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CNN Live Saturday
Work Continues at Ground Zero
Aired September 22, 2001 - 13:24 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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: We want to show you a live image now coming from the area of 80th and Broadway -- that is the upper West Side here in New York. And people trying to return back to a normal Saturday routine. And one of the things as you notice when you get away from ground zero is that more and more people are succeeding in doing that. Now, that's not to say that they have forgotten or are unaffected. But they realize that life has to go on, life does go on.
It was interesting as we went past Times Square today, you saw that the lines -- sometimes lengthy lines have returned to those trying to get tickets for Broadway performances. Life is trying to get back.
Meanwhile, at a memorial service at St. Patrick's Cathedral today, an unusual tone from the cardinal of New York, Father Edward Egan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARDINAL EDWARD EGAN, NEW YORK: Finally, my dear friends, we need something that you might not expect that I would mention. We need a thirst for justice. The people that have done this are criminals of the worst kind. But we will deal with them in justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Today's mass was held in place of the annual German- American Steuben parade. New York firefighters and police who are among the missing regularly take part.
Trying to locate the missing, the search going on to find the victims, it does continue at this hour.
CNN's Michael Okwu is in the disaster zone -- Michael.
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Marty, good afternoon.
Police officials here have become so sensitive about our access to the site that they have moved us further north -- several blocks north of ground zero -- what we, the media, call ground zero. And what so many people who live here in the neighborhood simply call the ruins, and why not? Six thousand three hundred and thirty-three people are presumed dead. They are missing. No one has been recovered here since Wednesday -- alive since Wednesday of last week. And overnight, rescue workers continued sifting through the debris, oftentimes coming in contact with very high heat that's been created by fires that still rage deep within the rubble.
One rescue worker told us that -- one police officer, rather, told us that nobody should work in particular areas of those sites. There are some sites that are so hot, he said, that it's like working in a volcano.
We spoke to a Richard Ford, a retired firefighter from Houston, Texas who has been here for the last 10 days lending his hand, and this is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD FORD, FIREFIGHTER: People need to know how hard everybody here is working to recover the bodies and stuff like that, hopefully to find some people that have made it. And that these murderers shouldn't get away with this. They need to see what's going on. Hopefully the news will get to come down there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OKWU: Workers have carted off now more than 76,000 tons of debris. In the words of one of the rescue workers, barely scratching the surface.
Still, Cardinal Edward Egan, who you just heard from earlier, in a memorial service he conducted this morning, said the work going down -- going on here is courage at its zenith -- Marty.
SAVIDGE: It is all of that, Michael -- thank you very much.
Rescue crews doubt that they will find anybody alive in the debris. It has been, after all, 11 days since the towers fell.
Families are looking at the prospect of moving on with life, as hard as that is. Here is CNN's Brian Palmer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Days after the World Trade Center attack, Anne Wodenshek held out hope her husband, Christopher, would be found alive. He worked on the 105th floor.
ANNE WODENSHEK, HUSBAND MISSING: Maybe he's wandering around the city somewhere in a daze, or he's in a hospital somewhere unconscious and they don't know who he is. Or he's trapped in a hole down there somewhere, maybe he's surviving.
PALMER: But days later...
WODENSHEK: Oh, look, there's me, you and daddy in the water.
PALMER: ... hope fades, even for this strong mother of five.
WODENSHEK: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you know, they keep asking (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you know, where's daddy? My daughter the other night said to me, well, mommy, we watched "Cast Away." The guy came back after four years, so maybe daddy will come back. So things are really, you know, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
PALMER: And the demands of daily life, like paying the bills, intrude.
WODENSHEK: The benefits for health insurance are paid through the end of this month. Then after that, I have COBRA. And after that, I'm on my own. And there's no more paycheck.
PALMER: So Wodenshek is filing a life insurance claim. Usually life insurance companies require a death certificate to pay a claim, proof that remains have been recovered. But that can take months.
Hans Ephraimson and others lost loved ones in plane crashes. He's seen victim's families endure emotional and financial loss.
HANS EPHRAIMSON, FATHER OF KAL 007 VICTIM: Some of them had to go into bankruptcy, and some of them lost their houses and condos and cars.
PALMER: But many insurance companies are changing their rules, in this case.
HERB PERONE, AMERICAN COUNCIL OF LIFE INSURERS: All of the life insurance companies that we are talking to -- and we are talking to them all -- are saying the war exclusion -- terrorist exclusions do not apply here.
PALMER: Insurers say they are waving the requirement for death certificates.
BOB BENMOSCHE, METROPOLITAN LIFE: I can only tell you that if they're on the list, we know they were in the building, they know that somebody is missing as a result of this disaster, we're going to expedite the payment on that claim.
PALMER: And Wodenshek says she isn't worrying too much about the bills.
WODENSHEK: I think I'm (UNINTELLIGIBLE) here, but there's such a hole in our life and in our future that I don't think, you know, I'll ever be normal again (UNINTELLIGIBLE) again.
PALMER: In this, she is not alone.
Brian Palmer, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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