Kash,
I have not heard of any reports questioning the recovery effort. People basically have complete confidence in Giuliani's handling of the situation.
As far as speed, think of it this way. It may have taken a year of more to construct the WTC, in very coordinated effort. Now you have a pile of rubble, which has the huge steel beams. To make any progress, they need to free every single beam by removing what's on top of it, using welding equipment to detach it from other components, crains to move it. I have not heard any official estimates, but it wouldn't surprise me if it took 2 to 3 months to remove the rubble.
Another thing to consider is the smoke. I live maybe 5 miles from WTC, and when on several occassions, the wind changed direction and smoke moved North, breething was uncomfortable. If you consider the distance and the fact that it was days after the original collapse, and now if you imagine what it is like to be walking on top of the smoking rubble, I have nothing but greatest respect for these people. I wouldn't be surprised if the people working there suffered some long term health consequences from directly breathing the smoke.
On the recovery efforts, thinking realistically, it is best to give up hope. They tried to enter various levels without much success. some corridors were flooded with water, many lead to basically dead end, and only cutting through walls would allow continuation.
In order for anyone to be still alive, they would have to have access to oxygen (which is very unlikely with all the fires) and water (which is very improbable)
It is very depressing to think that there may have been people alive only 10s of feet from the rescuer, and it was just physically impossible to get to them. We may see some evidence later on from autopsies that some of the victims did not die from physical wounds, but from lack of water or oxygen. But if they find anyone alive now, it would be a miracles.
It is probably a very perverse case of "I told you so", but when there were all these calls for blood donation in the afternoon on the day of the bombing, I told my friends that of the people who were not already in the hospital, nobody is coming out alive. Unfortunately I was right. They saved only about 10 people afterwards, out of 5000+.
Joe |
