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CNN Saturday Morning News
WTC Ruins May Take a Year to Clean Up
Aired September 29, 2001 - 07:25 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: Yesterday here in New York City, officials and the mayor indicating it may take up to a year now -- up to a year -- before the entire cleanup can be finished down at the site of the World Trade Center.
On the ground there for us today, Michael Okwu watching things. Michael, good morning to you.
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
You know, we all talk about moving on, particularly those of us who are New Yorkers. But when you come down to ground zero, or the ruins, as what so many people here referring to, it is so difficult to do.
You can see that the smoke continues to rise behind me. Eighteen days, and it continues to rise. When I got here about an hour and a half ago, it was more haunting than it had been even a day before, a very white plume of smoke rising up, a very dark, black sky. Of course, now it is simply a cloud disappearing into a cloud.
Bill, of course, 5,960 people are missing and presumed dead underneath that rubble, and there is a lot of it. The experts tell us that it is about 1.2 million tons, and that they have only scratched the surface, about 10 percent. The cleanup costs for all of this are astronomical. Estimates suggest that it's costing $100 million a week, and when it is all said and done, it could cost upwards of $7 billion, $7 billion.
In fact, when you consider the cleanup, the pay for all the workers, the overtime, and the rebuilding of the area, the experts say it could cost up to $40 billion.
Time is coming, of course, when this will officially be called a recovery mission and not a rescue mission. Even more heavy machinery will be brought in, we are told, and in the words of an official who works for one of the contracting firms, which is -- which are working the site, the remaining workers will be trained to spot human remains and to remove them, quote, "with the maximum possible dignity."
Meanwhile, there are 16 funerals taking place all over the city today as the bell rings down here in the financial district. Mayor Giuliani has urged all of the public here to try to attend as many funerals as possible in a show of support. He says that he is just too busy, that there are just too many funerals.
And at the same time, many of the victims' family members are now being ferried down here from midtown Manhattan. They come down here by boat along the Hudson River, and they are let out at the World Financial Center, which is just across the street from where the World Trade Center was, just a couple blocks away. They walk along the streets here, sometimes they walk by makeshift shrines with candles and flowers, oftentimes laid upon nooks and crannies along the city streets, and sometimes on tiny pieces of rubble.
And they make eye contact, we are told, with many of the rescue workers, who pay them respect.
Bill, this is not just -- this is not just the site of a massive cleanup effort, it is not just the site of what many people believe to be the most heinous crime committed on U.S. soil. It is also possibly a final resting place -- Bill.
HEMMER: Michael, also noticing in the past few days, it looks like several screens, some black, some orange, have been placed on the perimeter, the buildings on the perimeter of that site. An indication that renovation now taking place in a number of those buildings, or not?
OKWU: We are not sure exactly what's going to happen in terms of renovation. We're told that in fact there maybe -- still be some slight demolition that will go on. So some of that stuff, of course, is being used to support the area around here.
And as you know, Bill, there is still a lot of work to be done underneath this site. What you can't see to the naked eye here, but of course underneath this site, there's another 70 feet of building, of basement. And what they're trying to do is shore up the area around here so they can move in some cranes and do some digging underneath the ground, so that they can basically shore up what was a wall, a bathtub, they call it, that supported the underlying structure of the World Trade Center.
HEMMER: An enormous task. Michael Okwu, thanks, Michael. We'll check back in with you a bit later this morning.
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