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American Morning

Ceremony Marking Completion of Trade Center Rubble Search Today

Aired July 15, 2002 - 09:23   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: Ceremony is about to get underway at New York's Fresh Kills landfill. Since the 9/11 attacks, thousands of workers have been sifting through more than 1.6 million tons of rubble from Ground Zero, looking for human remains or personal effects. But an awful but necessary task that now comes to a close.

Jason Carroll is standing by on Staten Island, and he joins us now to give a little preview of what is going to happen a little bit later on this morning -- good morning, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Paula. You can see behind me a number of people have started to gather for the ceremony. It is expected to get underway in just a few minutes, number of firefighters here, police officers as well.

Since September 11, some one and a half million tons of debris ended up right here at this site. Detectives and workers from all over the country basically worked round-the-clock in the beginning to sift through all the debris, trying to help in the search for remains. Down at Ground Zero, we heard a lot about the dedication of the firefighters who were down there, helping in the cleanup effort. The workers here were just as dedicated. They spent much of their time searching the debris by hand.

A chaplain out here telling me that this has been an emotional roller coaster for the workers. They are tired, but they were committed to the task at hand.

Some 2,823 people died during the World Trade Center disaster. The medical examiner expects to identify 2,000 of them.

That work will continue, even though the operation here is shutting down. This morning, I had the opportunity to speak to one man. His name is Bill (ph) Doyle. His son Joey (ph) worked for Cantor-Fitzgerald, and his son died during the World Trade Center attack, but his son was never identified. The only thing that they were able to find from his son was his driver's license. That was actually found here, and he told me that coming here is a way of helping him with the grieving process.

The ceremony, again, is expected to get underway just a few minutes from now. It will start out with an invocation. The national anthem will be played. Mayor Bloomberg, New York City's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, he is here, he will speak. New York Governor George Pataki, he is here as well. He will give a speech, as will the police commissioner. The ceremony is expected to be relatively short, just about 30 minutes, and again, it is expected to get underway just a few minutes from now -- Paula.

ZAHN: And when it starts, we will be coming back to you live. Jason, thanks so much for that report.

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