Thursday, February 4, 2010

More WTC remains may soon be found

From Staten Island Advance:

The city will soon transport six to seven truckloads of possible World Trade Center remains for hand sifting at the shuttered Fresh Kills landfill, Borough President James Molinaro said today.

Molinaro said he was notified by city Sanitation officials last week of the transfer in the coming weeks of some 844 cubic yards of material from a sub-basement of one of the towers. He said he was not told which one.

In a memo obtained by the Advance today, authored by Deputy Mayor of Operations Edward Skyler, Skyler said the material “was excavated over the past two years from the following areas in and around the WTC site: NY State Route 9A (West Street); the Haul Road; Cedar Street; Washington Street; Vesey Street; the rooftop of Fiterman Hall, and various subterranean structures.”

The hand-sifting for human remains will begin in April and be completed in early July, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), which will oversee the operation at a cost of $1.4 million.

The Skyler memo says the OCME will “utilize its forensic mobile sifting platform” at Fresh Kills.

“Anthropologists and other trained professionals will carefully evaluate and search the estimated 844 cy of material gathered since December 2007 for any potential remains,” the memo says. “Any potential remains recovered will proceed to OCME laboratories for further testing.”

An estimated 1,123 victims who were slaughtered by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001 have not had their remains identified.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The World Trade site has been a disaster after disaster. The families of the good folks who died at that sacred place don't deserve more suffering like this, may the dead all rest in peace.