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CNN Sunday Morning
Relatives of World Trade Center Victims Attend Memorial Service
Aired October 28, 2001 - 10:13 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: More than a month and a half after the attacks on the World Trade Center, relatives of victims will visit the collapse site for a special memorial service.
Our Gary Tuchman is live from Ground Zero with a preview of today's memorial -- hi, Gary.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Kyra. This should be a festive time in New York City. The Yankees are in the World Series. That started last night. This town is getting ready for the largest marathon in the world, the New York City Marathon, which is a week from today.
But these days, it is impossible to come anywhere close to New York City and not be constantly reminded of the World Trade Center disaster. The absence of the towers guarantees that. You would see that anywhere you'd go in New York City, 20 or 30 miles away, you would see the towers, and now of course, we don't see them.
Today will be a very sad day. Hundreds, if not thousands, of grieving family members will come right behind us, where all those chairs are set up, sitting right next to the wreckage of the World Trade Center for a memorial service that will be held today. For the first time, work has stopped for an extended period. The recovery work is no longer going on, to get ready for this memorial service.
Even 47 days later, smoke is still bellowing from this rubble. There are many hot spots, small fires under the rubble that constantly still have to be put out.
Five thousand chairs have been set up just to the east of the wreckage site. Church Street is the street right to the east of where the World Trade Centers used to stand. That's where people will sit during the service today. The chairs stretch for a two-block area from Fulton to Dey Streets. And people will start arriving, we figure, about two hours from now, for the 2 o'clock Eastern Time service.
We're seeing some similarities now between New York City and Oklahoma City. What we saw after the disaster to the Murrah Building was chain-link fences set up surrounding the wreckage and people putting up memorabilia on those fences. We're seeing the same thing now in New York. There are many more chain-link fences, because obviously, it's a much bigger area. But people are coming by from all over the world to put flowers, to put balloons, to put letters, and to put American flags. This will be an interdenominational service today. There will also be artists such as Tenor Andrea Bocelli who will be singing "Ave Maria," and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber will also be participating. Also here today, the mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI, MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: The focus of this will be prayer and song and for the families of the -- of those who have lost people at the World Trade Center; those who want to participate and feel that it would be helpful for them to participate in this service at the site.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: Tens of thousands of tons of rubble are now gone. The streets have been cleaned up surrounding the area. But when I look at this site now, it's still as stunning to me as it was the first time I came here on September 12, just about 16 hours after this happened. And for the people who show up today, and a lot of family members won't because they say it will just be too raw for them to come here for the memorial service, but for those who do, it's going to be very difficult to look at this rubble, participate in this memorial service, and know this is where their loved ones died, and in many cases, the final resting place for their loved ones. Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: Gary Tuchman, thank you so much.
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