A NEW YORKER REMEMBERS

On September 11, 2021, FEMA Region I in Boston held a special?“All Hands” Zoom meeting to observe the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

Being that I lived and worked a?couple of blocks from the towers (in the beige apartment building in the front center of the photo) and was involved in the response and the long-term recovery efforts, I was asked to share my?memories of the day and its aftermath.

I took this opportunity to provide my co-workers with a very vivid and personal account of that day and the ensuing response and recovery efforts, as well as put these memories and thoughts in the context of the emergency management discipline and why first responders and emergency managers do what they do.

Below are the remarks I delivered, and I believe the details and memories will be of interest to anyone who wants to read a personal account of the disaster from a survivor and emergency responder.

I was proud to share this perspective of this tragic, unforgettable day and provide a brief glimpse of all the great sustained work countless dedicated responders, New Yorkers and other citizens did to help the city respond to and recover from the attack….

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?Good morning, Region I –

First, I’d just like to say that I really appreciate this special All-Hands Meeting, and I’m honored to participate in this observance of the 9/11 tragedy.?

I have been asked to provide some remarks because I have a very personal and continuing connection to 9/11.

I lived and worked in buildings that were located little more than across the street from the towers and spent almost a decade in several 9/11-related jobs, so this disaster impacted me both personally and professionally for many years.???

I’m also enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program and will get checked for any 9/11-related health issues every year for the rest of my life, so I’ll always be connected to this disaster.

For a bit of background, I began my career in emergency management a few years before 9/11, when I was hired to be the Director of Public and Intergovermental Affairs for the New York City Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management, which Mayor Giuliani created about a year before I joined.??

After two years at the Office of Emergency Management, the I joined the New York City Economic Development Corporation as Vice President of Public Affairs, where I was working on 9/11.

I mention these positions because they made me an integral part of Mayor Giuliani’s communications staff, and they had a direct role in my post-9/11 life.

So, as for the actual day:

As I mentioned, I both lived and worked in the shadow of the towers……my apartment was just to the west, right on the Hudson River in Battery Park City, and my office was just to the east of the buildings.

I left my apartment at about 8:15 that beautiful, clear morning to go vote in a Mayoral election in a building that was directly across the street from the South Tower.

After I voted, I stopped at a Farmer’s Market that was located at the foot of the South Tower on Liberty Street, and then I started on the short walk to my office on William Street.

There are a couple of memories from that walk that will remain indelible forever.

First are the hundreds of people who were making their way into the South Tower to start their workday, less than 10 minutes before the first plane hit the North Tower and less than 30 minutes before the second plane struck the South Tower.??

I had to weave my way through all those people in order to cross the street, and I still often think about them, how they, and all of us, were oblivious to the horror that was about to occur, and whether or not all of them were able to make it out of the building safely.

The other indelible memory is walking past the NYC Fire Department’s 10 House Fire Station that was located across the street from the South Tower.?I had a neighborly familiarity with most of the firefighters there and would exchange “good mornings” with them every day when I walked past the station on my way to work.

I can still picture them all sitting on the bumper of their trucks that morning, watching the world and the girls go by as the morning was coming to life……not fifteen minutes later, those firemen would rush off to the North Tower, and six of them would never return…… their names and faces are now etched into a large copper mural that was installed on the station house, and they are also forever etched in my brain……?

When I got to my office a few minutes later, things were quiet and I was easing into the day with coffee and a newspaper….until the quiet was shattered and all hell broke loose…….

Some of my co-workers started yelling and ran to turn on a TV in a nearby office.

At that moment, my phone rang and it was my dad calling to see where I was.?He was concerned that I was still out on the street and was relieved when I told him I was already in the office.??

When I asked him why he was concerned, he told me that a plane just hit WTC.??I immediately thought it was a private plane, because private planes flying low over the Hudson River was part of the fabric of the city.

However, when I saw the live coverage on TV, I was stunned, as it was obviously a large plane.?Within minutes, the second plane crashed into the South Tower, and the sickening fireball made clear that a major disaster was unfolding before our eyes.

Moments later, I went down to the street with some of my co-workers, and foolishly stood around for about 40 minutes while thousands of people streamed past us, fleeing the area…..

I heard snippets of conversations and rumors, but really didn’t feel in danger…..I was only two blocks away,?but the towers and surrounding chaos were obscured by other office buildings…..all I was able to see was a sliver of the very top of the North Tower, and the flames and smoke were a quarter of a mile away, up in the sky……

That’s all I saw….Luckily, I didn’t see any jumpers, as some of my co-workers did….there was a lot of commotion on the street and Lower Manhattan was awash in the sound of emergency sirens, but I really didn’t feel that I was in any danger……

After about 40 minutes I finally decided that the smart thing would be to get the heck out of the neighborhood…..so I went back up to my office to collect my belongings.

