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CNN Live Event/Special

America Under Attack: Tragic Stories From Victims of Attack

Aired September 14, 2001 - 01:59   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.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Well it is nearly two a.m. in New York and we find Gary Tuchman's live shot just a few minutes ago, a light rain falling. Some heavy rain fell earlier, but still the search for any possible survivors buried beneath the remains of the World Trade Center does go on at this hour.

JIM CLANCY, CNN ANCHOR: The rescue workers are still there. Also there is some of the people desperately looking for their loved ones. We're going to leave you now with some of the thoughts that they had this day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Deedie (ph) called at about nine - five minutes after nine. She said oh God, please save me. She said she's trapped on the 106th floor. She was screaming that she can't get out; she's trapped, she can't get out. So she was yelling. She said, "Now I don't know what to do. I'm coughing the heat is coming. Please I'm coming. I need water. I need water." And the phone dropped.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've been hearing lots of good stories of people making it off really high floors, so we just know that she's one of them and we just have to figure out where she is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The first phone call that he made to her was that they are evacuating, and we were all very happy because we were all kind of on the phone. My whole family and my sister, we were like, "Oh my god, what happened?" Because I work down town. And then they said they were evacuating; we were all happy. "Go, go, go," said my sister. "Go." And then he called again and said, "Oh, you know what, everything's fine. Don't worry, he was trying to calm her down. "Stay calm, I love you so much. Don't worry about me, I'll be OK." And then they hung up, and then as soon as - about 50 seconds later - the other airplane hit. We saw it on the news.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really frustrating, because you just want to go in there and start tearing things out. Ripping the sheet metal. The sheet metal workers are doing that, the steel workers are in there, the pipe fitters, everybody. Engineers, Con Ed, I mean, just everybody.

And it's frustrating because you have to stop. You hear whistles, signals for you to stop because they think they hear a sound, a movement; they'll stop. I mean, total silence. And, you know, it might be a false alarm or if it is, you have to - people are so buried down there, you have no idea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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