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CNN Saturday Morning News

America's New War: Families of WTC Victims Cope With the Loss

Aired September 15, 2001 - 11:17   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: On the East Side of Manhattan, CNN's Elizabeth Cohen now, again outside the Armory this morning. Elizabeth, good morning.

Elizabeth, can you hear me?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can, Bill. Now I can hear you.

Bill, we're here at the Armory where since Wednesday families have been coming to register information about their missing loved ones. They are asking for every detail about them. And then starting today, here the authorities have been taking DNA samples from close family members so that can -- the DNA can be cross matched with any remain that are seen.

Let's take a look at what this corner is like. This has become -- there's a ground zero downtown for the physical devastation, this is the ground zero for the uptown for the emotional devastation. There are posters everywhere. People are posting pictures, physical details, phone numbers of their loved ones -- hoping, praying, hoping, as one person said, against hope, that someone will have seen them.

Now we've talked to countless people since we've been standing on this corner ever since Wednesday, and up until around today everyone we've talked to has had hope. Let's hear from a woman who we talked to on Wednesday and about who she's looking for.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're just, you know, getting her face out there so everyone can find her. And we've covered all the hospitals and have her on the missing persons, and everyone is here to support us. So it's great. So we just have to find her. We know we will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: And we have here with us a grief counselor, Barbara Debes, a licensed psychologist from Rochester. You came down here to work -- psychologist from Rochester -- and you came to do counseling with people. Can you tell me, do people still as much hope as they did three days ago?

BARBARA DEBES, PSYCHOLOGIST: No. I don't think they do. If -- you know, as the days move on, people are just one day closer to perhaps having to accept that they are not going to find the person they are looking for.

COHEN: You were telling me earlier that on Wednesday, the people were offered counseling and many of them said no, I want to go out, I want to go to the hospitals and look for people. Are people accepting counseling more now?

DEBES: It feels that way to me, yes, definitely.

COHEN: OK. What do people want to talk about? Do they want to talk about how they are feeling, or do they want to describe their loved one to you?

DEBES: Most of them talk about both how they are doing and talk to us about the person that they -- that they are looking for, and what the circumstances are at home. As a Red Cross disaster mental health person, I'm -- you know, we have training to -- to try to discern what kind of support groups people have outside of the compassion center over here. Do you have family here, do you have close friends here. Making sure that they have somebody that they can talk to when they leave here.

Many of them are comfortable being here, because I think it feels like they are doing something. And they are starting to reach out to one another too, which is great to see.

COHEN: You mentioned that one woman said she didn't want to go home. Tell me why she didn't want to go home?

DEBES: She told me that she didn't want to go home because she felt like she would be abandoning her husband.

COHEN: You also mentioned a man who worked across the street. Tell me about him.

DEBES: Just briefly, you know, a man who worked across the street -- who -- he was in a tower across the street, his wife was in one of the Trade Center towers, and she's pregnant with their first child. And he made it out and he doesn't know yet whether she did. But it -- there's not -- all the great deal of hope.

COHEN: OK, thank you. Barbara Debes, a psychologist from Rochester, New York, who came down here to help people in New York City. She has heard hundreds of these stories, and there are thousands more. Back to you.

HEMMER: Thousands and thousands more. Elizabeth, thank you.

Quickly, just because I think it's very critical at this point, Michael Watts (ph) is from Queens, he is the supply manager. You regulate what comes in and what comes out. Tell us again what you need at this point?

MICHAEL WATTS, SUPPLY MANAGER: Right now, what I need is boots, work boots, work shoes, anything with steel toes, goggles, gloves. HEMMER: How is that response, Michael? Is it coming in?

WATTS: The response is coming in. It's amazing the way the people are responding to these things. We received within the hour probably about maybe a good 5,000 respirators, different types of respirators. The one we're basically looking for is the asbestos. Asbestos ones are like the hot priority, along with the goggles and boots and heavy work gloves.

HEMMER: I know you're just working this corner, 34th and 11th Avenue, but do you know where people can give and contribute?

WATTS: Yes. Yankee Stadium, go to -- not Yankee -- I'm sorry. Not Yankee Stadium. The Giants Stadium.

HEMMER: The Giants Stadium.

WATTS: Because we have a staging area set up over here now for a lot of the trucks that a lot of this stuff that we're not taking, that we become so overwhelmed with, we have to send stuff to Giants Stadium to store.

HEMMER: OK. But as far as water and food at this point, you don't need it?

WATTS: Water and food is not needed right now. We have more water here as there is debris downtown.

HEMMER: OK, Michael, we'll talk again. Michael Watts from Queens, we'll talk to you in a moment.

WATTS: Thank you.

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