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American Morning

America Under Attack: Facing Ground Zero

Aired September 13, 2001 - 11:54   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go up to New York.

CNN's Michael Okwu has been spending quite a bit of time out there this morning out in the streets and has been showing us some incredible pictures there, which give you a very good idea of the kind of heat, the kind of devastation that blasted through that area -- Michael.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Leon.

You know, I'm standing just a few blocks north of what was the World Trade Center, ground zero, and all morning we've been bringing you horrific pictures that give you a sense of just how devastating the impact might have been felt by individuals who were in the area at the time.

Certainly, the impact was felt by some of the cars that you see here that were at the scene. And rescue workers have been pulling the wreckage away from ground zero in order to continue their work.

And this area, which was this morning particularly interest to us journalist has also become something of a shrine. A woman who has spent many years here, she's been a resident since 1976, came out this morning with a handful of flowers and she distributed them on top of each of one of these cars. You can see how devastating the impact was.

And you can see just -- if you go over this way, William, and get a sense of some of the neighbors here who are checking out the impact. You can see everyone who has come by here this morning sort of meet (ph) to this scene with a degree of incredulity.

People, I think, didn't really quite understand just how devastating the impact was here until they saw something, something, anything, that came from what was essentially ground zero.

This is a neighborhood, I should tell you, that has experienced a lot in the last couple of years. Just about a block or two away from here is where John F. Kennedy Jr. lived and you can remember that this was a site of a memorial to Mr. Kennedy. And now, of course, it's become a memorial to those people who might not have lived after the attack.

What you're looking at here is obviously the hollowed out cavity of once -- what was once a police car, probably a car driven by a detective, not one of those recognizable police cars. And this is a vehicle that must have been some place near ground zero at the time. There's no indication as to whether these vehicles were vehicles that were driven down there once rescue workers and police officers and other law enforcement officials heard about what had happened here and tried to arrive on the scene to try to help people out. But if in fact that did happened you can see that there's a terrifically awful impact.

Just across the street here you are looking at what was once a van used by Con Edison, which of course is the utility company that supplies much of Manhattan and much of New York with energy and other utilities. And, again, you can see journalist and some neighbors around the area taking pictures and I think taking stock of what's happened in the past 48 hours.

This entire neighborhood has been shut down essentially from 14th Street, which is just some blocks north of us, throughout the course of lower Manhattan. It's pretty much been like a ghost town. And again, the neighbors here -- it's not just a financial district, but it is actually a neighborhood -- they've experienced a lot. Many of the building that you see around me, there's been some structural damage. And in those buildings that even haven't sustained structural damage, there's often no electricity. I spent the night in building here that had absolutely no hot water.

So, yes, there are plenty of people who are suffering gravely as a result of this and the impact was felt far beyond what you might call the epicenter -- Leon.

HARRIS: Michael, I am wondering, did you get a chance to talk with any of the residents of the neighborhoods and have them tell you exactly where they were and what they feel like and what they thought when the whole thing first started coming crashing down?

OKWU: Absolutely. In fact, the woman who came here, this resident that I mentioned who has been living here since 1976, came out with an arm full of flowers, and she said she was actually standing on her roof after the first plane had made impact, and they were looking at the World Trade Center incredulously, as everyone was -- I remember watching from the confines of -- the comfort of my home. And she said that when she saw the second plane go into the second tower, she was completely devastated, and she said she felt complete and total powerlessness. And she said part of the reason why she came out here with her flowers was because she wanted to take the opportunity, now that essentially ground zero had been brought to her, to her doorstep, to maybe change this powerlessness into a feeling of humanity, is what she said: I want to take this powerlessness and remind ourselves that we are actually human.

HARRIS: Michael, one final question, if I can quickly. I notice you're not wearing the mask now. Does that mean that the air situation down there has been cleared out for a wider area or for the whole area, or what?

OKWU: Well, I should tell you, I don't know whether it's that smart of me not to wear the mask. As soon as we get off the air I'm going to put the mask back on.

I haven't talked to any local officials here to find out exactly whether the levels in the air are safer than they were before. But fact is, that after a while it does feel a lot more comfortable here. Earlier this morning, when we saw great, dark plumes of smoke emanating from the hot center that you can see just south of us, you could smell the smoke. You could feel it. It smelled like something like sort of being in the center of the last burning embers of a bonfire. It felt very much like that.

And now this, I guess it's afternoon now, it feels a little bit more clear. But, again, Leon, if you've been here for the last couple of days, the air quality changes from hour to hour, from minute to minute.

HARRIS: That's incredible.

Michael Okwu, thank you very much, giving us those scenes that look like they're straight from a Mad Max movie, scenes created perhaps by a madman.

Michael Okwu in New York, thank you very much.

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