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CNN Live At Daybreak

America Under Attack: Life at Ground Zero Amidst Death

Aired September 14, 2001 - 07:15   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: So right now Miles O'Brien is going to join us from Atlanta -- Miles, I wanted to share with you a scene that seems to be repeated throughout the city.

One of our producers last night was walking through the Grand Central Terminal to catch a train and all of a sudden he saw that thousands of his colleagues and fellow New Yorkers started to clap. And he looked around him and as he turned to, over his right shoulder, he noticed that there were 10 firefighters who had walked into the terminal.

And I guess the applause grew louder and louder as people realized they were there and at one point one of the firefighters doffed his helmet to the crowd as they exited the terminal to the echoing applause. And, you know, Jill's story, unfortunately, is being repeated throughout this city, but the one thing that has hit a completely raw nerve here is the loss of at least, more than 300 firefighters and we are told now maybe as many as 100 police officers. And the city is doing what it can to honor those that continue to assist in this horrible, horrible effort.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Indeed, Paula.

Speaking of that, there are more than 1,000 people at ground zero attempting rescue and salvage efforts, continuing with some hope that perhaps some survivors might be found beneath the rubble. It was a difficult night, to say the least. Already, of course, an incredibly difficult challenge. But the weather did not cooperate. A series of electrical storms came through New York overnight forcing those workers to cease and desist for a little while.

CNN's Martin Savidge has been monitoring the situation there. He joins us from lower Manhattan -- Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles.

We are in the area of Reade and Greenwich Street. For those who are outside of New York and aren't familiar with the area, we are about two blocks away from ground zero. It would be the in background here just down the street here.

The important thing at the moment is the volunteers. This is basically a shift change that is taking place, the night shift coming off, the day shift beginning to go in. Two workers who have been working through the night, working through this bad weather that they've been having, are Helen Nolan and Ruth Ferraro and they join us this morning. Good morning to both of you.

LOU FERRARO, VOLUNTEER RESCUE WORKER: Good morning.

SAVIDGE: What has been going on overnight, Helen?

HELEN NOLAN, EMS WORKER: Not very much with the weather. They've been using the heavy equipment and the firemen couldn't go in really and sift through the rubble. But they're trying to do their best to get, you know, to the towers to see whether the people, maybe survivors remains. But not very much last night because of the weather so.

SAVIDGE: Lou, has there been any sign, anything you know of regarding survivors?

FERRARO: Actually, they kept us back as the iron workers were working because they were working with the heavy equipment. We've heard rumors of people hearing knocking and such things as that, but from where we were, we don't know. And we've gotten to a point by hand that the only way to, the next level is the heavy equipment.

So, you know, it's very frustrating standing there waiting for, waiting to go back in when you can't so.

SAVIDGE: You were describing to us the use of buckets and how it's, instead of the heavy equipment that's going in now, it was almost work by hand. How did that go?

FERRARO: We followed the fire department's lead. Everything was behind the fire department. They knew what they were doing. We would make a chain in and out of piles, whichever area we were supposed to work. One chain, one line of people for buckets going in and then they would fill them up with rubble, debris, whatever, and another line going out into a pile. Then they would pick it up into a truck and take it away.

They were trying to do as little small pieces as possible to see what they were picking up. They had to look at every little thing, but as fast as possible until, like I said, they had to get the heavy equipment in there, at which time they moved us out.

SAVIDGE: Helen, you're an emergency medical technician by training. You work for the city. You've obviously seen bad things. How does it compare to what you see now?

NOLAN: This is like nothing I have ever thought I actually would see. There's no words to describe it. I just, you know, my heart goes out to the families. I have to say the Red Cross and the volunteers are doing a great job. They had food there all night and the firemen are exhausted and they're continuously working, the police department, everybody. I mean everybody is just doing a magnificent job.

And even New Yorkers themselves are going out of their way to be nice. I mean they're waving and, you know, thanking people on their way home and applauding and it's just, it's great.

But definitely shock and disbelief. I mean I never thought I'd see anything like this ever.

SAVIDGE: You've been working straight through since Tuesday.

NOLAN: Yes.

SAVIDGE: You go home now and you have your own family. What will you do?

NOLAN: I'll hug my son when I go in the door and to be honest I don't really know. It's just, it's very difficult to readjust to your own family life, you know what I mean, after seeing the carnage down here. It's just, it's very difficult to do so -- I called my family in Ireland more than anything, but so.

SAVIDGE: Lou, what do you normally do when you're not here, obviously?

FERRARO: I run my own business. I sell beverages. That's what got me down here. I donated a couple of pallets of water and I asked if I could help a couple of days ago and they were looking for all the help, you know, they could possibly get. So I've stayed. I'm going to go home. I have three children. I'm going to spend the day with them, sleep a little bit and come back at like 3:00 and do it all over again.

SAVIDGE: What, why did you feel that you had to go beyond donating to actually getting in there?

FERRARO: Something told me I had to be here. I'm sure with the amount of people that are lost there's people I know. And even if not, I mean it's unbelievable. I was just talking to a gentleman, a police officer from Utah. They've been driving 38 hours straight. Chicago, all over the country, everybody needs to be here. It's for all of us. It's for my kids. And that's why I'm here.

SAVIDGE: Lou, Helen, thank you very much. Thank you for your work, as well.

There are officers and volunteers that have come from all over. We were just through a checkpoint.

O'BRIEN: All right, that was CNN's Martin Savidge in lower Manhattan. We apologize for the problems with audio and the technical issues there, but we have inclement weather, which is bedeviling the technology this morning.

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