Return to Transcripts main page

INSIGHT

Five Year Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks

Aired September 11, 2006 - 18:00:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JONATHAN MANN, CNN HOST (voice-over): 9/11 plus five. On the anniversary of the September 11th attacks, a look at a survivor of that day, the sickness that followed, and the open wound at the site of Ground Zero.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sometimes I still can't believe I've been through that and to know that where I am today, it's like, you know, I just count my blessings and, you know, I'm just so grateful for being here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: Hello and welcome.

The world had suffered deadly terror attacks before 9/11 and it has suffered truly horrific ones since, but 9/11 stands out because in important ways the United States and other countries around the world were changed as a result. The collapsed Twin Towers of the World Trade Center quickly became the symbol of that day, and five years later the people who were at Ground Zero, the people who rushed there to help and the people who have been trying to rebuild, all look back with powerful emotions.

We're going to bring you the reporting we did back then, and updates on how things look now.

On our program today, five years after the fall.

We begin with CNN's Gary Tuchman, who in 2001 spoke to the last survivor taken from the rubble.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Physical therapy now takes up much of her time. But Genelle Guzman knows she's a lucky woman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're happy for you, Genelle, especially after seeing you (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

GENELLE GUZMAN, 9/11 SURVIVOR: Yes, when I look back at those pictures, it's amazing.

TUCHMAN: Pictures of herself in the hospital. Genelle was treated for a crushed leg and multiple abrasions. She was the last survivor pulled out of the rubble of the World Trade Center, 27 hours after the towers collapsed.

GUZMAN: I thought I was gong to die. When I saw that it became dark and no one came, and I'm not hearing any noises, nobody around, I thought I'm not going to make it. I'm going to die here. I'm going to see myself slowly dying.

TUCHMAN: Genelle slept pinned under the rubble, but the next day her prayers were answered. She was found and dug out by a rescuer, whose identity to this day is a mystery to her.

GUZMAN: I'm just so thankful to be here, that I can see my life in a completely different direction. I just want to have a family, be close to my family, and just give praise and thanks for just being here.

TUCHMAN: As soon as he heard about the disaster, Genelle's boyfriend, Roger McMillan, raced to the World Trade Center. She was in a stairwell on the 13th floor when the North Tower collapsed.

ROGER MCMILLAN, BOYFRIEND OF 9/11 SURVIVOR: I mean, I started crying. I mean, you know, it's not something that you can really explain, as to how you feel.

TUCHMAN (on camera): So you thought she was dead?

MCMILLAN: Definitely I did.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): He knew she was inside, because Genelle left him a chilling voicemail on his cell phone while she was still in her office on the 64th floor.

GUZMAN (on tape): Honey, I'm still inside of the building. I don't know. We have to wait until somebody come and get us out. OK? I'll try and call you back again. Bye. I love you.

TUCHMAN: Roger went home and mourned. And then got a call the next day to come to the hospital, Genelle had been found.

(on camera): What did you say to her?

MCMILLAN: I cried. We both cried.

TUCHMAN: And then what did you say?

MCMILLAN: Honey, what took you so long to get out?

She goes to me, I was listening to orders.

TUCHMAN: Genelle hopes to walk some day without assistance.

GUZMAN: I feel good. I feel really good, you know. It's just like, it's so amazing, you know, to be here, sitting here, not in a hospital bed.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): And Genelle had a surprise waiting for her when she got out of the hospital. Her boyfriend asked her to marry him, and she said yes.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: Genelle's story didn't stop there. She did marry her boyfriend, Roger, and after years of physical therapy she now walks almost perfectly.

Gary Tuchman recently reunited with her to find out how she's coping now with that day.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: Thirteen of your coworkers who were going down the stairs with you died, and I'm wondering, all these years later, it must always be on your mind.

GUZMAN-MCMILLAN: Yes, it has been on my mind, especially my dear friend, Rosa Gonzales, who passed away, we were the closest, you know, at the workplace. But it's been on my mind every year, every day. I mean, I see the pictures in the lobby at JFK and it reminds me a lot of these people.

TUCHMAN: How tough is it for you? Does it get tougher as time goes on? I mean, do you ever feel like, oh, I wish we'd all left the building earlier?

GUZMAN-MCMILLAN: It is tougher sometimes, but, like I said, I don't know how I'm able to get through it, and I imagine that us leaving the building on time, you know, Rosa would have still been here, and a lot of other people might have still been here. But I don't know why we did it, what's the reason.

TUCHMAN: Do you remember, distinctly, still, five years later, being trapped?

GUZMAN-MCMILLAN: Just like it was yesterday. I remember being under there, and it's something that will never go away to me, but it just makes me stronger, you know, is how I survived it.

