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CNN Live At Daybreak

America Strikes Back: Heightened Security in Sears Tower

Aired October 09, 2001 - 08:48   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The World Trade Center used to be the tallest buildings in New York, and we know that, but that honor now goes back to the Empire State Building, but in Chicago, the Sears Tower is the nation's tallest.

There has been concern in Chicago ever since 09/11, and Jeff Flock at the Sears Tower this morning in Chicago.

Jeff,good morning.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.

In some ways, you can't look at a skyscraper in the same way as you did before September 11th. Out here, in front of the Sears Tower, as you look up, it is a grand and imposing site. You know, a lot of people did not know that you see the antennas on the top of the building. If you counted the antennas on the World Trade Center and the Sears Tower, the Trade Center actually was taller. Now no question about the tallest building in the U.S.. It is the Sears Tower, and of course a lot of attention out here.

Perhaps you can see those concrete barricades that have been put off in the distance. This is to keep any kind of vehicles from getting close at all to the tower.

Off into the distance, perhaps also you see the lobby in there, and you see a backup before security. We have got some pictures inside at what the new security system looks like inside of the Sears Tower. You essentially have to have a building ID. You need to produce that. And it needs to be run through a card reader to make sure that it is a valid ID. Anything that you bring with you, like a purse or a bag, a satchel, anything like that, is searched, no matter who you are. That is the only way to get into this building.

In addition to that, the Sears Skydeck, which of course is very a popular tourist attraction -- perhaps you see it to my left. The Skydeck has been closed as of September 11th, and they tell us, it will not be opened perhaps until the end of this month. And in terms of the new security, all of the new tightened security, which included by the way on Sunday, once they got word of the U.S. counterattack, a plan was put into place to immediately dispatch Chicago police here. The new security that is now in place here, they tell us is permanent. A new world here in Chicago and elsewhere. That is the latest from the U.S.'s tallest budding in Chicago. Back to you.

HEMMER: A new world indeed. Only four weeks later, too.

Jeff, thanks, live in Chicago.

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