New York to mark 9/11 anniversary amid the coronavirus pandemic

NEW YORK - With crime on the rise, shops and apartments increasingly vacant and homeless people on the sidewalks, New York on Friday will mark the 19th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and a bitter fight with the White House.

The city will hold its annual ceremony in memory of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the bloodiest terrorist attack in US history, punctuated by a minute's silence at the exact moments that Al-Qaeda jihadists crashed two hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center towers.

Instead of reading out the roll call of the dead, this year the families of victims have recorded themselves. But they will still be present at the "Ground Zero" memorial.

The site museum will also open for the first time since the novel coronavirus brought the city to a standstill in March. 

Almost two decades after the attacks, September 11 remains synonymous with New York's heroism and resilience. 

City leaders have emphasized the latter in the past months as the COVID-19 infection rate -- which killed 23,00 people here, the early epicenter of the disease in the United States -- has been lowered to under one percent.

New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday reminded New Yorkers that their resilience is likely to be tested once again by the social and economic "after-effects" of the pandemic.

- Offices empty until 2021? -

Gale Brewer, president of borough of Manhattan, recognizes that the island renowned for its hustle and energy now faces an array of problems.

Some of these stem directly from the coronavirus pandemic: almost all the white collar workers, such as bankers, traders and insurance employees, have been working from home since March. This has emptied Manhattan's business hubs, leaving thousands of small stores and restaurants without customers.

Boris Tulchinskiy, a 26-year-old software engineer, misses Manhattan but expects to "keep working from home" in neighboring New Jersey until July 2021.

If the more than 60 million tourists who visit New York every year have gone, so too have New Yorkers, fleeing the city by the thousands. 

At least 35,000 people have moved out of Manhattan, judging by requests for absentee ballots for November's presidential elections, Brewer said.

Many businesses are now shuttered: between 2017 and 2020, the number of vacant commercial spaces has almost doubled, up by 78 percent, she said.

Homeless people are now more visible due to the closure of numerous shelters for health reasons, and the transfer of almost 13,000 to live in less contagious conditions in Manhattan's vacant hotels.

The rise in homicides and shootings -- up 47 percent and 166 percent in August, compared with the previous year -- is one of the more striking aspects of the crisis hitting the city.

Even if it is still far below the endemic levels of crime that plagued the city in the 1970s and 80s, New York, which prided itself on being one of the world's safest cities, has now slipped back to 2012 crime levels, the New York Times reported.

- Trump wants to 'kill New York' - 

"I can't tell you how many phone calls I get from people especially in New York City, who are literally worried about the degradation of New York City," governor Cuomo said Tuesday.

Even as the city shows signs of revival -- which include museums reopening in late August and restaurants welcoming diners inside in late September -- its full recovery could take up to three years, Brewer said, citing the estimates of realtors.

In the meantime, and less than two months from one of the most bitterly fought presidential contests in history, the crisis has become the focus of a dispute with Republican President Donald Trump.

The native New Yorker, who made his name in real estate, insists that the rise in crime in the Democratic bastion is due to the incompetence of its leaders. On Tuesday, he once again accused the mayor and the governor of "destroying" the city.

New York officials in turn slammed Trump's refusal to free up billions in emergency federal funds to help the city through the worst of the crisis.

"Trump is actively trying to kill New York City. It is personal. I think it's psychological," Cuomo said. "He is trying to kill New York City."

Agence France-Presse

Filipinos join commemoration of 9/11 attacks in New York

NEW YORK – Thousands gathered at the National September 11 Memorial Plaza here to remember victims of the 9/11 terror attacks 18 years ago.

Twenty Filipinos were among the nearly 3,000 people who perished in the coordinated terror attacks by the Al Qaeda group, then led by Osama din Laden.

The bell rung to mark the exact times of when the planes hit the World Trade Center and when the twin towers fell.

The planes hit the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. and the South Tower at 9:03 a.m. The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m. -- 56 minutes after impact-- while the North Tower collapsed at 10:28 a.m. --- an hour and 42 minutes after impact.

As in years past, the names of all the victims were called, among them Filipino cousins Maria Theresa Santillan and Judy Hazel Santillan Fernandez. Both died at 27 years old.

"Parang kahapon lang nangyari, itong 18 years masyadong mabilis, it hurts," said Judy’s father Expedito Santillan.

(It seems like only yesterday, 18 years went by so fast. It hurts.)

Maria Theresa was working in human resources at the Cantor Fitzgerald on Tower 1 when the attack happened. Her cousin and co-worker Judy was not even supposed to be there at that time.

"I think she’s off but it just so happen she went to the building and then it happened," said Maria Theresa’s mother Ester Concepcion Santillan.

