Natasha once bubbled...
Steve,
As for your 'survivor guilt' please let it go.
:sunny:
I have not posted on scubaboard recently due to some of the highly offensive posts that were appearing related to WTC. I suppose after two years the WTC attack seems like old news to people who are not in the New York area.
The current status in NY is as follows:
The site is now a huge hole in the ground. The debris has been removed, but nothing has been built there yet. The Deutsche Bank building (formerly Bankers Trust) which is across the street has not yet been torn down, but is so badly damaged that I expect it will be eventually. Bodies were found inside that building about 9 months after the disaster. I worked in that building for 5 years.
Of the 2700+ people killed, about 1200 were identified. Approximately 12,000 body parts remain to be identified and the plan is to continue with DNA testing for another year. Any body parts remaining at that point will be preserved at the site until DNA testing improves to the point where it makes sense to try again. Of the bodies that were identified, many were identified in parts and families were receiving remains in pieces. Funerals are still going on and will continue as long as bodies continue to be identified.
The transportation system in the city is still disrupted. The PATH trains which provided service from NJ to lower Manhattan have not been restored. It appears that it will be another three years before transportaion is completely back to normal. I get on the train each day at Summit, NJ to get in to work. There is a small memorial at the train station for the nine Summit residents who were killed.
My co-workers, most of whom were at work on 9/11 on various floors in the 60's, and I were in temporary quarters for over six months. Keeping everything working was a challenge, but we succeeded. Due to the continuing problems in the securities markets, about a third of them were laid off during the latter half of 2002. Many of these people had also been through the bombing in 1993.
We now have new offices near the Holland Tunnel, about 1-2 miles north of Ground Zero. It is not clear whether we will be staying here, or moving again. The current space is not considered permanent. We seldom talk about the disaster amongst ourselves, but 13 people from our company were killed. The last one died on 12/31/01 from his injuries. He was a 76 year old man who liked working and had chosen not to retire.
For those of you who have had comments like the one above, I am sure you mean well, but survivor guilt is a normal reaction to the experience my co-workers and I have been through. To not experience survivor guilt would be abnormal and would indicate severe psychological problems.
To those who have written some of the callous recent posts I found offensive, I suggest you visit Ground Zero before displaying further insensitivity by writing anything further on the subject.
To the regulators: If you don't like this post, then remove the whole thread. If my story is interesting enough to be here, then it should be here in full.