| Philadelphia Unites Behind America | |
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Across the country, people's
lives came to a standstill on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 as two hijacked
commercial jets slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in the
city to our north. In the nation's capital, almost an equal distance to the
south, another jet crashed into the Pentagon. In the western part of our own
state, another plane crashed to the ground as a result of what appears to have
been the efforts of doomed passengers to prevent further tragedy.
On Thursday evening, September 13, approximately a thousand local residents attended a prayer service near City Hall in Philadelphia. At lunchtime on Friday, as the national prayer service was being held at the National Cathedral in Washington, thousands of Philadelphia area residents gathered again near city hall to mourn the dead and express their unity in support of the nation, as each waved a small American flag.
Shortly thereafter, following a departure from Andrews Air Force Base in route to McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey in preparation for his tour of the disaster area in New York, Air Force One, escorted by a fighter escort soared directly overhead of much of the Philadelphia area.
The Philadelphia area is not only geographically central to the tragedies of the past week, but also was home to numerous of the dead and injured. Not only home to workers in the World Trade Center, the region was also home to several of the crew of the United Airlines planes unwillingly involved in the worst attack on American soil.
The pilot of United Airlines Flight 175 was Victor Saracini of Lower Makefield, Bucks County. The jet took off from Boston headed for Los Angeles, when it was hijacked and crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center. The first officer of the same flight was Michael Horrocks of Glenn Mills, Delaware County. Leroy Homer of Evesham Township, Camden County was the first officer of United Flight 93 that crashed Tuesday near Pittsburgh in Somerset County.
In addition to those who perished in the hijacked planes, numerous local residents are feared dead in the rubble of the World Trade Center. Local television station WPVI, Channel 6, is maintaining an updated list with photos of these local residents.
Numerous local law enforcement, firefighters, rescue personnel, doctors, structural engineers and heavy-equipment workers have headed to New York to help in the rescue and recovery effort. In addition, local residents have been generous in donating blood, clothing, food and money to aid the victims of the tragedy.
Local area newspapers and television stations have done an exemplary job of providing online specials covering the tragedy and its impact on local residents. We have provided links to those in the navigational bar in the upper right of this feature.
For all of us who often drive the New Jersey Turnpike as we travel north to New York and New England, the views of the skyline of Manhattan have forever changed. Larry Silverstein, the New York developer who led the group that bought a 99-year lease of the World Trade Center said he is determined to help rebuild the complex, as well as 7 World Trade Center, a neighboring office tower that also collapsed in the carnage.
As New York mourns the dead and takes solace in the lives of those who survived, untiring workers strive to locate the bodies of the deceased and clear the rubble. When the time comes for the area of southwestern Manhattan to rise again, the citizens of the Greater Philadelphia and South Jersey will be there to assist and celebrate the American spirit which can never be destroyed.
