What 9/11 was like for veteran Post police reporter: ‘Nothing could prepare me’
Sept. 11, 2001, started out like any other Tuesday morning.
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I was getting ready for my job as a police reporter for The Post, when I saw on TV that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. By the time I got to Manhattan, the buildings had already fallen. 6 Fires blaze from the World Trade Center on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Bolivar Arellano/NY Post As I got closer to the devastation, the visibility was less and less — and a dense fog hung in the air.
People were walking in 6-inches of ash — the result of tons of pulverized concrete from the collapsed buildings
When I got to Church Street, it looked like a scene from a movie where planets collided and nothing was left. The only problem was there was no director yelling “cut!” This was real.
On my right, dozens of ambulances were lined up with their doors open, waiting for the injured who never came
Coffee carts were sitting empty with donuts and bagels covered in ash. I thought, just yesterday I was in Century 21, now its windows were broken and it was badly damaged. Streets were buried beneath dust, twisted steel and concrete. Some piles were over 50-feet high.
Smoke hung over the ruins creating a cloud that covered as far
as I could see – which wasn’t far. 6 A photo of the World Trade Center attacks, their destruction, and the aftermath of the day released on Monday, Sept. 5, 2011. Matthew McDermott for NY Post The acrid smell was nauseating. I was covered in dust from head-to-toe.
As I walked around, I stepped over body parts and saw a wheel from one of the planes
I had covered hundreds of crime scenes all over the city, reported on serial killers and talked to murderers in jail. I remembered when 87 bodies were laid out in a gas station on Southern Boulevard in The Bronx after the Happy Land fire. I remembered 8 years earlier, I stood on these same streets while covering the 1993 World Trade Center bombing — but even that was nothing like what I was now witnessing.
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A couple hours earlier, it was a quiet morning and now the world had changed forever
As news of the plane strikes unfolded, I had called a friend I grew up with, who worked in the NYPD intelligence division, and he said, “They think it might be a terrorist attack.” It was the first time I heard that phrase — which I’ve heard thousands of times since. Just then, my editor called, yelling hysterically that the city was under attack.
When I told her police were looking at a possible terrorist attack
she asked, “Are you sure?” I told her the cops are treating this as a terrorist attack and everybody is being called in. 6 Newly found photos of the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are pictured on Monday, September 5, 2011. Matthew McDermott for NY Post “Call me as soon as you get more,” she said.
I kept making phone calls — then the South Tower fell as millions watched on live TV
The city was in emergency mode, closing off highways and access into Manhattan except for emergency responders. I was able to get a ride with Brooklyn North Police Benevolent Association trustee John Giangrasso and we drove to Ground Zero.
Mary Altaffer for NY Post Rumors were flying that hundreds of cops
The mayor, police and fire brass and the feds were trying to figure out who was responsible and how they could rescue the thousands of missing people who were under the tons of rubble from the collapsed Twin Towers. 6 People leave the World Trade Center after the first explosion on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. and firemen were dead, along with thousands of civilians.
I told her that I hadn’t heard anything about him and she headed to Manhattan to look for him as she couldn’t get any answers
During the afternoon, I got a call from police officer Kathy Vigiano asking if I heard anything about her husband, Det. Joseph Vigiano. They were friends I’d met in the 75 precinct, back when I covered the area’s record number of murders in 1993. I paused and had a funny feeling in my stomach. What if the rumors were true about the dead police officers and firemen?
As I was calling in notes to the newsroom, I kept thinking
I knew Joe well, and I knew if he got to the towers, he would’ve run to the roof and made sure everybody got out — unless the unthinkable happened and he was in the building when it fell. I now started to think about the dozens of cops and firemen who worked in downtown Manhattan that I knew personally from my years as a reporter.
back to Joe — and the other cops and firemen that probably were buried a few feet from where I stood
Eventually, we went over to police headquarters where some of the families who couldn’t get a hold of their loved ones had gathered. I saw Kathy, and then later that night, I saw a list of 23 names of cops that were missing.
We soon learned Joe was among the heroes who had been killed in the line of duty
In the days after, I kept going back to police HQ and speaking with the families of the missing cops. Now, I was sadly making new friends. I was meeting wives and husbands, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters all waiting for a miracle – that never came.
I saw the constant pain as the days blurred into each other
6 The second plane hits the World Trade Center on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. Tamara Beckwith/NY Post I would go over to Ground Zero, but instead of twisted steel, I now saw the faces of people I knew and of those who I had just learned about through their grieving families.
Over the next 25 years
I covered hundreds of murders and other crimes, talked to numerous victims’ families, including police officers who were killed in the line of duty — but nothing ever compared to those weeks and months. I still remember the ambulances, the coffee trucks and a vibrant city that went silent. Every once in a while, a story will come up about 9/11 and my editors will ask me to reach back out to the families, the friends that I made 25 years ago, for comment. In the back of my mind, I wish I had met them under different circumstances.
Somehow, they managed to slowly move on. The hurt remains but they have been able to make lives for their children
A lot of them have become grandmothers. Some of the children, now grown, have themselves become cops or firefighters, as well as teachers and lawyers. I also learned that the heroism of 9/11 did not end when
the fires were extinguished and the buildings were rebuilt
Heroism continued in the homes of those heroes. The families picked up the pieces and moved forward, keeping the memories of those who died alive and celebrating milestones without their loved ones.
I will never forget the destruction I saw that day. I will never forget those that died that day and the weeks and years since
But today I also remember the heroes that were left behind — the ones who found the strength and courage to carry on.
