of dama. people are very sperate. very desperate rig now for evything, for food, for water. and they're holding out ght now. they're holding off righnow. >> sreenasan: how are you planni to get supplies in? we're hearing about damaged ports. >> rht. the news is reporting th the port itsf is damaged. th's accurate. the airport reporting that the tow tower out, but it's come worked on, if it hasn't already been worked on.

as we've seen news reportss wellhat landing in the country on the... in thearmac is possible but it's going to ba very difficult rarding traffic, air traff control at thisoint. a lot of cargo planes arcoming in and that is goingo be the main sourcof getting things into the country right n until other roes can be established. woodruff: >> woodruff: next,he cruel irony of the earthquake's timing. this is t the image haiti had been projectinto the global community recent months. the earthquake that s plunged the couny into chaos comes just as haitians appred to be making progress inheir long struggle to overcome pitical turmoil andeeply-rooted poverty. >> haiti was no longer the pce whe people are kidnapped by the score every mont it is no longer a placwhere armed peoplerive around in vehicl shooting up the town. >> woodruff: in report broadcast on thenewshour" just three days a, thu.s. ambassadoro the country was

one of those w told special correspondent ki kay that facts on the gund in haiti were beginni to improve. >> repter: the task of rebuilding haiti is deniably huge morehan half its people live on just a dollar day. public services likeealth care and a free ecation are almost nonexistent. >> somebody say th we just want to get out of mery to get into poverty. and believe that is a beautiful sentence f haiti because is exactly what we e aiming for right now. >> wdruff: former president bill cnton-- the u.n.'s special envoy to haiti-- w cently promoting investment opportunities in the count. we know tt this is a great opportunity not onlyor investorto come and make a prof, but for the people o iti to have a more secure an a more broadly shared, prosrous future. >> woodrf: that kind of high profile support was keeping haitian businessman geors sassine busy. the local point rson for new investment, his phones dn't

stop ringing, even during s interview with kira kay. >> i have to be li a dispatcher, investorfrom brazil, from ireland a from korea coming o after the her. so it's beenery hectic belie me, but it's a good, it's aood problem to have. >>oodruff: but tonight, haiti is no longer bless with good probms. and former preside clinton-- along th former president george w. bush has a new role after agreeing to request from the ama administration to assist the relief fort. lehrer: and former presiden clinton joins usow from his office in new yorkity. mr. president,elcome. >> thank you, jim . >> lehrer: mr. president what's it going to take r haiti to survive this trapg stkpheufrpblgts we, first i think the whole worlis pulling for them but we ne to recognize that the mosurgent thinwe can do now is get them

through the next week to t days. have to find the living and the dead and we ha to take care of both. unless someone is rt of a search-and-rcue team or a medicateam, the best thing they can dfor the next week to ten days is sendash, even if it's five or t dollars because what we need is fo water, medical supplie shelter the uned states military has done a gre job of taking over the airport. they're working closely th the n. security forces, the stat department and aide arworking very well and thank goodss the american embassy was unharmed. but the govement has been damaged and our u.n.ffice has been december mitt there. we still have 150 peopleuried who have not been foun we did get someone o alive toda thank god. but we need to foc on this now. i set up a...or my u.n.

office, a web site that' clintonfoundation.g /hai rth que just to move money into medil supplies and the last day we've gottenomething like $4 milli and we've gotten pele sending less than a hundred dollars on avera. or they can text "hai" to 20222 and give $10 that's theost important thing now. en when that's over, we'll have to complete the relie efforts and we'll start covery and reconsuction. haiti haa plan. it wl have to be amended to take aount of what has happened. but we'll ve the government reconstitute it soonwe'll have the u.n. mission reconitute it soon. i talked today to haiti'other main donors on the pne. they're still committe i met with 50 of the b nongovernmental organitions and vestor groups that had omised to help, they're stil committed. but we've got toet them through the trauma of these xt few days first.

