Federal efforts get financial firms back in business on Wall Street

New York City's financial district is back to work and the stock market is running again, thanks in part to the help of federal strike teams. Since last Wednesday, scientists and health officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have been helping financial institutions recover vital equipment and data from buildings damaged in terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center. "My responsibility is to evaluate the [buildings] for conditions that may be immediately dangerous so firms can get their people back into the buildings and get necessary equipment," said Andrew Confortini of EPA's New York area regional office. "We are trying to get them in a position where they can be trading again on Wall Street. You have firms down there indicating that if they don't have their records they would be losing millions and billions of dollars an hour." Confortini began coordinating efforts in the financial district at 7:00 a.m. on Sept. 12. He immediately called on the Coast Guard for assistance. The Coast Guard sent personnel from its Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Pacific stations, and from its coordination center in Elizabeth City, N.C. Financial institutions needing to get into their offices must first contact EPA. After that, a Coast Guard-led strike team goes on a reconnaissance mission to check for a variety of health hazards, including air contamination. With so much dust in the area and the uncertain structural safety of many buildings, EPA and Coast Guard officials did not want to check entire buildings. Rather, they went to specific floors as requests came in. "It's a very slow process. We have [had]to climb 20 to 25 stories to do air monitoring because someone had to get a computer file," said Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Todd Lyons. As of Sept. 18, EPA had received requests from 24 firms to visit 31 locations. They are now checking entire buildings. Since the size of the restricted area has been reduced and workers are back in the financial district, there are more people in the streets and more chaos, making the job tougher. "It's a devastating mess," said Confortini. "There are people running around. There's congestion in the streets. There's dust. People are moving everywhere. But our team is managing to get people safely where they need to go. That is what we are most proud of."