Frantic Search and Rescue Continues In Hard-Hit Philippines
TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. We will go back now to our world lead because the story in the Philippines is so horrific. A frantic search for survivors under the rubble, desperate pleas for food and water and very literally, the smell of death hanging in the air. That's the situation right now in the Philippines, where the storm has long passed but a bitter humanitarian crisis is now spiraling out of control. The United Nations estimates that 800,000 people have been displaced by the destruction. I'm joined now on the phone by Tata Abella-Bolo. She's an Oxfam emergency team member on the ground near the northernmost tip of the Cebu mainland. Tata, thanks so much for joining us, and thanks for making time to speak to us in the middle of this horrific situation. The government is calling this a national state of calamity. Give us a state from on the ground where you are of the devastation that you're witnessing.</s>TATA ABELLA-BOLO, OXFAM EMERGENCY TEAM MEMBER (on the phone): Yes. Over in northern Cebu, it's really not as bad as you see in Tacloban in eastern</s>TAPPER: We're hearing, Tata, that there's no electricity in the area where you are and no water. What are you doing for supplies?</s>ABELLA-BOLO: Actually, we are doing assessments, and we head back to the city because we also have to do some reports, so we need electricity to do that. So, what we do is we go in the morning really early, then we go right back up, head back to Cebu city, to -- yes, so that we are able to cope with the situation (ph).</s>TAPPER: We're hearing from the government of the Philippines that more than two million people are in need of food aid. What are people doing? How are they surviving?</s>ABELLA-BOLO: Yes. At the moment in northern Cebu, there are a lot of municipalities also down in the south that were not affected at all. And they have capability to help. So they are bringing food aid to the northern municipalities and the provincial government is helping as well. But yes, it has only been five days. We don't know if the supplies will be coming in in the next few days.</s>TAPPER: Of course, one of the other big needs there are medical supplies. How many people are you seeing in need of attention? How do you as an aid worker, how do you cope with the next threats, the threats of disease?</s>ABELLA-BOLO: Yes. Actually, yesterday we went back to do the technical assessments. We looked at their water system because we're really trying to address that. As I said, there is no electricity and they have no water. So we're looking to how we can really help in that aspect, giving them water. So yes, that's what we did. We also visited the sick hospital there in the area and were surprised to learn that even they have no water. It's like -- it's really a situation that needed to be addressed real soon.</s>TAPPER: All right, Tata Abella-Bolo, thanks. The very best to you in this very difficult situation. And God bless the work you do. Our Anna Coren is in Cebu, the staging ground for aid. Anna, thanks so much for being here. The United Nations says 800,000 people have been run out of their homes by this storm. What are you witnessing there on the ground?</s>ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, we flew with the military yesterday Guyan (ph), which is an eastern province. This township is basically the first town hit by super typhoon Haiyan. As we flew over, absolutely everything was flattened. Every single structure had its roof blown off. Huge massive palm trees around the airfield that we flew into were snapped, every single one of them, which gives you an idea of the force of this storm. We were on the ground for 20 minutes delivering aid, and the locals that had gathered at the air base desperate for those basic necessities, basically said they were all homeless. They had all lost their homes. They were staying in erected shelters from what they managed to salvage from their properties. So these people are in desperate need of those basic necessities: food, fresh water, medical supplies. They have been going without them now for many, many days. And there really is a sense of desperation, Jake, on the ground. The problem, of course, is logistics. It's getting that aid to those very remote places. As we know, the Philippines is made up -- it's an archipelago, made up of thousands of islands. The only way to get on the ground is by air or by boat. Boat is extremely slow. These people need aid right now. So these C-130 Hercules here at the Cebu airfield are flying in and out delivering aid drops. Helicopters as well. But this is a very, very slow process, and for the people on the ground, Jake, it really is a race against time.</s>TAPPER: All right. Anna Coren in Cebu, thank you so much. Still to come, a former president who tried but failed to pass health care reform, offering some healthy advice to the one who tried and succeeded. Bill Clinton's tough medicine coming up next.