More Missing, as Return to Normalcy Urged

Sept. 23, 2001 -- With hope of finding survivors growing dimmer and the number of missing growing, officials are telling New Yorkers to defy terror with a return to everyday business.

"The ultimate victory in this war is when everyone whowants to can do what everyone of us did today," Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said outside of a television show taping, "and that is get up, let your children go to school, go out of the house and not in fear, stand here on a sidewalk and not worry about a truck bomb driving into us, and be able to be free in speech and thought and activity andbehavior. And that's victory."

Rumsfeld's remarks followed similar comments Saturday afternoon by former President Clinton and New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, as officials delivered grim statistics about the missing and dead from the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center. The number of missing was revised upward today from 6,333 people to 6,453 as officials removed duplicated names and added new names. As of Saturday, 261 people were confirmed dead, 194 of whom have been identified.

Another 189 people are missing or dead at the Pentagon, also the site of a terrorist attack by a hijacked jetliner. An additional 44 people were killed when passengers apparently struggled with hijackers in another plane, which crashed in western Pennsylvania.

Nevertheless, Giuliani told New Yorkers: "You can go back to your normal way of life. And I think you honor the people who are missing and the people who died if you did that. After all, they died to protect our normal way of life.

"Stop being afraid," he added. "Stop being afraid doesn't mean that you can get rid of the emotion. It means overcoming it. Just going out and doing the things that you normally do."

Return to Offices, Homes

As work continued at ground zero and passers-by looked on in a daze, many business owners and office workers waited in long lines this weekend to get police escorts into buildings nearby.

John Horran, an attorney, said the stuff he had to leave behind is now desperately needed.

"We're trying to get our business back to normal," he said. "So in order to go to court and make appearances we need our files back."

Many allowed to enter for a few minutes said dust blankets everything in most offices with open or broken windows. They say there's glass and paperwork scattered everywhere.

On streets in the neighborhood, a fine water mist rained down on many streets as window washers worked to spray the area's buildings free of the grime that had collected on windows and facades for days.

People who live in the area near the attack have been trying to go home, and Giuliani said a majority of people — 5,000 to 6,000 of the 9,000 to 10,000 displaced — have returned.

Red Cross shelters in the area that had been open since the attack were expected to close today. The Red Cross says it will still counsel people and assist as needed, but the demand for temporary housing dropped. Volunteers said people were getting back into their apartments after nearly two weeks and no longer need a place to stay.

Representatives of federal, state, city and volunteer agencies at the disaster site today said victims still in need of coordinated disaster assistance should contact the Federal Emergency Management Agency at 1-800-462-9029, or 1-800-462-7585 for the hearing-impaired, said FEMA's Mike Byrne.

"The types of assistance programs that are available from FEMA at this time are things like temporary housing," Byrne said. "If you've been put out of your home and you need temporary assistance, like a temporary hotel/motel accommodations, we will reimburse you for that."

‘Total Devastation’

The general public is now allowed to get within just a couple of blocks of ground zero. People stop and look in awe. Many climb onto benches or plaza planters to take pictures. The skeletal remains of the World Trade Center's South Tower loom above. Smoke still wafts from the stories-high pile of plaster, steel and concrete — with people buried underneath.

"Total devastation," said one onlooker as the weekend began. "I mean … I've never seen anything like it."

"When you see all the pictures on TV and hear it on the radio, you think of seeing Bruce Willis walking out of it," said another. "And then you're here and you know that it's reality, it's people's lives."

"We won't be able to find them, and you have to pay your respects somehow," another onlooker said.

Children pointed, as their parents groped to explain what was in front of them.

Today, thousands gathered at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx to pray for the missing and the dead at a special service. Thousands of others were expected to gather at minor league stadiums in the area.

James Earl Jones and Oprah Winfrey were emceeing the two-hour event, which began at 2:30 p.m. Singers such as Bette Midler, Placido Domingo and Lee Greenwood were performing, and religious leaders from various faiths spoke.

Slim Hopes for Survivors

But Giuliani said officials haven't turned the corner and given up hope of finding someone alive.

"On the slim chance that there is anyone still alive, [recovery workers] are conducting the operation so they would be able to save someone if that were the case," Giuliani said. "The mission is going to remain the same for some time. In other words, the firefighters and construction workers and police officers that are there are removing debris carefully in order to find human beings or human remains."

Capt. Stewart Willig of a Florida task force working with New York rescuers at ground zero said Saturday it's still possible for people to survive in the levels below ground.

"The oxygen level is fine, so people can breathe down there," he said. "The top floors we don't expect to find many survivors, but the lower floors that were pancaked down … we expect to find quite a few bodies and hopefully survivors down there."

But some rescue workers said hope is finally fading.

"I think everybody's losing a little bit of spark, the hope that they're going to find somebody as time goes on is realistically … going to be a fluke, I feel," one worker said.

ABCNEWS' Steffan Tubbs, Dorian Benkoil, Cheri Preston and Michael S. James in New York contributed to this report.