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CNN Live At Daybreak
America's New War: New York Site Clean Up Continues
Aired September 20, 2001 - 08:25 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.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: We want to check in now for the very latest on the ground in New York City near the site of the continuing recovery effort -- our Bill Hemmer -- Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, thank you.
You know, yesterday, we were remarking at this time that the smoke behind us appeared to be less thick than we have seen it before, but just about 15 minutes ago, a huge, dark plume of smoke shot up in the air. It goes to show, again, that the fires continue to burn beneath the rubble, and firefighters dowsing that, we saw, with water, again, throughout the weekend we saw it, earlier in the week, and again today.
There is a chance that some of these fires may be assisted by Mother Nature. We do expect rain moving into the area a bit later this morning, possibly heavy at times. But what that also may present is the strong possibility that this area could become muddy once again. And also a number of these steel beams that rescuers have been climbing over throughout the week, we are told by some construction workers this morning a lot of that is coated with this aluminum on the outside, and it gets very slippery and very precarious.
Also at this time, I want to bring in Ann Carrol. She is with the American Red Cross. She has been here for almost six days now -- flew in from Los Angeles.
And you have spent a lot of time sleeping here at night. And throughout the weekend, we were told stop the donations. If you want to help, send money. Your message is different though. Your message has to go with the feet of the men and women who are working here.
ANN CARROL, REGISTERED NURSE: Right. I haven't really slept that much. We've been sleeping like three to five hours a night. But what we really need is foot insoles for people's feet. The police officers and the firemen have blisters on their feet, and they're still going out there, and this is the only thing that's really helping their feet. We are taping them up and treating the blisters, but we have a need for this, not food, not money. We have plenty of medications, but we really need foot insoles.
HEMMER: It seems like such a simple thing, Ann.
CARROL: It is. And I handed out like almost 50 pairs yesterday. And I could hand out 100 today. But we need more foot insoles. They are $3 a pair, and we could probably use about 10 cases. I mean, because -- and we need women and men.
HEMMER: Where do you send it then, Ann? American Red Cross?
CARROL: American Red Cross.
HEMMER: OK.
CARROL: Send it to the American Red Cross.
HEMMER: Give me your thoughts and impressions. You are on this site here just about 24 hours a day.
What are you seeing?
CARROL: People are tired, but people are still going back, and they're working hard. We're walking on this site at night to give out water and coffee and things like that to keep the men alert. We try to hand out snacks, little things like eye washes, chewing gum. Last night, we handed out blankets. We're out of blankets too. I mean, we're taking entire blankets and cutting them in half where the firemen can put them around their shoulders like at 3:00 in the morning when it's damp. And they are tired, and they are cold, and they can take their breaks with blankets.
HEMMER: Ann, the other thing I'm curious about, now that we're in day nine of this, how do you sense the attitude, the emotion that's going on behind here in this rescue operation?
CARROL: Some of the nurses have on their hardhats that they give hugs, and a lot of them have been giving hugs. And some of the men don't turn go (ph). It's really hard to watch them go through the emotions. It's very hard. But they're holding up good. The chaplains are helping, and there's a lot of psychological help from mental health crisis people.
HEMMER: Thanks for sharing your story. And again, good to get the message out about what you need, and we mention the simple things can make such a big, big difference...
CARROL: Thank you.
HEMMER: ... and much appreciated
CARROL: How do I take this out?
HEMMER: OK. I'll get that in a second.
CARROL: OK.
HEMMER: You're doing just fine. Thank you very much, Ann -- back to John King now in Washington with more -- John.
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