My office was on the sixth floor of the building, and when I got off the elevator I passed a conference room that had a very long window that overlooked a narrow street and another office building across that street….and it was bright and sunny outside when I passed the window to get to my office…..

I wasn’t in my office two minutes when I heard a long and thunderous rumble, and my building began to shake……It went quiet after about 10 seconds, so I didn’t know what to make of it……I grabbed my stuff and headed towards our staircase, and when I passed the conference room and looked out the window, it was pitch black outside and it looked like it was snowing……

There were a lot of “WTF’s” from me and my co-workers who were also in the office, but for some reason I still wasn’t concerned about my life…..until I opened the stairway door…..

The staircase opened into an outdoor courtyard surrounded by office buildings, and it was completely filled with the WTC smoke and dust cloud…….I put a handkerchief over my mouth and nose and the thought that I just might not survive this situation finally flashed through my mind…..?

I made my way down into the lobby of the building, which was packed with people seeking refuge from the smoke and dust…..there was a lot of panic and uncertainty…..it took me more than a few minutes to decide whether to leave the relative safety of the lobby, or risk whatever was out there to get out of the area…..

I finally decided to go out into the street….the dust cloud was very thick, you could barely see anything around and above you and you could barely hear a sound….…….until the fighter jets streaked across the darkened Lower Manhattan sky…..You hoped they were U.S. military jets, because at that point, Lower Manhattan was a war zone and all bets were off as to what might happen next……

As I walked towards the East River, the cloud began to dissipate, which was reassuring…..but the situation was still unsettling and confusing, and the fear of other attacks was also in the air…..

I wasn’t sure if I should head uptown to my brother’s apartment in Union Square or walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and go to my parents in Brooklyn…..after several minutes of false starts and back-tracking, I finally decided to walk across the bridge with thousands of other people who were fleeing Lower Manhattan……

By the time I reached the middle of the bridge, the second tower had collapsed, and I was finally able to see Lower Manhattan in its entirety……the towers were gone, the billowing smoke and dust obliterated most of the area and the smoke plume extended for miles across the city…it was truly a scene out of a horror movie….???

It took me a couple of hours to walk to my parent’s house, and only after watching the news did I learn the scope of what just happened…I was particularly shocked by the collapse of 7 World Trade Center later that afternoon, as the Office of Emergency Management built its state-of-the-art emergency command center in that building, and I worked there for several months after it opened in 1999.?I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that the command center, and the building, were gone.

At that time, I only had the clothes on my back and knew I couldn’t return to apartment for a long time, so I had to figure out what to do….

I was also eager to work on the response efforts, but with cell phone service severely affected and the overall chaos, I wasn’t able to?reach anyone to see what was going on and how I could help.

The next day, the Red Cross gave me a voucher I could use at Sears, so I bought some clothes and boots and other things I needed……

I also registered for disaster assistance with FEMA, which paid for several months of temporary housing and provided me with the funds needed to replace my wardrobe and apartment furnishings, which were completely and deeply covered in WTC dust for months.

After a couple of days getting my bearings at my parent’s house, I learned that the City set up a big Emergency Command Center at a passenger ship terminal on the Hudson River.

I immediately took the subway into Manhattan and headed to the terminal…..when I was within blocks of the terminal, I used a pay phone and finally connected with my boss, who told me that the Mayor’s office was trying to find me and put me to work as a Public Information Officer at the Command Center.

I arrived at the command center a few minutes later, and barely left it for the next two months…..I worked in the Joint Information Center and was very involved with collecting information from all of the responding agencies, preparing reports and talking points for the Mayor and other City officials, and responding to endless inquiries from local, national and international reporters and news organizations.

I also worked at the Family Assistance Center that the City set up at an adjoining terminal, and was at the reception desk the morning it opened and the very first family member approached the desk.??

This gentleman was searching for his brother, who was still missing, and he was hyperventilating and could barely talk through his tears and sobs……I had to walk away at that moment, but quickly learned that I needed to handle all the shock and grief around me if I was to be an effective responder.?

I also spent time at Ground Zero, and could hardly process the extent of the death and destruction in my neighborhood.??

One becomes numb in the face of such unfathomable evil and suffering, but there was a job to do, and everyone buckled up and did it.

