Memories from 9/11

NEW YORK CITY - Sharon (Murphy) Hoverman and her daughter, Carol, described their experiences of running from the base of the Twin Towers on 9/11 two separate times over the next year. Sharon (who is the sister of Mark Murphy of Cresco) recalled her experiences in the Sept. 20, 2001 Lime Springs Herald, while Carol related her experiences in a “Christmas Letter” that she wrote as the first anniversary approached.
In their own words:
Carol: On Sept. 11, 2001, everything changed! My apartment was a short block away from the World Trade Center Towers. The night before, my mom had come into New York City from Connecticut to have dinner with me and stay overnight. 
Sharon: Monday, we shopped in the Mall under the World Trade Towers and had enjoyed dinner in the World Financial Center overlooking the yacht basin and the Statue of Liberty.
On Tuesday morning, I was up early and went for coffee and took my usual walk on the Esplanade along the Hudson River. 
It was a beautiful morning — the ferries were rushing back and forth to New Jersey and Staten Island, sailboats were circling Lady Liberty, the water was a bright blue. All seemed right with the world.
Just as I got back to Carol’s apartment, there was a loud boom! Outside the window, a blizzard of broken glass was falling all around and people were running and screaming on the street below.
Carol: I was just getting up on that Tuesday morning and putting the futon away. My mom says there was a big boom. I looked out the window. There was a view of both World Trade buildings from my apartment window, but not the top of the buildings. Down on the street, we could see a guy sitting on the sidewalk, clutching his chest and talking on his cell phone. 
We rushed downstairs and out the back door of my building. There were lots of people running to the West Side Highway. They all were very excited and looking up at the top of WTC #1. That’s when we saw the big hole. There was lots of smoke, and we could see fire in that huge hole. People were falling from where the fire was. Nobody seemed to know what had happened to cause that terrible sight.
Mom wanted her camera. So I ran upstairs and got both of our cameras. Then we were taking pictures, and it just seemed like a minute and the second plane came flying into WTC #2 right above us. Whiz! Right by our hair! 
Sharon: Bodies were falling from the burning top floors. Suddenly a huge white jet appeared over our heads and flew straight into Tower #2. I felt like I could have reached up and touched the plane.
Carol: I remember seeing empty shoes laying around on the ground. Mom’s sandal came off and she fell down and I fell on top of her. We had a hard time getting up because of the force of all of the people running from behind us. Mom says now that was the first time that day she thought that we might die.
[The mother and daughter ran back up to Carol’s fifth floor apartment, to fix bleeding elbows and feet.]
My roommate had the TV on. They said that it was TWO planes! One plane could be an accident, but two is not!”
The concierge told everyone to leave. We were shocked to see a NYC police officer in the lobby who said he understood there was “a piece of plane” in our building. Later, we found out that a large piece of the first plane had lodged in a 10th floor apartment not far above my apartment! The people were not home.
Sharon: Immediately, the police told residents to run away, as the towers might fall. The next two hours were spent running.
Carol: We walked by the Marriott Hotel. That hotel was crushed when the towers collapsed.
[They stopped to figure out what to do next and were going to ask two men who looked calm and focused.] Suddenly everybody looked toward the World Trade Towers, and it looked like one of the buildings started to tip toward us. We all thought it would fall on us! Then the building just fell straight down and the huge cloud of dust started coming toward us.
Most of the people started to run away! These two guys were so smart, and they said that the breeze will eventually blow the dust over and away from us. So the four of us got down on the ground and huddled together, facing toward the water and away from the dust, and covered our faces. It seemed like a very long time but those guys wouldn’t let us get up until the air was much clearer. 
While we were under that cloud of dust and everything was dark, two planes flew overhead. That was scary because we thought we might be bombed. Later we found out those were American fighter jets that had been sent from Boston.
We were right next to Castle Clinton (where the Statue of Liberty Ferry lands), and suddenly the second building started to fall, and another big cloud was coming towards us. We huddled on the ground together facing the water and tried to cover up as much as possible. 
 
