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American Morning

America's New War: Members of Congress to Visit Former World Trade Center

Aired October 01, 2001 - 10:37   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: We begin again at the ruins of the former World Trade Center. One hundred members of Congress will gather there a bit later this morning.

CNN's Martin Savidge has a preview, live from down near ground zero.

Marty, good morning to you.

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

We have been told that it's anticipated over 100 members of Congress will be visiting the World Trade Center about a half hour from now. When they do, they will be greeted by a very cold or cool, very breezy, very gray, and certainly a very somber, scene.

The mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, has said that it's very important for as many members of Congress to come down here and see this site firsthand as possible. He says it's important for them to see what has happened, it's important for them to see what needs to be done.

Last night, when the weather was just abysmal down here -- it was very heavy with rain, very dark and cold, the speaker of House, Dennis Hastert, also played a visit to the site. As we have all struggled to try to find the words, perhaps he did the best job of trying to describe it, saying that this no longer looked like some scene from an American city; he described it as a scene from somewhere in Hell. He was clearly very moved by what he saw, and he said the members of Congress and the American people will stand with New York in their efforts to recover and rebuild.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R-IL), HOUSE SPEAKER: ... the governor and the mayor to say we are going to do what we can do in Congress to help, and this is a thing that all America has to join arms and first of all take care of the problems we have here, and move forward to make sure this doesn't happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Later today, President Bush will be traveling to the FEMA headquarters, in Washington, D.C., to speak to workers there. His comments will be beamed down to the New York area here. They won't be heard by those working exactly at ground zero, but at least the opportunity will be made for those FEMA workers in the area to listen to what the president has to say.

With the words of the president and the visit by those members of Congress -- despite all of that -- the tremendous effort goes on here at ground zero, and it is a massive effort that is being undertaken now by a lot of heavy equipment that is moving in and around ground zero.

It's amazing, though, as you look at these huge pieces of demolition equipment and construction equipment that has been brought into play here, that even though they are dwarfed by the size of this disaster, how carefully they work, how methodically and almost respectfully they work through the piles of debris.

We are told that about 145,000 tons of debris has now been cleared away. They have a very long way to go.

The death toll stands officially at 314 people, with over 5,200 people still reported as missing -- Bill.

HEMMER: Martin Savidge, down at ground zero, with us this morning.

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