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American Morning

America Under Attack: Volunteer Discusses World Trade Center Rescue Effort

Aired September 12, 2001 - 11:36   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: Right now, we're going to go to Gary Tuchman, who joins us from ground zero, for an update on what kind of rescue operations are taking place now -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, the World Trade Center was the type of landmark that, even though we know full well what happened, I still expect to turn around and see standing there. Instead, we just see the skeleton of what was the south tower.

We come to you from Church Street and Chamber Street. This intersection is next to subway station called Chambers World Trade Center. There no longer is a World Trade Center.

This neighborhood now is completely closed to the public, only opened to emergency officials right now -- police, fire, FBI, members of the National Guard, behind me now, doing everything they can to protect the area. And we've seen a lot of sights today coming down the street right next to me. We've seen vehicles clearing body bags; it was very solemn, very sad for us to see. We've all seen many large flatbed trucks carrying wreckage. We are told by New York City officials that some of the wreckage is up to 100 feet high, right next to where the World Trade Centers used to be. And we've also seen many incinerated cars and trucks that have come on flatbed trucks and are being disposed.

But there also has been some good news. Officials here tell us that nine survivors have been found. Six of them are fire officials. Three are them are policemen.

The story of the rescue of one of the policemen is an unbelievable story. We are told this policeman was trapped under wreckage -- his legs were trapped under wreckage -- but because he had worked at the World Trade Center Building, he knew exactly where he was. He couldn't see daylight at all, but he had his cell phone with him. He called up on the cell phone and said I know where I am, come over here in this area and look. He was in a courtyard between where the two towers used to be. They came over, they dug, and they found him.

They thought they were going to have to amputate one of his legs to get him out. As you may recall, after the Oklahoma City disaster, one of the women who had survived, who is still alive today, had to have her leg amputated to be cut out of the wreckage. They thought they were going to have to do it in this case; as it turned out, they did not have to amputate his leg. He was taken away in an ambulance, and it said is he will be fine.

With us now is a gentleman by the name of Robert Golinski (ph). Robert is a common, everyday citizen who got to the scene very early yesterday and was allowed to participate in the search in the World Trade Center site.

First of all, tell me what you saw when you were there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I came here because we are Americans -- New Yorkers are not going to sit back and breathe forever, and by that, I mean to take compassion and show that, in New York, we're standing up and doing what we need to do.

I got down here at 6:30 this morning. I heard last night that they were going to have volunteers come in. I came in. On the way in, I saw ankle-high dust, twisted buses and fire trucks blown out, cars blown out, buildings that aren't really making it on the air, and other buildings around the Trade Center with windows that were smashed in. Starbucks had its windows smashed in -- which isn't a bad thing.

TUCHMAN: What was the experience like?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was tough because it was very dangerous. We were right at ground zero in World Trade Center tower 1, digging, trying to find people. We found two, unfortunately -- people that were not alive.

TUCHMAN: Robert Golinski, thank you for joining us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

We appreciate it.

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