We've had 25 people and three dogs staying at our home. We haven't got the room but what can you do?" says Carey Dawson, a security guard at Pier 40 docks near the ruins of the World Trade Center.
He nods to Eleanor Schrumm, 55, who is steeling herself for yet another day waiting to get back into her flat, a block away from the smouldering wreckage.
"There's no electricity, no water and they said yesterday our building is damaged. All this is landfill and they're afraid of the bathtub [seawall] round it breaking. I mean, the ocean is just over there," she says, gazing at the yellow smoke still rising from the rubble, 10 days after the 110-floor twin towers were hit by hijacked planes and collapsed in flames on the occupants.
Eleanor and her husband, who works on Wall Street, are staying in a friend's flat. She is overwhelmed by the kindness of fellow New Yorkers but dreads having to find a new home. "It's going to be really tough now," she sighs. "And our stuff wasn't insured."
"We were supposed to be in France this week but our passports are in there and I'd rather be here. It's like everybody's at a funeral -- you don't suddenly go to a party."
Until a few days ago, Pier 40 was also host to a huge van manned by vets from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals(ASPCA), treating pets rescued from abandoned buildings and reuniting them with their owners or, in many cases, victims' relatives.
"As of yesterday we'd rescued 160 animals and treated over 300 for respiratory problems and dehydration," says Brigid Fitzgerald of the ASPCA animal hospital in upper Manhattan.
"We've had lots of cats and dogs. There are also guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, a pet rat,a snake and even a parrot which flew into a taxi and sat on the driver's shoulder until he brought the bird down to us."
The charity is still receiving hundreds of calls a day from people barred from returning to homes in the danger zone, where FBI investigators are seeking criminal evidence and rescue workers continue to search for over 5,000 bodies.
The only people allowed in to rescue their trapped pets are the ASPCA's "humane enforcement officers", gun-carrying pet police with the power to jail people who mistreat animals, and residents accompanied by security guards.
"One couple walked up 47 flights of stairs to fetch their cat. When they opened the door and found him alive they just fell to their knees and wept," Brigid says.
New York's pets are proving an immense solace to those who have lost relatives, homes, jobs and their sense of security. "They're just so relieved to find something alive in there," Brigid explains, patting a bedraggled terrier that has come in from the rain.
She switches on a video of an old lady outside the ASPCA van, shouting ecstatically: "They've got my cat! They've got my cat!"
ASPCA president Larry Hawk is no exception. His sister, a stewardess, was on American Airlines Flight 11, when hijackers slammed the jet into the north tower of the WTC at 8:48am on Sept. 11, killing all 92 people on board.
"He's been working round the clock, keeping this team running and making sure we and the animals are OK, in spite of it all," she says, visibly moved.
At the hospital entrance, volunteers are heaving trolley-loads of pet food into a lorry for animal centers with kennel facilities. The ASPCA received 30 tonnes of pet food from well wishers, enough to fill its dog exercise room.
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