USA: Clearing work at Ground Zero site is coming to an end after eight months seraching for victims of terrorist attack on World Trade Center

Record ID: 577769

  • Title: USA: Clearing work at Ground Zero site is coming to an end after eight months seraching for victims of terrorist attack on World Trade Center
  • Date: 28th May 2002
  • Summary: (U1)NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FILE - MAY 2, 2002) (REUTERS) CLOSE UP OF US FLAG, PULL OUT TO WIDE OF SALVATION ARMY TENT VARIOUS RESCUE WORKERS LINING UP FOR FOOD (2 SHOTS) WIDE OF GROUP OF CONSTRUCTION WORKERS EATING (U1)NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FILE - MAY 10, 2002) (REUTERS) VARIOUS DIGGERS AT GROUND ZERO (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 12th June 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NATURAL SOUND WITH ENGLISH SPEECH/ PART MUTE
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVACB8WGFT8HX4IY21MQNYIG9MLM
  • Story Text: There are only a few days left before Ground Zero is declared officially "clean". On Thursday firefighters, police and construction workers will hold a ceremony at the site of the World Trade Center to commemorate those whose remains were never found.
    On Thursday (May 30), rescue workers will finally finish the gruelling task of combing through the debris at Ground Zero looking for human remains. May 30th will mark the official end to the recovery and clean up operation of the 16-acre-site where the World Trade Center once stood.
    But until that long-awaited moment finally comes, teams of firefighters, police and construction workers are still at Ground Zero, working around the clock, raking through the last remaining piles of debris, searching for fragments of human remains.
    Port Authority Police Lieutenant John Ryan said; "Until the last scoop of debris is removed from the site we'll have hope that we may recover something that may lead to identification of somebody who was lost here at the site."
    When the Towers collapsed on September 11th 2001, 2,833 people died. The giant flaming piles of rubble and twisted steel rose seven storeys high. New York Fire Department Lieutenant Mickey Kross was trapped in the rubble for several hours. He was back at work the next day and is one of only a few people to have made it out of the rubble alive.
    For the past eight months Kross has been down at the Ground Zero site, both on duty and off, spending his spare time searching for body parts of fallen firemen, and finding solace in being near others who share his pain. Kross said he is not looking forward to the "closing" of Ground Zero.
    "I plan on going there tonight and maybe spend the whole night there, so that won't be available to me to do that. I do get a sense of peace of mind when I'm there, if I stay away too long I get fidgety, I just spent a couple of days away on Long Island and I couldn't wait to get back, I went supposedly to relax and I wasn't relaxed at all, I couldn't wait to get back into town, yeah its going to be an experience when thisfor me" Kross said.
    Along with the official end to the clean up operation, will end another downtown institution, the giant Salvation Army tent. Known affectionately as the "Taj Mahal" the huge white biosphere has become a home from home for the thousands of workers. Teams of volunteers have been serving up to five thousand hot meals a day, and providing a friendly ear to exhausted workers. The last meal will be served at 5.30pm (EDT) on May 30th.
    That day will be full of mixed emotions. While there will be sadness for the families whose loved ones remains were never found, there is also a certain sense of pride at how quickly the massive operation was carried out. In just eight months 1.6 billion tonnes of debris has been removed. More than 9 miles of trenches dug for electrical lines and around 12,000 panes of glass replaced in surrounding buildings.
    Sounding somewhat defiant, construction worker Frankie Burke said "At the last union meeting I went to they told us we were 3 billion dollars ahead of budget and 9 months ahead of schedule, so that just goes to show you what kind of people American's are when they put their back to the wall and they just push. You know, don't mess with Americans they can move mountains or move buildings or whatever needs be".
    With the mountains of rubble almost clear and the surrounding streets clean, what will replace the World Trade Center is now on many people's minds. Around the world architects have been dreaming up new designs for office, apartment and leisure complexes.
    One of the more recent proposals comes from New Zealand architect Derek Turner. He's designed what he calls a "cyber city", five giant cylindrical towers, topped with a revolving glass pagoda. The promotional video portrays his "WTC 2002"
    building as something akin to a spaceship, dominating the skyline of lower Manhattan. Turner wants to build something even taller than the original twin towers.
    Many bystanders on the streets near Ground Zero, said that New York City needs to rebuild even bigger and better than before. Laura Daniele, who was prompted to enlist in the Navy as a result of September 11th, said New Yorkers should not let fear rule their lives.
    "As long as it goes higher I don't care what it looks like, we need to prove to them that we're not afraid of them,"
    said Daniele.
    Her thoughts echoed by student Ali Andrzejewski "I think they should do something that kind of preserves the other towers, like the memory of them".
    But such public opinion will likely be disappointed. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), the public body charged with deciding the fate of Ground Zero, says no new buildings will go above 50 or 60 storeys.
    "It's very unlikely that any buildings a 100 storeys tall will be built again, people sometimes like the symbolic aspect of rebuilding even higher buildings but people would not want to work in a 100 storey building downtown anymore," LMDC Chairman, John Whitehead, said.
    The only thing that is certain, is that some kind of permanent memorial will be built, the LMDC has already received more than 300 unofficial submissions ranging from sweeping gardens to museums. An international competition for official designs is set to be announced in July.
    Public debate surrounding the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan is heated and sometimes bitter. At the first open hearing between concerned residents and the LMDC, authorities heard a wide variety of complaints and were accused of not listening to the public.
    During a small demonstration outside the meeting, Margaret Hughes of the 'Good Old Lower East Side Association' said "We feel that we're not invisible, we feel that we really have a presence and that we want to be seen."
    It's now been months since acrid smoke hung in the air in Lower Manhattan, but concerns over the air quality are still high among many residents. Jenna Orkin's son attends a school just blocks away from Ground Zero. Wearing a gas mask and holding a sign reading "Clean Our Schools" Orkin accused the city authorities of lying about the air quality figures.
    Orkin said,
    "They are throwing environmental laws out the window in this so called cleanup because they called it an emergency, this emergency went on for eight months long after they could have possibly rescued anybody and now they want to continue upending environmental laws."
    Despite the fact that feelings still run high in Lower Manhattan, there are signs of progress everywhere. Shops near the Ground Zero site are coming back to life, the most prominent being the popular department store "Century 21"
    which was almost destroyed on September 11th. Construction workers are everywhere - repairing roads, phone and electricity cables.
    LMDC Chairman John Whitehead says the end of the recovery effort will mark the end a painful chapter for New York. He says it is now time for a fresh start for downtown Manhattan.
    Whitehead said: "The city is coming back, we're past the worst point and we're coming back."
    New York City will mark the end of the clean-up operation in an official ceremony beginning at 10.29am (EDT) - the exact time the second tower fell.
    The last remaining steel beam, which has served as a makeshift memorial to the fire and police officials who died, will be ceremoniously carried away, along with a stretcher commemorating the victims whose body parts were never found.
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