Gunshots and survivors are found

A monumental task faces these rescue workers looking at the rubble of the devastated World Trade Center yesterday. (Globe Staff/Dominic Chavez)

By Tasha Robertson, and Tina C Assidy, Globe Staff, 9/13/2001

EW YORK - Weary firefighters yesterday searched for survivors in the rubble and twisted steel that was the World Trade Center, miraculously finding a few while preparing for the staggering body count that was expected to follow.

Though no one has solid information on the death toll, a doctor working with relief agencies said federal authorities estimate that 10,000 to 40,000 dead will eventually be found.

New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said yesterday there were 41 known deaths and 1,700 injuries reported so far. He said 259 uniformed officers, including police and firefighters, remained unaccounted for.

''The best estimate we can make is that there will be a few thousand (bodies) left in each building,'' said Giuliani.

The mayor said rescuers were in contact with one person buried in the rubble. Nine survivors - six firefighters and three police officers - were taken alive from the wreckage, he said.

Two of the officers shot off their guns while buried, leading rescuers to them, according to New York police officers.

The weather in New York was warm and clear yesterday, but around the scene in Lower Manhattan it was cloudy and almost asphyxiating, the result of tons of ash.

At the trade center, once the towering symbol of American capitalism, the swirling chaos of Tuesday was replaced by a grim, orderly procession of dump trucks bearing everything from charred police cruisers to trees to hunks of metal and glass. Olive-clad Army reservists, toting machine guns, directed traffic.

Firefighters were gingerly lowered into ''voids,'' the 40 to 50 holes that now pockmark the area, to search for survivors. Meanwhile, massive cranes began lifting concrete chunks off the six-story-high pile of rubble. Every 15 minutes, a call for body bags sounded.

A charred sheaf of papers listing an investment portfolio of $473,000 fluttered in the wind with thousands of similar documents. Shoes littered the street.

Firefighers dug with heavy hearts, expecting to discover the remains of colleagues who rushed into the 110-story building during the initial plane crash, only to have it topple onto them. John McCleary, 42, a 20-year veteran of New York Engine Co. 1, has several men missing from his batallion, including the chief and chaplain. He was trapped in the rubble himself before prying free and returning to his rescue work, helping to save two men.

It was McCleary who heard the cries from within and helped locate the men trapped in the building's basement 40 feet below ground. Cranes moved massive slabs of concrete. It was pitch dark, and the firefighters' lanterns barely penetrated the ash haze as they passed the men along a human chain until they were in ambulances.

''Good job guys,'' said one dazed man to McCleary, adding ''Be careful, fellas.'' The other was too stunned to speak.

''You know, it's not a good feeling today,'' said McCleary, adding he expected more survivors.

It was not clear how long those trapped can survive. Federal authorities said that survivors of a recent earthwake in Turkey lasted up to 11 days under rubble. But none of the buildings there were anywhere near the height of the two World Trade Center towers, and the earthquake did not involve the intense heat and fire produced by the two plane crashes.

Miracles certainly were few and far between. Long lines of ambulances stood waiting for survivors. There were three ready doctors for every empty stretcher, said police officials on the scene. Some volunteer doctors were turned away. Those that were permitted to stay were stunned by what the clearing smoke revealed.

''The TV images don't really show the damage. The whole financial center is completely devastated,'' said Dr. Andrew Feldman of nearby St. Vincent's Hospital.

There was no work for him, Feldman said, only corpses. A Brooks Brothers clothing store became a morgue, where workers brought any body parts they could find. Search dogs, sniffing away, came up mostly empty.

Dean Debellis, a New York police officer, said that 11 members of his class at the Police Academy were missing.

''You can't recognize anything. People are just cutting the steel, doing backbreaking work,'' he said. ''There are no words for this.''

And it was dangerous work. With each piece of heavy equipment moved into the area, rescue workers felt the rubble precariously shift below them. They worried survivors would be crushed. Perhaps they would be as well.

The few stories that remained of the trade center's south tower collapsed in the late afternoon. No injuries were reported, but rescuers were evacuated and work suspended for a time.

Just feet away from the wreckage, at least 100 volunteers cleared away about a foot of debris and set up a makeshift mess camp where firefighters, police, and rescue workers came to grab food from a buffet. The tables were police barricades with sheets of plywood on top.

And about 40 blocks north of the carnage, relatives of the missing gathered at a local college, hoping for some news of their loved ones. The line snaked around a city block. People sat weeping on the sidewalk. Some resorted to printing ''Missing'' flyers with mug shots, handing them out around the city.

Jose Gomez, 45, and Enrique, 42, of the Dominican Republic had recently started as busboys in the Windows on the World restaurant on the 106th floor. They reported to work early Tuesday to prepare for catering a party in the skyscraper. They have not been seen since.

A large family contingent gathered near the college, handing out flyers and praying. One minute they smiled, the next tears welled in their eyes.

''We're trying to do what we can. Once we know they're alive, we can go on,'' said nephew Carlos Gomez, 24.

Back at the trade center site, buildings around the mountain of rubble had their share of damage, with shattered windows, smashed walls and more piles of debris. By late afternoon, people began adding graffitti to the scene. ''Go Bush'' was painted on a hotel lobby window. Others, drawing in the ash, wrote ''I (Love) NY.''

And there were signs of normality. In Washington Square Park, the fountains were on, dogs were being walked, and people conversed, some even laughing. But it would not last long. In the evening, a vigil for the victims took place in the same square.

Staff writers David Abel, Mac Daniel, Cindy Rodriguez in New York, Sam Allis in Boston, and the Associated Press contributed to this story. It was written by Raja Mishra of the Globe Staff.

This story ran on page A8 of the Boston Globe on 9/13/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.