# FEMA BRIEFING FROM NEW YORK CITY AT 10:00AM BY

**TED MONETTE ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2001**

TED MONETTE:

My name is Ted Monette, the Federal Coordinating Officer

for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, I've been

appointed by the President and Director of FEMA to help

coordinate the Federal effort in this response. I think

the first thing I want to say is that every Federal employee who has
come onto this site shares in the concerns

for the families of the missing and we want to express our

thoughts and prayers to those that have been devastated by this event.
FEMA has been on site since day one with other

Federal agencies to respond to this emergency. And FEMA and those
Federal agencies are going to stay here just as long as it takes to
assist the City in getting this job done. We are working with the State
right now to support the City's efforts. We understand the tremendous
capabilities the City of New York has. We understand that we are here to
augment those capabilities and to make sure that we give them every
thing they need to get the job done. We do want to congratulate the City
for responding

in really two critical areas. The response has been tremendous in terms
of the rescue effort that they've had.

But the response has also been tremendous in terms of the

care for the families of the dead and those that are missing. Director
Allbaugh of FEMA has been here since day

one. He's had a presence here lending support both to the

Mayor and the Governor. He will be back here today to lend

that support again and stay as long as it takes to make sure that the
Federal effort is responding in the manner that meets the City\'s
expectations. As far as the Federal

and the State priorities right now, number one obviously is

continuing to support the rescue operations. We're doing that with the
Urban Search and Rescue Teams that have been

on site. Our second priority is working with the City to

assess the infrastructure damage, primarily with the Corps

of Engineers. Our third priority is assisting the City in

developing providing technical assistance to help the City

in developing the debris management plan to deal with the

results of the disaster. Our Urban Search and Rescue Teams

who working with the City with the Incident Commanders to

integrate those teams and they have been integrated into the overall
effort. We are supporting the medical needs.

We have four Disaster Mortuary Teams that are on site. We

have four Disaster Medical Teams that are on site. EPA is

continuing to monitor both hazardous materials and environmental issues.
The Corps of Engineers continues their coordination with CONED on
commercial power restoration. As far as search and rescue is concerned
we have brought in eight of the search and rescue teams. They are on
site right now. There are 28 teams in the Country.

We've got other teams that are going to be rotating in, so

there will be a continual presence of fresh urban search and rescue
teams both people and equipment as long as they are needed. The Army
Corps of Engineers, we have provided

mobile tactical operations center down to the site for the

fire department for incident commanders. We've got two of

those in use right now. FEMA's mobile emergency response

system, the emergency communications network, has been set

up to tie those command posts together. They will be on site as long as
needed. Structural engineering teams are

working with the City to evaluate again the buildings in

danger of collapse to make sure that those structures are

safe. EPA again is taking steps to insure the safety of

emergency responders. They have monitoring units on site

to insure the quality of the air. They are responding, we've got
decontamination units that are on site right now

and we're ordering additional decontamination units to be

prepared to decontaminate both the people and equipment from the site as
they move in and out of that location.

Operationally right now that's about what we've got on the

Federal Government's side of the house. Are there any questions?

[QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION:]{.underline}

Q. Do you have the approximate number of personnel

you have?

TED MONETTE:

Are you talking about Federal Personnel on site right now?

Q:

Yes.

TED MONETTE:

Probably in excess of 3,000.

Q:

Three thousand.

Q.

> In talking about the eight urban search and rescue teams, what kind of
> expertise do they bring to the
>
> Table that the fire fighters and volunteers ...

TED MONETTE:

They provide the same kind of expertise that the fire department has.
They are bringing additional dog teams

in. They've got sensors. Probably the technology is what

they bring to the table. I'm not an expert. We've got

somebody following me whose a member of those search and

rescue teams and that's probably a better question for her

to respond to and give you additional information.

Q.

.... From rescue to recovery?

TED MONETTE:

That's a tough question, and we were with the Mayor and Governor last
night. We're going to stay in a rescue and

a response mode for as long as it takes until we're sure

that we've done everything possible. We provided every

resource in there to insure that -- we don't want to hurry

it up. That's the best thing I can give you. As long as

there is hope we're going to continue that effort. The City's going to
continue it. The State's going to continue it. Those Urban Search and
Rescue Teams are going to continue it. And in the best judgment of all
of the professionals at some time in the future they will make that
decision as to when we go into recover.

