It cost me 365 per person. Okay . At that price, stuff happens. I understand. They didnt expect this to happen no matter what you pay. But i got a tweet from Carnival Cruise last week that the week of february 1st was cold, remember that . They booked 187,000 people on their future cruises in one week. I think people are still going to cruise. To jays point, its bulletproof. Chad myers, still seeing you tomorrow but i guess bon voyage. Next week. Obviously you saw Victor Blackwell on the boat in that safety range, 500 feet out per the coast guard so we can see this cruise roll in to mobile, covering this by air, helicopter up there for you. Stay with cnn. Im brooke baldwin. Lets send it off to washington. Hey, wolf. Brooke, thanks very much. Were getting exclusive live pictures of the cruise ship, the carnival triumph. Passengers are calling in, they are sending us pictures of what they describe as revolting continues on board. Their other big news as well. A key vote on the republicans he have foirts to block chuck hagels nomination for defense secretary. That will take place this hour. And the olympic athletes that many of you know as the blade runner now stands accused of murdering his girlfriend. We have new details about the shooting. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. Youre looking live at the cruise ship carnival triumph thats off the alabama coast 30 miles right now from the port and its moving again after sitting dead in the water for the past few hours. The tug line being used to tow the ship broke. Its just been replaced. Thats good news. But we no longer know how many more hours the roughly 3,000 passengers and 1,000 crew members will still have to hold on. Passengers have been sending cnn pictures of the truly horrible conditions on board. Look at the floors stained dark with raw sewage. Another picture shows a bag nearly bursting with filth. Another photo shows mattresses out on the deck to get away from the horrible stench. Martin savidge is live in alabama. I assume Family Members are waiting for their loved ones . Reporter youre absolutely right. They are outside waiting to get any information and thats one of the problems that they have had. This is one of the Family Members. Your son is on board the ship, right . Correct. My son dustys on board the ship. Sounds like hes in good spirits, sounds like hes doing well, maybe another trip in the future. Reporter for mom, me a parent as well, the waiting has got to be just really weighing on you. Tell you what, the last five days have been tough. I got a text from him on monday saying they were going to be towed to progress sew, galveston, just a waiting game. He said dont worry mom. And then with the news and the media and internet, i was finding out, oh, my god, hes just candy coating it. I was glad to hear from him at about noon today. And he sounded in good spirit. He said that pretty much he didnt experience too much of the horrific situation. Reporter hes actually said the circumstance for him was not as bad as others have said . No. He said their friends had a balcony. They meant a lot of time out on the balcony. Their room was hot but they were able to have cold showers and stuff. The food was very limited and he said he felt really sorry for the Young Children and the babies. They were having more of a difficult time, he felt. Reporter whats your plans as soon as you see him . Wheres he going to go and with who . Well, as soon as i see him, im going to give him the biggest hug and tell him how much i love him and that they are back safely and the first thing he wants to do is go and take a nice hot shower and get a nice hot meal. Reporter and that is completely understandable. Vinetta, thank you so much. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Reporter her son is on board. The families have a special area set up. There they get food and water and limited and its only when they see that ship tied up alongside, they are going to breathe a sigh of relief. Carnival now estimating that the triumph will make it to shore, make it to the port of mobile between 10 00 p. M. To midnight later tonight. That assumes no more tuglines are broken, no more glitches. They are going to be moving through the darkness, right . Nighttime is not going to slow this down, based on what youre hearing . Reporter no. Now that they are headed up the channel, no, they are committed, one would say, so to speak. That means they are going to get it here tonight. We have been noting that theyve been bringing in lights, portable lights and clearly they are going to be illuminating this area and make it nice and bright. They are preparing as best they can. You can see the large glass and steel structure. Thats the gang way that will be taking the passengers, the only one, by the way, that will thats how they will put it right up against the vessel when its here, much like you see with airplanes and the gates. That brings them on the second floor of the alabama cruise terminal. Its presumed the customs has been taken care of on board the ship. They are trying to do that so they can immediately be running into the arms of the Family Members that have come here waiting for them or begin the process of transporting them. The logistics of that is huge. That involves airplanes, buses, and hotel rooms spread out amongst two cities. That has to be done as the ship ties up alongside. Wolf . We are showing our viewers, live pictures. We have a helicopter flying overhead now. Sandra endo, martin, is on board that helicopter. These are live pictures, exclusive pictures that were showing our viewers what its like on the upper deck of the triumph. As you can see there, its moving pretty slowly now that that tug line has been reattached. The Carnival Cruise organization is saying its moving at a speed of about 5. 