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New York overflowing with charity, literallyCompiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, NEW YORK -- For the millions of people who are sending food, clothing and supplies to the city's relief effort, officials have one message: No more, thanks. Not now. So much food has been donated that some is being dumped, uneaten. New clothing is filling warehouses as far as 90 miles away in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Huge piles of bottled water are stacked along 14th Street, outside the Javits Center and near Chelsea Piers. Tons of dog food have arrived for the animals helping in the search. Volunteers are being told that for now, there's little they can do. Victims still need donations; cash preferredWASHINGTON -- Money is more useful than food, clothing or teddy bears for charities trying to help the victims, the rescuers and their families from Tuesday's terrorist attacks, leaders of national nonprofit groups said Saturday. Many Americans agree. Within three days, donations to the American Red Cross exceeded $21-million and the September 11 Fund formed by the New Community Trust and the United Way had collected more than $70-million. Those totals, raised online or in big donations from corporations and foundations, are expected to soar this week, as the first mailed donations pour in. But some scams have arisen, and some sincere efforts to help seem disorganized. Give only through people or groups that you know or have checked out, the leaders cautioned. The Red Cross said that it had become aware of unauthorized Web sites soliciting donations "allegedly on our behalf" and that it "will work with authorities to prosecute offenders to the full extent of the law." Team needs help reaching survivors' cell phonesWASHINGTON -- An emergency communications team is collecting cell phone and pager information that could help locate survivors in the World Trade Center rubble and weed out false reports of people trapped. Anyone knowing a potential victim's cell phone or pager was asked to call the response team's toll-free line: 1-877-348-8579. Once it receives the mobile number, the team can determine when the last call was made or the last page was sent and whether the transmission came from the area known as "ground zero." If a live call is received from the rubble, experts have equipment that could provide an approximate location of the signal. The Federal Emergency Management Agency would decide whether it was safe to dig there. Huge gold, silver deposits buried under WTC rubbleNEW YORK -- About 13 tons of gold worth an estimated $110-million and 30.2-million ounces of silver valued at $121-million are buried under the rubble at the World Trade Center, the New York Times reported Saturday. The precious metal was stored in vaults below 4 World Trade Center, one of the smallest buildings that collapsed in the attack on the twin towers, the newspaper said. It belongs to people or firms that trade futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The New York Times quoted James Newsome, acting chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, which oversees futures markets, as saying there was not much concern about the gold and silver "because the metal is secure and because there is ample supply." Warning: Nostradamus e-mails are a hoaxWithin hours of the terrorist attacks on Tuesday, demand grew for books related to the disaster: titles on terrorism, the Middle East and even the World Trade Center. But perhaps the biggest seller was Nostradamus, a 16th century prophet whose writings are believed by some to have foretold apocalyptic events like World War II and the AIDS epidemic. Some traced the interest in the prophet to the Internet, where Web sites and e-mail messages, quoting inaccurate and, in some cases, fabricated versions of the prophecies, promoted the false idea that Nostradamus had predicted Tuesday's attacks.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