Q.

.... Buildings around that....

TED MONETTE:

I don't have that information. I think that question is probably better
asked by the City who has had their engineers and the Corps of Engineers
assisting them.

Q:

....

TED MONETTE:

The air quality testing. I talked with the EPA folks, they

briefed at the City's conference yesterday. The air quality is fine.
There have been different...

Q:

....

TED MONETTE:

The best that I can give you is there's no problem with the air. It's
safe for the folks that are working down in that

area right now.

Q:

> I understand that you have contractors down there. You're working on
> bids now to start closing buildings down there \_\_\_ week from now.

TED MONEET:

That I think is a City operation. Right now the Federal Government has
no contractors down in that area. The contractors working there under
the control of the City.

They've got four prime contractors working on the debris

management and the debris execution plan. And everything that we've been
told yesterday from both the Corps of Engineers who have been working
with them on the technical side, and FEMA's Senior Debris Experts is
that operation is

going very smoothly.

Q:

> But they will be setting charges and bringing buildings down?

TED MONETTE:

I do not know that.

Q:

How long do you think this ....

TED MONETTEL

Excuse me. Are you talking about the debris operation?

Q:

...

TED MONETTE:

## That is correct. We're providing assets to the City for 

their use. And we are incorporating those assets into their command and
control structure, especially the urban

search and rescue teams. This is the City's operation.

We're here to support them and provide whatever resources

they need.

Q:

> What are you up against? Can you give us the scope of the task at hand
> there?

TED MONETTE:

The scope of the task at hand is obviously, as I said on the priorities.
Number one is the rescue effort that we've got to worry about. And the
debris removal, the scope of that is probably, probably months. We're
not sure how long

it's going to take but it's going to be a very, very deliberate, a very
methodical process to make sure that the

sensitivity of that site is addressed as well as the realities of having
to take care of the infrastructure

part of it.

Q:

...might be some people alive? ....

TED MONETTE:

I really don't know that. I really don't know that. I think that
question was addressed and as the days go on

I think the hope gets less but I think everybody just keeps

hoping that they can find pockets. And I think as long,

as long as hope\'s there they'll keep trying to make it

happen. Go ahead.

Q:

...

TED MONETTE:

I think I've already addressed that over here with that question. That
the City's engineers are working that and

that's probably the better source to get that information

from.

Q:

What ... be worried about?

TED MONETTE:

The contaminates that I'm aware of right now, in one of the buildings I
think there was a large quantity of Freon. EPA

is addressing that. Again the exact technical part of that

I can't address but that's one contaminate I'm aware of.

Q:

> How long does thing like this takes to clean up? How much longer...?

TED MONETTE:

Conjecture but I've heard estimates of three and four months. And that
may not be enough. But again that process has been outlined by the City
and by the Corps of

Engineers. I mean they've removed, I forget the exact number but
thousands of tons of debris already. They've got a process that's
working. They're talking about some

Extraordinary measures of even moving further up the uptown. Putting in
a conveyor belt system, in there

probably to handle some of that to get it loaded on

barges. So, there are a lot of good things working

right now in order to accommodate the needs. Go ahead.

Q:

You mentioned the Freon, do you know which building?

TED MONETTE:

I have no idea.

Q:

....

TED MONETTE:

I wish I had it. I think the figure was, I can't give it to you, 600,000
tons, comes to my mind. That may or may

not be right.

Q:

....

TED MONETTE:

I have no information on that.

Q:

What is the role FEMA here?

TED MONETTE:

The role of FEMA is really to provide assistance and support to both the
State and the City effort in both

the response phase of this disaster and also in the

long term recovery. We've got programs right now that

will deal with individuals effected. We're working with the Department
of Justice and FEMA. FEMA offers programs

in normal disasters. Right now the Department of Justice

with their Victims, I'm not sure of the exact acronym, but

the Victims of Crime organization also offer programs. We're going to
work with them together to design a package

that give the best possible assistance to the families of the victims as
we go on.

Q:

> Mr. Monette, can you put this in any sort of prospective? You know,
> disasters are .... Can you compare it to something else that happened
> in the
>
> United States...?

TED MONETTE:

No you can't compare this to anything we've ever done.

