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American Morning

Events Unfolding in Wahsington Following Events of Yesterday

Aired September 12, 2001 - 09:04   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Miles, I want to try to give you an idea of what life is actually like in New York City today, drastically different from an average weekday. As you look at the streets, there is a fraction of the traffic you would normally see. You'd usually see bumper-to-bumper traffic at that corner at this time of the morning.

The reason for this is that all public schools are closed, private schools, parochial schools. The Dow Jones is closed. The Nasdaq is closed. All businesses south of 14th street, which is not far from this platform, are closed today. You still have bridges and tunnels -- inbound bridges and tunnels closed at this hour.

So you might describe the city as in a state of paralysis. Many companies advising their workers to stay at home today. And as folks stay at home, they're just beginning to come to grips with how their city has changed.

I want to go to Gary Tuchman right now who has gotten closer than just about anyone this morning to that perimeter area surrounding the World Trade Center. Gary, can you give us an update now on any of the rescues underway?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well first of all Paula, it was 24-hours close to this very moment that United Airlines plane went through the south tower of the World Trade Center. And that's where the south tower use to stand. You can see the skeleton of it right now. And in the foreground, you see dozen of members of the Army National Guard who are now on the streets of lower Manhattan here protecting New York City.

It's a site we never thought we'd ever see in New York City let alone the United States. Members of the National Guard like this standing out there with their helmets on, guns on their side but that's the situation here right now in lower Manhattan, on the corner of Church and Reed Street, normally a very busy place.

This would be morning rush hour now is quiet. No members of the public are allowed out here right now. It's just emergency officials, the police, the Army National Guard and some members of the media who have gotten as close as we can.

We are using right now a video telephone because we're in a place where we can't use our normal live truck to give you a live signal and that's why we have this particular signal with you right now.

And with us right now is an officer who's been on the scene for more than 12 hours. This is Officer Wayne Diane (ph). He's with the South Plainfield, New Jersey police department. Sir, tell me what the scene was like for you?

WAYNE DIANE, SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NEW JERSEY POLICE DEPARTMENT: We got in -- they bussed us in from New Jersey into Staton Island and they brought us over on the ferry. We started out at the lower end and walked up.

We wound up in ground zero at about sometime I guess around midnight searching for survivors. Myself and two other officers from my department were in the alley between the -- the road between the two towers. We spent about four, five hours going through vehicles, looking under vehicles. At one point we got into the -- I guess it would be the south tower; the second floor of the south tower there's a daycare center -- employee daycare center. We searched through there. We found nothing. Apparently those people were able to get out.

It's a war zone. It's an absolute war zone. The worst thing I've ever seen.

TUCHMAN: How many would you say are down there right now?

DIANE: Rescue workers, thousands. There're just all over the place. I mean the city has come together. Ever possible city agency you can think of is down there. Private contractors in there with heavy equipment moving huge pieces of building and steel and police cars and fire trucks that are wrecked down there. They're in the process of moving those out now with forklifts. It's going to be a long operation.

TUCHMAN: We've reported that nine survivors have been found. Six of them members of the New York City Fire Department, three port authority and New York and New Jersey police officers. Did you see any survivors?

DIANE: We didn't see anybody. We were already -- we had already pulled out of the ground zero area before that rescue operation concluded. We went back a couple blocks outside the ground zero area and went to sleep on the sidewalk. We slept for about two or three hours then we came back in.

It's a very frustrating effort because there's just so much debris that you can't get near where the people who may have survived the explosion are.

TUCHMAN: Frustrating and frightening. How horrible this been for you?

DIANE: It's scary. It's scary. Life as you and I know it has changed in this country. I mean you know we've always felt that the United States of America was the safest place in the world and we're wondering now whether that's still the case. TUCHMAN: Officer, thanks for joining us. Good work out there for the last 12 hours.

I want to clarify the damage that occurred here. We all know that the two big towers -- the 110 story towers, one World Trade Center and two World Trade Center both came down. We are told that when one World Trade Center came down, it fell on a smaller building called the Four World Trade Center building, and then many of you know yesterday afternoon Seven World Trade Center building, the other 47 story building, also came down. So four of the World Trade Center buildings in the complex have been destroyed. Paula, back to you.

ZAHN: Gary, there is so much we've heard over the last 24-hours. You made it clear it literally was just about 24-hours that the second hijacked airliner slammed in the south tower trapping thousands of thousands of people inside before the building collapsed. There is so much we've heard to absolutely sicken us.

But I think that the one piece of this information that has really affected New Yorkers is the fact that some 250 New York firefighters are presumed dead, among those New York City's fire chief, its deputy fire chief, some 85 New York City police officers missing. What kind of impact does that have on the morale of these rescue workers who are in extremely challenging situations?

TUCHMAN: It has a multi-dimensional impact. First of all, they are very sad and very depressed. Obviously, in any situation like this you would see some very serious police officers and firefighters. But many of these people have told us they have lost their friends -- they believe they've lost their friends and we've seen in many cases many of them crying.

But multi-dimensional, because it also makes them more determined. They want to find their friends. Obviously, they want to find civilians who were inside that building too but they are hoping and praying with all their might that they find people who they've worked with for many years and find that they've survived. Paula.

ZAHN: All right. Thanks so much Gary. Once again, Gary reporting that in total some nine folks have been rescued, some six firefighters, one port authority police officer that was in wee-hours of the morning and two police officers last night and city officials are hopeful that two more folks trapped inside will successfully be rescued. One of those victims actually establishing cell phone contact with his family.

Gary Tuchman will continue to keep us posted on that. Once again, he is closer to any of the information sources than anybody else on this story.

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