TUCHMAN: Do you realize how lucky you were?

GUZMAN-MCMILLAN: Yes, I am. I know that every day. That's why I count my blessings. I know, you know, it just wasn't my turn.

TUCHMAN: Are you angry at the people who did this?

GUZMAN-MCMILLAN: At first I was, and now I can't be because it's not up to me, like I said before. It's not in my hands, it's all in the Lord's hands, and he will deal with what happened.

TUCHMAN: You don't ever have a day where you say to yourself how could these people have done this, they killed my friends.

GUZMAN-MCMILLAN: Yes.

TUCHMAN: They injured me.

GUZMAN-MCMILLAN: Yes, I do. I mean, not only my friends who passed away, as well other people I don't even know. Nearly 3,000 people who passed away. I'm angry of that happening. But, you know, I just got to pray that it doesn't happen that often. That it will never happen again, actually.

TUCHMAN: How do you feel when September 11 comes around each year? What goes through your mind?

GUZMAN-MCMILLAN: What I've actually done since September 11, I think I'll always be at home for that day, just to be with my family. I don't look at the television that much that day because there's so much going on. I just, you know, enjoy life with my family is what I do every September 11.

TUCHMAN: When you see video, accidentally or purposely, on TV, of the tours collapsing, how does it makes you feel?

GUZMAN-MCMILLAN: I just feel sad, really. And yet it lets me know how fortunate I am to be looking at it, so, it's a sad feeling for me sometimes.

TUCHMAN: Can you believe, now five years later, that you survived what happened? That you were in the collapse of a 110 story building and that you survived it? Can you believe it?

GUZMAN-MCMILLAN: I can't believe. But it's real. All I know, it's real and somebody was looking out for me, and like I said, I'll never forget that.

TUCHMAN: How grateful are you?

GUZMAN-MCMILLAN: I'm very much grateful. I'm so grateful that I'm living life now to the fullest, but in the right way. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, you know, giving my testimony, giving my energies to people, to know that there is a God and there is hope. Leave it to others.

TUCHMAN: When you say, by the way, I think I know what you mean, I know I know what you mean, but when you say "the right way," how were you living life before that wasn't the right way?

GUZMAN-MCMILLAN: Specifically, you know, it's too much. My life was so busy in terms of, you know, glamour, entertainment-wise. I just wanted to do what Genelle Guzman wanted to do, don't care about responsibility. It was just like that.

And now I've gotten this second change to set my life right, make my path right for the Lord. It's like, you know, he was there but I was just rejecting him, but now I know, so I'm just trying to do what I was assigned here to do. I just think I have a purpose for being here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: Genelle Guzman, the last survivor.

We take a break now. When we come back, a different kind of suffering that also hasn't stopped. Before we go, though, a look at some of the other faces of 9/11. Rudy Giuliani's strong leadership that day transformed him from a controversial U.S. city mayor into an American icon. Today he runs lucrative investment and law firms, but he's also quietly become a prominent Republican prospect for the White House.

Giuliani's second in command, Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, was widely praised for his emergency response as well. He too became a national celebrity and was chosen by President Bush by the first secretary of Homeland Security. But Kerik had to withdraw his name after he was abruptly exposed in a series of financial scandals.

The president's firefighter was a retiree who rushed to volunteer at the site that day. Bob Beckwith got a measure of sudden arbitrary fame when President Bush came and stood by him at Ground Zero. Beckwith's image went around the world. Today he delivers speeches to raise money for burn victims.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MANN: There were thousands of people trying to help the victims. Many became victims themselves. By one estimate, seven out of every ten Ground Zero responders suffered lung problems. Thousands of people will likely need lifelong care.

Welcome back.

There had never been a toxic waste dump like it. Jet fuel, asbestos and other dangerous chemicals, and thousands of people working day and night in it with no protection, looking for survivors and remains.

Here's how Deborah Feyerick reported a few months after the attacks on the first signs of health troubles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rescue worker John Graham watched the Twin Towers collapse and disintegrate. He was right in the middle of the huge cloud as it rose over the tip of Manhattan, blowing into Brooklyn.

JOHN GRAHAM, 9/11 RESCUER: It wasn't air. It was vaporized building. It was choking, it was blinding, it was sometimes hot. The only one thing about the dust that I'll tell you I liked was it kind of hid the devastation.

FEYERICK: Graham has what's called the World Trade Center cough, wrenching and dry. There are other symptoms too: nosebleeds, watery eyes, sore throats. His doctor, Steven Levin, is putting together data on September 11 patients for Mt. Sinai's Environmental Medicine Clinic.

