2996 HUMAN BEINGS

 September 11, 2001, 2996 people lost their lives.
the youngest was only 2 years old,
the oldest was 85.

There have been innumerable losses since due to injuries and exposure to the toxic dust at Ground Zero.

As a former Rockland County NY resident, I have always listed those
local residents that we lost on 9/11/2001

Ø Janet M. Alonso 41 Stony Point NY

Ø Calixto Anaya Jr. 35 Suffern NY

Ø Japhet J. Aryee 49 Spring Valley NY

Ø Richard E. Bosco 34 Suffern NY

Ø Sgt. John Gerard Coughlin 43 Pomona NY

Ø Welles Remy Crowther 24 Upper Nyack NY

Ø John D' Allara 47 Pearl River NY

Ø Bernard D. Favuzza 52 Suffern NY

Ø Thomas Foley 32 West Nyack NY

Ø Andrew Fredericks 40 Suffern NY

Ø Robert Joseph Gschaar 55 Spring Valley NY

Ø Dana Hannon 29 Suffern NY

Ø Capt. Frederick Ill Jr. 49 Pearl River NY

Ø Farah Jeudy 32 Spring Valley NY

Ø Joseph Marchbanks Jr. 47 Nanuet NY

Ø John Marshall 35 Congers NY

Ø Patricia A. McAneney 50 Pomona NY

Ø Robert Garvin McCarthy 33 Stony Point NY
Ø Robert William McPadden 30 Pearl River NY

Ø Luke G. Nee 44 Stony Point NY

Ø Gerald O'Leary 34 Stony Point NY

Ø David Ortiz 37 Nanuet NY

Ø Lt. Vernon Allan Richard 53 Nanuet NY

Ø Thomas G. Schoales 27 Stony Point NY

Ø Mohammed Shajahan 41 Spring Valley NY

Ø Gregory Sikorsky 34 Spring Valley NY

Ø Catherine T. Smith 44 West Haverstraw NY

Ø Robert W. Spear Jr. 30 Valley Cottage NY

Ø Loretta A, Vero 51 Nanuet NY

Ø Benjamin Walker 41 Suffern NY

Ø Weibin Wang 41 Orangeburg NY

Ø Steven Weinberg 41 New City NY

Ø Capt. David T. Wooley 53 Nanuet NY

Visit the 9/11 MEMORIAL & MUSEUM online

It is so hard to realize that 20-years have passed since that dreadful day. 

My husband and I were home that day, together, when my sister called me. She had been watching television when the news broadcast came in that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center Towers. Ironically my husband had been working down there the day before on an Audio-Visual event, it was scheduled for 2-days, but one of the presenters had a prior commitment, so it was scheduled for the 10th and the 12th instead.

Two planes had crashed into the North and South towers of the WTC. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers tried to take the plane back from the terrorists behind this horror. There were 19 terrorists on the 4 planes in this suicide mission.

I remember the panicked calls from my son, in high school at the time, and my daughter, away at college. They wanted to know where their dad was.

Being members of our local ambulance corps in Rockland County NY, we responded to the building. No one knew what to expect next. There had been futile hopes that there would be many survivors who needed medical help and our local ambulance corps made preparations to help unload victims for transport to local hospitals. Sadly, that need never came to be.

Rockland County ambulance corps sent rigs to the scene that evening to try to help. My husband was on one of those rigs. Our son, a youth corps member at the time, helped to stock the truck and watched as his dad and crew drove away. My husband returned home very early the next morning — there had been no survivors to treat or transport. He cried at what he had seen.

Our daughter came home from college to help in the ambulance building. We did have several local residents walking around dazed, some of them were still hoping to hear from loved ones who had been in the buildings. They came in for comfort, for blood-pressure checks, and just to be able to sit and cry.

Rockland County had lost more than 30 souls that day, I knew a few of them, and I knew a few of the families. Some who died had been at jobs, some were passengers on the ill fated flights, others were 1st responders, firefighters, police and EMS, who tried to save as many as possible. Even days later, no one was able to fathom what had just happened. 

Over 40% of those who died that day have yet to be identified even 20 years later. There have been more than 1500 deaths from various cancers among Ground Zero responders and those who lived or worked in the area. Many more are fighting  Certified WTC-related illnesses.

Today, September 11. 2021... the heart still aches for all we lost.

... 20-years later.

9/11 Memorial "Tear Drop"
in Bayonne New Jersey

Pentagon 9/11 Memorial
Arlington Virginia

Flight 93 Memorial
Shanksville Pennsylvania

Fifteen Years to Think ~ #MondayBlogs

For me, like many others in America, yesterday, September 11, was a day of reflection, prayer, shudders, and probably some tears. Like many others in America I can recall almost exactly where I was, who I spoke to, the horror I felt as I watched (on TV) the buildings as one burnt, the other was attacked, and they both fell. There was added shock as we heard of the attack on the Pentagon and the plane crash in Pennsylvania. And like many other Americans I attended candlelight vigils, reached out to friends and relatives, and cried.

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001 I went back to bed after my son left for school for time to cuddle with my husband who had an unexpected day off. [He was working as an Audio Visual tech on a two-day event in NYC; due to a scheduling conflict the event was scheduled for the 10^th and the 12^th and was being held in the Marriot Hotel at the World Trade Center.]