4 knots, which is the equivalent of 6. 2 Miles Per Hour. I think weve established connection with sandra endo on board that helicopter. Can you hear me, sandy . Im not sure that sandra endo can hear us. We can see those pictures. Sandy, if you can hear me, tell us where you are, what youre seeing. I think we have the same shot from your helicopter. Yeah, wolf. If you can hear me, its very difficult to hear you right now but we are circling on top of the triumph. These are live pictures of what exactly is going on in the upper deck. Were seeing more people out and it looks like waiting for a helicopter right now. There are live aerial pictures. [ inaudible. More people can can see land and they are excited to see land were also seeing a lot of people waving white towels and some of them are saying, help us. As you mentioned, wolf, you were talking about [ inaudible and the ship was steering to the right. Sandy, im going to interrupt you for a second. Were going to try to reestablish the line. Were having a little trouble with the extraneous noise hearing you. But youre on a helicopter which obviously makes that totally understandable. Theres a lot of noise inside that helicopter. These are live pictures that were getting from that helicopter. This is the carnival triumph that youre seeing right now. A lot of people are outside. I assume they cant be inside too much because of the stench and filthy conditions. Sanjay gupta is watching these pictures. Sanjay, it sounds disgusting and a breeding ground for disease on that ship. How worried should we be about the health of these 4200 people on board the triumph . Well, this may surprise you, wolf, but i dont think the Health Concerns in terms of an Infectious Disease standpoint is really that high. Its a collected misery ive sort of heard described but you look for the basic things, still. Is there water . Apparently there is. It may not be as cold as the refrigeration, in case people have certain medications that needs to be refrigerated. You remember after katrina, you know, there was this concern about Infectious Disease outbreaks given the unsanitary conditions at that time. We didnt see those infectious outbreaks. This may surprise people as well but when youre talking about some of the fecal material, that typically isnt what leads to people becoming sick due to Infectious Disease. Again, this is going to surprise some people but i dont think its that big a concern, wolf. Weve got a picture and i think we can put it up on the screen, one of the passengers that weve established contact with on board the triumph, ed buck, he sent us a picture with a bio Hazardous Waste bag that the folks have been given. There it is right there. You can see it. I assume that theyve got some s sanitary conditions but when you have to worry about this, it raises all sorts of alarm bells im sure in my mind and a lot of our viewers minds. Yeah. I can completely understand that. If i had a Family Member on the ship, that would be a concern to look at those pictures. But the bio hazardous bag that has been used in lieu of adequate irrigation for the toilets, thats what it is being used for and obviously it causes quite a stench and its very unsanitary sort of condition but if the specific question is, are these people going to more likely to become sick, the answers probably no. We dont see that in other situations that are similar, again, after natural disasters. You worry about people sleeping close together only because if one person has an illness, its more likely to spread to other people. Overall, as miserable as it looks, as disgusting as it seems, i think the health risks are low. Because even on an excellent cruise when everything is safe, because of the cramped quarters and so many people in a relatively small area, somebody gets sick, it spreads pretty quickly, even under the best of circumstances. Thats right. These are clearly the worst of circumstances. Weve reported that one mother is meeting her daughter at the dock and bringing antibiotics. Heres the question a lot of people are driving to the dock right now. Should they be bringing antibiotics . No, they dont need to do that. Two reasons. Really a couple reasons, primarily. One is, they do have medications, were hearing, that are on the boat. If someone needed antibiotics because they had an infection, they may already be getting it. Second of all, you dont want to be giving these medications prove lat clee or protect tifl. You dont want to do that. If youre giving antibiotics and they dont have an infection, that could make them sick. It can build a resis stance to antibiotics. You want to try to help the loved ones coming off the ship, i understand that, but thats just not a good idea, wolf. Quickly while i have you, sanjay, mental health. Are there mental Health Concerns for the 4200 people about to get off the ship . There could be. Significant emotional trauma. The time periods where there was a lack of information are the most vulnerable. People who they dont know exactly whats happening, maybe after that fire, they are not sure if you know, how serious the situation is, those times they are not getting enough information, that can be quite painful emotionally. That can have longer term effects. Children and elderly tend to be more resilient. Children look to elderly people for cues in terms of how they should behave. Its important that young people are watching. Wolf, these types of situations brings out the worst in people and the best in people and ive been hearing from some of the folks on the ship that people are really galvanized together giving each other a hand in trying to help each other out. That can be very empowering, wolf. Lets not forget, 3100 passengers, 1,000 crew members, the crew members are obviously suffering as well. More than 4200 people on board this ship. And youre seeing live pictures from our helicopter thats now flying over the carnival trium triumph and a lot of people out there. Clearly they dont want to be inside. Were going to be getting back to you. Now that the cruise ship is getting closer and closer to shore, more and more of the passengers are within cell phone range. Their calls are coming into the situation room. Were going to be speaking with passengers on board the triumph. Thats coming up. 