DR. STEPHEN LEVIN, MT. SINAI ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE CLINIC: Cases of sinusitis, cases of persistent laryngitis and tracheitis, inflammation of the windpipe. And cases of bronchitis, all of which are really the results of chemical burns to the lining of the respiratory tract.

FEYERICK: Never before have so many people been exposed to such high levels of so many dangerous materials. Asbestos, lead, fiberglass particles, PCBs, dust and chemicals that seeped into air ducts, settling in apartments like Clara Breeze's (ph).

(on camera): So you think all of this was collected after September 11?

CLARA BREEZE (ph), RESIDENT OF GROUND ZERO NEIGHBORHOOD: Absolutely. It was totally clean. We had cleaned it. No question.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Breeze (ph) says even now her eyes begin to tear the moment she gets near home, very different from public officials who from the get go said the area was safe.

Still, the Environmental Protection Agency says daily testing shows toxin levels within normal range.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To date, we have taken 4,000-plus samples for asbestos alone in the outdoor air and fortunately the vast majority of those samples have indicated there is no significant long-term risk to people from exposure.

FEYERICK: But critics, like Joel Kutferman (ph), who leads a neighborhood advocacy group, says independent tests he commissioned showed far higher toxin levels.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We went out about four or five blocks from the site, picked up a sample, put it in a bag and had it tested. It came up with 5 percent asbestos and 90 percent fiberglass, which is dangerous levels.

FEYERICK: Kutferman (ph) and others accuse the EPA of faulty testing, using outdated equipment that can't pick up finely pulverized substances, and testing outdoors but not indoors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The EPA has abdicated responsibility and the federal government and the city government are playing dice with the lives of several hundred thousand people.

FEYERICK (on camera): The EPA ombudsman is investigating the agency's testing methods and hospital studies are underway to find out just how dangerous that cloud really was.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: Looking back now, things have only gotten worse, though in ways experts still don't entirely understand.

Here's Randi Kaye with where we stand today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On September 11th, five years ago, as word spread America was under attack, hundreds of emergency responders rushed to the World Trade Center. Among them, NYPD Detectives John Walcott and Rich Volpe, who arrived at Ground Zero right after the second tower fell.

RICH VOLPE, FMR. NYPD DETECTIVE: I remember you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, number one. I remember constantly coughing and constantly gagging.

KAYE: Now retired, they're no longer fighting to keep drugs off the street. They're fighting to stay alive.

JOHN WALCOTT, FMR. NYPD DETECTIVE: Right now, I'm on borrowed time. Five percent only live as long as I have.

KAYE: John is battling leukemia; Rich, severe asthma and double kidney failure. Both blame their illnesses on exposure to toxins like benzene, dioxin and asbestos at Ground Zero.

LEVIN: I want you to breathe real deep in and out through your mouth.

KAYE (voice-over): Dr. Stephen Levin heads the largest screening program for 9/11 responders at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

LEVIN: Well, there's no question that people have developed very high rates of respiratory illnesses.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a list of the cancers.

KAYE: Attorney David Worby says he has more than 8,000 clients who got sick at Ground Zero.

DAVID WORBY, ATTORNEY: It was the worst toxic waste site ever.

KAYE: Worby says more than 350 of his clients have cancer, 1,000 have severe respiratory ailments. More than 60 of them are already dead.

(on camera): At any point, were you given a mask to wear?

WALCOTT: It took about three weeks to get a mask and then a couple of weeks later, they told us it was the wrong filter.

KAYE (voice-over): New York City declined an interview, citing pending lawsuits, but issued this statement to CNN: "Safety protocols were quickly implemented, including the requirement that respirators be worn. And the city, its contractors and OSHA supplied more than 200,000 respirators to workers."

Dr. Stephen Levin says it's still too soon to know if there is a connection between Ground Zero and cancer.

(on camera): Based on your expertise, how long after exposure do you think it would take for someone to develop cancer?

LEVIN: In most cancer periods, that latency period, that delay, is more often 20 and 25 years. Is it possible that we could be seeing something in the World Trade Center mix of exposures that could accelerate that? It would really violate our understanding of the biology of cancer, but we can't close our minds to the possibility.

KAYE (voice-over): While he waits for answers, Rich remains focused on staying strong.

And John, after six months of chemotherapy, he has hope; his leukemia is in remission. The days of coaching high school hockey are over. He is too weak. So instead, he skates the ice with his daughter. In the face of death, family is top priority.

Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: Another break now. When we come back, scorched earth, Ground Zero five years on.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MANN: The site of the World Trade Center is still a whole in the New York skyline. There has been enormous attention to rebuilding, but also controversy and conflicting plans. The completing desires of New York's people, its politicians and its business leaders have all contributed to the delay.

Welcome back.

