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American Morning

America's New War: Grief-Stricken Wall Street Moves Forward with Business

Aired September 17, 2001 - 11:34   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: Eddie Tumbarello -- did I say it right? -- works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

We just heard the replay of the moment of silence and the singing of "God Bless America." You were inside. You work here. What did it feel like to you?

EDDIE TUMBARELLO, STOCK CLERK: I think it was very therapeutic. It sent chills up my back, my spine. It felt great. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house.

You say there are sometimes moments of silence on the floor, but today was different. Usually moments of silence are reserve editor when members of the exchange die or, you know, maybe a president dies, and just today, just felt like we were all in this thing together, and it was just fantastic to hear that song being sung and it just felt great. It just felt great to get back into the city, back into the Exchange. I feel good. I feel good about it.

HEMMER: You were off today. You decided to come to work. Can you tell me about the sense of camaraderie you felt? You described it as old school. Tell me more about that.

TUMBARELLO: Well, the New York Stock Exchange is very old school. I think we actually take this very personally. I know I do. I think everybody not only in the city, but in the country takes it personally. I felt I had to come back to work today. I felt it was very therapeutic. I felt good. I was a little tentative at first, but once I heard that bell ring and I heard "God Bless America," I felt really good. I felt good about it.

HEMMER: Good luck to you.

TUMBARELLO: Thank you.

HEMMER: Also talking to some of the other traders up the street, Paula. Oftentimes, they often come for a little break, some fresh air, possibly a drag on a cigarette, and they were saying that inside the New York Stock Exchange, there were 5,000 people with 5,000 different stories. They were talking about it earlier today before the open. But once the market got rolling, quickly their attention went back to the business at hand.

There are more stories across town, just a few blocks away at ground zero. CNN's Michael Okwu checking in now from there.

Michael, what do you have?

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, you know, the stock market may be open, but from my vantage point, this is a neighborhood of an entire neighborhood far from returning to any kind of normalcy. Rescue workers often working on 24-hour shifts continue to sift through the rubble and the concrete and the very hot steel and iron of ground zero. And we are told, according to FEMA, the debris removal will take months. That is what they say, it will take months.

Also, we understand that the EPA is here, that they are checking the air, and that there are decontamination units just on site. They are looking into the possibility of that one of the buildings close to ground zero contained a high level of freon. So that's a development we will e watching here today as well. As you can see, the smoke continues to billow out of the site, sometimes reaching such a degree of thickness that it belies the fact that this is something that happened almost a week ago. The New York City fire commissioners tells us that there are fires burning deep within the rubble, which accounts for this smoke, which gets rather thick.

I spoke moments ago to a firefighter, Kenny Haskell, who may have lost two brothers, both firefighters. One was found the other day dead and the other was missing. This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN HASKELL, NEW YORK FIREFIGHTER: Timmy is a fire fighter in squad 18, which is here in Manhattan. My brother Tommy is captain of ladder company 132 in Brooklyn. Initially, a fire of this magnitude, necessitates a multiple-alarm response. So Tommy's company had come in from Brooklyn actually on the first call, which was immediately a fifth alarm.

I was hope myself at the time when I heard it on the news, and they were recalling all fireman to come into the city, if they were off duty, to report to their fire houses, which is what I did. As I was on my way in, I was trying to inquire whether or not Timmy and Tommy were in fact both working. I wasn't sure at the time. It wasn't until I actually got here into Manhattan, sometime that night, 8:00, 9:00 at night, I saw some that confirmed that they were both in fact inside the buildings when they came down.

Timmy has been found. He was found several days ago. I was underneath tower one the day before yesterday, when they worded spread that they found them and some of the men from my company came and got me and they told me that Timmy had been found. And I left, and they sent a van to pick me up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OKWU: That's an extraordinary story, one of just many. Rescue workers say they continue to find more body parts than they actually find bodies, and at an alarmingly faster rate than they had the past few days. They are desperate to find anything, any signs of life whatsoever. One rescue worker earlier this morning told us in an area of rubble that was completely incinerated, they found a single bible, and that gave them some hope. One other rescue worker came by moments ago and gave us only this, a photograph, whether these people work in the building or not, we do not know. But they're happy at this point only to find anything -- Bill.

HEMMER: Michael Okwu, at ground zero, after being there the better part of yesterday. They also give stories about finding some crevasses and taking the smallest man in the group and dropping them don by rope or by line, checking again for bodies and the possibility. Again, the possibility of human life almost a week after the terrible tragedy last Tuesday.

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