Hello, I'm Nancy Glass. Welcome to American Journal. We are in Northridge right now in
the San Fernando Valley at the epicenter of yesterday's earthquake. Now the building you
see behind me used to be a three-story apartment building. Now it's rubble, just one of thousands
of buildings in the area that were damaged in the quake. Residents here had five seconds
to get out and some did not. At least 16 people died and some people may still be trapped.
There have been three aftershocks just in the short time we've been standing here and that's
making rescue work even more dangerous. They've been at it all night with rescue workers catching
just an hour's sleep right here on the ground. Well as in other disasters there are people who
have risen to the occasion meeting fear and hardship with courage and compassion. Bob Turr
is a news cameraman who specializes in covering breaking stories from his helicopter. After the
earthquake struck he not only reported on the disaster but as Dan Noyes tells us he joined in
on the rescue efforts. Just hours after the earthquake hit as Los Angeles scrambled to
assess the damage to people and property an urgent call came in. We have a patient who has
second degree burns and third degree burns from their waist down and first degree burns of their
face. We need to get this patient transferred to Sherman Oaks burn unit. A severely burned man was
stranded at a local hospital. He needed to go to a special clinic miles away for treatment. Dr.
Richard Grossman. Well apparently it was a propane fire at his home and he went to try to put it out
and went to put it out it exploded just like explosions all over the valley yesterday. But
all the ambulances and medevac helicopters were busy assisting other victims. I'm gonna interrupt
you right now we'd like to know is the emergency situation you were talking about where they need
to transport a burn victim the Sherman Oaks burn center can you talk to the gentleman you were
seeing earlier and see if perhaps we can provide helicopter service or help in some way. Enter Bob
Turr the Los Angeles helicopter pilot and radio and television reporter was covering one of the
biggest stories of his life. That's chopper 2 getting ready to land. He had a difficult decision
to make should he put his job aside reporting on the earthquake that has affected millions of Los
Angeles residents to help one burn victim. It turned out to be an easy decision for Turr. He has a
history of getting very close to dangerous breaking news events like last fall's fires and the riots
in 1992. Turr shot that infamous footage of the Reginald Denny beating. When the call came in for
the burn victim he responded. A call comes in from the station that there's someone that's been
terribly burned and he's at Granada Hills Hospital and the hospital has basically collapsed and there
was no way to get him over to Sherman Oaks burn ward. Turr immediately flew to Granada Hills
Community Hospital and attempted a precarious landing between a crumbled hospital and a fallen
parking garage. So we landed in a shopping center parking lot so there were wires and we had to
come vertically down and once we were down and they brought the patient over we had a lift straight
up so it was difficult it was a confined area landing and takeoff but it's something that you
do. Within minutes 59 year old John Buff was loaded onto a helicopter and headed for treatment
of second and third degree burns that covered over 30 percent of his body. John how did it happen?
Where were you John? Okay John was at home when the propane tank blew during the earthquake. His
fingers you can see on his hands and up on his upper arm the areas that weren't covered you can
see the blistering build up and you need to get that person you know you need to start breeding
them you need to start getting them hydrated but you can actually see in the space of about five
minutes you can see this third degree burns building up the blisters and burning away the skin. You
doing okay buddy? Like ground the trip to the Sherman Oaks burn center may have taken 45 minutes
and stolen precious time from physicians. By air John Buff made the trip in less than three
minutes. How's your breathing? You didn't breathe any of that stuff in? That's really very fortunate.
John Buff is currently in stable condition and faces a long painful road to recovery a road that
was shortened by a pilot who was sometimes criticized for his aggressive involvement.
Government tries to restrict us but this is what we do the best this is what Tellocean does and
to hell with the critics. Bob Turr has gained at least one more supporter in the medical profession
the head of the Sherman Oaks burn unit. What do you think of Bob Turr? Bob Turr is one hot pilot and
when I got the call that he had a patient on board I wasn't surprised. I feel like I did something I
felt like instead of going out and going out looking other people's pain and and misfortune
I got to help out at least I I did something positive. And our congratulations to Bob Turr
for doing such a great job in helping to save John's life. When we come back to LA a whole new
lifestyle for some of the rich and famous we'll meet celebrities who suddenly became refugees.
