I'll Never Forget 9-11 ( Part 1 )

Grand Central Station

I’ll Never Forget 9-11 

Part 1: 

Engine 54
Ladder 4
Battalion 9

By J.B.Blocker

Late September 2001:  
The van that carried our team of Disaster Recovery Supervisors carried us to 45^th and Madison and the Roosevelt Hotel which would house dozens of us for several months.  As we drove through the streets, I was fascinated by the ‘missing signs’ that were plastered on walls, post, fences, and anywhere else a piece of paper could be attached.

  It was early in the evening by the time I had settled into my room and my shift would not begin until noon the next day. It gave me some time to wander over to Grand Central Station just down the street to figure out my route to get to the ‘Red Zone’ where I had been assigned.

  I passed a lady with her dog and both of them were wearing small posters with the picture of a man and a few words like little miniature billboards. The lady stopped just in front of me and solemnly stapled a poster to one of the many plywood construction barriers that are prominent in Manhattan. This sheet of plywood like all the others was covered with not dozens, but hundreds of similar pages. Pictures of families, couples, and individuals would blanket the city for months. I was amazed at how many included home addresses and lists of personal phone numbers. Such was the desperation of those left behind.

 After she blew the picture a kiss and slowly walked away, I had to see what she had posted. The photo of a man in his 30s was followed by a description and contact information including address and phone numbers. The caption read. “Have you seen my husband? Please contact me.”

I'll Never Forget 9-11

'the Red Zone' click to enlarge

 I took this shot from about the 20^th floor of the World Finance Center Building II on November the 1st, 2001. It's 'the Red Zone' inside Ground Zero. Smoke is still seeping out of deep pockets. The air is a fog of dust and will be for a few more weeks before the snow and rain bring the floating debris back to earth.

  Rising 400 feet above stands Big Red, the largest mobile crane in the U.S.A. It was perched on the spot that was once the World Trade Center I footprint.

  The Houston company that owns Big Red flew the American flag at its peak, just above the flag of Texas. Grapplers the size of semi-trailers worked 24/7 in the dust and haze that never goes away. In the background on the left, the skeleton that was World Trade Center 2 leans against the remains of buildings 8 and 9. From the back center to right are the burned shells of buildings 7, 6, and 5.

If you expand the photo and look closely you can see the billowing dust covering both vehicles and their operators as a grappler dumps its load into the waiting semis.