NEW YORK, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Amid tight security, Vice President Dick Cheney, who has spent most of his time since the terrorist attacks in a secure location, was visibly moved as he, his wife Lynne, and his daughter Liz, visited "Ground Zero" in New York City Thursday.
"Like everybody else in the country, I watched what happened Sept 11. This is the first time I've had the chance to be back in New York since then and I'm trying to think if there's anything I've ever seen that rivals this," the vice president said. "Television is great but it doesn't convey the sense of destruction that clearly happened here. None of us has ever seen anything like this."
Cheney wore a jacket from the New York Fire Department with VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES on the back and a hat with the NYPD (New York Police Department) and FDNY on it, spoke with and signed the hardhats of the workers at the 16-acre site where the World Trade Center once stood.
Lynne Cheney's eyes appeared to fill with tears and she shook her head repeatedly as she surveyed the site where more than 5,000 people lost their lives.
"I've been in New York many, many times over the years," the vice president said. "I remember coming down here to this part of the city for the parade welcoming home the troops after Desert Storm."
The vice president also attended the annual Alfred E. Smith dinner, an $800-a-plate gala dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which raises money for Archdiocese of New York charities. He was asked by reporters if there wasn't a concern to have the president, who is in China, and the vice president both out of Washington on the same day.
"What we try to do obviously is to not bunch up ourselves," he said noting he would be back in Washington Friday.
New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Gov. George Pataki escorted the vice president and his family in New York City.
"We want to thank the vice president and Mrs. Cheney for coming and also convey to him our thanks and appreciation for his tremendous support and the support of the president," the mayor said.
"There hasn't been a single thing we've needed and asked for that we haven't gotten and more," Giuliani added even though White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels said Wednesday that the state's request for $54 billion will not be addressed this year.
New York was granted a $20-billion aid package out of $40 billion approved by Congress for New York and Washington after the attacks.
Pataki has initiated a hiring freeze statewide and said he hoped he does not have to lay off state workers or raise taxes. The state estimates it will lose $10 billion in revenue in the next two years because of a loss of business, income and sales taxes.
New York state's unemployment rate rose to 4.9 percent in September, up from 4.7 percent in August, but Stephen Kagann, chief economist for the Pataki administration, warned the that the September figures did not reflect the Sept. 11 attacks which left more than 100,000 in Lower Manhattan out of work. Since then 25,000 restaurant workers and others in the hospitality industry suffered lay offs because of the loss of tourists.
"Employment statistics from the New York Department of Labor for the month of September 2001 reflect little of the attacks but the effects should be more evident next month when the statistics for October 2001 are released," Kagann said.
However, Broadway has made a comeback after a couple of weeks of severe losses. Several shows closed due to the lack of an audience and performers took a 25 percent pay cut but this week almost 90 percent of the seats in Broadway shows were filled.
New security measures for the Capitol and Empire State Plaza, a complex of state office buildings in Albany, N.Y., where 30,000 people work, begin Friday. The state police will begin checking the identification of thousands of state workers and visitors. A photo ID and proper car tags will be needed to park in the underground parking lot under the complex and cars will be subject to searches and bomb-sniffing dogs.
According to city officials:
-- 4,515 people declared missing by the police
-- 458 have been declared dead
-- 408 bodies have been identified
-- 121 people declared dead in court
-- 1,665 death certificates applied
-- 285,365 tons of material and rubble removed
-- 23,473 truckloads of debris removed
-- 64,285 truckloads of steel removed
(Reporting by Alex Cukan in Albany, N.Y.)