The original quake was so big that anything that's happened since small potatoes.
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You can see the rubble behind me. This is just one building of many that were destroyed.
LA is of course home to the movie industry. Some of the most famous people in the world live in this city.
Lawrence Harry discovered their multi-million dollar homes were not immune to nature's wrath.
Nancy the Quake is the great equalizer between the haves and the have nots.
LA may be home to many of America's rich and famous but money and fame could do nothing to stop this force of nature.
A force that brought down the mighty as well as the humble.
All right gather around please.
Actor Jeff Bridges may be a commanding presence on the screen but his family evacuated his plush Santa Monica abode like so many refugees.
And Chevy Chase just coming off a David Letterman appearance and still licking his wounds over his own ill-fated talk show
returned to the left coast in time to be jolted out of bed in Pacific Palisades by the quake.
I essentially got in last night at midnight from New York at about two hours of sleep.
The house shook and Janie screamed so loud. That's not like Janie but she screamed.
And I really wasn't remarkably I wasn't frightened.
I really thought I was going to my kid's bedroom.
But there were no lights and I said Janie Janie where are you?
She said I'm over here.
I said where the hell am I? I had no idea where I was. Totally disoriented.
While Chase's home and family escaped serious damage the quake served to remind the star that no one is immune to an act of the Fox Network or an act of God.
The original quake was so big that anything that's happened since, small potatoes,
I don't really know whether we've sustained structural damage or not. There are some cracks here and there.
Other Hollywood luminaries took it on the chin as well.
Coach co-star Jerry Van Dyke was awoken by his ceiling crashing down on him as he slept in his Toluca Lake estate.
Elizabeth Taylor, who'd been in Santa Monica Hospital for a hip ailment, was evacuated along with scores of other hospital patients.
Jay Leno had to cancel his Monday Tonight show when his staff was unable to navigate the freeways to get to his Burbank studio.
And at the Bel Air home of Zsa Zsa Kabor, her clothes and china were wrecked, though her Rolls Royce remained intact.
Elsewhere deep in celebrity territory, comedian Marty Ingalls, who's married to actress Shirley Jones, seemed to be taking it all in stride.
Shirley left because my room, my office looks like all year round like an earthquake hit it.
So her hope is that when the earthquake comes, it could clean it up a little, you know.
Shirley Jones left L.A. just after the quake for a performance.
The Trembler destroyed their water heater, flooding portions of their home.
And there were some things the couple couldn't save.
And oh, look at these nice things.
Shirley, when she sees these, she's going to die.
This is one of her favorite little pieces. It's from Bo.
It's from Bo Reddick's house.
Bo Reddick?
Reddick Bo.
See, I'm thinking of Bo Derek.
But when the house was shaking around them and they had to make a decision, each of them ran to save one thing they valued most.
I took it.
Where the tax-free bonds are.
This is where the mortgage is.
I have a briefcase, the great brown box.
Shirley went in the room and came running out with this.
Her Academy Award.
I never thought she liked it that much.
And White House Press Secretary G.D. Myers grew up in Fillmore, just a few miles from here.
Her parents' home there was damaged, but they were both thankfully unhurt.
When we come back to Los Angeles, picking up the pieces,
one group of friends and neighbors are putting their lives back together after the quake.
We'll have a big as-is sale and then we'll start again.
Come back. We'll be open soon.
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Tonight, after full house.
Come here, you gotta see this.
This is going to be great.
Hi, I'm Lily Tomlin, and the best thing that's happened, my friend Edith Ann has her own animated special.
She said it feels like a dream come true, but it has the look of a cartoon.
There is something for every member of the family.
Watch it together, especially with the ones you're not speaking to.
Edith Ann, a few pieces of the puzzle after full house.
And that's the truth.
A million people are without power today here in Los Angeles.
200,000 homes without water.
Millions of people here, day and night, picking up the pieces,
counting the cost, and trying to help family and friends.
Yesterday, American Journal producer Phil Reader showed us how his home was damaged.
Today, he went to see how his friends and neighbors were affected by this disaster.
This neighborhood was a typical nice neighborhood in Terminals, California.
After 430, it changed forever, at least for today, maybe for tomorrow, maybe forever.
