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CNN Live At Daybreak

America's New War: New York Starts a New Week After Attack

Aired September 17, 2001 - 07:09   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're just beginning to understand how different the work environment is going to be today as people struggle to even get into the area. A bunch of the arteries south of here that would take you into Wall Street are still clogged with staging areas for the rescue operation. Nevertheless, people are going to use creative thinking to get to work today. And I am told that thousands of city hall and government building workers and many folks in the financial district will be given paper face masks to protect them from the dust and the debris from ground zero, where the World Trade Centers once stood.

I'm going to check in now with Bill Hemmer, who joins is from outside the New York Stock Exchange to give us a preview on what those workers are going to find if they are successful in getting back into their offices, if those offices even exist -- good morning, Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, good morning to you.

You mentioned the commute here. The word of the day thus far is patience. We're talking to a number of people coming off the Staten Island Ferry here, getting into the lower part of Manhattan and really trying to work their way through a maze to figure out where they can go and where they cannot go at this point.

Also, if you can tell, at this point, the air down here is still very smoky and very dusty. We've seen a number of people walk up and down Broad Street here wearing masks, paper masks to cover their mouth from that very dust and smoke.

You mentioned the other paper masks. Inside the New York Stock Exchange we are told that 5,000 will be available for workers and traders inside the New York Stock Exchange today.

More importantly, though, we've seen a number of people come by here carrying American flags, wearing ribbons and wearing lapel pins, as well, to express their patriotism and their solidarity as they try to get back to work and some sense of normalcy today.

It will be extremely difficult. The workers and traders here, indeed, had family and friends inside the World Trade Center and for a number of them it's the first time they have been back to this part of New York City.

Let's talk more about it now with Bob McCooey. He's the CEO of Grisworb Company, a trader here in New York. Good morning to you, Bob.

BOB MCCOOEY, CEO, GRISWORB: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: First, on the emotional side, how does it feel for you coming back here? I know you were here this weekend, but also seeing the others stream in, as well?

MCCOOEY: Well, it was a very somber commute this morning. There was, there were a lot more people who were coming in this early and following the chairman's advice and others advice to come in early and get down here just so they can get through the checkpoints.

I never realized that my New York Stock Exchange would come to dog tags and war, but suddenly we're going through a very tough time down here and it's really, it's going to be emotional on a lot of pope. And I think the opening this morning is going to be truly emotional for everyone.

HEMMER: And before we talk about trading today and which direction the market may or may not go, have you talked to many others?

MCCOOEY: Oh, yes. I've been in constant contact with all my people, with others who do the same thing as I do. I've been in contact with the chairman's office as kind of a conduit with a lot of the other independent brokers on the floor and my wife thinks I had about 1,000 phone calls in and out of our home in the past four days.

So it's been truly an amazing experience trying to coordinated so many things from a remote location.

HEMMER: We're less than two and a half hours away from that opening bell. What do you anticipate?

MCCOOEY: Well, I anticipate from a trading standpoint a lot of volatility, but from a human standpoint I expect that there's going to be a lot of people who are going to be quite upset. There are people who are not going to come in today and may never return to lower Manhattan. I think that the market is better than these people that did this to us and that the emotion will allow us to get through this and the fortitude that we have as the American people will allow us to succeed.

HEMMER: Thank you, Bob.

MCCOOEY: Nice to be with you.

HEMMER: I noticed the tie, too.

MCCOOEY: Thanks.

HEMMER: Bob McCooey from Grisworb Company this morning. Best of luck to you today.

MCCOOEY: Thanks very much.

HEMMER: Also, throughout the city and Manhattan today, we have reporters staked out at a number of locations.

Michael Okwu is at ground zero, just about two and a half blocks from the World Trade Center. Also, CNN's Martin Savidge is talking with commuters getting off the Staten Island Ferry and Richard Roth parked outside the Brooklyn Bridge this morning -- gentlemen, good morning to all of you.

Let's start this morning with Michael Okwu -- Michael, good morning.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, good morning.

You know, as we enter the second week the catchphrase is a return to normalcy. In fact, that's exactly what New Yorkers and Americans are trying to do this Monday with the opening of the various financial exchanges.

