New York agencies expect few, if any, federal fatalities

Federal officials in New York were unaware of any federal employees who had been killed or injured in Tuesday's terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as of Friday morning. As of late Friday, the Treasury Department was still searching for "a few" of its 1200 employees housed in the World Trade Center complex, said Jimmy Gurule, the agency's undersecretary of enforcement. Treasury had four agencies with offices in the World Trade Center complex: the Customs Service, Internal Revenue Service, Secret Service, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Treasury officials would not specify the home agency of the missing employees. Earlier Friday, Customs spokeswoman Erlinda Bird said the agency had accounted for all 760 employees who worked in the complex. Cynthia Gable, executive director of the New York Federal Executive Board, which includes the top executives of all federal agencies in the city, said no agencies with offices in World Trade Center Buildings No. 6 and 7 had reported any injuries or fatalities yet. "To the best of my knowledge--and I've spoken to all the agencies but one [or] maybe two in the [complex]--we have not had any injuries and fatalities to any federal employees," said Gable. The IRS had audit teams in the 110-story twin towers at the time of the attack, but all members of the teams made it out safely, according to IRS spokesman Bruce Freeland. Freeland could not say how many IRS employees made up these teams. The Federal Executive Board coordinates the emergency response of agencies in the field. When the Alfred P. Murrah federal building was bombed in April 1995, LeAnn Jenkins, executive director of Oklahoma's Federal Executive Board provided officials with the names of employees and agencies in the building. But the scope of destruction in lower Manhattan has made it difficult to get a firm count of federal employees who might have been hurt by the attack, according to Beatrice Disman, chair of the New York Executive Board. "Everyone has to understand the effort right now is rescue and to deal with survivors," said Disman, who is also a regional director with the Social Security Administration. "The head count is not the issue. At this point in time [New York federal executives] need to deal with their [operational] issues." Disman described a host of issues agencies faced as they struggled to get back to work. The borough's main cluster of federal buildings in lower Manhattan is still cordoned off, forcing agencies to set up shop at branch offices around the city. Disman, whose normal office is at 26 Federal Plaza, has taken a team of SSA employees to an agency office near Grand Central station in midtown. Disman is working with the General Services Administration to determine when they can return to 26 Federal Plaza, which is serving as temporary headquarters for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. From the Federal Plaza office, SSA employees saw the second airliner come up the Hudson River as it approached the twin towers. A number of employees rushed over to help in the rescue, Disman said. Disman herself was in Columbia, Md., when the attack came on Tuesday. She returned to New York by train Tuesday night. "I have to tell you when we pulled up outside the train station, nothing could prepare you for the smoke over the city of New York or the view of Manhattan without the twin towers."