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CNN Live At Daybreak

America Under Attack: World Famous Trade Center Towers Missing from N.Y. Skyline

Aired September 12, 2001 - 08:21   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: We are going to move in -- move on now to Gary Tuchman, who joins us once again with an update on the rescue operations now under way.

Gary, anything new?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first things first. I just want to tell you that we cannot see the World Financial Center from our vantage point here, so I can't you anything more about that smoke that you see there. All we see is the holes where the World Trade Center buildings used to stand, and that's all we can see from our vantage point.

And as I'm talking to you, I'm taking a walk right now. And I'm on the corner of Church and Chamber Streets, and I'm looking at a subway station. And the subway station says on it, "Chamber Street/World Trade Center." That's the name of the stop.

And it's just hard to believe that the World Trade Center buildings no longer stand, when you look at that stops that tens of thousands of people literally use every day.

And on the very same corner, it's chilling -- we see five Army National Guard members standing there. They are (AUDIO GAP) with their helmets in the green fatigues and it's a sight we never thought we would see in the United States, in New York City, anywhere in this country. And it almost looks like a state of siege as they stand there right now at attention looking out for anything suspicious.

We have reported, too, and we're going to continue to report that survivors have been found. Six firefighters have been found in these early morning hours; one policeman has been found from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The Pot Authority, by the way, is the department that runs the airports -- Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark -- runs the bus terminal here in New York City and also was the landlords of the World Trade Center buildings.

That police officer who was found today was seriously burned, we are told. In addition, two police officers were found yesterday.

Now, the governor of the State of New York, George Pataki, has been at the scene for many hours. As a matter of fact, he used to have an office in the World Trade Center building. He very well may have been in that building if the office was still there. However, the governor's office had moved out of that building. He spends most of his time in Albany, the state capital. But Governor Pataki did talk to reporters early this morning.

ZAHN: All right, Gary, I was expecting to hear from Governor Pataki right there. He joined us at the top of the broadcast at 7:00 this morning and sort of walked us through the paces of what we can expect to happen throughout the day. And he sort of reinforced what Joe Allbaugh just told us, the head of FEMA, that, you know, urban -- eight special urban rescue teams will be sent here to assist the New York (AUDIO GAP) rescue those folks.

Give us your understanding of what actually has to take place to get to potential survivors -- the digging process, what they have to weed through, what they have to be afraid of.

TUCHMAN: What you have here, Paula, are two 110-story buildings, a 47-story building -- that was the 7 World Trade Center building. That's something I need to emphasize that I think a lot of people didn't realize, even people in New York City, when they think of the World Trade Center, they thought of these two beautiful, tall buildings. It's a complex of many buildings, and 7 World Trade Center was considered a very small building, because it was next to these two huge buildings. But it was 47 stories tall.

You have all of the concrete and steel and wreckage from more than 267 stories of buildings that are on the ground. And some of the wreckage is piled 10 feet tall. So you're talking about people who are buried under a lot of rubble -- tons of rubble.

But what the authorities are telling us is they are saying there are voids -- so-called voids that are holes where wreckage may have fallen, but these people may be below the wreckage in holes, in pits. And that's why they're hopeful that they will indeed find more survivors.

As of now, we are reporting that nine survivors have been found. But we are also told that they have been able to contact two additional people and one of them is a 50-year-old man; the other man they're not describing. But they are saying that there are at least two more survivors. So they are very hopeful they'll be able to find more in these so-called voids.

ZAHN: How many folks, would you say, are involved in rescue operations at the moment?

TUCHMAN: It's hard to tell. We're not able to be right up to the site, although I am able to see the people in the background right now. And I can tell you that there are hundreds of people here. We did know that Mayor Giuliani -- Rudy Giuliani -- and ironically they were supposed to have yesterday the primary here for the new mayor of this city yesterday. They canceled that primary. And it turns out the current mayor was in the news all day yesterday. But Mayor Giuliani said they had all the help they need.

So although it doesn't seem like an immense amount to us, with the amount of people we've seen going in and out, they are saying that they have all the help that they need right now down there. But it looks like hundreds of people to us, but not perhaps the thousands that you might expect.

