New
York City, Normal No More
A Photo Essay
construction.com September 27, 2001
By Judy Schriener
New York City
Sunday, September 16, 2001
Uptown, close to Columbus Circle, sudden sirens
jolt people on the street. A police escort leads a train of eight
or 10 huge trucks hauling construction equipment of all sizes and
kinds. The disaster site impacts the city even six miles north.
People watch, then go back to their lives, but the reminder of a
horrible reality not so far away, downtown, has jangled nerves and
disrupted the peace of the day.
Joshua Hitchcock, left, and David Culkin,
center, from Ironworkers Local 396 in St. Louis, jumped into Hitchcock's
Pontiac Sunbird on Friday, Sept. 14th, and drove to New York City
to volunteer to help. They hit town and headed for the Jacob Javits
Center to find the four contractors that were authorized to hire
workers. Hitchcock and Culkin work for Brock-Miller Construction
in St. Louis. Dexter Dixon, right, had arrived before the terrorist
attack from Palm Beach, Fla. (Local 402), before the disaster and
also came to help out.
The four contractors that secured the cleanup
contracts set up makeshift headquarters at the Jacob Javits Center.
No phones, no computers, no equipment, no nuthin'. Cell phones,
pay phones and beepers are the lifelines for contractor staffers
as they check the workers in and out. "I feel like a drug dealer,"
comments one. Security is high, with state police and militia making
sure that only authorized personnel get in. (No press allowed-don't
ask how I got in.)
Ironworkers and dockworkers show up for their
shifts, check in, talk softly among themselves as they wait patiently
to board the bus to the site. Some are new and nervous, becoming
especially quiet, not knowing what to expect. The veterans talk
about their sense of purpose. One reports that a huge (25' high,
15' across) steel cross at Ground Zero, with a piece of cloth draped
over one arm, as a place of solace to which he turned several times
per shift.
|
Dressing for the Occasion
|
|
 |
Flag-bandanas cropped up immediately. Ironworker
Sal Tagliarino from Local 580 created his own special Twin Towers
shirt, inscribed with "In memory to all" at the bottom.
Wednesday,
September 26, 2001 | Saturday,
September 15, 2001
Photos
by Judy Schriener
© 2001 The
McGraw-Hill Companies - All Rights Reserved
|
