WTC security and emergency response newspaper article

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

At the Site, Little Hope Of Uncovering Survivors The Chance Is Small, Giuliani Say^ By SUSAN SACHS At the collapse site — a 16-acre moonscape of twisted steel, gutted The Rector Street Station on the With little more than mammoth buildings and pyramids of crushed No. 1 line was also damaged, officials knots of steel and pulverized con­ concrete — the atmosphere was al­ said, but was not structurally un­ crete remaining of the World Trade sound. ready different as the giant metal Center, officials acknowledged yes­ claws of heavy equipment began at­ They said the Cortlandt Street sta­ terday that it was unlikely that any­ tacking mounds of debris. tion on the N and R line was also one in the buildings, even in the un­ Fresh reinforcements have re­ severely damaged and had structur­ derground concourses, had survived al problems. Although falling steel the inferno of the towers’ collapse placed the soot-coated police officens beams appeared to have pierced tun­ last week. and firefighters who, just a day'Qi- nels at that station, they predicted “We have to prepare people for the two ago, sagged into abandoned that repairs could be completed on overwhelming reality that the chairs on the edges of the rubble. The the line in a few weeks. chance of recovering anyone alive is gray dust that coated the sidewalks Mr. Von Essen, in a briefing, gave very, very small,” Mayor Rudolph has been swept and hosed away. ' W. Giuliani said. “We stUl hope and The frenzied activity of the early pray, but the chance is very, very days, sometimes fueled by sheer will a grim view of what the levels below small.” and hope, has become a determined the trade center towers might look It was the bluntest assessment yet but systematic routine. Most of the like, saying firefighters have been from the mayor about the fate of bucket brigades, weary men who unable to penetrate fully to the un­ more than 5,000 people still listed as stood shoulder to shoulder passing derground shopping concourse. missing in the trade center attack. five-gallon pails of debris out of the “We’re finding in some areas A survivor was wrenched out of smoldering piles of wreckage, have where there might be a void, the the rubble last Wednesday. Only bod­ disbanded. Their white and orange level of heat is so much that no one ies or parts of bodies have been buckets have been stacked along the would have been able to survive,” he recovered since. perimeter of the devastation. said. “I just don’t want to say yet One encouraging bit of news, at Even the fires that burned beneath that we’ve exhausted all of our abili­ least for the investigation, came late rubble piles were spent. Most of tlie ties to reach every area that we think yesterday, when a law enforcement smoke and dust that shrouded the might be possible. So 1 just need a official said the “pinging” of a black area with a stinging pall had all but little bit more time.” box from a hijacked plane might dissipated, laying bare the trade cen­ On the surface, the street-level pla­ have been detected. ter’s deformed remains. za that once covered part of that “They are picking up some ping­ What the workers have found has concourse between the twin towers is ing, but there is so much stuff on top amazed and appalled them: sky- now a gaping hole. The site has been of it, including ironwork, that it will divided into four rough quadrants take some time for them to get to it,” and assigned to different contractors the official said. and heavy equipment operators. Mr. Giuliani’s grim appraisal of Within the rubble, At the western edge of the site, the search efforts foretold an im­ crews finally managed to clear West pending shift in operations at the site pinging is detected, Street of debris from a collapsed of the devastation, away from the pedestrian bridge, allowing bigger careful raking of debris in search of perhaps firom a Jet cranes and excavators to be brought body parts to a more straightfor­ closer to the pile of compacted ward demolition job. black box. wreckage that once was 2 World Seven days after the disaster, con­ Trade Center. tractors clearing rubble at the site But tremendous mounds of rubble. said they had yet to reach even the mainly from the destroyed Marriott- area where the twin towers had scrapers built of several millioiis of Hotei, still separated workers from stood, except occasionally with the cubic yards of concrete seemed Ip the base of the downed tower, the aid of mechanical talons at the ends have ground themselves into dust'^ southernmost of the two 110-story of huge cranes. Most of what they have seen on thi twin towers that were pierced by The city’s fire commissioner, exposed layers of debris has been hijacked airliners last week. Thomas Von Essen, said the search pieces of the aluminum face of t^ The rubble stands as high as a six- and rescue operation at the scene towers and mangled steel. They haw story building, said Peter Marchetto, had not yet changed. Then he added. not seen many chunks of concrete." president of Bovis Lend Lease, a “But it will, we believe, in a few days. The scene underground apparent­ New York City construction compa­ if we continue to find what we’re ly is just as devastating. ny that has been assigned the south­ finding when we penetrate.” Transit officials estimated that west quadrant. Neither he nor the mayor would 1,000 feet of the No. 1 subway line say what rescuers had found when tunnel beneath the World Trade Cen­ they penetrated the indescribably dank and dark crevices of the debris. “1 think when we get closer to ter, including the Cortlandt Stre^ station, had collapsed. “We see debris floor to ceiling, NUTifnC^ that.” the mayor said, “we’ll explain that.” wall to wall,” said Al O’Leary, the chief spokesman for New York Cify Transit. QIQ-OI

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