ZAHN: Gary, as you have been talking, we've been trying to get more information. We'll go to this shot very quickly of the World Financial Center. This is a large, large business center directly across the street from what used to be the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. There does appear to be a lot of smoke coming from the top floors of this building.

I know you're going to continue to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) some information on this as well. We wish we could confirm for you the -- what started this smoke. We can't at this point, but we promise you we will continue to keep you updated on that throughout the morning.

TUCHMAN: Paula...

ZAHN: Yes.

TUCHMAN: ... can I tell you one thing? With me right now -- and this is unorthodox, but this is important for us to get the information out -- I have a gentlemen standing with me. He's with the Nassau County Police Emergency Service Unit. Nassau County is in Long Island. It's one of the two counties in Long Island.

He was part of the team that pulled one of the survivors out. He was above the 80th floor in one of the World Trade Center towers. And I want to talk to him really quick.

Can you tell me your name, sir?

ROBERT BRUSSINGHAM (ph), NASSAU COUNTY POLICE EMERGENCY SERVICE UNIT: Sergeant Robert Brussingham.

TUCHMAN: Sergeant, tell me what you saw when you were at the scene?

BRUSSINGHAM: Well, there was a concerted effort by everybody involved with the fire department, police department, emergency rescue units. And we were focusing on attempting to get one police officer that we had located. He had used his cell phone, and he was able to get rescuers to his location, which was deep in some rubble, but he was able to coordinate it, because he was very knowledgeable of the building. He was a Port Authority police sergeant.

Once he was located, he was about waist high in debris and in very, very tight quarters. Only one officer was able to crawl in at a time, and was able to take him out real slowly.

TUCHMAN: How is his condition right now?

BRUSSINGHAM: From what I understand at the scene, he was conscious and alert, and I am sure that he has injuries, but I don't believe there are any life threatening injuries.

TUCHMAN: Where in the rubble or the building was this?

BRUSSINGHAM: He was in the courtyard, which was in between the two towers from the collapse. I don't know which building he was before the collapse.

TUCHMAN: Is there any updated information, sir, about the number of survivors that have been found there?

BRUSSINGHAM: No, there is no updated numbers. There's no compilation of numbers right now.

TUCHMAN: The final question for you, sir: How psychologically are you handling this. Being at the scene, being in the tower, how are you handling it?

BRUSSINGHAM: Well, the rescue community is a very tight community. We know a lot of people that didn't make it. We were very happy to be able to help somebody that did make it. So we're real happy that we were able to put our efforts together and at least make it successful with one rescue so far at this point.

TUCHMAN: Sergeant, thanks for joining us. We appreciate it. You can tell there are people not just from New York City -- because Nassau County, as I said, is in Long Island. There are people from jurisdictions all over the New York area right now helping out in this tragedy -- Paula.

ZAHN: Gary, as I heard you do this interview and we continue to look up at some of these more close-up pictures of the rubble, it is an absolute miracle that anybody has been found alive in this rubble.

TUCHMAN: There's no question about it, Paula. And that's the sad fact of this is that when this is all said and done -- and it may take days, it may take weeks -- that we're going to probably find that 99 percent of the people who they're looking for right now are not alive. So we are very thankful for the people they do find alive, but we're not expecting to hear any stories like "we can't believe the number of people we found alive." It's not a very likely scenario, but it's going to be a great number of people.

ZAHN: And once again, Gary, just quickly recap for us the overall number of folks that has been rescued. It's nine altogether. Break that down for us.

TUCHMAN: Right. The authorities are telling us that in the early morning hours since midnight Eastern Time, six New York City firefighters have been rescued, and one Port Authority police officer. And apparently the police officer -- or the sergeant we just talked to was telling us about that police officer, his -- and that's the good news. That's something that we didn't know. We were told he had serious burns. The sergeant was telling us that he does not believe the burns are life threatening. So that is good news.

We also know that last night, two additional police officers were also rescued. So that's a total of nine people that authorities confirmed to us have been rescued. In addition, two other people are now being searched for. Their voices -- they even know the age of one of the people. That would make a total of 11 if they can find those two additional people.

ZAHN: And, Gary, one of those two is the one we believed that had established cell contact with his family.

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