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American Morning

Reporter's Notebook: 9/11

Aired March 11, 2002 - 09:05   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Everyone with a connection to the attacks of September 11th has a story. Some are agonizing. Some are inspiring. These are some of our stories behind the stories from that day.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This just in...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Another plane has crashed...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The impact of that explosion...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That has been a second explosion here in...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything was in slow motion. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. We drove down as quickly as we could. It was incredible, it looked like a huge bomb had gone off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just sheer pandemonium. I got the DVC cam, and I started shooting. I thought that perhaps that people had made it up to the roof. I went in close on the helicopter thinking they maybe they were going to drop a ladder or something, or rope or something, I don't know, but that didn't materialize. The helicopter pretty much went away, and people started jumping off the -- I guess about the 100th floor, or something.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Until you started to hear the stories of people jumping, or otherwise being injured, it hadn't become a human struggle yet in your mind. And, as you heard the stories from people who survived, or escaped, or witnessed people dying, it definitely changed for you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I stood in these peoples' apartment with Jim Hubrex (ph). He was filming the whole thing that was happening, so I called into the office, and started describing what was going on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just a few minutes ago, we saw there was a portion of the building where the first plane struck that seemed to be buckling inside itself, almost as if the stop of the building was going to fall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will never forget the voices of the people saying, "oh, my God," everybody looking up, not believing what's happened. There was such a huge cloud of smoke, that we still thought the World Trade Center was there. I said, It has got to be behind that smoke, there is no way the World Trade Center just collapsed, and it did.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I made the decision to leave the building and ran out into -- just this absolute blizzard of debris.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's the point when I ran into Rose (ph). It was actually before the second tower collapsed. It was chaos all over again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was absolutely dark and silent outside. All I kept thinking was, well, what happened to the firefighters? Why aren't the people still running uptown? Yet, I don't think I could wrap my head around the fact that nobody was running uptown anymore because anybody that had been by that building couldn't have possibly survived such a tremendous collapse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everywhere you turned around, you pointed the camera, it was chaos -- chaos, just -- it was like a war zone. It didn't even look like New York. To me it looked like a bad Hollywood movie. You know, like a disaster movie. I was in it. I was part of that. I was -- like I was sent down to shoot that, it was all these special effects that was happening all around you. Just didn't seem real.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now it is like a war zone. Thousands of New Yorkers streaming north. The mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani has told everyone to get north of Canal Street.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please step to the back of the boat, please step to the back of the boat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most of the most ironic moments for me was towards the end of the day, as the sun was setting, the ferry line was still rather long. In the background, along Hudson River, you see the USS -- aircraft carrier Intrepid. Here, all that firepower was just parked, kind of in moth balls while a couple of miles south, hijacked aircraft had attacked the United States and brought down the twin towers.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It become very clear that it was a terrorist attack fairly early, but everyone speculating about what the fallout was going to be, not just politically, but obviously in terms of the human toll. Maybe there were 5,000 people in that building. Maybe there were 10,000 people in that building. The numbers were greatly exaggerated in the early hours, but what we knew was we had to get to the hospitals.

Dozens of men and women in scrubs, under portable lights, waiting, basically, gurneys that have been set up, wheelchairs, office furniture covered in sheets, as they await more victims, more people whose lives they are hoping to save. That's what the scene looks like outside Saint Vincent's hospital tonight, and what I have to report is probably one of the most eerie nights that I've spent in the city. We were all so aware of how many people must have been in the twin towers, and to see, literally, no one come by that night was shocking.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Getting there at 3:00 in the morning, and seeing the plume of smoke and knowing that had become a graveyard for thousands of people was not only appalling, but just unbelievable.

It was 24 hours close to this very moment that the United Airlines plane went through the south tower of the World Trade Center. We are using right now a video telephone because we're in a place where we can't use our normal live trucks.

Rescue workers who were on the scene had a sense of purpose. They were truly heroes. They were going to an area -- they didn't know if they would be another attack or collapse. They were there to try to save people, and it was so admirable and something I'll never forget.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Instead of a story about doctors trying to help people, and pulling people out of heaps and that kind of thing, it became a story about people looking for their missing loved ones.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only thing that we had that they could tell us is that there was a 911 call.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anybody who knows please call...

COHEN: Families are handing out fliers to the media hoping, hoping for some news on their relatives. Here, for example, Paul Ortiz (ph). He was on the 107th floor of the first tower, 10-month- old baby Rebecca (ph). Daryn Bohan (ph) on the 102nd floor.

It was the enormity of it that really got to me, and it was just person after person saying, please help me find my husband. Please help me find my wife.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is Craig Stob (ph). He was on the 89th floor of the second tower.

COHEN: I won't forget how much they loved the person who they were missing, and it really made me think a lot more about valuing the people who are in your life, whether it is your family or your coworkers. These people had so much love in their hearts. These were looking with every last ounce of energy. I mean, I just can't imagine what it would be like and to see that kind of fortitude. I will remember their strength, as well as their sadness.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: That was a reporter's notebook from CNN's reporters, producers, and camera crews six months ago today.

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