The recovery effort and race to get aid to earthquake victims in Haiti are growing increasingly desperate. (AP)
This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," January 14, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: This is a "FOX News Alert." The news out of Haiti tonight is worse than we have feared. Thousands are dead. Survivors are buried. The world is racing to help, but the country is in chaos, and time is our enemy.
Jonathan Hunt live at the airport in Port-au-Prince -- Jonathan.
JONATHAN HUNT, FOX CORRESPONDENT: Greta, we arrived at this very busy airport many hours ago, and we have watched through the day as the cargo planes from all across the globe, including, of course, many U.S. Air Force C-17's, have come and gone today, bringing in aid supplies and personnel.
But I can tell you, Greta, we also spent a great deal of time beyond the confines of this airport, touring much of the city. And when you go outside of this airport, Greta, it is literally like going through the gates of hell. There are people outside clamoring to get in, clamoring to find any way to get out of this country. They are almost fighting at the doors of this airport to get through. They are not being allowed to.
And then out on the streets, Greta, is a scene of desperation. There is a degree of calm to that desperation right now, I should add, and that is very important indeed. But it is a desperate scene. We drove past a shopping mall, for instance, which was once, I would say, three or four stories, pancaked to less than one story. At 5:00 PM, which is when the earthquake hit, there would have been dozens, perhaps hundreds of people in that shopping mall. They are probably presumably all buried beneath the rubble.
The same is true of so many buildings we have seen today. Thousands upon thousands are dead. Thousands upon thousands of bodies are rotting in the 90-degree temperatures that the Haitians are suffering through now. The stench of death is omnipresent as you drive around this city. The president, President Preval, I spoke to here at the airport just a few hours ago. He said his country is broken. His government is broken. Some of his own government ministers have died. His presidential palace has been destroyed. He said quite openly, We cannot cope, we need all the international help we can get.
It is coming, Greta, but it may not be quick enough. And when I talk about the calm desperation you see on streets right now, that is important. But I also have to caution that many Haitians are saying us to tonight that if they don't get the water they need, they don't get the food they need, they don't get the medical supplies, the tents for shelter they need in the next 24 to 48 hours, this situation could become much, much worse very quickly.
We have seen what happens in Haiti when violence takes over. That is a distinct possibility if the international community does not get the food, the water, the medicines beyond the confines of this airport and into the hands of the people who so desperately need it -- Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: Jonathan, one of the problems is getting that airport open. I mean, even we circled for three hours today and couldn't get in. There were planes stacked 11 high, circling. So the problem is cleaning up the runway, cleaning up that tarmac down in that airport. Is that being done to get those planes out so other planes can land?
HUNT: Yes. No, the airport is very much open Greta. You can see behind me some of the planes that are stacked up here. You can probably also hear them coming in now. Looks like another -- possibly another C-17 coming in right now. I think it's another U.S. Air Force C-17, actually. So they are coming in pretty much every two minutes right now.
I think one of the reasons why some planes have had to circle, bringing in perhaps the media, those kind of charter planes, is that they are simply trying to get in as many actual aid planes as they can right now. The Marines, the U.S. Marines have taken over the running of this airport pretty much. We're told that they will be in 100 percent control of it by this time tomorrow. That will certainly help. It is already helping. It is a well-run operation here.
But the problem, Greta, is not so much getting the aid here to the airport, it is getting it out to the streets. And I spent many hours out on those streets today, and I have to tell you I did not see one single instance of any kind of aid -- medical, food, water -- being handed out to the people. That is what they need. As I say, right now, they have some water. They have some food. They have very little medicine, though. And they will not have food and water much longer under their own volition.
They need these supplies. They have to be taken out of this airport and onto the streets and into the hands of the people, or we will all be faced with another tragedy on top of the awful tragedy that unfolded just 48 hours ago -- Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, I can tell you one thing, Jonathan. At 35,000 feet, there was a plane with search-and-rescue dogs in it, wanting to land that plane so they could look for people who might be alive in those buildings, those collapsed. They could not land today. And hopefully, that now they have gotten -- now they're on the ground and looking for people because there are probably still people alive. Jonathan, thank you.
There is no doubt that the large Haitian community here in the United States is facing hell on earth, waiting to hear if family members are alive or dead.
We tried to get to Haiti today, as noted. We were there with Franklin Graham, Reverend Franklin Graham and his humanitarian group, Samaritan's Purse. Now, our plane circled Haiti for almost three hours as we waited for clearance to land.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VAN SUSTEREN: You've been to Haiti before. This is not now for Samaritan's Purse.
REV. FRANKLIN GRAHAM, SAMARITAN'S PURSE: No. Greta, this was one of the first countries that we started working in as Samaritan's Purse. There are hospitals down here that we have sent doctors to, we send medical equipment, supplies. We've helped to build hospitals here in Haiti. There's great mission organizations, and one of the -- one of the key organizations is called the Haitian Baptist Mission. They have a hospital. They have agricultural projects. They do a lot for the people of Haiti. So this particular group is kind of our lead partner that we are working with, you know, for this earthquake.
