Casualties are expected to run into the thousands from the deadly attack on the World Trade Center as rescuers worked into the early hours of yesterday morning digging for survivors in the debris of the collapsed twin towers.
Authorities have yet to release an official death toll, but New York Major Rudy Giuliani said the attack on the landmark building had caused horrendous loss of life.
PHOT0: NY TIMES
"When we get the final number, it will be more than we can bear," Giuliani said. "The numbers will be very, very high."
President George W. Bush said thousands of lives were lost after two hijacked passenger aircraft tore into the World Trade Center, another plunged into the Pentagon and a fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania.
At least 260 passengers and crew aboard all the aircraft died. More than 40,000 people work every day at the World Trade Center, which is usually packed with people during the morning rush hour.
As convoys of heavy digging equipment headed through Manhattan to the World Trade Center site, emergency workers ferried a steady steam of injured to local hospitals.
At Chelsea Piers, a popular Manhattan sports center, emergency workers set up a triage center and a makeshift morgue in the center's ice rink, CBS television reported.
Mayor Giuliani said six people were confirmed dead and about 1,100 people were being treated at local hospitals. About 2,000 "walking wounded" were ferried across the Hudson River to New Jersey.
St Vincent's Hospital officials said about 340 victims were being treated there, five people had died and more than 50 had serious trauma or injuries. About 54 of the injured were firefighters or emergency workers, a spokesman said.
At NYU Downtown Hospital, the nearest hospital to the lower Manhattan attack site, by late afternoon on Tuesday at least 60 firefighters had arrived with various injuries, including many suffering from smoke inhalation.
Ambulance after ambulance arrived at the hospital carrying fire department and emergency medical personnel. Some were wheeled in on gurneys, wearing oxygen masks. Some appeared to be unconscious and hospital staff were trying to revive them, shouting and pounding on their chests.
City officials said more than 300 firefighters sent to the scene of the World Trade Center disaster on Tuesday were still missing.
"We believe that many of them are gone," Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen said in a news briefing late on Tuesday.
The firefighters were among rescuers in the process of evacuating people who were trapped inside the twin towers when the buildings collapsed after being hit by the hijacked airliners.
New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said he did not know how many police officers were missing, but a source put the number at 85.
"I had a number of people there. We have not found them yet, so I don't know the numbers," he said.
A ray of hope emerged when two police officers were pulled alive from the rubble, and others trapped inside made desperate pleas for help via cell phones.
As morning approached, hospitals that had braced themselves to receive the dead and injured began anticipating that the heaviest waves would begin arriving after daybreak.
Meanwhile, New York commuters faced a complex transit scenario yesterday.
Those braving the morning commute would find a rapidly changing situation marked by disruptions, diversions and suspended modes of transport.
Giuliani had said at a news conference late on Tuesday that all non-essential workers should stay home yesterday.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
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