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American Morning

America's New War: Search-and-Recovery Effort Ongoing, But Hope of Finding Survivors Slim

Aired September 26, 2001 - 13:38   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.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: The sun is shining again on ground zero. It's gotten cool here in New York. That certainly not effecting the recovery effort.

One observation here, I looked outside last night, and I don't know why I hadn't noticed it before. It was cloudy here the last couple of days, and that plume of smoke is still there, now two weeks and a day after the collapse of the Trade Center.

Martin Savidge is covering the ground zero operation this afternoon -- Marty.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Aaron.

As you noted, it is over two weeks now since the attack on the World Trade Center site. Still, the search-and-recovery effort is ongoing, but of course with that amount of time having past, the hope of finding anyone alive is very slim at this point. That is somewhat reflected by the activity that you see around ground zero today. Much of the work that is being done, is being done by the heavy equipment that's down there, the backhoes, the bulldozers, and in particular, the heavy cranes that are at work. There are still thousands of individuals that are down there, but again, for the moment, much of the work being conducted by the heavy earth-moving equipment.

The city of New York also updating us on the latest figures coming from the search and recovery effort. Three-hundred bodies have been pulled from the rubble, 233 have been identified, and officially, 6,347 people remain missing.

It was a somber scene last evening, it was a demolition that took place. Part of the exoskeleton that still jumps up in the air down there at ground zero, the remains of building one and two, had to be brought down for safety purposes. They literally had to drag the upper floors and the upper areas, that's a better description, of this exoskeleton down to the ground. The reason for that is they were very unstable, they are hanging over the heads of the rescue crews that are down there, and they needed to get them out of harm's way. So the site was clear, and they drag these pieces tumbling down to the ground. It is the hope of the city of New York that those pieces can be preserved for some sort of memorial.

Mayor Giuliani this morning speaking to reporters, talking to the people of New York and a wide variety of topics, and also turning to the issue of children, and specifically the impact this has had on them. He encourages families to seek out professional counseling if they think it is necessary.

This is the mayor talking about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MYR. RUDY GIULIANI, NEW YORK CITY: If children are undergoing difficulties with this, and the parents or grandparents, or and caregivers can't deal with it, it really is a good idea to have them have counseling. The most important thing is for them to talk about it. And sometimes they can talk about it with their parents. Sometimes they can take about it with their teachers. Sometimes they need to talk about it with a professional.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: There were a lot of children that got to see the disaster of September 11th firsthand from their classrooms. There were many schools that are in and around the World Trade Center site.

Another grim task began today, and that was for families that can begin applying for death certificates, if they so wanted to. A team of about 75 lawyers working free of charge are down at the family center. They are there trying to expedite the process. Of course with the loss of a spouse or the loss of the head of family, a death certificate is needed for the duties that have to follow, finances and things of that sort. It is a difficult border for many of these families to cross.

The mayor simply wants these people to know that the experts people are there to help them if need be -- Aaron.

BROWN: Marty, thanks.

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