>> lehrer:ho's in charge of all of this, m president? is the haitian goverent able to manage alof this that you've just described or is somebody ee going to have to do it? >> well, the problem is, we' doinit sort of one thing after another now a cooperative way becae the haitian government the pridential palace was deroyed, the parliament building was badly damaged. th're still missing senior members of parliament. th're still missing ministers of the gernment. and the u.n. in all probility had its eatest loss of life in e whole history of the unite nations. we still he 150 people under the rubb unaccounted for. so t americans have been great, from the presidt on down. i can't thank them eugh. and we are working. the u.n. mr. edmund nutelle, whwho was the predecsor of the current head of our mission has go down for t next couple days. he's going to ha to worry

about pulling ople out of the bble. then we'll snd up the u.n. agn. we've got some working spaceor the prident and prime minister around the airport and i'm aying on the phone here tryi to take one issue after anotr along withy deputy dr. paul farmer, whom y know, who's worked in haiti for years. >> lehre sure. >> and we'rerying to deal with these things one after anoth. i don't know that anybody's charge butverybody's trying to be prettresponsible and we're woing hard at this. >>ehrer: do you have the feeling at this int that the will ithere in all of these dispirit groups and entiti to get these people foundnd do all ofhe... not the long-term reconstruction but the immedte work that needs toe done? >> yes, t there are significant just practical problems. for example, the port'capacity is badly damag because they can't lift tngs off of ships. so if we're going to bring i things by boat, we've got be able to lift off the things

bos either by putting them in a smalleboat and taking them to sho and lifting them up or having t crane capacity on the ships itself. we have an enormous amount o really good equient that's cable of moving debris and earing streets, but it was p to use pmarily clearing out thclogged waterways in haiti. so a lot of it wn't available and now they can hardly navite the streets to get there. so these physical oblems are going to be dealt th one by one byhe u.n. forces there that are largely who, the military forces, and by th american military helping th and others cing in. thchinese have sent a sech-and-rescue team, the russians areending two big helicopters, people from a over the region are helping. and thers a remarkable spirit there of just tryingo save as ma lives as possible and care for the peop that are wounded anmeet basic human needs. we'll st have to work through this. but everyday five new thgs me up that we just havto fig out who to call for lp and how

to deal wi them. >> lehrer: wl, like the airpt problem. there were 11 anes circling for a long te and they finally osed the airport for ahile because these planes that ha all these kinds things that you werealking about-- plus people-- couldn't land. has that beeresolved, do you ink? or can it be resold? >> well, ion't think it can be resolved entirely. weave airport delays at very sophisticated g american airpor. what happens is more planewant to land than can be landedn an orderly fashioright now. i just hope that people at want to ing those planes in there understand that right w all ey need search-and-rescue teams, medical teams, anfood water, medical supies and shelte . and we're tryi to do some more on the proteion and figure out what we cado to get some lighting there at nigh but that's it. we've got to get thrgh this emergency period then... and somewher a week from now, ten days fm now,

we'll be more concentred on moving the debris that's not covering human beings. and then wll begin to implement e plan again. d by then we'll have the hai vernment reconstitutes. we'll have the u.n reconstitutes. this is... i don't tnk... it's very hard to imagine what happened her i mean, our u.n. oice was in a hotel that collaed, five sties, there's still 150 people who are burieunder that debris. people that we all knew an worked with. and haitian milies are still trying to figu out what happened to their mily members. we've got bodies ando refrigeration pacity, haitians bury their dead. i hopehat we can get some refrigeration shipand some other capaci there with generators thawill operate so we can preserve as many pele who have been kill for their loved ones as ssible otherwise publicealth demands willequire mass burial and all we'll able to do is take

picturesnd let people know whertear loved ones are. this is a big oblem. >> lehre sure. mr. present, i know it's hard look ahead at this point, b based on your intimate new jersey knowledge of hait for yes now, and your position as the n. special envoy, when you look ahe, once you get past these first phases tt you were talking about, dyou believe that haiti can, in fac move through this and surve and follow the plan that yound others have devised? >> y, i do. i do bause... >> couric:. >> lehrer: wt tk *euf ... gives you the confiden? >> seval things. number one, the haitn government has gater capacity than ever fore. number two, thhaitian diaspora community is comtted to helping anthey are more welcome than ever before. the parliant just approvalled dual cizenship for the haitian diaspora. keep in mind, look at e united ates, haitian americans are approximately 1% of our afrin erican population, 11% of ou doctors. we've got haitian ericans who are dieing to go dowthere and

invest and build a future. the third thing is the neibors of haiti care more thaever before. when i restored esident aristide 15 years ago in995, argentina was about thonly neigor that really cared at the time. now when we haan investment conference there, there were re people there from latin americand the caribbean and from the u.s., canada, franc all of europe and alof asia combined they care. and nally, we have the inter-american devopment bank, the world bank, and the ole u.n. system totay committed to this and, again, i can't s enough for theommitment that president obama has ma. and, you know,illary canceled her trip to asia to come bk and work on th. we've loved haitfor 35 years now. she's... she's distraught abt it, but commted and on the job, stang there all weekend work. e a.i.d. director, mr. shaw, is doing a good job e.e're

