60 minutes rewind the devastation extends beyond the rubble of the world trade center it goes to
the heart of hundreds of communities in the suburbs of new york where families
are mourning the loss of loved ones who are still missing places like summit new jersey
in this town of 21 000 people about 3 000 of them 20 percent of the adult population worked as
bond traders investment bankers stock brokers and clerks in the twin towers and surrounding
buildings town leaders say as many as 50 of them may be unaccounted for there are few towns in
america as comfortable and seemingly sheltered as summit new jersey a community where everyone knows
his or her neighbors one reason people live here is because the ride to work is so easy
35 minutes by train to the world trade center
just outside the summit train station officials are keeping close watch of the parking lots
where some commuters who left on tuesday morning have yet to pick
up their cars a grim sign that they may never return
the other night across from the train station about 3 000 residents filled the
village green at a candlelight prayer service trying to comprehend the incomprehensible
i'd like to read as we begin from psalm 13
how long will this pain go on lord this grief i can hardly bear richard rosen came with
his wife and two children in this community they've snuffed out the lives of people who
coached their kids soccer who walked their kids to school went out to have a beer with
their friends and it just really gets right to the heart of this community and that's
you know it's just such a loss of the many parents who work in the financial district
one of them is michael mahern it could have been me i used to work in the world trade
center it could have been me it could very well be my children crying and my children
being brought food and my fellow children being worried about and being prayed over
ann grayerski's seven-year-old son gave no clue that he was aware of the attack until he drew this
picture that night of a plane crashing into the world trade center it makes me sad to think that
he's having to do when i don't think he's dealing with it he he is having to deal with in his own
little way i'm not sure just how to help him with that hear our tearful prayers for the lost
and injured during the service as the minister called out the names of dozens of people who are
still missing for david brady edward calderon for jim connors the magnitude of this disaster
on this small town hit home for tom glaser for bob lawrence for todd ranke todd ranke
a father of three young children worked as a bond salesman at sandler o'neill in the
world trade center tower number two on the 104th floor he calls every morning when he's at work
he was on the phone with his wife debbie when the first plane hit it was a little before 9 and
he called and said good morning have the kids how are you and he said oh my god
we've been hit something is the matter something happened boy that was loud
and i said todd get out of there i i see fire and it looks like it's very close to your building get
out so you were watching this on on just come on tv i had the news on i'm i always listened
to the news always and it just popped up and i said listen to me you've got to get out of there
and then i can't remember what happened next soon after that phone call the second plane smashed
into tower number two two of todd ranki's co-workers at sandler o'neill were killed
20 managed to escape 66 are still missing at this point you still have hope you haven't given up
oh no the reason i'm doing this interview is because i think he's out there and he
can't tell me where he is debbie came to us because one of her neighbors and friends in
summit is michael rodutsky a producer here at 60 minutes she asked his help in finding her husband
so on wednesday morning we set out with debbie and the family a dozen people in all over the
next two days they searched all across the city we just want to know when they will start identifying
unidentified people todd's three sisters are the leaders of the search party we have to be there
for todd and as debbie said the first night she said i know todd would be looking for me
we gotta walk you can't sit at home you gotta go keep searching and walking the streets and
learning what they're doing in the city i think we should just while we're here
cover that so we know we did we know we did it the men in the family say they know the women
won't give up they definitely have a mindset you know tunnel vision on finding todd ranke
nothing's going to take them off that course until they're exhausted and
they're going to collapse they're going to basically say they gave it their best shot
with thousands of people missing how do they find one man the morning after the disaster there was
no one list of all the dead injured and missing so they started going to hospitals nyu beth israel
cabrini no todd ranke must be hard to look at those lists it is but they had to keep looking
and then we're looking for other people who todd worked with if it was somebody else you've worked
with maybe if they're in a hospital maybe todd's there and just unidentified that's what you were
looking we were looking for other lists we just wanted to find somebody in his group to think that
if he got out then maybe todd got out the injured were taken to 130 hospitals in the new york area
by the time they got to st vinson's hospital late that afternoon they finally found the master list
with names of all the injured so far we don't have the name on the list every hour we update
the list right right have you gotten any names in the last four hours they have but as i said
we don't happen to have that particular that meant that so far todd ranke had not been found alive
it was too much for debbie to bear i think by the end of the day debbie
was tired we hadn't eaten or had anything you know you just keep walking and then when you
keep going and seeing the list and his name did not appear i think she fell apart and um
so we went home to regroup well what's been the toughest thing for you in all of this
looking at my brother's children i've seen his seven-year-old son
and he's a nine and 11 year old daughter well we walk in every night they greet us and they say we
call my dad my parents and the first thing they want to know is did you find them and we said we
said no but i think what our children are seeing we said we're going back tomorrow we are going
back to find them while the women took debbie home the men continued the search their first stop
chelsea piers a sports complex they'd been told the ice rink was being used as a temporary mower
they didn't find todd's body we're looking for the needle in the haystack my head
tells me i'm not going to find a needle but my heart's telling me to keep digging in the head
is that frustrating yeah that's a definition of frustration
early thursday morning the reinke family drove back into new york city by now the death toll
stood at 94 and hope was fading for the more than thousand people still listed as missing
along with thousands of others the rankings went to the armory where for the first time
there was a list that included the dead as well as identifiable body parts that is the
most disgusting thing i've ever done in my life is to look for my brother on a list which list right
hand you know nail biter people by their license plate number i mean their driver's license i said
it's it's like a war it's like looking at the the list of the dead from the war it is a disgusting
thing to do and i don't think i'll ever be able to look at a list of names again without thinking of
how many lists i've looked for the name reiki on and not seen it todd ranke was not on the list of
the dead or the list of injured at any hospital what do you do next i ask myself that every day
what can we do next and and we regroup and we keep calling hospitals we talk to people who can
put his picture out and and continue to look for and watch the news to see if
anybody else has been found and we come into new york every day looking for
that'll be answers
we're a strong group and we're going to get through this you can see that
oh god
on friday night back in summit new jersey family members and neighbors
put up a flagpole on the reiki's front lawn
todd jr raised the american flag and then the children lowered it to half staff