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American Morning

Monitors to Oversee Work at WTC Site

Aired October 05, 2001 - 10:08   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: For more than three weeks now, the eyes of the world have been focused on the mass grave that was once the World Trade Center. Now even more eyes will keep watch there, amid suspicions now that organized crime has tried to loot the site.

Monitors will be in place to ensure that the debris safely makes it to the dump in Staten Island where investigators can search it for potential evidence.

CNN's Michael Okwu has been tracking this story and more from ground zero. Michael, good morning to you.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. The announcement comes as a grand jury is investigating whether some of that debris was diverted from this site to scrap yards in various areas around New York, which are apparently and allegedly owned and operated by the mob.

Now, there have been more than 171,000 tons of debris that have been removed from this site; and as you mentioned, this debris is supposed to go to a local landfill in Staten Island, where investigators can search it for DNA and for other evidence.

As this city has also set up a hot line and an email address, I should mention to you, where workers can launch allegations of fraud, theft, waste abuse and security breeches.

Now, the attack, Bill, is taking its toll on the local economy. It will cost New York almost $105 billion over the next few years. 115,000 jobs will be lost this year alone. Restaurants are losing 4/5 of their revenue since September 11th.

And as far as wide ranging physical damage is concerned, 13 million square feet of office space was destroyed, completely destroyed, and millions more was damaged. That's the equivalent of the entire office space inventory in cities like Atlanta and Miami.

In case this scene behind me is becoming old hat to our viewers, let me just say that each day is less haunting than it was three weeks before. There are many New Yorkers who are busily making their way to work, and they all pause and take stock when they get to this scene.

Of course, 4986 people are still missing and presumed dead. The official death toll now stands at 380. That has risen over the course of the past day or so.

And even though this was a space that has so much office space, rescue workers are not finding any desks, they are not finding telephones, they are not finding faxes. They are just finding lots of concrete, twisted steel, and acres and acres of dust. Bill?

HEMMER: Michael, quickly here, we talk about progress down there. You have been there most days this past week. How do you see the progress?

OKWU: I'm sorry, Bill, how do I see the -- ?

HEMMER: How do you see the progress in the clearing efforts down there? You've been down there most days this past week. And as we see it again on video tape and television, a bit difficult for us to discern.

How do you note it down there?

OKWU: I tell you, that question should also be posed to the rescue workers. When you talk to them about this, how do you see progress, which is a very strange idea here; frankly, the only way can you gauge progress is not by how many tons of debris that you've removed from here, they've only scratched the surface. It is little over 10 percent. It's really in giving some sort of consolation, some sort of resolution to those families that are still waiting to see their loved ones. Even if they have to accept the fact that they are dead, so they can at least start properly grieving.

Yesterday they found several more bodies, if you can -- we presume that because the official death toll has risen a little bit. The rescue workers are saying that that, in fact, is progress. It can't be measured at this point any other way.

HEMMER: All right, Michael, as organizers will tell you, just about everyday they find better ways to communicate not only to the people down there, but also to move them around to different locations as well.

Michael, thanks. We'll be back in touch a bit later this morning.

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