going to get throu this and i think there wille even more determinatioto honor the plan ey have... it's not my economic plan, it's theirs eir government has embraced it. but we've got toelp them with the ling and the dead right now. and if we do this right and ey feel the support of pele around the world and nexdoor then i think you will e us resuming at an even moreapid rate the impmentation of this plan. >> lehr: all right. mrpresident, thank you very mu for talking to us. >> thank you, jim. >>oodruff: and for a larger lo at the humanitarian effort underway in haiti, ware joined by doctor hene gayle, the presidenand ceo of "care usa." care has worked to help ople in haiti since 1954. dr. gayle just heard former president clintosaying he didn't know if anybodyas in charge. we're seeing wire rerts from haiti th people who are frustrated that aid is

geing in are setting up adblocks with corpses in the roads. what is yo sense of why it's taking so long to get help >> well, i think sever of the speakers, cluding president clinton, have ma clear how chaotic and w difficult the situion is right now. just the very phical infrastructure thahas been destroyed makeit difficult to get th really launched in the way at it needs to be. and that's whyyou know, it needs toe taken in a step-wise fashion. first of all, clearingome of the rubb, the debris, making it possiblto pass through the country, get suppls in rehabitate the portment all these things are going to be necessarto make this a more orderlrecovery period. but i think, you know, what good is at there is a commit ment.

the airport now gettin.. hastarted to let planes in. ople are coming in through t neighboring cotry, through domican republic. and so i think that won't be very long before we e this taking shape a being able to start a mu more orderly procesof responding to this incredible emergency bui think it's hard to underestimate how difficulit is with all the infrastrture that's been destroyed. >> woodruff: so from your perspectivthrough care, what are the greatesteeds right now? >>ell, i would just reiterate wh everybody has said. i mean, the most impornt is immediate ly the search-a-rescue and making sure wre able to provide emergency support to tho that are still living the first 24, 48, 72 hoursre the st critical period of times to get food , water, shelr, making sure that we can do what we can to prent

rther death. then is also important, as has alrey been emphasized, that we try to do whate can for the gnity of those who have already died. so i this i if we really looat this as providg support to those who need imost urgently, those whare still living mecal supplies, medical needs. people have been injed. there are people who are very very close to having catastrophic emeency needs who already have catastropc emergey health needs that need to be taken caref. so i think lking at those emergency issues andhen also tending to those who he alady been deceased. and then looking at whats it going toake to slowly look at a recove rehabilitation phase and do thaas expeditiously as possible. care as ll as other organizatis that already have people on the ground a able to start the respon quickly.

we have 130 people and, you said, we've been there forver 55 years. so we were able to take thgs that are already in our warehoe there, start stributing food. we're ging out food particularly to the most vulnerable wom and children who are at greatest risk of mautrition in this situation. so we want to ke sure that we are doing what we can th what we already have avaible. wee deploying people to haiti rapidly. we're starting to se in supplies from neighborg countries like pama where we have resources a warehouse and things stockpile theread and try to get this t to people as quickly as possible. >> woodruff: so is the now the nd of coordination that you think thatt requires? and ju quickly, second of all, r those people who are wahing, what would you add to what president clion said, that right now whas needed is mone >> well, first, i would underscore that. what's needed ght now is, in fact, moy. reurce so that we can continue

to bring in the kinds of supplies, bring inhe kinds of support that's nessary. everybody... you kw, people have been so incredible out wanting to get oplanes and get ere and do something and physically parcipate. but that's not necessaryr it's not ev possible right now with the struction of the infrastrture that everyone has talked about. but what is need right now are sources. $5, $10,t really doesn't tter. itll helps. and we would just continue to encourage ople to do that. know the coordinatiois not yet what it needs to be, but think that people recognizthrough the perience of things like the tsunami that we can t risk having this be chaotic and having this t be done in a way that brings organizatis together in a coordited fashion. i really do think that we have the opportunity tdo this better, dohis better than we haven the past. i ink people recognize that at we need to do this in a unified fashion, let eh one do what they do best sohat this