Right now, Ground Zero is essentially a six hectare hole roughly 20 meters deep. That alone, though, is an accomplishment given the mess of concrete and chemicals that we heard about a moment ago.

Beth Nissen had this look at a few of the men who did the cleanup as they were close to completing it a few months after the attack.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are just eight of the thousands of police officers, firefighters, construction workers and equipment operators who have been working on the recovery at Ground Zero since September 11.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've seen it go from the two buildings still standing to just an empty crater in the ground at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes you look at it and you can't believe.

NISSEN: The unidentified haunt these men. Eddie Finnegan (ph) wonders how many of the lost he saw pass by his World Trade Center post every day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, I wake up in the middle of the night, I might start thinking about it, and I think, you know, I remember what happened that day and I think about those people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you find something, I thought of, I wonder what this face looked like. If you find a bone, what was this person like. What did they do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who are these people that made this building what it was, you know, and this is what we're missing.

NISSEN: Port Authority health directors say recovery workers have been hit hard by survivor guilt, stress and trauma, little of which has yet registered with most long-time Ground Zero workers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tempo we've set since September 11th, the 12-hour days, certainly at times doesn't really give us time to think.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I personally haven't had a chance to really, truly grieve, I don't believe, yet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That day they call us, this job is over, we'll have to start picking up the pieces and move on with our lives.

NISSEN: Move on with lives that some fear will lack purpose after months of such dedicated, heart-wrenching work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you going to do? Take somebody out of here and then two days later you're sitting in a patrol car on the Bayonne Bridge waiting for speeders to go by?

NISSEN: There will be reentry counseling, support groups, although none of the experts on posttraumatic stress or trauma after Oklahoma City can say what to expect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have no idea how I'm going to feel when I am told I am not to come back. I couldn't begin to answer that question.

NISSEN: Where so m any see achievement in the recovery work, many workers see only its ultimate failure. They are dreading the last day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most guys don't talk about it.

NISSEN (on camera): Why not?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. It's going to be a strange day. It's going to be a hard day for us.

NISSEN (voice-over): A day of official closure that will leave so much unresolved, so many unhealed.

Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: So many did so much to clear away the debris back then. They paved the way for architect David Childs, whose mission today is to rebuild on the wounded lot. Childs designed Freedom Tower, one of several buildings slated for Ground Zero.

Maggie Lake has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAGGIE LAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Following the 9/11 attacks, competing interests have differed about how to best rebuild the site. Designers disagreed on what the buildings should look like. Families of the victims have argued the memorial, not commercial space, should be the priority. Developers and government officials clashed over building cost and rent.

Through it all, David Childs, of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, has tried to stay focused on creating something special.

LAKE (on camera): You've built skyscrapers before.

DAVID CHILDS, ARCHITECT: Yes.

LAKE: This isn't completely new territory for you. What's different about this project?

CHILDS: It will be unique. It will look different from all the rest. And it will have a memory from people having seen photographs of it, like the Washington Monument in Washington. And they will instantly know where Ground Zero was. And so it has that important marker. It's like the great cathedrals of Europe.

LAKE (voice-over): Quietly passionate about his work, Childs has a reputation for being able to handle complicated public projects. But the Freedom Tower has put even his patience to the test.

(on camera): Did the security measures constrain your creativity in a way that was frustrating for you?

CHILDS: No. It was frustrating in the sense that we had spent 18 months working on an approved design and came up with something which I think would have been extraordinarily beautiful. Because of the new safety concerns, the building got much simpler. And I think that's powerful, not only because it's the image of a restored skyline downtown, but because of the role of this as an iconic marker for the memorial, which is in this area.

LAKE (voice-over): It may be simple and safe, but critics argue it's a missed opportunity.

PAUL GOLDBERGER, PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN: It's a 20-story solid box at the bottom, and then the tower is put on top of that. It does not feel to me like the great symbol that we were craving and that people wanted for that site.

LAKE: Childs shrugs off the naysayers, confident the work will stand the important test of time.

CHILDS: Things that become too complicated just for complication's sake lose their power as a singular visual image. And in this building now, I think that that powerful marker shows it's understanding of its importance.

LAKE: It will take years to know whether Childs and his team can strike the right balance between commemoration and renewal. But for David Childs, whose office is just around the corner, seeing that ground filled is an important step in the healing process.

CHILDS: We lived in the mess that was here after it, as well as having seen it, but being here and being able to be part of building it back is a great reward. We're coming back.

LAKE: Maggie Lake, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: And that's INSIGHT. I'm Jonathan Mann. The news continues.

END

TO ORDER VIDEOTAPES AND TRANSCRIPTS OF CNN INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMING, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE THE SECURE ONLINE ORDER FROM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com