Stardate 20010913.0926 (On Screen): Mayor Giuliani has announced that some of the dead may never be found. I think that was an unpleasant but necessary thing to say. In fact, it is absolutely certain that hundreds of the dead will never be found. It's natural for people to want to get back the bodies of their loved ones, to really
know for certain what became of them. But in a disaster of this magnitude it isn't possible.
In particular, nothing will ever be found of the people who were on the jets or who were near (within a hundred feet of) the impact points. The violence of the impact would have destroyed their bodies, and whatever was left afterwards would have been incinerated in the resulting fire. Of those people there's nothing left but ashes, now spread all over New York City. I'm sorry to speak bluntly about this, but we have to be realistic. A human body is very easy to destroy, leaving no trace whatever. In this disaster, the number of "missing and presumed dead" (no trace ever found) will be vastly greater than the number of "confirmed dead" (i.e. people whose body parts are located and identified). (discuss)