To keep the memories alive for the thousands of lives lost and the countless heroes of the 9/11 terror attacks, New York has started a new tradition: the September 11th Remembrance Day.

The city’s new law requires all public schools to observe a moment of silence every September 11 to remind the younger generation that in America’s darkest day, people showed courage, sacrifice, support and love.

"I’m very appreciative. We should never forget, these are 3,000 innocent people that lost their lives that day and then and to have New York recognize that is very important to my family – If they could establish this in other states that would be great," said Judy’s brother, Richard Fernandez.

Over 6,000 others were injured and at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property were damaged. In the attacks. Many more died of 911 related cancer and respiratory diseases in the aftermath of the attacks.

On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist hijacked four passenger airlines --- two of which crashed into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center --- which led to the towers’ collapse.

The third plane hit the Pentagon in Virginia and the fourth crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Before heading to the Pentagon for a ceremony, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump commemorated the 9/11 terror attacks with a moment of silence at the White House South Lawn.

Read more on Balitang America:

source: news.abs-cbn.com

She fled the 68th floor. She’s finally dealing with 9/11 trauma

Kayla Bergeron can still describe that morning in matter-of-fact detail: She was dutifully working at her desk on the 68th floor when the building lurched. Someone ran in and said that a plane had hit — a small plane, she assumed. She realized it must not have been just a Cessna.

And then how she began a harrowing descent in a stairwell that was dark and wet because pipes had burst as the twin towers collapsed.

She can also describe her life since, including the loss of a new job, the foreclosure of her condominium, the two convictions for drunken driving and, just last year, the diagnosis from a court-ordered alcohol treatment program: post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from Sept. 11, 2001.

“PTSD never occurred to me,” said Bergeron, who was a high-ranking official at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 2001 and whose office was in the north tower. “We weren’t first responders. We weren’t cops or firefighters whose job was to go into the building. People told us, ‘Be happy to be alive.’ We minimized ourselves afterward, and it all built up over the years.”

In the 18 years since the terror attacks, the police officers and firefighters who rushed into the flaming towers have been honored with a memorial at ground zero.

On Wednesday, the names of those who died, read every Sept. 11 at a ceremony there, will be read once again, even as the number of people who have reported being sickened by their work on the so-called pile continues to rise. Congress, after a fight last summer championed by comedian Jon Stewart, voted in July to replenish the fund that covers their medical care.

But thousands of civilians like Bergeron — people who worked in the trade center or were nearby when the twin towers collapsed — also survived. Some have developed physical symptoms. Some have not. But together they have become a largely overlooked segment of the World Trade Center community.

Now many worry that national attention is focused elsewhere and that people will forget that those who witnessed the horror of Sept. 11 up close can still develop symptoms of ailments like post-traumatic stress disorder.

“PTSD doesn’t have a time limit,” said Dr. Jacqueline M. Moline, the director of Northwell’s Queens World Trade Center Health Program, which provides monitoring and treatment for dozens of illnesses. “People can develop PTSD related to an event years later.” Often, she said, it is not clear what triggers the disorder.

Of the 24,550 emergency responders in the health program, 7,425, or 30.25%, have post-traumatic stress disorder.

Of those who fled the towers or the nearby destruction, 2,625 — or about 12.3% of all survivors registered in the program — have post-traumatic stress disorder, according to data from Northwell Health. Another 675 have anxiety disorders, and 661 others have what the program classifies as major depressive disorders.

“PTSD is the most common illness in the 9/11 community,” said John Feal, who worked as a demolition supervisor at ground zero and became one of the leading advocates for a permanent victims compensation fund.

Even now, some survivors replay the disaster in their minds. They have nightmares about it. They jump when they hear loud noises. They avoid anything that reminds them of that day.

Dr. Rachel Yehuda, a professor and vice chairwoman of psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, said research has shown that people “in close proximity to a trauma who don’t have symptoms can get them later on.”

Usually, she said, the symptoms are brought out by “a trigger in the here and now.”

The triggers could include ordinary elements of daily life. For example, a bright late-summer morning could serve as a reminder of Sept. 11, 2001, and touch off memories of the planes taking aim at the twin towers. Sounds could have a similar effect.

“From the time I was 17 on, I couldn’t listen to an airplane overhead or a helicopter, or a car backfiring,” said Lila Nordstrom, who was a senior at Stuyvesant High School in Lower Manhattan in 2001 and now lives in Los Angeles. “If I was in traffic and someone honked, it would lead to a protracted period of me panicking. It took a while for me to realize it was happening, and it took a while after that to realize it was 9/11-related.”

She said that she was certified for post-traumatic stress disorder under the World Trade Center Health Program in 2015.