This is, you know, we've had the \_\_\_\_ earthquake which

dollar wise was huge but I think this fails in comparison.

I think, I think a good part of this is that at the City

Level, the State level and the Federal level those that have been in the
emergency management business for a long

time, the training that was done, all of the exercising,

the response to the smaller disasters, when this disaster

happened that whole team pulled together quickly and effectively. They
are here now, they're going to stay here, and just make it happen.

Q:

What can FEMA do to help some of the business owners,

the developers ...?

TED MONETTE:

I think we've got the Small Business Administration that's here right
now, already on site. They are running workshops in some of the area. At
one of our future press

conferences we'll have somebody from SBA here probably to address the
business community issues.

Q:

....

TED MONETTE:

Excuse me.

Q:

....

TED MONETTE:

I don't have that exact number. We'll have that for you later on this
afternoon at our next session.

Q:

...

TED MONETTE:

No, I think the Mayor's Office is the best place to get those figures.

Q:

...tell us the exact number of people here from ...?

TED MONETTE:

Yes we'll be able to provide that. We should have, we'll probably have
better figures on that later on this afternoon, a little more exact than
what I gave you earlier.

Q:

Who's in charge of this operation? I mean how ...?

TEN MONETTE:

Okay. As far as the City level obviously the Mayor is running that
operation. The Governor's involved here.

As far as FEMA is concerned, I've been appointed as the

Federal Coordinating Officer to head up the Federal effort.

Director Allbaugh will be on site again. He was here initially. He will
be really for the initial phase of response. Those are the folks that
are making this happen.

Q:

> Do you have any idea, is there a time frame, how long do you think
> it's going to take to clean up this?

TED MONETTE:

I think I addressed that before. The estimations are up to three to four
months maybe. Okay. Thank you very much. We'll be back at 5 o'clock this
evening. Before we break up, let me introduce Cathy Schiltz from the
Missouri Urban Search and Rescue Team. You had some questions on

the more technical aspects of search and rescue. And I think she'll be
available to help out with that. Cathy.

Q:

...

TED SCHILTZ:

Federal Coordinating Officer.

Q.

Thank you, sir.

TED SCHILTZ:

Okay. Thank you very much.

Q:

> Could you please explain to us where is it you all expect, hope you'll
> find people alive in the...?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

I'm not sure of that. We are, we get staged at an area

and we're told where they would like us to go to. And

so we don't, we don't do a freelancing. We're working

for the local fire department here. And they'll let us

know were we are needed.

Q:

Based on your experience, what's your expectation now

what you might find?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

Well we're always optimistic. I mean, I know the only thing that I can
look at is that I know in Mexico City

they found people even after ten days. And so we're holding out hope. I
mean that's why we're still here.

Q:

> .... might be pockets of air in the basement, the parking lot?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

That's what they are going on. They are really hoping that there is.
Yes.

Q:

> Typically why type of areas would need to be created for people to
> survive?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

I don't know of the \_\_\_ of that. I mean we're just looking

for pockets ...

Q:

> But when you get in there, I mean, there are usually certain areas
> were they're enough space and enough air. I mean, ... would be able to
> survive?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

That's really hard to say. I mean, when we find them we'll yes. They
survived in that space. But at this point, I can't tell you. It's got to
be big enough and there's got to be some air coming in for them.

Q.

What have you seen so far...?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

What we've been doing mostly is the top of the pile. Working the
structure in between the beams, the metal,

we're on night shift and a little tired. And so just a lot of twisted
metal. I mean there are void spaces in between it. I know that they've
been digging out some areas and then they'll find a hole. They'll ask
the dog to come in

and search it, look around, or smell. And then if they are

interested in it at all, you know, they'll dig a little further.
Sometimes they'll, we'll ask them to dig a little

further anyway so that the dog needs get, you know, as close to the
scent-source as possible for them to work.

Q:

> Is there a problem with the dog though, the frustration of not finding
> life ...?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

There's really not. The dogs are trained. We have our, we

set up our own piles at home. We work a lot of negatives also along
with, you know, finding a positive. And the handlers really need to
watch their dogs, and as long as they're watching them and they're
seeing them that okay it's not fun for them anymore. Because the dog
doesn't understand that it's a disaster and that lives are a stake.

