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CNN Live Event/Special
Target: Terrorism - New York Couple Expecting Baby; Both Lost Jobs at World Trade Center
Aired October 05, 2001 - 05:26 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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The survivors are dealing with grief and guilt as well, as well as with unemployment. Consider what might happen to the couple Maria Hinojosa met. They are expecting a new baby on October 11, one month to the day after the terrorist attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A doctor's appointment for a baby on the way and a strong heartbeat should be all about joy. Instead, Nexzy and Ivan have worry on their faces. Their baby is due in less than a week, and they both lost their jobs at the World Trade Center.
IVAN ALMANDAREZ, UNEMPLOYED WTC WORKER: I started working when I was 17. I am 26 years old. I've been there almost nine years, and that is the only job I had all my life. And now it's gone.
HINOJOSA: Ivan was a maintenance man. His wife cleaned offices.
"It was like my second home," she says. "Ivan started working at the Towers two days after the first bombing in 1993. He wasn't afraid then. Now, he's consumed with fear and grief."
I. ALMANDAREZ: I told one of my co-workers, I'm going in there. I'm going in there. I'm going to see if there's anybody in the concourse, you know. "Don't go there," he said. "You know, your wife is pregnant, you just got married, you've got a kid." He said, "Don't go in there." You know, and I was about to go in there, and he said, "No, don't. I'm not going to let you go anywhere." And then he stopped me and, you know, we just started crying.
HINOJOSA: He emigrated from Nicaragua as a child to escape the war there. He made it in New York with no one's help. Now, Ivan is relying on aid to get by.
I. ALMANDAREZ: I'm at the point that I need all the help that I can get, because you know, I have a baby coming and I've got another son to support. So it made it harder for me -- a lot harder.
HINOJOSA: They had just put their savings into a new apartment. The Red Cross will pay for one month's rent on the lease he signed just a day before the explosions.
Today is the first day they were able to buy food, using a voucher for $115 also from the Red Cross.
He used to make $17 an hour, but now all there is is window shopping and tears, not only for himself, but for his co-workers; 30 of them died.
I. ALMANDAREZ: I want to see New York rise again. I want people to get decent salaries. I want people to have jobs. Don't feel the way we feel all these weeks.
HINOJOSA: While his wife folds the little they have for a baby scheduled to be born on October 11, one month to the day of the attacks.
Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: That's a terrible story -- tragic. And you know, the real tragedy here is that there are so many just like them.
LIN: Yes, that's right. Just one profile can speak a thousand different stories.
CALLAWAY: Right.
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