cos together in a way that ally does the most to help a support e haitian people and the itian government, which does havthe abilitonce it gets back up on itfeet, as president clinton said, to really help to ld this response. >> woodruff: hene gayle with care u.s.a., thanks veryuch. >> tha you, judy. >> lehrer: the past three ys haveeen difficult for haitian americans who are iting for news a who are trying provide help. ray suarez has our report how things look in two u.s. communities. >> reporr: flatbush, in brooklynis home to some of the largest we indian immigrant communitiein the world outside the caribbean. it's the heart of e quarter million strong haitian presence in new york. radio soleil dhaitbrings haiti to brooklyn, and in crisis becomes not only a cleing house for news, but a ple to find oth people who know what you're going through. >>ll three american citizens

went on vacaon and they were supposed treturn very soon to the states. fabienne jean was alreadplenty worried before the qua. her father, visiting hai from brooyn, was shot, treated in a hospit, and released just before the ground began shak >> but my real most ncern was my dad who waslready injured that same day he went toaiti on the 2h, was released fr the hospital on tuesday the same day of the eartuake. we know he made it home,ut we have nev heard anything from him. >> reporter: she's looki for a brother, a cousin, aaunt. and anyone who knowshat happenedo her father. brooklyn-born lipe doussou hasn't been able tfind out anhing about family members its beenough on his haitian- born pents. >> it's been very diicult for my parents. my parents have stayed up fo24 hours waing for some feedback. >> reporter: today, dio soleil has been broadsting the signal from a sister statn in haiti

bringingour after hour of news from the seets of port au prince ta brooklyn hungry for information. sitting calmly in thcenter of the chs is radio soleils ricot dupuy-- his ll phone ringing constantly. duy says the relief efforts in brooklyn have be slow to get started. >> the haitian communitys still in shock, and that sck has interfer with the proper organizationf the relief effort. >> reporter: as civic, churc and government forces link u and get organized, mathieu eugene is kely to be in the middle of it all. he's the first htian-born member elected to w york's city council. >> iis my moral obligation not only to see as the new york city council but ao to use everythi in my power to empor the community. >> srez: while brooklyn's haitians anxiously waifor word

torickle out and pull together the aid to heain, another major american haitianommunity is waiting for word and gettg to work 1,100 miles to the sth in florida. more than 0,000 haitians and haian americans live in florida. many cl the orlando area home. >>eporter: one of the point- men for coordinating response is laurent prosper, the ief of mission athe haitian consulate in orlando. >>o have the central area destroyed, it's going be very difficul >> reporter: butot only is the scale of the chaenge daunting, thlocation of the disaster means it touches everye in the community. >> it's in port-au-prince-- at meaneverybody has somebody in pap. we nd all the help from the friends of haiti to co together; e communities to me together to assist us because this igoing to take a ry long time. like wsay in haiti our motto : "with unity, we are strong >> yes, we're king donations fohaiti's earthquake

saster... >> reporte but it is not only the haitian communitthat is assistinin the effort. harvest-time international a christian aid oup-- has faced milar challenges before. and its warehouse humm as palettes fled with everything from bottled wer to wheaties reeadied for transport. lena smolensky of harvest-me. >> all the procts are denitely needed. it doesn't matter how mu it is, if it's only one pie, or like a whole truckload, we c definitelyse it. >> reporter: their next b: finding a flight south. >> wve heard from others that she safe. >> reporter: but findi a flight north is whatchool principal rol grosshans is hoping for. her 15-year-old dahter was partf a school-run aid mission to haiti when the earthqua struck. the group in haiti continuedts work, distributingood. but amid the daster came a meeting long awaited f her daughter, faith. >> we have sponsored ahild in haiti for about 10 yrs.

she met evelynn the midst of an earthquake anwas able to spd the night together sleeping togetr on a tarp under the stars in hai waiting to see wt morning was going to bring. >> reporter: other communiti outside atlanta, other gatred at t blood price church of the nazarene in lawrenville, georgia. >> oh, i'm so worried, i rried not worried only about my mom but the resof my family membs. >> repter: the 144 members of the close-kn community pray undea sign that says, "it's d who changes time and circumstances," but paor will rneret says there are other facts at work. >> econoc problems and potical chaos in haiti, also. the worsis that we can't communate with anyone in haiti, we dot know exactly how many people died. >> reporter: for couilman eugene, pullintogether aid in desperate timeis drearily familiar. >>aiti has zero capacity to

receive anhing. i know and i'm vy tkpweultful and i'm very grateful to everybody and i ow that people ofood will, good inntion, they want to contribute, they want to sd stuff to haiti >> reporter: this immigrant politian wants his adopted home to craft a long term respse to the agonies of his nave land. >> woodruff: and still to me on the "newshour": the presidenwants big banks to pay up. that follows the otherews of the day. here's hari sreenivasan our newsroom. >> sreenivasan: there waword today present obama and labor leaders have reaed agreement on taxing high-cost heal plans. it had been a key sticki point toward passing a final hlth care reform bill. up to no the unions opposed y tax on the so-called "cadillac plans" thenegotiate with employers. in afghanistan, a suice bomber killed at least 20 peoplin the deadliest attack on civilianin more than three months.