 
[Every time someone’s cell phone rang, everyone would gather around it to hear the news. That’s when they heard rumors of the White House, Camp David and the John Hancock Building in Chicago being hit, although they weren’t.]
Carol: That’s when Mom started having chest pains. The paramedics talked her down from her anxiety attack.
[They finally stood in line for a pay phone and got in touch with their sons and brothers, Matt and Luke, who lived in the East Village.]
Sharon: Eventually a tug boat evacuated us off the tip of Manhattan and cruised the east river for almost two hours before receiving permission to dock back on Manhattan because all entrances were closed off.
We slowly made our way downtown by bus and walking. We were stopped many times by barricades. We stopped at a pub and called Matt and Luke and told them we were two blocks away.
By 6:30 p.m., we were all together and, after hugs all around, we had dinner at a sidewalk cafe and spent the night at Luke’s apartment.
Carol: We were covered with dust from the buildings falling, so a hot shower felt so good, and Luke went out to the laundromat and washed our clothes! 
The next day in the afternoon, Mom and I felt it was safe to take the subway and then the train back to Connecticut. I stayed with Mom for a few weeks. 
Sharon: Carol’s New York apartment is next to Ground Zero. There is no electricity or phone service, and everything is covered with debris and pulverized cement. 
The Battery Park City streets are being used for rescue operations. The yacht basin is filled with police boats and helicopters and are on the big concert lawn. The apartment buildings are being guarded by the military, and it expected to be two more weeks or more before Carol and the other 9,000 Battery Park City residents can return to their homes.
Carol: I had a difficult time trying to decide whether to live in Battery Park City again or live somewhere else in the city. My apartment there looked right at Ground Zero. The air quality was not always pleasant that close to Ground Zero because for a long time the burning fires smelled really bad. There were big floodlights that burned all night long. 
 
One year later
Carol found an apartment near Gramercy Park and Union Square, which is a great area. Hovermans spent at least 13 days waiting in long, long lines at the Red Cross Relief Centers.
Sharon said, “With the tourist trade falling off after 9/11, several hotels, including Carol’s Soho Grand gave a relief rate to the Red Cross.
“The whole hotel was filled with survivors. During the day, children of the families could be seen playing in the elegant dining room. Waitresses would step over children and crayons to do their work. 
“On 9/11, Carol and I retraced some of our steps from a year ago, We walked part of the distance and ended up in the same pub at around 5:30 p.m.”
Since the attacks, many have images they can’t forget.
Sharon revealed, “Every time I see a firetruck, my heart just drops when I see the firemen on back that go to the fires. People are skittish. But they just keep going and going to jobs in high rise buildings and riding on the subway underground.”
 
Ten years later
Sharon talked about her views on the prior 10 years.
Each year, mother and daughter went down to Lower Manhattan to view the progress made on the Freedom Tower at the WTC site. And they walked the same path from that fateful day.
They go to the spot where they were standing when the second plane flew over their heads into the second tower. They look at the 10th floor of Carol’s old apartment building, where a piece of debris was found. They also stand in the two spots they were at when the two towers went down.
Hovermans end the day by having dinner on the waterfront, along with other groups who commemorate Sept. 11, 2001.
Right after the attacks, the duo were entered into a 20-year study for the after-effects of the dust created by the towers falling.
“At first, we thought we were unaffected, but slowly our symptoms became worse, and now we are screened every three months at Bellevue Hospital in NYC, where there is a clinic specifically set up to treat 9/11 survivors.”
 
Twenty years later
Sharon gave an update for the 20th anniversary.
She said, “Every 9/11, I always pull out Carol’s letter, and read it. I showed it to someone a couple of years ago. He’s going to his college reunion in the south and they are going to do a program on 9/11. He came to me for a copy of the letter.”
Although they usually go to the WTC area every year, they did not make it in 2020 for obvious reasons. 
She and Carol have attended other memorials in Redding, which is much closer to Sharon than NYC.
“The memories are still so fresh. It doesn’t go away. I remember seeing cars at the parking lot for the train that never moved. Their owners never came back.
“The Jan. 6 event triggers it again. You don’t know what is going to happen. Carol is back in NYC and has to show her vaccination card to go into a restaurant or store.”
Sharon still belongs to the clinic trial at Bellevue Hospital. “About 70,000 people are having problems. Lots of cancer. My bladder cancer might have come from 9/11. A lot of people have respiratory problems. We take medication.”
All of it is paid for through The Zadroga Act, which celebrity Jon Stewart shamed Congress into acting on in 2019. “Death keeps happening because of 9/11,” Sharon stated. “There are ads in newspapers and TV reaching out to let people know they can get treatment.”
It took Sharon and Carol five years to figure out they may have problems. “We were staying overnight with Luke, and the next morning, he said, ‘The two of you coughed all night long.’ That’s when we started going to the clinic.”
 

Cresco Times

Phone: 563-547-3601
Fax: 563-547-4602

Address:
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Cresco, IA 52136

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