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They are trying to spell out, i believe, the word help. Our helicopter is flying over top. These people are trying to get the message. We obviously know they need help. They are doing something. They want to try to be productive. They are on the highest deck of triumph, this cruise ship that is just a couple hours away from arrival at the port there. They now say between 10 00 p. M. Eastern and midnight. Thats what carnival is saying. Reporter these images are just amazing. We first got on the scene here earlier this morning around 11 30 eastern time and we just saw a very lifeless, spiritless ship and now it seems like theres some life on the boat. It seems like passengers are excited. They are seeing land. They are seeing help all around their ship. We are circling in the sky around triumph right now and you can see the people sending messages to us, that human sign, we saw help. One passenger got on his knee, spread his arms open, waving a white towel to us, obviously signs they want to get off this ship. Were also seeing people hanging signs off the railing, help us, galveston or bust. And the conditions, youre getting an idea of what they are going through because of their actions, because of their desperation, weve seen passengers on mattresses that are on the outer decks and they were bundled up in white robes earlier this morning, just trying to stay warm. And, again, just asking for help. Right now we see a more secure tug line. We mentioned before that one tug line snapped and we noticed that earlier that the ship was really veering off one direction. The tugboats were leaning another direction. Now it it seems like a very secure situation as the triumph makes its way to the mouth of mobile port. And obviously these passengers are just waiting to get to the port but its going to take many more hours until they can touch land, wolf. 4200 people, 4200 people. Theres a News Conference that carnival is now doing, sandy. Lets listen in. From what weve learned, since we were here earlier this morning. At about 12 00 local time, the ship did begin to enter the shipping channel and proceed into the cruise tunnel here in mobile. Unfortunately, at about 1 00 p. M. , the lead towboat had a tow gear that broke. So we had a spare tugboat in place and we replaced that tugboat in place that had the broken tow gear with a second tugboat. We put that tugboat in position. We reestablished the tow line and unfortunately, as we put stress and began the tow operation, that tow line snapped. So after that point in time, we had to replace that tow line so the ship did not begin progressing back into the cruise terminal until approximately 2 00 p. M. Right now at about 2 30 p. M. , the ship is in the entrance of the channel and as i mentioned to you this morning, our estimate based on everything that we know now, the time frame from now until the cruise terminal will be seven to ten hours. So that didnt change the time that the ship the navigation time that will be involved but we did lose time based on the issues that we had with the two tugboat issues. The other thing we want to point out is that this cruise ship will be, by far, the largest cruise ship that has ever docked at the port of mobile. So theres not been a ship this size. So once we pull alongside with the tow operation and with the ship being large, it will take us a bit of time to get the ship tied up and secured once we reach the cruise terminal. Now, were turning our attention now to once the ship is turned and docked, how can we make the process as quick and efficient and as comfortable for our guests to get ashore. As i mentioned this morning, we have 200 people here of our Team Standing by and a full plan in place, both here ashore as well as our ship port team working with the people aboard to facilitate as quick and as efficient a process as possible to get the people off the ship. There are some limitations. We know that up front. The ship still does not have power. We only have one functioning elevator aboard. So that will be challenging. And honestly our best estimate right now, once the ship ties up, we estimate that it will take four to five hours to complete deem bar indication of all of the guests. So it will take us some time but we have a good plan in place and we have a lot of people in place. Wed like to thank the customs and Border Patrol and protection who have been a great help to us. They actually sent their advance team aboard the ship earlier today to begin the clearing process for the ship and the clearest process for the guests. So in normal circumstances that process would have taken place inside the terminal once people debarked the ship. That is going to facilitate us getting people off the ship in a much clearer fashion. So wed like