Hoping For Best, Expecting Worst

“I guess this is just one of those situations where you sit and hope for the best and expect the worst."

That’s the way a man named Pedro summed up the desperate search by families for their loved ones, believe lost in the attack on the World Trade Center.

CBS News Correspondent Tracy Smith, reporting from New York's Bellevue Hospital, said many families were going from hospital to hospital for news about loved ones. Most came away empty handed.

Pedro's father worked at the top of the trade center. "My younger brother, he's running around all over the place to all the hospitals, trying to find some information," Pedro said.

Ron Sierra said he was looking for his wife, Judy. "We've been bouncing around from hospital to hospital" he said. "It's just a bad nightmare. I'm still bouncing around in a bad dream right now.

Woody Eldeman knows what he means. "My brother-in-law's name wasn't on the list, “Eldeman said. “ I didn't ask about the status of other people. .I heard that there was a window of time where other people were successfully evacuated. I've talked to other people who say they were evacuated from as high as 96 and 80. There's hope, there's hope, there is reason to hope."
Isaiah Lopez, a 14-year-old hurt by flying glass as he was looking for his cousin, has all but lost hope.

"I seen a piece of the building fall on a guy here, I saw people jumping out the building from the top floor hitting the ground," he said. "I'm thinking there's no survivors… he's dead. That's it."

When asked if he had any hope, Lopez said: "I do, but it just collapsed. It's like nobody survived."

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