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Medford man joins crews at ground zero By BILL KETTLER Steve Watkins never dreamed his disaster-response training would be used to clear the destruction wrought by terrorists. The 46-year-old Medford man thought his debris-removal training might be useful after a flood or a hurricane. Last week he went to New York with a team from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help haul away the remains of the World Trade Center. "We've never had a mission like this one," Watkins said during a telephone interview. Two weeks after terrorists crashed airplanes into the tall skyscrapers, "there are still huge piles of rubble and twisted metal," he said. "The piles are easily five or six stories high, maybe 10 stories. "It's really hard to describe. It's nothing like a person could imagine." A 1973 Medford High School graduate, Watkins and other members of his debris-removal team have been assisting the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "We give guidance to FEMA on safety, efficient debris removal and equipment usage. We help them by being their eyes and ears." Watkins is assistant operations manager for the Rogue Basin Project. He learned debris-removal skills with other members of the Portland District of the Army Corps of Engineers to help communities clear the wreckage that accumulates in the wake of natural disasters. His team went to New York last week to join a small army digging out from the suicide attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center. "It's been non-stop debris removal," he said. "There's easily 300 to 500 pieces of equipment - enormous roller cranes, tracked excavators and trucks." Trucks haul the debris to a disposal site on Staten Island, across from Manhattan in New York harbor. "The shifts run 12 hours," he said, "and by the time we write our reports, it's a 14-hour day." Watkins said as many as 4,000 people are working at the scene, including police, firefighters, recovery teams, kitchen volunteers, Red Cross staff, chaplains and investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "It's just an enormous group of different agencies, state, federal and city." Watkins said the government agency workers and private contractors have shown a remarkable unity of spirit in the cleanup. "The fire department and police department and the contractors are working as one team," he said. "Everybody knows we're all trying to do a mission. It's all very friendly, very professional." Watkins said he expects to spend at least a month on the cleanup project. "It's not like anything I've ever seen," he said, "or anything I'd ever think I'd see." Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.