13 - 19 September 2001

The day after

• Devastating, unspeakable carnage
• Thousands likely dead
• Number of survivors found under debris

As hospitals began the grim accounting of the dead and injured from the airborne onslaught that toppled the World Trade Centre, investigators yesterday sought answers nationwide to an unspeakable question: Who could have done this?
The financial capital remained closed after the attack on the twin towers and the Pentagon. The federal government said the ban on air travel, originally slated to be lifted about noon, remained in effect.
Thousands were feared dead.
Yesterday morning, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said there were 41 known deaths – clearly, a tiny fraction of the dead – and 1,700 known injuries. He said 259 uniformed officers, including police and firefighters, remained unaccounted for.
The mayor said rescuers were still in contact with one person buried in the rubble. By later yesterday evening, at least eight people had been found. One Trade Centre employee directed rescuers to the spot where he was trapped by giving directions over his mobile phone.
The attacks, President George W. Bush said, were “acts of war”. He said he would ask Congress for money for recovery and to protect the nation. The search for answers was unflagging. The focus was Osama bin Laden, who denied involvement, though he “thanked Almighty Allah and bowed before him when he heard this news” of the attacks, according to a Palestinian journalist.
Law enforcement officials were said to be looking at possible bin Laden supporters in Florida and Massachusetts. They were aided by an intercept of communications between his Florida supporters, and harrowing cell phone calls from victims before the jetliners crashed.
The FBI executed search warrants in Davie in Broward County, north of the Miami area, the South
Florida Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale reported, quoting Miami FBI spokesman Judy Orihuela.
The FBI was also seeking search warrants in Daytona Beach, Florida, where a car was towed by authorities. Boston Police yesterday evening are believed to have taken a number of people into custody. Dozens of heavily armed police and special squad officers were seen entering the hotel.
Tuesday’s assault on American government and finance led President Bush to place the military on its highest state of alert.
Smoke still drifted from the
ravaged Pentagon, and authorities said they did not expect to find more survivors.
But the government went back to work yesterday, its political leaders, diplomats and soldiers leaving no doubt the terrorist assault will be answered. “We will go after them,” Secretary of State Colin Powell vowed.
The Navy said the aircraft carrier USS George Washington was in position yesterday off the coast of New York.
The country remained on high alert. A threat was received at the 39-story United Nations building in New York, which was then partially evacuated, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said. Two hours later, police restored limited access to the building.
Lou Dorr, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, said passengers could expect tough security measures at reopened airports.
It all started a day earlier. As workers poured into Wall Street, a hijacked jet tore through one of the 110-storey twin towers. Another followed, striking the other tower in a fireball 18 minutes later. By 10:30am (1430 GMT), both towers had collapsed in horrifying clouds of gray smoke.
A third jet struck the Pentagon at 9:40am (1340 GMT).
A fourth hijacked airliner crashed about 80 miles (129 kilometres) southeast of Pittsburgh. There was speculation that the hijackers intended to take the plane elsewhere, but were thwarted by
passengers.
In a phone call from the air, passenger Thomas Burnett told his wife, Deena, “I know we’re all going to die – there’s three of us who are going to do something about it.” Then, Burnett told his wife, “I love you, honey” and the call ended, the family’s priest, the Rev. Frank Colacicco, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The final death toll may not be known for weeks. The four planes alone had 266 people aboard. Authorities said between 100 and 800 people were believed dead at the Pentagon.
US officials said the attacks were carried out with military precision. Like Burnett, a few people on the hijacked planes managed to make cell phone calls, in which they said terrorists armed with knives were taking over the jets.
The planes were each on cross-continental routes, and thus carrying a heavy load of flammable fuel. They struck the buildings high up and on the corners, stymieing firefighters’ ability to contain the ensuing blaze and blocking escape for some tenants.
“There are so many other
buildings that are partially destroyed and near collapse,” said Weindler, the firefighter. “There are a lot of fires still burning.”
Three top fire department officials were among those who died. One of them, Ray Downey, chief of special operations command, led a team of New York firefighters to Oklahoma City in 1995 after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
The 405-metre-tall towers, which survived a terrorist bombing in a basement parking garage in 1993, were reduced to a pile of stone and steel. A hazy, brownish-gray cloud was all that could be seen where the gleaming rectangular towers used to loom.
Yesterday morning, authorities led journalists through the wreckage. The smell of natural gas and the sound of portable generators hung over the site. A coarse, sawdust-like powder – pulverised concrete, insulation and paper – made it hard to breathe without a mask. It covered the streets with a gray blanket, inches thick.
Only about seven storeys of the north tower remained, its girders bent outward like a stripped cigar. The south tower was a two-storey high heap of rubble. National Guardsmen guarded the wreckage.