Adam's Big Apple - My 9/11 Letter from America
Posted on the 11th Sep 2014 in the category travel
Nine years ago I was fortunate to spend September in New York state as a guest of The Rotary Club.
It was only four years after 9/11 so it was still fresh in everyone's minds. Everyone had an anecdote, my favourite was the fellow who was having a bonk with his mistress on that day: She phoned and he said: "I am at work in the World Trade Centre." She replied: "I think you better put the TV on.” And promptly divorced him. I was honoured to interview Gerry Sheehan who as well as being a Rotarian was a real 9/11 hero on that day when so many of his fellow policemen died. This is a feature I sent back as one of my Adam's Big Apple - Letters From America to The Great Barr Observer, Sutton Observer and Tamworth Herald.
The ashen-faced relatives of those who died on September 11 started reading their loved ones names out at 9am on the tragedy's fourth anniversary. The names were still being read out six hours later. The morning of September 11th 2001 was just like any other but at 8.46am the world changed forever. Although the natural world order was turned upside down so many everyday lives were destroyed within a few hours. Whether it was the stockbroker who instantly died in his office with his phone in his hand, the waitress who died in the Windows of the World restaurant, the fireman who rushed back into the towers only to perish amongst the falling rubble, the mayor of Ploughkeepsie who still does not know what happened to her husband or the just average New Yorker who knew their city would never be the same again. 9/11 changed everything. Speaking to so many New Yorkers on the fourth anniversary it is obvious what an all encompassing event the terrorist attacks were, everybody knows somebody who was personally affected by the man made disaster. Some stories are desperately sad but others are inspiring, there are so many tales of people getting up late or missing the train and surviving where all their colleagues died. Rotarians were affected like everyone else; West Point Rotarian Gerry Sheehan was in charge of the New York Police Department Bomb Squad on that fateful day. He got to the World Trade Centre as the first tower collapsed. "You could not see a thing - there was a state of confusion. It was pitch black and we soon realised many of our colleagues had died," he said. Gerry found his friend of 30 years, fire chief Louis Garcia, and they set up an emergency command post. On 9/11 split-second decisions decided whether it was life or death for many. They decided to move their makeshift command centre a few hundred metres away from the towers. Minutes later the second tower collapsed and the first command post was destroyed. "I will never forget the sound of the tower falling. It was like a muffled roar as the building collapsed. “There was smoke everywhere - the only way we knew where we were was because the River Hudson was behind us," explained Gerry. "The Fire Brigade hierarchy had all been killed and there were no mobile phones working, so coordinating the rescue effort was a near impossible task." Off duty policemen and firemen came to the disaster site, often putting their personal grief aside to pull people from the rubble. After commandeering land phone lines, the true extent of the attack was revealed. The Pentagon was hit and heroic plane passengers had foiled hijackers flying to the White House. Then the phone calls started. "People were phoning in reporting bombs all over the city and we had to investigate every one of them," he said. Gerry does not like being called a hero. But he realises how lucky he is. "After 9/11 I cherish my family a lot more and I spend a lot more time with them. I try not to be critical of small mistakes that people make. "I stayed on until the first anniversary, in case anything happened, then I retired. "I think about it a lot but the memories are fading. “If I go to Manhattan I visit Ground Zero but I do my grieving in private." Ground Zero is an eiree, emotional and unique place, the hairs on the back of the neck stand on end and a lump comes to the throat as you walk around a desolate 16 acre site where thousands died in one morning. Craning your neck and imagining the half a mile high superstructures collapsing is heart stopping, upsetting and overwhelming. There is not much laughing or joking though the macabre pose for photos and twin towers trinkets are sold for a few dollars. The New York and Hudson Valley Rotary District was emersed in the rescue and recovery in the hours, days, months and years after the disaster. Rotarians gave up their holidays to help the volunteers clear the rubble and look for survivors at Ground Zero. My host for a week in Woodstock, Michele Lerner, was one of the thousands of Rotarians to help out four years ago. "My first cousin was in the World Trade Centre as were a few close friends," she said. "It was a very sad time for New York, you could feel the death hanging in the air around Ground Zero." "We went down and served food in a restaurant at ground zero to all the workers and policeman, we all had to show we were doing something to help."
Though the deaths took place in down town Manhatten the victims were from across the world. It is still the biggest single loss of British life in a terrorist attack. But it was the tri-state area of Conneticut, New Jersey and New York that was deeply affected. Throughout the state there are small villages and towns that were so cruelly touched by 9/11. Several communities have a concentration of firemen or policemen and the shiny new memorials dotted on village greens across the Hudson Valley betray the human sacrifice of the men and women who served their community with the ultimate sacrifice. The confirmed death toll stands at 2948 and there is still 24 reported dead and 24 people still missing.
Stephanie King from Highland Rotary Club remembered the chilling day. "We were all devastated, the planes flew from Boston and straight down the Hudson River into the World Trade Centre it was horrible," she said. But Stephanie explained America pulled together. "There were so many people volunteering they were getting in the way at one stage."
There was a little trepidation in the air as the anniversary of the terrorist attacks approached. At a bizarre event in Ulster County, New York called the Renaissance Faire 20,000 Americans came to get a taste of ye olde Britain. There were less than expected but there seemed to be no worries about the terror threat. Despite getting the historical period wrong by about 200 years, (I am pretty sure Robin Hood was not around during the renaissance period) the New York attitude shone through the fake British accents that greeted every visitor.
A Brooklyn native, dressed in English attire, working on the faire was not giving in to the terrorists. "The Government tell everyone to stay in for 9/11 anniversary, why should we stay in and watch the twin towers fall down on the TV fifteen times, we need to get on with life." And that is exactly what the people of this remarkable place have done.
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