But as New Yorkers awake this Monday morning, they will no doubt return to the nightmare of last Tuesday, made all the more palpable by this plume of rising smoke which continues to billow out above the ashen twisted steel and metal of what was once the World Trade Center.

Four million square feet of real estate have been leased by businesses since the attack, but there's no escaping the fact that 4,957 people are still missing, 190 of which, of whom have been confirmed dead, 115 of whom have been identified.

Rescue workers say they continue to find more body parts than bodies and that, in fact, the rate at which they are finding parts is increasing. They stop occasionally during their sometimes 20 hour work shifts listening for sounds, but for days now they say they have only heard the sounds of their own breathing and their excavation.

They've removed at this point 22 million tons of debris. The police commissioner says that fires still rage within -- back to you.

HEMMER: Michael Okwu.

And being over there all day yesterday one can really see the absolute grim task before the workers over there and sometimes it's hard for the television images to exactly capture what's taking place, but, indeed, it is very difficult and very grueling.

We talked about the commute this morning. CNN's Martin Savidge by the Staten Island Ferry, which is, again, up and running this morning -- Marty, how are things thus far?

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

Usually the view from Staten Island here of lower Manhattan is pretty spectacular. It still is, but for all the wrong reasons. As you mentioned, the Staten Island Ferry began its service at six o'clock this morning for the first time since the World Trade Center attack. Normally they have about four ferries running. They would about 104 trips a day. That schedule has been altered somewhat. There are only three ferries that are operating today. And normally there would be about 700,000 people that use the ferry service to make their commute. It remains to be seen if those numbers will hold up today.

It is about a 25 minute run or five miles to ago across the New York Harbor to lower Manhattan. A lot of those people who were boarding the ferry today work in the New York Stock Exchange. Almost all the people that we spoke to said that yes, they are concerned, even fearful about going back to work. And one striking thing to note, it is the pathway of the ferry service that goes directly by the devastation of the World Trade Center. Many people will remember the friends that are no longer taking the commute with them today -- Bill.

HEMMER: Marty, thank you.

To Manhattan's Lower East Side, another check of that commute today and how people are trying to work their way back into the city. Here's CNN's Richard Roth at the Brooklyn Bridge. I understand ferry service working there, Richard, for the first time in a number of years. Good morning to you.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Pedestrian traffic very slow here on the famed Brooklyn Bridge heading into Manhattan. As you know, car traffic has been shut off, though we have been seeing a fair amount of vehicles, presumably city emergency types, headed across this bridge.

Behind me you're looking at Brooklyn and the access way to get onto the Brooklyn Bridge to walk across into Manhattan. It's normally, of course, a great view and now greatly diminished with those trade towers.

However, joggers and runners tell us the pedestrian traffic is dramatically slow. Quite a different story last Tuesday after the explosions when many people jammed this bridge as one of the escape routes out of Manhattan.

But right now very few, a very small amount of people here. Normally pedestrian traffic about 2,000 a day. I think a lot of people thought the bridge would be crowded with people walking in. But there's still subway access into New York and cars can head over to other bridges into Manhattan here. We'll keep tracking it -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Richard, thank you.

Subway is the best way if you can reach there. We're also told here that a number of people coming to work have been earlier today. That is, indeed, good advice, trying to figure out which way people are going here in Manhattan.

Paula, one more thing that is quite striking in this part of the city, we're only about three blocks from the World Trade Center. You can still see the smoke and the steam billowing nearby. You can smell the smoke in the air down here. And for a lot of people coming back for the first time this, indeed, will be an emotional time, an emotional day and a very difficult time to come and try and return. Again, as we've mentioned, that word try to return to a sense of normalcy -- Paula.

ZAHN: And I know from a firsthand experience that I had yesterday, Bill Hemmer, actually getting into ground zero, what a challenge that will be. And I wanted to let you know and our audience know that a little bit later on this morning I'm going to share with you some pictures I was able to take in areas that no journalists have been allowed into. They are not great pictures. I was not allowed to shoot any video. But I think they will give you an idea of how transformed that area is around what is left of the World Trade Center.

There are some poignant scenes of firefighters leaving messages for each other on Tuesday, showing them where individual battalions were, where they actually wrote things into dust that had built up and grime on windows that were left on some of those adjoining buildings, and we'll show that to you a little bit later on.

Thanks, Bill.

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