VAN SUSTEREN: Franklin, we've been circling for a while, trying to figure out how to land this plane. But now the -- is it the U.S. who's now trying to take over the airport? Is that what we're hearing?
GRAHAM: This is what we have heard, Greta, is that the airport is in the process -- the control is in the process of being handed over.
VAN SUSTEREN: From Haitians to the U.S.? From Haitians to the U.S.?
GRAHAM: From the Haitians to the U.S. military. We don't know if that's for a fact. But we do know that while we were in the hold, we had a search-and-rescue dog team holding above us. We had the management team of the International Red Cross holding under us. And none of us were given permission to move. The dog team, the search-and-rescue dog team plane, called and told Miami center that they were a search-and-rescue team and they would like to have priority. Miami called Port-au-Prince. Port-au- Prince said, Yes, you have no priority. You will be the first plane to land when we can land you. And we don't...
(CROSSTALK)
VAN SUSTEREN: ... actually can see that plane circling there. We can see it. If you look out the window, you can see the search-and-rescue dog plane.
GRAHAM: Every few minutes, we were passing each other. So he has the same problem we have, and that's fuel. We can continue this hold and then go into the Dominican Republic for fuel, or head back to Florida. And so we just made the decision, Let's go back to Florida and try this again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAN SUSTEREN: Samaritan's Purse has a number of planes standing by, filled with supplies and cargo. They're literally on the runways right now, awaiting clearance to land in Haiti.
Meanwhile, in Haiti, the scene is nothing but grim. Our next guest says he should not even be alive. Emmet Murphy is an aid worker in Haiti. He joins us live via Skype from Jacmel, Haiti. Emmet, where were you when the earthquake struck?
EMMET MURPHY, ADC/VOCA HAITI OFFICE: At the time of the earthquake, I was driving between Jacmel and Port-au-Prince. I was in the mountain, and it was a very strong -- (INAUDIBLE) strong wind, and the mountain started collapsing around me. And frankly, I'm just lucky to be alive.
VAN SUSTEREN: Have you accounted for all your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, or is this -- I mean, are you still sort of searching for answers?
MURPHY: Yes, I mean, right now, in terms of all my staff, they're intact. I mean, I think the first -- our families are in good shape, and friends, as well, in Jacmel. Right now, we're really focusing on emergency response here in Jacmel. There's a good coordination. Compared to the pandemonium I'm hearing about in Port-au-Prince, it's more calm down here. It's a population of 50,000 people, but we have immediate needs of search and rescue. We need at least 20 people. We need equipment. We need a couple doctors, surgeons, anesthesiologists to come and help us. But things are fairly calm, but we do need -- we have a lot of buildings collapsed down here.
VAN SUSTEREN: So I take it, with the buildings collapsed, there are people unaccounted for because that's obviously, you know, been a lot of attention on trying to get, you know, even such things as the search-and- rescue dogs in, just trying to locate people. Are there people -- do you assume there are people who are under the fallen debris in your community?
MURPHY: Yes. Yesterday, they found three people alive, but four people had died. The main problem out here is we don't have the proper equipment (INAUDIBLE) a long list of items urgently (INAUDIBLE) to get people (INAUDIBLE), but the clock is ticking. We know that there's major needs in Port-au-Prince, and we don't want to -- we know that there's bigger people there, but at the same time, we -- the road is cut off. I had to abandon my car and come here, so nobody can get here. And I know there's a major emergency in Port-au-Prince, but we also have all the challenges down here doing what we can.
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you hear people in any buildings at all?
MURPHY: In terms of -- we have -- (INAUDIBLE) hearing the people. The fire department and the Red Cross are more directly in that zone. They've cordoned off a lot of the area. We're mainly at the coordination site (INAUDIBLE) mostly World Food Program, UNICEF are coordinating food distribution, some hot meals. So not so much -- those areas are more in town, and a lot of the areas are cordoned off for safety. Buildings were still collapsing because of aftershocks.
VAN SUSTEREN: How about the hospital in the area? Do have a hospital in the immediate region? And is that -- I assume that's overloaded, if you do have one.
MURPHY: Yes, totally overloaded. Part of the building collapsed. As I said, we have a lack of doctors, a lack of surgeons, anesthesiologists (INAUDIBLE) urgently orthopedic surgeons. We don't have that down here. The doctors that are here are overloaded. We're trying to set up -- we're doing some feeding for the injured there. But as I said, there's urgent needs down here in the hospital. We don't have sufficient -- medical equipment is urgently need down here. And we're trying to compile lists of what -- antibiotics, bandages, the whole nine yards.
VAN SUSTEREN: Emmet, thank you.
MURPHY: OK. My pleasure. Bye-bye.
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