Home    News    October

News from the Keweenaw Peninsula October 2, 2001 Photo and Text © 2001 Michele Anderson

Stupak, bipartisan House delegation visit New York devastation

WASHINGTON -- Members of a bipartisan House of Representatives delegation visited the site of the former World Trade Center on Oct. 1 as a fact-finding mission. However, for Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, and other House members, the trip was a deeply emotional experience.

Congressman Stupak assists northern Michigan residents in getting items from the U.P. to disaster workers for the Pentagon and New York. Pictured here are, from left, Jerry DuBord; Shannon Seymour; Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee; Former State Rep. Paul Tesanovich; Ed Janisse, general manager, WCUP-FM, L'Anse; Mike Dubord, general manager, WDBC-AM, Escanaba. (Photo courtesy Rep. Stupak's office. Reproduced with permission.)

New York Mayor Giuliani and New York Gov. George Pataki led Stupak and other representatives through the 15-acre ruins of seven major buildings and a Greek Orthodox Church, where they viewed first-hand the unimaginable damage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the magnitude of the cleanup effort.

"Indescribable devastation, unbelievable devastation," Stupak said on the return trip to D.C. Monday, and compared it to history book photos of damaged cities in World War II.

"In our briefings by the mayor, the governor, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials and New York emergency personnel, we learned it will still be one or two weeks before New York begins to function anything like normal, and cleanup could take as long as 12 more months," Stupak said.

Even after three weeks, he noted, there are still hot spots in the wreckage that flare into substantial fires when debris is lifted and oxygen can flow to the spot.

"It was just unbelievable," Stupak said. "Your eye never left the smoldering fires, the heavy equipment trying to move huge steel and iron beams -- and workers just doing their best, in a very somber manner, trying to recover as many bodies as they can while at the same time to look for hard evidence of the terrorist attack to associate it back with those who are responsible."

The hellish scene was matched by hellish statistics -- more than 5,200 reported missing, and 343 firefighters and 80 police officers who lost their lives in the collapse of the buildings.

Most firefighters were lost because they had set up a command post on West Street, which runs along the Trade Center, Stupak said, but their proximity to the scene enabled them to save an estimated 25,000 people. 

"I saw the scenes today first-hand, but it only reconfirmed for me that the public safety workers of New York City -- its police and firefighters and emergency services personnel -- are heroes in this war against terrorism," Stupak said.

The mayor and governor thanked members of Congress for their strong bipartisan support of assistance for the city and help throughout the crisis.

Stupak, who has taken part in four separate northern Michigan drives in the past two weeks to collect money and material for the relief effort in both New York and Washington, said these donations are much appreciated.

He mentioned such local efforts as fundraising for the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, a check for $500 from the Iron Mountain High School Class of 2001 and the recent “Freedom First” Sunday in Negaunee.

"These gifts are welcome, but I hope each family will make donating -- whether blood, money, clothing or time -- a part of their daily lives now and in the future."