**FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh on NBC Today Show with Katie Curic**

**09/26/01**

COURIC: It is still technically a search and rescue mission at Ground
Zero, but is there any real hope of finding survivors at this point? Joe
Allbaugh is the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Joe, welcome back.

ALLBAUGH: Good morning, Katie.

COURIC: As you know, families can start applying for death certificates
for loved ones today.

ALLBAUGH: Yes, today.

COURIC: It\'s usually a long process. It can take up to three years for
missing persons. But, obviously, in this case, it will be expedited. We
saw that seven story facade coming down. It is not officially search and
recovery, but is the sad reality, Joe, that while it\'s not officially
being called that, that, in fact, is what it has become?

ALLBAUGH: I think that we\'re moving into this next stage slowly. Today
those those individuals are going to be showing up at Pier 94 starting
that process on death certificates. It will be a very, very sad day, the
next several days going through that, setting in the reality of what
they have to do in the future. Governor Pataki and Mayor Giuliani have
expedited this process to make it as

painless to those family members as they possibly can. But, nonetheless,
that\'s not going to take away the pain. It\'s going to be tough.

COURIC: I know it\'s going to be a very tough day for so many people.
What about some of those spots? Are there still any kind of areas where
rescue workers are looking in as possible, possible sites?

ALLBAUGH: Yes, ma\'am. They\'re looking into every area that they
possibly can and haven\'t found any survivors yet. They are recovering
bodies as we speak.

COURIC: But are there still parts of the wreckage, Joe, that they
haven\'t gotten to, in other words?

ALLBAUGH: There are very few parts. There are parts that they haven\'t
gotten to yet, but they will get to that over the next several days.
That\'s why we need to bring in the heavy equipment to start and
expedite that de-layering process to get to those few areas remaining
where folks may be, but time is working againstus.

COURIC: Meanwhile, I know that a lot of the debris, as Chip Reid just
said, 116,000 tons\--I know there\'s about\--more than a million, right?

ALLBAUGH: Right. We\'ve touched about 10 percent; 1.2-1.3 million tons,
and that may go up as well.

COURIC: The debris is being brought to an area where New York City
Police officers and other workers are painstakingly going through it to
try to find personal effects and other things that can identify the
victims; is that right?

ALLBAUGH: That\'s correct. The New York City Police, the FBI, ATF.
They\'re all working shoulder-and-shoulder going through the debris,
what\'s left, making sure that we haven\'t missed anything. It is a very
slow process. We\'re working with the Corps of Engineers to dredge out
an area near Pier 6 to bring in barges to help expedite the debris
removal as opposed to trucking everything out. That\'s what takes so
much time.

COURIC: You all are also working with something called GIS or
Geographical

Information Systems.

ALLBAUGH: Correct.

COURIC: Tell me how that\'s helping in the effort?

ALLBAUGH: Well, we brought in a team of individuals working with city
engineers to provide maps over the last two weeks, so when we have a
shift change, everyone knows where the hot spots are through thermal
imaging. Everyone knows\...

COURIC: In fact, we have a graph\--or actually we have a map that we\'re
shooting.

ALLBAUGH: Yes, there you go. That shows the hot spots where fires are
still burning. It also allows the city workers to inform the teams where
they\'re headed, where there may be pipelines, where there may be fuel
tanks for the safety of those rescuers. It\'s very, very dangerous.

COURIC: I was going to say that is extremely dangerous for the people
who are down there.

ALLBAUGH: They\'re heroes.

COURIC: Meanwhile, they\'re dealing with an awful lot being down there
every single day hoping against hope that they\'ll be able to make
some\...

ALLBAUGH: I was with a team yesterday from Colorado and Florida and they
had been in the rubble for about 20 minutes at a time. They keep running
into pockets of carbon monoxide which forces them back out of the rubble
and they have to take about an hour, an hour and 15 minute break after
they run into the carbon monoxide. A very dangerous situation and
they\'re doing extremely well and working as quickly as they can,
keeping in mind it is a crime scene and also

being respectful of those individuals who are still buried.

COURIC: Well, please give them all our gratitude for all the hard work
that they\'ve been doing.

ALLBAUGH: I will.

COURIC: Joe Allbaugh, Director of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management
Agency. Joe, thanks very much.

ALLBAUGH: You bet. Good to see you. Take care.