Shortly before 9:00 AM my sister called, she had been watching TV, I remember her words, “A plane just hit one of the World Trade Center buildings… Go turn on your TV.” I ran to the living room incoherently repeating what I couldn’t yet believe, my husband followed. We turned the set on and saw flames from one of the buildings and it was just minutes later that we watched a plane hit building 2. I remember hearing someone, myself, repeating “Oh my G-d, oh my G-d.”

A friend of mine, a paramedic, called, the siren screaming behind her, asking me to cancel our ambulance youth squad meeting that night and telling me that her rig was heading to lower Manhattan. I remember the distress in her voice. I made phone calls and left voice messages cancelling the meeting.

My sister and I were on the phone again. She was calling relatives who worked in Manhattan to make sure they were all alright and we were running down the list.

Almost an hour after the first plane struck, building 2 crumbled with everyone watching TV witnessing it. My husband was getting dressed to head to our local ambulance corps building 40 minutes north of the devastation.

The phone rang again, this time it was our son, he was hiding in a school alcove using a cell phone from his backpack that was supposed to remain off while at school. “Mom, where is Dad?” I can still hear the terror in his words even now 15 years later. I was able to reassure him that his dad was safe.

About an hour and a half after I turned my television on, building 1 collapsed demolishing the Marriot Hotel and setting 7 WTC on fire. After another phone call, this time from my daughter (upstate at college) checking on our safety and telling me she was heading back home, I got dressed and followed my husband to the local ambulance corps where we both volunteered as EMTs.

People congregated at the building offering help answering phones, comforting and treating distraught walk-ins, and setting up rehab for any of the wounded transported here because the NYC hospitals were both overflowing and too close to an area in danger. I sat with two young men who were desperate to hear about family, one cousin and one father – the father made it home, the cousin perished in the rubble. We began to hear of other community members who were never going to come home again.

Most of the youth squad members showed up at the building despite receiving the messages. My daughter made the trek home and helped with all the phone calls, oversaw the youth members, and assisted walk-ins. At one point we received the directive from our county’s EMS control that most of the corps, including ours, were sending crews to the city. A few of our youth squad members helped outfit the truck with the specified equipment. My son was one of the teenagers assigned to readying the truck.

My husband was one of four EMTs who went to the city. Our rig was one of a long line of ambulances sent to the disaster from all over the tristate area. They stood by through the night and many went home the next morning frustrated by the lack of injured — too many deaths and too few still alive to receive treatment and transport, too few to save.

Fifteen years since this horror… the Freedom Tower now stands in lower Manhattan, and reflecting pools mark the footprint of the original buildings. The National 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center and many memorials throughout the tristate area have helped to document the events of the day. Families and friends who lost loved ones have learned somehow to survive with the loss and pain.

Those of us who lived the day will never forget.

A Look Back #TBT ~ September 10 and September 11, 2001

Fourteen years ago today, September 10, 2001, my husband was doing an AV gig (Audio Visual) for a trade show at the Marriot WTC (3 World Trade Center). The show was scheduled to be a two-day event, but due to the presenter's prior commitment it was scheduled for the 10th and 12th of September.

My husband was home, by my side, when we heard about the planes crashing into the towers on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

Our son, in high school, knew where his dad had worked the day before but didn't realize there was a one-day gap in the presentation. Due to the chaos at his school when the word of the attack spread, he pulled his cell-phone (which was taboo during school hours) from his backpack and ducked into an alcove to call home. There was panic in his voice when he asked "Where's Dad?"

A little while later our daughter, away at an upstate college, also called home to make sure everyone in our family was all right. She headed home and arrived the following day.

I had been horrified watching the television and seeing the tragedy unfolding in lower Manhattan, but it wasn't until I heard my son's panic that it really hit me. My family was blessed that day and spared the direct loss that so many others suffered.

We responded to our local ambulance corps later that day on the 11th to offer whatever help we could. Local residents were walking in, dazed and scared. Our county's EMS system was activated hoping for more survivors and preparing to transport and hospitalize those who could travel so as not to overwhelm the city's hospitals; unfortunately that need never materialized.

Our corps, like so many others, put together a crew to head down to the city. My husband and three other corps members were on that crew. Our youth corps members, my son included, helped to stock the ambulance for the task ahead. The crew consisted of Mark and three members all with the first name of Tom (I understand they later joked that they wanted to trade Mark for another "Tom" from one of the other ambulances!) Like several other ambulances that responded, they waited in the designated staging area in hopes of having patients to transport - most returned home empty.

All four of us, including our two offspring, assisted at the ambulance corps for the next several days. One of our corps members lost a relative in the towers. A local police officer's brother in the FDNY was one of the 343 firefighters who died. In total our county lost more than 80 residents on 9/11.

Through the years since 2001 there have been many deaths associated with Ground Zero dust. Once again I realize how blessed my family has been - the staging area was set up a safe distance from the site (as is EMS response protocol).  [ http://fw.to/K75pQPY FDNY adds names of those who died related to rescue and recovery work]

My heart still weeps for the losses suffered that day at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Flight #93 in Pennsylvania. I am proud to have seen the rising and eventual opening of the Freedom Tower (1 World Trade Center) and the 911 Memorial Museum. Lives were forever changed and many of the families who suffered losses that day have worked towards remembrances including scholarships, memorials and support groups. And for a brief time, the city came together in a show of tremendous support and compassion.

9/11 is a day which will live in our hearts and souls forever.