Boeing 757 at the only part of the Pentagon that already had been
renovated in an 11-year, $1.2 billion project meant to bolster it against
attack. That significantly limited the damage and loss of life by slowing
the plane as it tore through the building and reducing the explosion's
reach.
In the renovated section outside the immediate crash zone, most damage was
caused by smoke and water that poured out of brand-new sprinklers. Many of
these offices are occupied again.
But there was extensive fire damage hundreds of feet away in unrenovated
areas that had not yet had sprinklers installed. The fire was so intense
it cracked concrete.
That meant a 100-yard wide piece of the Pentagon's western face had to
come down, including all five floors and three of the building's five
rings. In all, trucks carted off 47,000 tons of debris -- six percent of
the building.
The demolition took just one month and a day, aided by 24-7 work hours and
landfills that stayed open all night.
Weary workers celebrated the day they finished, Nov. 19, by placing a
Christmas tree on the roof. It marked a turning point toward the positive:
They would now stop tearing down and start building up.
The reconstruction is expected to cost over $700 million and take until
spring 2003. The most immediate -- and ambitious -- goal is to rebuild the
outermost ring of offices by the one-year anniversary of the attack, when
a memorial is to be dedicated.
Slabs of Indiana limestone cut to exactly match the original exterior
started arriving two weeks ago, said Will Bybee, president of the Bybee
Stone Co. in Bloomington, Ind. The new section eventually will require
18,000 cubic feet of stone, carved from the same vein, though not the same
quarry, as the original.
Rebuilding the lives of the critically injured and those who lost loved
ones will be much harder.
Some relatives of those killed are coping by forming advocacy groups to
represent their interests on Capitol Hill and elsewhere.
Also, 110 people were injured in the attack, including the eight severely
burned, said Navy Cmdr. Yvette Brown Wahler, director of the Pentagon
Family Assistance Center. Some have gone back to their jobs, but the
Pentagon was unable to say how many.
Dr. Marion Jordan, chief of the Hospital Center's burn-treatment facility,
believes all of the eight will eventually be able to care for themselves
and do at least some of the things they love. Some will now start
recovering relatively quickly.
For others, it will take many, many months. Civilian accountant Louise
Kurtz, the last to be discharged on Dec. 17, was burned over 70 percent of
her body and lost all her fingers and parts of both ears, Jordan said.
Others also lost many fingers or were burned deep into tendon and muscle,
he said.
Leaving the hospital, however, was a huge first step toward reclaiming
their lives.
``We celebrated each one of them leaving,'' Jordan said. ``I don't get a
whole lot of rest or peace of mind until I see the backs of them going out
the door.''
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press