The September 11th attack
5,400 missing as New York reopens
By Jim Fitzgerals
Associated Press
NEW YORK — It's been a week and the three-inch coating of ash has been washed from the sidewalks of Wall Street. The brokers are walking at a clip again, cells phones to their ears and coffee cups in hand. The markets are open.
Across the city's southern tip, business owners returned to their shops. Inside a juice bar, a worker with a garden hose sprayed away dust that had seeped under the door and covered the walls.
For all their famous resolve, many New Yorkers were confessing a feeling of dread as they returned to work yesterday for the first time since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"Last time I was here I was running, I was petrified," security guard Michael Talibi said. "The feeling came back — the horror, the chaos. To tell you the truth I don't even want to be here, but you got to work."
In the world's financial center, armed troops in camouflage and Humvees patrol the narrow canyons surrounding the wreckage of the World Trade Center. Some direct commuters to the few subway stations that are open, others scrutinizing office workers' IDs at checkpoints.
Anthony Bilboa, a trader's assistant, was headed for the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in a freshly cleaned and pressed black trader's jacket.
"This is a different place from here on in," Bilboa said, standing in the middle of a street blocked on both ends by security barricades. "A lot of us feel that we are the next target and everybody's a little shaken up by that."
A few blocks away, beyond guarded barricades cordoning off the disaster site, rescue crews continued to search through mounds of twisted steel and rubble for survivors and bodies.
More than 5,400 people have been listed missing since two hijacked passenger jets were crashed into the Trade Center, causing both towers to collapse. Only five survivors have been found, none since Wednesday, but Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said it's too early to give up.
"The simple reality is that we're not going to be able to recover significant numbers of people, but we will continue to try," Giuliani said.
At ground zero, there was some concern about the fires smoldering near a stockpile of Freon that had been stored beneath the towers. But Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Tina Kreisher said no leaks had been detected. No hazardous substances had been found in the air except some dust with slightly elevated asbestos levels, the EPA said.
Giuliani estimated more than 70 percent of the usual Manhattan work force was on the job yesterday.
Despite the challenges in the financial district, Arthur Stern saw the flood of workers returning to the area as a positive sign.
"The fact that all these people are here proves what a safe haven this country is," Stern said.
Monday morning, the New York Stock Exchange reopened after four down days with a tribute to firefighters and police and two minutes of silence to honor the dead. With the national anthem pouring from a loudspeaker, workers also opened the doors to the Mercantile Exchange, City Hall and other government buildings and courthouses.
Red Cross volunteers distributed fliers telling survivors of Tuesday's attacks to expect feelings of fear, sadness, anger and even guilt.
"Whenever possible, remember that you are still free and that there is still beauty in the world," the flier read. "It's OK to smile."
And people did smile — at one another and at the armed police and national guardsmen patrolling the streets.
Chief Administrative Judge Jacqueline Silberman addressed workers assembled in the rotunda of a state courthouse: "The justice system will be up and functioning. I want you to give each other a big hug."
Arab-American Ashraf Yacoub reopened his restaurant in the financial district to a morning rush of 18 people, far below the usual 100, but he was glad to be back.
"All my neighbors, all the people on Wall Street, are smart enough to know that not all people of Middle Eastern descent are hateful and vicious toward the U.S.," he said.
