Zushie Rimler of Brooklyn, N.Y., remembers Sept. 11, 2001 well. An EMT member of the Hatzalah ambulance service, he arrived on the scene shortly after the second plane hit the second tower of the World Trade Center.
“Bodies everywhere,” Rimler, a resident of the Crown Heights section of the city and a Chabad-Lubavitch Chasid, now 41, recalled. “We couldn’t stand facing the building because of the stream of people jumping out.”
It sounded like a jet engine, he said, as the building fell. He was only some 30 to 40 feet away, and got buried in the rubble. “I only found out what happened afterwards.”
Osama Bin Laden’s death, announced to the nation by President Barack Obama late on May 1, offers some sort of closure, but doesn’t take away the physical, emotional and psychological scars etched on those who were affected by that day, explained Rimler. “The damage that was done is done.”
Bin Laden was killed in a Pakistani stronghold by a team of U.S. Navy Seals, ending a search that spanned the terms of two American Presidents. But Rimler, acknowledging happiness that the terrorist mastermind’s freedom had been taken away, was nevertheless partially consoled.
“For all those people that lost loved ones, Osama is dead,” he said, “but that’s not bringing anybody back. Justice has somewhat been served, but not done.”
New Yorkers and tourists alike lined the streets in downtown Manhattan yesterday, pooling as close to Ground Zero as police would let them get. They came to see the president and to reflect on all that has transpired in the almost 10 years since four hijacked airliners wrought so much destruction. Obama was there to visit with victims’ families and first responders.
“Obviously we had an important day on Sunday,” the president told officers at the First Precinct Police Station. “The reason, what is important, was because it sent a signal around the world that we have never forgotten the extraordinary sacrifices that were made on Sept. 11. We’ve never forgotten the tragedy. We’ve never forgotten the loss of life. We’ve never forgotten the courage that was shown by the NYPD, by the firefighters, by the first responders.”
Manhattan resident Edie Lutnick, who lost her brother Gary, 36, was one of a group of about 60 in attendance during Obama’s private visit with victims’ families.
“He greeted every single person,” she said of the president, adding that he was respectful, charming, cordial, and “a little leaner than I thought.”
Lutnick, of the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, told Obama about the fund and what it does for family members of the almost 800 Cantor Fitzgerald employees who lost their lives.
“And I thanked him and the members of our military for making it so bin Laden could not terrorize us anymore,” she said.
Lutnick was sorry it wasn’t a larger event so that more families could express their thanks.
“But on behalf of the Cantor families, I was glad to have been given the opportunity,” she said.
Raymond Gregory peered down the street on his lunch break. The Brooklyn resident, who works for a local hospital, said he felt it was important to be a part of this New York City moment because of what it represented.
He went, he said, “to be close enough to be able to say, ‘Yeah, I was a minute part of history, I saw the guy that made the decision to end bin Laden, to put a stop to terrorism.’”
He said he felt a closeness and unity with all those gathered near Ground Zero, paying their respects to those who had been involved in Sept. 11 and making a point to those who would try and threaten the nation.
“We’re here to show the world that we won’t be afraid of people trying to bomb us, trying to terrorize us,” he said. “We’re trying to show that we won’t stand for it.”
Jean Carubia, a lifelong New Yorker from Queens, said she came out to show appreciation for all those who brought the almost 10-year manhunt to an end.
“It’s also good for the country,” she said of the raid on bin Laden’s compound, “for the morale.”
Business is slowly coming back to the area hit so hard by the tragedy, and people are returning to the streets, said Carubia.
EMT Rimler, who now has asthma he takes medicine for twice a day, remembers how the streets looked after the attack, when in all the chaos he thought briefly that only he and another man, also choking in the dust, had survived. That man turned out to be his brother, another Hatzalah volunteer.
They retraced their steps to where they’d left their ambulance.
“That’s when we came to the area where we were earlier,” he detailed, “found huge pieces of debris that crushed those people, and we couldn’t climb over that.”
It took them half an hour to walk across the street to the water.
“We had things to climb over, couldn’t see anything,” he said. They noticed a body that moved. “We dragged him with us and took him to one of those boats.”
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