We're standing here looking at my son.
I thought it was a dream.
It's still frightening. I had no idea what was going on.
This is the street, Willis Avenue, which is a block and a half from my house.
Nothing much different until we see this house and we see the entire retaining wall has collapsed in a heat.
This is the place that my son and I, at least every two weekends out of the month, come and shoot pool.
Your business is destroyed.
I don't know, I haven't felt the effects yet.
The family's fine and all the people here's family's fine.
Nothing to replace tax, no amount of money.
I wonder what Noah would say if he looked at it.
Man, I wish.
No, I don't wish he would look at it. I'm glad he's not going to look at it.
I can smell the smoke and I can hear the fire engines, but I can't yet find the fire.
I know it's around here somewhere. It's as thick as I've smelled smoke before.
It's like a barbecue gone bad.
There's the smoke. Can I get to it?
Something's burning bad.
It's hard to run fast and shoot at the same time, folks.
It looks like a single-family dwelling up in smoke, thick, black smoke.
And now we have fires everywhere.
The house is totally off its foundation. It's an apartment house.
The electricity went on. The power surge caused the fire.
And the whole thing just exploded.
Yeah, basically.
It smells like when the pilot light goes out of your oven and you turn on the burner.
It smells of gas and it smells of danger.
And it just smells of sadness.
I'm about 100 feet down from where we saw the transformer, which is right there,
it exploded a few minutes ago, like a Fourth of July celebration.
Right now we see the sparklers going along this line. That's not a celebration.
It's brought fear to the lives of all of these people who are standing by watching,
wondering what's going to happen next.
Take a look as I walk around what the earthquake did to the liquor store.
It broke my heart.
The collectives never going to be the same.
We have so much to do and it's going to take so much time.
It's not fun walking around your community and seeing people whose lives will never be the same.
The jewelry is OK. The furniture is broken.
Here we go again.
Yeah, we are. Another aftershock.
I don't know what to say.
We've had dinner here on so many evenings, so many times.
It's going to be a long time until Carol and I have dinner at Cafe Cordial again.
And it seems like those are being played out in street after street,
in neighborhood after neighborhood here in Los Angeles today.
When we come back, something new in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan will top with Tonya Harding
and her former husband, Jeff Gillooly.
My attorney is, I have absolute confidence in him.
He's calling the shots on this baby.
I bet you don't know it's in your cereal.
Oh yeah? Try me.
Cheerios has added salt.
Salt? Are you kidding?
Cracklin' Oat brand has added fat.
Fat?
Cornflakes has added sugar.
Sugar.
But Nabisco shredded wheat has no added salt, fat, or sugar.
It's made from just natural, delicious, 100% whole grain wheat.
So what do you think of that?
Very good.
Great.
Nabisco shredded wheat. It's just naturally good.
Once again I'm here to prove cats prefer whiskers.
Made with great stuff like USDA approved beef.
For a tempting little treat, like myself.
But maybe you're saying, I don't think that cat even sees him.
Alright then, how do you explain these temptations?
I hope you're satisfied. Thank you.
Cats love the real meat taste of whiskers.
Cats would buy whiskers.
More excitement at Vemus Appliance and TV.
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Don't let's cut the prices, but don't give the store away like last time.
We would never do that again.
This GE turntable microwave oven with 625 watts, only $119.95.
This GE three cycle under counter dishwasher with energy saver, $249.95.
Prices are good only until he catches on or they're gone at Vemus Appliance and TV.
There has been an accident.
The person at fault has no insurance.
How do you recover your damages?
Jane Fuller's accident must be settled with her own insurance company.
She has uninsured motor's coverage.
Let's send all the medical bills and wage laws to them.
Now is when you need a law firm experienced in personal injury cases.
Let's review the facts again to be sure nothing's been missed.
Often your own insurance company will pay for damages, even if the other party has no insurance.
If you need the advice of an experienced attorney, call the firm that gets results.
Call up Bada Nelson.
We'll hear what Tanya Harding's former husband said last night about the attack on Nancy Kerrigan in a moment.
But first, grief stricken parents are trying to solve their daughter's murder.
That's on the next American Journal.
Here's a preview.
These grieving parents lost their daughter on Christmas Eve.
