Ground Zero Recovery Efforts and Challenges

Seen anything like it. I've seen two huge 110 story buildings

that are

reduced to rubble. Uh, thousands and thousands of lives.

I just got to see something that I've never seen before.

I have hundreds of men inside working right now, and we're bringing down another

125 in a little while, and they've never done work like this

before. And they're hardworking people, but they've never seen anything like it,

and they've never, they've never done work like this before.

It's terrible.

Tell me what it's like at Ground Zero.

Tell me about the workers that you saw and,

and what they're doing there.

Well, not only is it devastation, but it's very dangerous,

'cause every few minutes

a whistle would go off and everybody would just run because you

have all the

buildings around it, which are in such a weakened state

that people just

don't know. And so they just have to take off,

and then they come back, and they're

working under 50 story buildings that you don't know if they're gonna,

if they're

gonna fall down. So it's a terrible thing for the workers,

and it's a terrible

thing for the world really.

How, have you spoken to any of your men? Do you know how they're reacting to this?

Because emotionally, this must be so incredibly difficult.

Well, there are a lot of them, but they've never seen bodies like this.

I mean, the bodies all over the, uh...

I mean, the, the great thing is when they find somebody that's alive,

like the five

firemen that they just found a little while ago.

So that's the great thing, and that's what they're all striving for.

But, uh, generally speaking, that's not what the case.

That's not the case.

So they are working very, very hard, but it's, it's a very

depressing situation for these folks.

As you walked around and as you saw the piles of rubble,

there are

thousands of families out there who are hoping that someone might

be in a pocket somewhere, still alive, still breathing, waiting to be dug up.

As you assess that damage, from your perspective,

do you believe that's possible?

Well, I, I would certainly not wanna be the one to

say it's not possible.

Certainly, it's, uh, it's a tough situation, but you can't

give up hope because there's always hope.

I mean, the five men, I'm sure their families thought

that they probably were gone,

and now they walk in the door. A couple of them walked away after they

were dug

out. So there probably are some more people in there,

and therefore you can't

give up hope.

You've had an impact on the skyline of New York. What is it like as you see it now?

It's like a whole different skyline. It's like a whole different city

and world.

Uh, I cannot believe the sight of Lower

Manhattan without the World

Trade Center. And therefore, we have to rebuild,

not necessarily in that form,

but we have to rebuild, uh, at least as good and maybe better.

Just finally, can you tell me emotionally as you walked

around, we have, we've

heard some of the stories from the firemen.

They're so exhausted, uh, and, and mentally and physically.

What was it like for you personally to go in and see all of what you saw?

Well, it was amazing to see it. It was a very depressing

scene. But I'll tell you what, you really could take heart.

These firemen and policemen and the construction workers equally,

the courage they have is unbelievable.

I mean, they're working, digging out and lifting up steel,

and above them you have

55 story buildings that are very possibly gonna be pouring down on

them any minute,

and they're working