Attacks Paralyze New York

NEW YORK, Sept. 11, 2001 — -- The attacks on the World Trade Center plunged New York City into chaos, with Wall Street enveloped in smoke and dust, wounded people staggering around the streets, and the mayor ordering an exodus from lower Manhattan.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told ABCNEWS there was no warning before the attacks and there had been a "horrible number" of lives lost.

He said there was a "massive rescue effort" under way, and that the city's police, firefighters and emergency workers were "stretched to the limit." New York Gov. George Pataki mobilized the National Guard to help the city workers' rescue efforts.

Giuliani was in the area of the World Trade Center when the complex's two towers collapsed after being hit by commercial airplanes. "I saw people jumping out of the building," he said several times during the day, clearly shaken. "People that I know have died."

The city's emergency response center had been located in one of the towers, making it unusable. Giuliani and other officials had set up a makeshift headquarters in a building one block away when the first tower collapsed. As the tower gave way in a huge cloud of dust and debris, they were trapped for 10 or 15 minutes. "We found an exit, got out and walked north," the mayor said.

In addition to the two towers, a third, smaller building in the World Trade Center complex collapsed later in the afternoon.

St. Vincent's Hospital on the West Side of Manhattan was bearing the brunt of the injuries, Giuliani said. Officials at the hospital said they were mostly seeing "crushing" injuries, as opposed to the respiratory problems that were the most common complaint in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. They said thousands of people spontaneously showed up to donate blood.

Authorities set up a temporary morgue on the piers by the Hudson River, 5 miles north of the financial district.

Giuliani said there were as many as 2,000 rescue workers at the scene. He said officials had no information relating to the possibility of further attacks on the city, but were being vigilant. "The city is closed, the air space around the city is closed and we are on heightened alert," he said.