For Elinda Kiss, a business school professor who was attending a conference in the Marriott World Trade Center hotel on Sept. 11, driving past Newark Liberty International Airport on the way to teach at the Rutgers University campus in Newark, New Jersey, would bring a replay of her frantic run to safety.

“I would see the planes coming in for a slow landing,” she said. “I would relive seeing the plane hit” the south tower.

She said she assumed her post-traumatic stress had largely disappeared over the years. But on Sunday night, lying awake, the nightmare replayed again and again. “I kept seeing the plane hit in the middle of World Trade 2,” she said.

Bergeron, the former Port Authority official, said she took almost no time off after the attacks. “There was no time to grieve,” she said.

Compounding the pain — and the pressure to continue — was the loss of her boss, the executive director of the Port Authority, Neil D. Levin, who was killed in the attacks.

As the years passed, Bergeron remained largely out of the public spotlight until 2006, when she was quoted in articles about the last aboveground remnant of the World Trade Center, a part of the staircase that she had taken to safety. She called it “the path to freedom.”

Bergeron said she left the Port Authority in 2006 for a state-funded job in Florida, in part to be closer to her aging mother, who lived in Georgia and had developed lung cancer.

Over the next few years, her mother died, her job was eliminated in a round of budget cuts and her savings ran out. She lost her condominium in West Palm Beach, Florida, to foreclosure.

In 2013, she was arrested and charged with driving under the influence in Parkland, Florida, and her driver’s license was suspended for several months. She later moved to Georgia to live with her father, and there she found a job making sandwiches in a fast-food restaurant.

She said that drinking had not become a constant in her life but that she was depressed and felt anxious “all the time.”

The arrest last year came late at night after a long day at the restaurant. She said she stopped at a tavern and had a couple of glasses of wine, then drove to a Mexican restaurant where she had dinner — and more wine.

“That’s really all I remember,” she said, adding that she apparently blacked out. The police took her to the Forsyth County Jail in Cumming, Georgia.

When she and her father went to retrieve her car, she was surprised to see that the front end was damaged. The police told her father that after she left the Mexican restaurant, she hit the back of another car that was stopped at a red light.

She was offered a choice of jail or a program called accountability court, which offers intensive counseling, treatment and monitoring.

Carol Simpson, the assistant director, said that those who enter the program must agree to spend at least 24 months in it. Bergeron has just completed her 18th month. Simpson said that post-traumatic stress disorder “is something we treat in our program pretty regularly.”

Bergeron said she could find no World Trade Center survivor groups, either in New York or in Florida when she was living there. The World Trade Center Survivors Network, a nonprofit set up soon after the attacks, ran an outreach program that was intended to help survivors come to terms with their experiences.

But in 2007, the group removed its president when The New York Times published a story questioning her account of escaping the twin towers. (She was in Barcelona attending business school.) The last post on its website appears to have gone up in 2017. Several people who were involved with the group did not return calls seeking comment.

One who did — Janice Cilento, a former board member — said it effectively wound down about two years ago. “It’s not really doing much right now,” she said.

“There are so many survivors out there who don’t realize they have issues from 9/11,” said Cilento, a therapist who was at home on Long Island when the planes hit the trade center. Her son, a volunteer firefighter, was eventually sent to ground zero.

“So many suffer in silence. It’s 18 years later, and to some it’s pretty new.”

c.2019 The New York Times Company

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Rocket strike in Kabul on 9/11 anniversary

KABUL - A rocket was fired at the Afghan defense ministry complex in the capital Kabul in the early hours of Wednesday, on the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, but no one was hurt, an official said.

"A rocket hit a wall at the defense ministry, with no casualties reported," interior ministry spokesman Nosrat Rahimi said in a statement.

The strike occurred just after midnight.

It was the first in the Afghan capital since US President Donald Trump announced at the weekend that talks with the Taliban aimed at a withdrawal of US troops were "dead".

On Tuesday, the insurgents pledged to continue fighting and warned that Washington would regret abandoning the negotiations.

The September 11, 2001 attacks on US targets prompted the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, which toppled the Taliban regime.

Last week, Kabul was the scene of two attacks claimed by the Taliban that killed more than two dozen people.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

September 11 pictures

September 11 pictures- Today is the anniversary of September 11 Attack and iPhone App Store offers the Explore 9/11. Users can download the application. The app was launched- August 26 and offered by the National September 11 Memorial and Museum which is not yet open. Before the opening of the museum, they have released this app which provides users with a number of photos of the tragic experience.


September 11 is the day of sadness, sorrow and affliction. We shall never forget that day. Many had lost their lives, and lives of their loved ones so tragically so lets pray for all the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in New York City. Lets commemorate this as day of reflection.