Despite the long hours and difficult conditions, it was incredibly fascinating and rewarding to work at the Emergency Command Center and the Family Assistance Center, and to have a front row seat and a role to play in this historic, international disaster response operation.

When the response effort turned into a recovery effort, I went back to work in Lower Manhattan, keeping the public and businesses informed about the recovery efforts and the assistance available to them.

For months, I worked in a Business Recovery Center that was established a few blocks from the still-smoldering site, as well as walked the streets to talk to and assist small business owners.??

I’ll never forget the lingering, acrid smell in the air, the countless “Missing” and “Have you seen them?” posters that the families of still-missing victims taped to lampposts, buildings and mailboxes throughout the neighborhood, and the army of machine-gun toting police officers that patrolled the area.

?I’ll also never forget how every pedestrian, myself included, stopped walking and stood at attention to pay respects to the remains of another victim who was found in the pile.??

These victims were transported to the NYC Medical Examiner’s office by an ambulance escorted by police cars, and it was always a solemn experience when this sad procession passed by.??

I’ll also never forget the Tribute in Lights that light up the Lower Manhattan sky during the 9/11 anniversaries, two narrow beams of light that create the image of the towers and shine them up into the heavens.

In the ensuing years, my life continued to revolve around 9/11, as a?Public Information Officer during several annual memorial ceremonies, as the Director of Communications for the Red Cross 9/11 Recovery Program (during which I worked several parties organized to cheer up children who lost parents on that day, which was beyond painful), and as a founding member of the Battery Park City Community Emergency Response Team.??

I also spent three years handling public affairs for the Alliance for Downtown New York, Lower Manhattan's Business Improvement District, which provided a number of essential services in Lower Manhattan and promoted the area as a great place to live, work, and play.??

That was a tough task, as the area long suffered from the effects of the attack and the ongoing and massive construction projects, but ultimately the neighborhood rebounded and flourished.

So, I was pretty much involved in 9/11-related work and other activities from the day of the event until I moved to Boston and joined Region I in December 2010.

My experiences on that day and in the ensuing years definitely had an effect on me….

I knew people who died that day, including Kevin Smith, my colleague at the Office of Emergency Management, who was a top hazardous materials expert with the Fire Department, and FDNY Chief of Operations Pete Ganci, who was the second highest uniformed officer in the Fire Department.?

Chief Ganci dug himself out of the rubble of the South Tower that morning and proceeded to direct the rescue efforts from a command post in front of the North Tower.

He ordered Mayor Giuliani and the Fire Commissioners to evacuate the area when it became apparent that the North Tower would fall, but he did not evacuate the area himself, saying, "I'm not leaving my men.”

Chief Ganci was killed in the collapse of the North Tower soon after, and his body was recovered later that day.

?I also knew people who have died in the years since from 9/11-related illnesses, and, as I mentioned, I get annual physical exams to check for any 9/11-related health problems.

These experiences have surely made me much more aware of mortality and the fragility of life.

But my experiences also changed me for the better, as I got to work with and learn from a countless number of dedicated, resourceful and caring first responders, elected officials, business executives and the whole community during an unprecedented and complex disaster operation.

I saw firsthand the absolute best that humanity has to offer, from the people who came from all over the world to work in the response and recovery efforts, to the regular New Yorkers who lined the streets to give blood, hand out food and water and cheer on the first responders.

I also became very familiar with an amazing organization called the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provided critical and generous assistance to those who were greatly affected by the disaster.

I was moved to join FEMA as Disaster Assistance Employee for Region II during the Hurricane Katrina response and recovery operation and again in 2009, and I had a great desire to become a permanent employee and dedicate the rest of my career to helping FEMA achieve its mission.

As we know, Region I was the Lead Coordinator for the initial response on 9/11, so I’m very glad that I had the opportunity to join Region I and work with such a dedicated and talented group of people.??

It feels great to be part of FEMA’s best Regional office, and it’s something that inspires me every day.

If there is one big 9/11 take-away for me, it’s the work and dedication of the countless individuals who wanted to help and play a part in the response and recovery any way they could.

I can tell you that no part was too small, and that everyone I came into contact that day and in the months after felt “called to serve.”

I imagine that this is why the great majority of you all joined FEMA, and that this call to serve also inspires your individual contributions to the “Greater Good”.?

I hope we never again experience a disaster than even remotely approaches the scale of destruction and death that the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and United Flight 93 caused on 9/11, but I stand ready with all of you to do what we do best…..helping people before, during and after disasters.

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