And we need to keep it light for the dog so that he keeps

Working, that his reward is finding the victim. They may just need to go
back when they have some quiet time and set up a mock thing like we do
at home in training so they can...

Q:

It's a game for them?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

It is, yes, for the dogs. I amen not for us.

Q:

We understand that you are looking for a portable xray

> machine now because some of the dogs are being injured.

CATHY SCHILTZ:

I wasn't aware of that, but I know that the dogs in our team have been
fine. We don't have any cuts. You know there's a little bit of stress
for them but not, nothing

Major.

Q:

> ... recovery in other.... But the fact is that most of those
> situations ....

CATHY SCHILTZ:

That's true. That's true.

Q:

...

CATHY SCHILTZ:

We're kind of learning as we go. I mean this is, this is all new to, you
know, a lot of us that, you know, it's a...

we don't have very many terrorist attacks and disasters in the United
States. And so, you know, we train for it the

best we can and we're all learning as we go.

Q:

The name of your dog and the breed?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

His name is Hawk, and he's an Australian Shepherd.

Q:

How old is he?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

He will be nine in November.

Q:

Pretty old for ...

CATHY SCHILTZ:

Yes, he's getting ready to retire. I have another one started that
should be certified hopefully by this fall.

Q:

...

CATHY SCHILTZ:

We were deployed on Tuesday, and we arrived here in New

York on Wednesday and we went to work Wednesday night.

Q:

And how has....

CATHY SCHILTZ:

He's done very well. He's had a little bit of stress \_\_\_right off,
just to make sure that he'll be able to go

the rest of the time that we're here, rather than working

to hard. And the handlers have to be just very aware not only be
responsible for ourselves which all the rescue crews are doing, but
then, you know, we've got somebody else we have be responsible for who
can't tell us that they're feeling bad or that they're stressed.

Q:

How do you see that generally? What do you...

CATHY SCHILTZ:

With the dogs we kind of watch their body movements. We spend an awful
lot of time, these dogs everywhere with us.

And you know if don't want to play any more. If they, you know, if
they're not eating. They typical things actually that you would see in
people too, the personality changes...

Q:

When were you told to be ready to pack it in?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

Tuesday morning I was actually watching....

Q:

> No I mean the other end. When do they we're not going to be needing
> you here any more?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

I don't know. We wait until they let us go back.

Q:

> They've given you no indication how long you're going to...

CATHY SCHILTZ:

It's not our.... No.

Q:

Were you at Oklahoma City at all? Or at....

CATHY SCHILTZ:

No. And actually that's what got me interested in it. I was watching
Oklahoma City. We did go to Oklahoma for the

\_\_\_\_ tornado. He was deployed there.

Q:

Can I get your name and where you're from?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

Cathy Schiltz and we're from Columbia, Missouri.

Q:

Cathy KATHY?

Q:

....

CATHY SCHILTZ:

It is. The only other one, \_\_\_ we've been to was Oklahoma for the
\_\_\_ tornado and the day that, when we went there it

was more of a body recovery \_\_\_.

Q:

...

CATHY SCHILTZ:

They do have filtered masks. We kind of watch them. We have some spray
bottles of something like saline solution

that we try and keep their noses and their eyes clear.

Q:

Cathy, could you spell your last name please?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

SCHILTZ.

Q:

> What is it like now compared to when there on Wednesday?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

I think it's good. People are still optimistic. They're getting in there
working. They're working together with the fire department. I think
we're making a good bond there. People are, you know, it's brought the
Country

together. I mean it's really, people are here, the task

forces are here from all over the United States, and working with the
local team, the fire department here. And

I think it's, you know, we all feel that if it happened in

our hometown that we'd like people there helping us too.

Q:

How many dogs are .....?

CATHY SCHILTZ;

I don't know that. They may have the numbers. I know that we have four
per each team.

Q:

Cathy, were are from again?

Q:

Your name again?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

Cathy Schiltz.

Q:

Spell the Cathy?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

CATHY SCHILTZ.

Q:

And where are you from?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

I'm from the Missouri Task Force, from Columbia, Missouri.

Q:

What's the name of your dog?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

His name is Hawk. Thank you very much.

Q:

How long are the stretched that you're working?

CATHY SCHILTZ:

We're working 12 hour a day. Twelve on and twelve off.