The numbered dead

One station, I don’t know which one, we’re constantly flipping around*, has a continuous crawl naming the victims known so far.

“I’d hate to be squinting at this stuff through my tears, hoping not to find the name I’m looking for,” I thought.

“There are too many people here for a double-page spread in Newsweek,” I thought a little later.

“Too many for a multi-page spread.”

“Maybe too many for a normal-sized magazine.”

Then I realized what that really means, and how it will motivate us.

What is the estimated total? I’ve heard 20,000; I’ve heard 50,000. How many have been identified so far? I heard on the radio that NYPD have requested 60,000 body bags.

Sixty thousand body bags.

SIXTY THOUSAND.

I don’t know what the final body count will be. But I do know that we’re looking at more than Gettysburg. Maybe as many as Vietnam. (Or was Vietnam in the six digits? I don’t have time to research these things.) There are small cities that have 60,000 people. Do any of us know 60,000 people?

There were 168 victims in Oklahoma City. There were thirty-something (depending on whether or not you count Harris and Klebold) in Columbine. I’m sure there are people in Oklahoma who, if you say, “Mrs. Oleander Twinklebop”, will say, “Oh…She was one of the victims in the Murrah building.” Many people in Littleton must have known all the victims. The teacher must have been known to every student, at least by sight.

There is no way this will go unanswered. Not when the dead number so many. How many Americans died in Desert Storm? We lost as many civilians yesterday as we could lose soldiers in a war. By that definition, this is war. And the first 60,000 enemy casualties don’t count.

And incomparable.

Just a minor note: 17 people died in Columbine, including the perpetrators.

The local news here is reporting that NYC requested 6,000 body bags, not 60,000. Maybe somebody mixed up a decimal point somewhere. (Not to take away from the rest of your post.)

I thought I heard six thousand body bags. The ticker at the bottom of CNN quotes someone as saying casualties will be “a few thousand”. I don’t know how many Allies were lost in the Gulf War. What did we lose in Vietnam? 55,000? In ten years?

The major networks are reporting that new york has requested 6,000 body bags not 60,000

On September 17, 1862, at the Battle of Antietam, 22,716 Americans (from both sides of the war) were killed or wounded. This was the single bloodiest day in all of American history.

Yesterday, it seems, could rival that…in deaths alone. I shudder at that thought.

There are 58,219 names on The Wall, Johnny.

Okay, six thousand. I was sure I heard four syllables: six-ty thou-sand, not six thou-sand. Maybe the announcer read it wrong.

Still.

It’s so hard to estimate. But the bad news hit my father’s company today. Of nearly 2000 employees in the WTC, they only know around 600 are alive. The company on the floor above estimates their loss at 800. It’s a bare minimum of 5,000 dead. Certainly higher.

KNBC-4, Los Angeles, just said that they’ve received word that 4,000 people in NYC are dead or missing. They say this is an initial number.

At 1 AM this morning, WABC radio reported that sources intimate with the construction and inhabitation patters of the World Trade Center believe that a conservative estimate of the total death toll, between those trapped in the building itself and the thousands in the underground mall/PATH train station, is in the ballpark of 30,000 people.

A conservative estimate.

If the plane had struck between fifteen minutes and a half an hour later, the damage would have been unimaginably worse.

Body bags don’t equall people.
TMI TMI TMI

If they find a body part like a leg or arm and no body is near the part will get it’s own bag for a while until it can be identified. (matching shoes or tatooes or jewlery)

The latest figure is 4,763 people missing at the WTC, according to Rudolph Giuliani. Add about 200 at the Pentagon plus the airline passengers to this.