it happened in uruzgan provie. police said the intendedarget may have been a eting of "nato" andocal officials. instead, the bomber bl himself up beforreaching the meeting te. acss that border, a u.s. missile strike appareny missed killinthe leader of the pakistani taliban. the atta, by a drone aircraft, did kill 1people. but pakistani intelligen officials sa hakimullah mehsud -- the militant ief -- was not among the victims. th was the eighth drone attack in the last two wes in pakistan. chintoday warned all foreign internet companies to obey chinese law. it was beijing's fst response after google threated to stop censing search results inside china. the company also thrtened to pullut of the country altogether. goog complained of sophisticated attacks on e-ml accounts for han rights activists. the foreign ministry said day said chinaars all e-mail hacking. the s. economy has turned out disappointing new number retail sales fell inecember. and first-time clas for jobless befits rose more than

expected. but wall street id more attention to a rise business inventors, which could signal new confidence. thdow jones industrial average gained more than 29 pointso close at 10,0. the nasdaq rose more than ght pots to close at 2,316. those are some othe day's main sties. i'll bback at the end of the program with areview of what you'll find tonight on the "newshour' web site. bufor now, back to jim. >> lehrer: now, the present's plan to tax big banks. he made the annocement at the white house eaier today surrounded by members of his econic team. mr. oba was sharply critical of leading firms and said th need to pay more in order to recoup the costs of the financial rescue pla known as tarp. here is some of whate said. >> my commitnt is to the taxpayer. my commitment is to cover ery single dime the american people are owed. and my dermination to achieve this goal is only hehtened when i see reports omassive profits and obscene boses at

so of the very firms who owe their continued exisnce to the erican people, folks who hav not been madwhole and who continue tface real hardship in this recession. we want our money back! and we're going toet it. and that's why i'm pposing a financial crisis respoibility fee to be imposed on maj financial firms until the american people are lly compensated for the extraordinary assistce they provided to wall street. ifhese companies are in good enough shape to affo massive bonuses, ty are surely in good enough shapeo afford paying back eve penny to taxpayers. the fee wi be in place for 10 years, oas long as it takes to raise the ll amount necessary to cover allaxpayer losses. th will not be a cost borne by community banks ormall finaial firms. on the largest firms, with more than $50 biion in assets, will be affected.

and we're alady hearing a hue and cry from wall street suggting that this proposed fee is not onlunwelcome, but unfair, that by somewisted logic, iis more appropriate for thamerican people to bear the sts of the bailout, rather than t industry that benefited from it,ven though these executivesre out there giving themsees huge bonuses. what i'day to these executives is this: itead of sending a phalx of lobbyists to fight this proposal,r employing an army of lawys and accountant to help evade the fee, i'd ggest you might want to consider simply meeting yo responsibilities and i'd urg you to cov the costs of the rescue n by sticking it to your shareholders or your customers or fellow citizens with the bil but by rolling back bonuses f top earners and executives. lehrer: margaret warner pic up the story from there. >> warner: leading fures in e banking industry called th pl a bad idea. steve bartlettpresident and c.e.o. of the financial seices undtable, a trade associatio

reprenting 100 of the largest financial companie said in a statement. wo-thirds of the tarp investment from banks has already been repd with a large profit to the taxpayer. this propod tax will do nothing mo than stifle economicecovery. tarp was a boosto the economy. this tax is strictly politic." r more on all this, we are joined again by binyamin appeaum of the "washington post." he covers the nancial dustry. biamin, welcome back. >> thank you . >> warner: that was pulist rhetoric we heard fr the president. why now? >> the answer seems to bthat banks are about to annoue very lae profits for 2009. ey've indicated that they pl to pay my of their employees very large bonuses. stoll so t obama administration is king the portunity to empathize with the anger that many american el about that and to show th it trying to do something. >>arner: as the president id, it's going to be levied

