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CNN Live Today

Terrorism Affects Thousands

Aired September 12, 2001 - 13:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: If yesterday was surreal, those searing pictures of the attack on the World Trade towers and the Pentagon venture to say that many of those images kept you awake last night, today emerges the grim realities with a solemn search for bodies in New York City. But as the immediate pain, the sharp pain, is felt by those in New York and in Washington, this is, as the banner across your screen suggests, an attack on America.

And it's affecting all Americans, their patriotism and their urge to be with family at this time. CNN's Kyra Phillips has taken and put a human face on one of America's greatest tragedies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At a time like this, we need a shoulder big enough to lean on and cry on. And the only shoulder big enough is God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope I live. I hope I live. It's coming down on me.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice-over): Jim Oganowski (ph) is looking for God's Shoulder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I ask all of you for your prayers for, as I refer him as, Brother John.

PHILLIPS: Jim's brother John was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 11.

We, along with Jim, witnessed the horror, but we also can testify to this pilot's strength.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I consider my brother a hero for many reasons. It's hard to explain losing your big brother.

PHILLIPS: Just one of many heroes we are yet to meet. Rescue teams search deep beneath the rubble for survivors. And shocked, yet not defeated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At a time like this, you can't really understand what's going on but you can scream and holler and cry and be in pain.

PHILLIPS: America may be under attack, however, Americans are going above the attack on humanity. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just wanted to do everything I could.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The turnout has been overwhelming.

PHILLIPS: And so is the death toll. We'll meet more relatives like Jim Oganowski. We'll air more pictures of victims like his brother John and we'll continue to hear the cries for peace and demand for answers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATERS: Was it hard for you to do that story?

PHILLIPS: It was very hard. I mean, you know me very well and I think that was -- maybe the strength behind the piece is that we were learning more about these people and that they're just like you, me, our moms, our dads.

And while we're reporting on the details and the destruction, we've got to remember the power of the human spirit and just the humanity that exists where we are and even if we didn't know somebody that was lost in those crashes, it affects us all.

WATERS: Kind of gets caught right here.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely. And, Lou, I was going through -- I was doing all kinds of research and sort of trying to put more faces to these names and I mean, I was finding people like David Angell, who's the executive producer and creator of the NBC sitcom "Frasier."

A lot of people watch "Frasier." They love Frasier. He was one that was on this plane. A group of Washington school children headed for a fieldtrip to the Channel Islands. They were going on an expedition -- gone. En route to an Australian adventure, this was a family, a Georgetown professor, Leslie Wittington (ph), taking her family on a fellowship to go to Australia on a fellowship, and experience life there. And so it puts it all into perspective and you know, we know to value family and human life.

WATERS: If even not directly, my boy's teacher had a friend who worked at the World Trade Center. She got in touch with his relative yesterday who overslept and was unable to make it into work on time and look what she missed and there are prayers being said today about that.

PHILLIPS: Isn't that amazing?

WATERS: All right, Kyra Phillips, there'll be many more of these stories to tell.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Lou.

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