NEW YORK, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- The 16-acre site where the World Trade Center stood one month ago was still smoldering Wednesday as Gov. George Pataki and New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani gave 11 governors a tour of the devastation.
Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, viewing the still smoking rubble, remarked, "It's still burning four weeks afterwards."
Pataki took the governors of Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Washington and West Virginia for a brief visit to "Ground Zero" where about a 1,000 workers still sift through the rubble looking for bodies and body parts.
Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, accompanied by his wife, Marie, introduced her to a boyhood chum from rural Georgia he spotted working on the site with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
"I have to admit there's not a day goes by I don't get tears in my eyes," Edwin Sosebee, was heard telling the couple.
A dirt-and dust-caked firefighter, who later asked not to be identified, was heard telling the visitors, "We're just looking for closure (some remains for burial) at this point, a place to take the kids some of whom still believe in miracles," referring to hopes of families to find remains.
"Basically, what you have here is devastation," Police Officer Louie Flores said. "We lost a sergeant here. We're out here because, I believe, that we got together to see what we could find, so we could get something of him at the same time we are finding other people. It's devastating."
Flores, who has been on the site much of the past month, told reporters there was a notable difference from a month ago when "you couldn't walk the streets at all." His said he didn't think there could be anyone left alive, but quickly added "I don't know if I'm allowed to speak" to reporters.
"It's devastating," Flores repeated. "We're here. We're digging out. You can smell -- there's bodies there to pull out. We're pulling out what we can pull out. It's just been devastating. If we can pull something out and give some family some closure, then great, you know. You don't want to be here but this is what we are doing. We're finding people that were trapped under there."
Asked if he was finding anything recognizable, Flores said, "Now we're pulling out pieces. It's not even whole bodies everything is decomposing. We're finding bones, parts of bodies not bodies."
Asked about the mood of the workers on the site, he started to reply, but never finished, "It's not like in the beginning we were hopeful of finding people that survived and. I care. OK?"
A New York state Health Department spokeswoman told United Press International that the workers at Ground Zero must wear respirators and gloves because of the decaying bodies in the rubble.
"It's not a health hazard to handle decaying body parts as long as masks and gloves are worn," Christine Smith said. "However, it is not pleasant."
James Kallstrom, who led the FBI investigation of the crash of TWA Flight 800, was named by Pataki Wednesday to head a new state Office of Public Security as part of the state's $100-million security effort launched after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.
As director of the newly created cabinet position, Kallstrom will report directly to the governor and serve as a member of the governor's senior staff.
"With Jim Kallstrom's guidance, we will ensure that New York has the most comprehensive and well-coordinated anti-terrorism plan in the nation," Pataki said.
Kallstrom will be charged with developing a comprehensive statewide strategy to secure New York state from acts of terrorism or terrorist threats.
The office will be the primary contact with the newly created Office of Homeland Security headed by former Pennsylvania Gov. Thomas Ridge and will coordinate with counties throughout the state to ensure maximum preparedness.
Kallstrom, who worked for FBI from 1970 to 1997, is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and was a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War.
Both Senators from New York said Wednesday the $54 billion asked by Gov. George Pataki of the federal government to help New York City recover from the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center is a tall order but that they are committed to getting as much as possible.
"This is a very heavy lift, but working with the governor, the mayor and the congressional delegation, we will do everything humanly possible to get as much of this as we can," Sen. Charles Schumer said. "We have procured $20 billion of the $54 billion, but this list shows that New York needs and deserves significantly more."
Pataki wants $54 billion from the federal government to "Rebuild NY -- Renew America" -- an amount almost 70 percent of the state's annual budget of $80 billion.
Two major border crossings from Canada to New York and Vermont were closed Wednesday for seven hours because of a bomb threat to a business and a suspicious truck.
According to U.S. Customs, a male phoned and said the Deringer Customs Brokerage House in Champlain, N.Y., "would go boom." At the same time a bomb-sniffing dog was suspicious of a truck at the border crossing at Highgate, Vt. Police found nothing but the scare backed up traffic for hours.
Fifty individuals were declared dead Wednesday in the World Trade Center attack by State Supreme Court in Manhattan, at the request of their families.
"The Windows of Hope Fund" is for all the food service workers who were killed in the attack and many of them were not prepared for this financially, much less emotionally, so any support that you can give to the fund, the families will very much appreciate," said David Emil, owner of Windows on the World restaurant that was atop the south tower. He is a lead member of the Windows of Hope Oct. 11 Dine Out Committee, along with his executive chef Michael Lomonaco.
The announcement was made at Tribeca Grill, in Lower Manhattan, co-owned by actor Robert DeNiro.
"All of them were going about their lives innocently when they were viciously attacked by this barbarian act of terrorism," said Mayor Giuliani. "There are people with great needs, particularly people who were working at Windows on the World, other restaurants, retail establishments."
(Reporting by Alex Cukan in Albany, N.Y.)
