REMEMBERING 9/11/01
'U' leaves mark at memorial-
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 11, 2002 - 5
GROUND ZERO
Continued from Page 1
He added that he has driven and walked within a few
blocks of Ground Zero over the past months, but was
never able to force himself to see the actual site.
Some visitors said seeing the site in person had a
greater impact on them than when they watched the
images on TV or saw camera shots of the site.
"Seeing it on TV is only one thing," said Anthony
Merck, who was visiting the city from Utah.
"I remember watching the buildings fall on TV, but I
don't think any of that hit me as much as seeing that
open space."
Looking toward Ground Zero, Stalin Rummel said,
"It means the end of innocence."
"It means we are no longer as invincible as we
thought we were."
Stalin said he pays more attention to international
affairs today than he used to. Ground Zero and the sur-
rounding areas also draw people from many different
nationalities.
At St. Paul's Chapel, across the street from Ground
Zero, flags with messages scrawled on them express
support from many corners of the world, including
Norway, Great Britain, Poland, Italy, Japan, South
Korea, Canada, the Dominican Republic and the Uni-
versity of Michigan.
Inside a maize block "M" are the words "1,800 miles
18 days/Ride to remember 8-9-02."
At the tip of the M, the name "Meredith" is written
in ballpoint pen.
Airport security increased,
but travel remains heavy
By Elizabeth Kassab
Daily News Editor
NEW YORK - Airline customers traveling the day
before the one-year anniversary of Sept. I1 faced a chain of
security screenings before being allowed to proceed to their
gates, but neither the heavy security nor the events of last
year seemed to faze most passengers.
A number of technicians and supervisors guided passen-
gers through the line of metal detectors, X-ray machines,
shoe check stations and random searches. Armed military
personnel oversaw the process at LaGuardia International
Airport.
All of these security measures are part of federal regula-
tions introduced after last year's terrorist hijackings.
"It makes a uniform set of standards throughout the
nation," Dennis Negri, supervisor of security at
LaGuardia, said.
But Christian Ott, a project manager from Virginia who
said he travels about once a week, said he has noticed slight
differences in the intensity of security measures at various
airports. Larger cities tended to have more security.
"At other airports you don't see the National Guards,"
he said, adding that he was not surprised by their pres-
ence at LaGuardia yesterday. "I'm not sure if it's the date
or the area."
Negri would not comment on how many security person-
nel work at the airport each day or whether yesterday's secu-
rity presence was differsent from the norm.
Ott, who is originally from Germany, said U.S. security
measures today are similar to what they were in Germany
even before the terrorist attacks.
"I think they got more serious after the last year, and I
think there are definitely some gaps, but I feel pretty com-
fortable with the whole thing," Ott said.
The new process of scrutinizing everything from trav-
elers' carry-on luggage to their footwear has not partic-
ularly lengthened the time it takes to get through
security, Negri said.
"It wasn't too bad," said Erin Mineo, an Australian native.
"It's not as strict as I thought it would be, but still very thor-
ough." Mineo said it usually takes her about 15 minutes to
clear security at U.S. airports.
The memories of last year's events have not kept
Americans grounded today. Spirit Airlines announced
last month that it would not charge passengers to fly on
Sept. 11. "All of Spirit's 13,000 seats were booked,"
said Laura Richeson, a spokeswoman for the airline.
Photos by EMMA FOSDICK/Daily
Travelers wait for their flight yesterday in a terminal of LaGuardia Airport in New York City. In light of the tragic
events of one year ago, security measures at airports nationwide were increased.
Ann Arbor
company
helps with
victim IDs
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) - An
Ann Arbor software company has had
the daunting task of identifying vic-
tims from the Sept. 11 attacks on the
World Trade Center.
The city of New York hired Gene
Codes Corp. to match DNA extracted
from 20,000 pieces of human bone
and tissue at Ground Zero to the list
of 2,801 missing persons.
"We had the software working for
the first time," Howard Cash told the
Detroit Free Press for a story today. "I
can remember being in front of the
computer, matching 40 pieces of one
person to the DNA from his tooth-
brush.
"That was a very emotional
moment for me. I suddenly realized I
had 40 pieces of the same guy here,
the same man, and I know who it is,
and at this particular moment in time,
I'm the only person in the world who
knows that."
The collapse of the towers a year
ago had burned bodies so badly that
most could not be identified by dental
records or other typical means. How-
ever, New York officials vowed to
identify and return as many human
remains as possible to the families of
victims.
As of yesterday, the New York med-
ical examiner had identified 1,402
Ground Zero victims. Most identifica-
tions had been made by matching
DNA from Ground Zero remains to
DNA from victims' relatives or from
victims' personal effects such as
toothbrushes and razors.
With the assistance of Cash's soft-
ware and advances in chemical extrac-
tion of DNA from tiny samples, the
medical examiner hoped to ultimately
identify 600 more victims.
The computer program sorts and
compares data from three different
types of DNA tests on 20,000 partial
human remains, to DNA from 3,000
cheek swabs of victims' kin and 8,000
personal effects.
Last October, Dr. Robert Shaler,
director of forensic biology for the
Chief Medical Examiner's Office in
New York, challenged Gene Codes to
take on the identification project.
Cash hired a dozen new people
and put nearly the entire company
on the project.
They delivered the first version of
-11 L 1-