The pain will never go away, ever.
They believe she was murdered, and they tell American Journal they're searching for the killers.
We're going to keep looking for these people, no matter what it takes.
What are they doing to solve their daughter's murder?
That's next, Tom.
And finally today, there is still so much speculation surrounding the attack on Nancy Kerrigan.
Most of it is over Tanya Harding.
Publicly, Harding has remained cool and continues to train for the Olympics.
Steve Averson is in Portland, Oregon, and got an exclusive interview with Tanya's ex-husband, Jeff Galulli.
He asked him what is really going on.
As most of Portland sleeps, Tanya Harding returns to her midnight routine, spins on the ice in her drive for Olympic gold,
even as the crisis in her personal life continues to spin around her.
In fact, there was no relief in increasing allegations that suggest her former husband, Jeff Galulli,
was involved in planning the attack on Nancy Kerrigan.
More charges came into play today, including talk of a financial paper trail Galulli may have left behind
in allegedly paying off the hitmen, a trail that gets uncomfortably close to Harding.
Galulli flatly denies any implication that he or Harding were involved in the attack.
He says there's an easy explanation for everything, and the couple will give that explanation to the Portland district attorney.
Do you have every plan to talk to the district attorney?
I do.
And you have absolutely no fear that there's any wrongdoing on your part that you'll be totally exonerated?
Oh, absolutely. There's an answer to everything, and I just make it to prove it.
Under the mounting pressure of increased allegations, Monday night, Jeff Galulli and Tanya Harding retreated to his mother's house,
where Tanya stands by her man, and Jeff continues to maintain his innocence.
My attorney is, I have absolute confidence in him, and he's calling the shots on this baby.
Is there any reason why Tanya is going to be talking to the district attorney first, and that so far you are not?
Well, somebody's got to be first, and her agenda's a little more pressing than mine.
She's got to get back up there and go to the Olympics, and that's kind of everybody's first concern.
Tanya Harding has always held a torch for the Olympics.
She's skated most her years under the watchful eye of Diane Rawlinson.
I used to fly, don't you forget young skaters, and I would go and I skid circles around her, and drove her nuts, because she was wonderful.
As a child, we couldn't get Tanya off the ice. She would wear her suit to the supermarket.
She would break down a pair of boots in a month because she would never take her skates off.
I don't like it.
Even now, the 23-year-old pupil and her coach go head-to-head.
Tanya has a reputation for being as tenacious as she is talented.
I'm very happy to be able to help the people at National.
Is it difficult to work with Tanya Harding for a coach?
I'm sure it is. I would like to have another triple flip or another triple edge in the program.
Don't get it. Don't get this moving.
There may be a reason for her thick skin.
As a youngster, Tanya says her mother criticized her severely, no matter how many medals she won.
And she was poor growing up, very poor.
For about a year and a half, Tanya and her mother and father lived in the back of their truck.
It wasn't a camper. It was just a little truck.
Her mother tells a story about collecting cans and bottles and turning them into the supermarket for money to survive on.
It was Diane Rawlinson who kept Tanya in $500 competition skates and in top form.
Diane Rawlinson, Tanya looked upon as a second mother.
At age 16, Tanya dropped out of high school and met her first serious boyfriend, Jeff Galuli,
the same man who shadows her today as confidant and friend.
The same man Tanya still calls husband, even though the couple divorced last year after a brief tumultuous marriage,
peppered with allegations of physical abuse.
She's a fighter who has always said she'd do whatever it takes to win.
1992 and 1993 were poor years for Harding, but she vowed to come back as an Olympic champion.
At what price remains unclear.
Tanya has been named to the Olympic figure skating team in the shadow of an attack on teammate Nancy Kerrigan.
Recently hired bodyguard Sean Eckhart and two others have been arrested for the attack,
but Tanya remains adamant she had no hand in the senseless act.
The investigation continues. The nation is watching as the spirited skater from Portland faces what may be her toughest challenge yet.
Investigators are now trying to discover where the money allegedly paid for the attack may have come from.
And that's all today. Here in Los Angeles, the rescue work, the struggle to repair essential services,
and most of all, to return to normal life goes on.
I'm Nancy Glass. Please join us again next time for another American Grill.