By Alan Clendenning and Sara Kugler

NEW YORK (The Associated Press)

In the middle of the night, in the middle of the carnage, in the middle of the desperate search for survivors, now and again a firefighter would suddenly stop, sit and weep.

"The tears would just stream," said Alan Manevitz, a Manhattan psychiatrist volunteering at the scene of the World Trade Center catastrophe. "One guy threw up. You’d bring them a glass of water and they’d get back up and go to work."

On a mound of destruction that promises only twisted mental, scorched paper, splintered wood and body parts, the rescue workers are getting through their horrific task because thy are "guided, consciously and unconsciously, by their training to help save a life," Manevitz said. "Even though they’re tired an sad and angry, they’re determined and still going forward with things." "We go to such extremes to save even one life," he added. "And terrorists got o such extremes to destroy lives."

A windy rain added to the hellish conditions Friday, but workers said they were still driven by the hope—reasonable or not—of finding someone alive.

Fred Medins, a volunteer from Bridgeport, Conn., said that several times during the night, would-be rescuers thought they might have heard faint cries for help from within the slippery, smelly pile of rubble. Shouts went out for quiet and all digging stopped. But no once was there another sound.

"We’d hope we’d hear something," said Medins, 46, a construction worker, after a soaking 12-hour shift. "I was saying to myself, ‘Give us some sound. Give us some sound’"

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani insisted there was "strong hope we can still save people," even as he denounced various false reports of miracle rescues.

Philip Lowenstein, 39, a Fire Department paramedic based in Brooklyn, said his colleagues do "know pretty much the grim facts of what we’re facing. None of us would stop trying no matter what. But the reality is a little stark."

Some workers were grateful for the downpour in one aspect: It cleared the air somewhat of the ash that had gloated overhead since terrorists flew jetliners into the win towers on Tuesday. But the rain and the gusting winds that carried it added to the danger. Gino said the already dangerous footing on steel beams had become more slippery, and Lowenstein said engineers assessing safety repeatedly closed off the scene during the storm, fearing a collapse.

"They’d let us in for a little bit, then they’d ring three whistles. We’d run out, then they’d let us in, then we’d have to run out again. We haven’t had really a lot of time to go deep searching." The rain brought in cold air, and the Red Cross handed out sweatshirts and boots. Though the rain made the debris heavier, the great mound of destruction was slowly dwindling, and the rubble-covered street of Lower Manhattan were slowly widening.