the largt banks, brokerage fis, insurance holding coanies but not the smaller banks, not t community banks not even t big auto companies which got tarp fds. why? >> ty don't want a tax that would fa on everyone who received gernment aid, rather ey want to collect the cost that aid from the firms that they say caused the isis. these the largest nancial firms, thenes that played on wall street, the os that, you ow, took advantage of the xity in rules to make huge profits anthen to take huge losses. anthose are the firms that the administration believes oughto cover the monethat the governmentas spent rescuing thfinancial industry . >> warner: nowhe administrationaid in briefing and actually president said it asell, in the end, it's supposedo raise between, what,90 and $117 billion, which ithe outsnding tarp funds, is that right? >> that's the amount t administration projectit will lose from the $700 billion tt congress aocated for the financial rescue. warner: so the question is, it'sver ten years. t's say it's $100 billion ov ten year

that doesn't seem ke a lot when you think of the profitof some of these institutions how doesne figure actually how one big compan- let's say a goldman sachs or bk of america-- homuch would it rely hit them? >> in a broasense it's not a t of money. in its best years thfinancial industry makes $20billion. this is $10 billion year. it's a fairly all hit. t for some companies it will actually be prettyignificant and the reason is the way th tax is structured. this is a tax on browing. banks get money for their acvities from two sources: the deposits that we put into em or mey they borrow from investors. this is a tax on money the boow from investors. retail banks like, say, wel fargo which rely primarilyn depositson't be hit as hard. they mht pay tens of millions of dollars aear, but companies like goldman sachs, morgan stanley, j.p. morgan chase compans that rely heavily on rrowed money to fund their wall street tivities could face a bill of several hundr

million dolls a year. >> warner: so when t president sa this would promote reform in the baing industry, arthey hoping this tax or feectually provides a sent set of incentives. >> they dot view this as a major force for change but they're hoping increntally, on the rgin this is will push banks to borrow a little bitless, make borring a little bit more expensi, maybe think about whether you want to paa little tax by reducingonuses. it's iended to compliment some ofhe other things they're doing. >> warner: and not rely so much on leverage. >> yesand reduce the risks they're taking >> warner: now, wh are the prpects in congress? in congress th seem outraged over the bones and the profit >> right now it's hard to pa anything throughhe united states senat so very murky . >> warr: why? explain more, though. in the senate you've hea even republicans excoriating the g banks anthe big financial initutions for the bailouts. >> right. but there is two reasons, th firsis that the tax is a tax

and the republics generally oppose taxes on corporations they view it aan impediment to economic activitand we've alrey heard that view expressed toy. sendly, again, it's a very closely divid congress, that is complicated proposal anin recent months we've seen complicated oposals don't do ll in congress. >> warner: that's certainly true. binyamin aelbaum, thanks so much. >> my >>ehrer: again, the major devepments velopments of the day. haiti was a scene of mnting deeration. unknown numbers of peoplwere still trapped in earthquake henewshour" is always line. hari sreenivasan, in our newsroom, previewshat's there. ha? >> sreenivan: we talk to a doctor in haiti about the challeng of taking care of all of the wounded. also, a look athe health risks haitians fe in the aftermath of the earthquake plus aink to a google spreadsht that offers people inaiti a place to share formation about rescues,

missinpersons and new reports. we did heafrom yves colon toy. he is the formermiami herald" reporter who was othe program last nht. who expressed the ustration of ma haitian americans trying to reh relatives in port-au- prin. he sd his mother has been located ale and unhurt. on pl solman's "making sense" and margaret wner blogs about e obama administration's concerns over another ssible wave of regees from the haitian earthqua. all th and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org judy? >> woodruff: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm judy woodruf lehrer: and i'm jim lehrer. we'll see you -line and again here tomorrow evening th mark shields d david brooks, among others. thananu and goht. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by: >> what the rld needs now is ergy. the ergy to get the economy hummg again. thenergy to tackle challges ke climate chang what if that energy camerom an energy company?

everyd, chevron invests $62 million in people, in idea- seeking, teaching, buiing. fuelg growth around the world to move all ahead. this is the power of human energy. chevron. when someone you count on not responsive, d things could haen. grant thornton believes it's importt to be responsive through direct clienaccess to our paners. grant thornton. >> and by e bill and melinda gates foundation. dicated to the idea that all people deserve t chance to live a healthy proctive life. and with the ongng support of the institutions and

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