/ 1 January 2002

September 11 in numbers

Everyone knows 9 and 11 and their mournful association. Other numbers, too have meaning. They speak of the magnitude of that day, the tumult of the year.

There are small numbers, like four, which is how many autographed baseballs were found in the rubble of the World Trade Center. Or $5, the donation that a man from the poor African nation of Malawi scraped together to help the richest nation through its time of grief.

Middling numbers: 600 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Frustrating numbers: Zero confirmed reports this year of Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts.

The accounting of the last year is grotesquely precise in some ways, maddeningly fluid in others. It is known 19 858 body parts have been recovered from the World Trade Center in New York. It is not known, exactly, how many people died that day.

Just last week one person counted among the dead set the record straight. ”I’m not deceased, obviously,” said Sonia Chalco (30) who escaped from the 36th floor of the north tower and escaped, too, the notice of the counters for almost a year.

The latest death toll: 3 044, down by more than half since estimates made in the utter confusion of last September. The number includes 19 hijackers.

The statistics shed light on tender sensibilities, a hint of the despair of the early weeks. Clear Channel Communications, owner of the largest US radio network, made a list of 150 songs it suggested its stations not play. Among them, not only ”Leaving on a Jet Plane” by Peter, Paul and Mary, but John Lennon’s ”Imagine,” a peaceful yet melancholy song.

The numbers also speak of resolve and recovery. They said it would take six months, at least, to demolish the section of the Pentagon smashed by an airliner; it took one month.

Life goes on, the statistics say: 105 babies have been born to widows of September 11 victims.

Heroism was found in the numbers of the day: 343 New York firefighters killed, 60 of them off duty but rushing to help. Plus, 37 Port Authority officers and 23 from the New York Police Department.

Opportunism is illustrated in the numbers, too.

When the World Trade Center’s collapse messed up computers, the Municipal Credit Union in New York kept its cash machines running without all the usual security, knowing people would be in need. Credit union members looted $15-million, turning the ATMs into cash cows. As many as 4 000 overdrew their accounts by $1 000 or more; 66 were arrested on fraud charges last month. Count some blessings, too.

Some 2 600 Pentagon employees were in the immediate vicinity of the crash. Thanks to a recently reinforced framework, the section did not collapse for 35 minutes and most were able to get away. The crash killed 125 people in the building and all 64 in the plane.

The big numbers almost defy description – two 110-storey towers turned into 1,8-million tons of debris; $20-billion in direct losses in New York buildings, equipment and insurance exceeding the entire economy of Afghanistan; 83 000 lost New York jobs; twice that many people coming together in Washington under the proposed Homeland Security Department.

From the night of October 7 forward, many of the vital statistics were of America’s own making.

Fifteen hulking bombers, 50 cruise missiles, 25 strike aircraft – that and more stormed the skies over Afghan cities from land bases and ships at sea, the US answer to 9 and 11, joined by the British.

Thus began an assault that shredded the ruling Taliban militia’s defences, powered the Afghan resistance and scattered al-Qaida terrorists by raining more than 21 000 bombs on the country over a year, in a war costing America $2-billion a month.

Thirty-nine US soldiers have died, an unknown number of opponents and hundreds, if not thousands, of Afghan civilians. The struggle transformed Afghanistan from a terrorist training haven into an ally, with a very shaky government and many threats still to confront.

At home there was blood — 600 000 pints more than usual donated in September and October. One-third that number had to be thrown out because there were so few injured survivors.

There was sweat – a relentless ground zero cleanup completed three months earlier than expected, by workers laboring around the clock.

There’s no measuring the tears. – Sapa-AP