Impact of September 11 attacks remembered

Twenty years have passed since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four planes and used them to destroy the World Trade Center towers in New York City and a portion of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. They also are believed to have targeted either the White House or U.S. Capitol in an effort that was thwarted because of the heroic efforts of passengers and crew that ended with a crash landing in Pennsylvania. No one survived the crash. On that day 2,996 people died, including the 19 terrorists.
Archives from The Quoddy Tides provide a vivid snapshot of the days that followed, from family members learning that loved ones working at the World Trade Center were safe, to neighbors who lost friends. Lubec residents learned that their neighbors and friends Robert and Jackie Norton were among the 92 passengers aboard American Airlines Flight 11 when it was used as a guided missile to hit the World Trade Center. The Nortons were on their way to California to attend the wedding of a family member. They were engaged members of the community, sharing their garden flowers, cooking skills and their love of devotional singing through the Congregational Church and more. This was the first trip they were taking together to visit Jackie Norton's family, and friend Rachel Maker said at the time, "I know they would have wanted to be together, even if they could have known how it would end."
Sissy Leonard of Machias knew that her daughter, Lisle, was working on the 34th floor of the World Trade Center as a bond analyst. Leonard received a phone call that morning from her daughter telling her that a bomb had exploded in the building. Leonard waited another 45 minutes before hearing again from her daughter that she was out of the building and safe. "We realize how lucky we are," Leonard said at the time. "And our concern is for all the people who didn't come out of the building."
The late Margaret McNeill of Eastport heard the news of the plane crashes just about the time that she knew her daughter got off the train at the World Trade Center on her way to her office in the area. McNeill thought, "Oh, dear God. That's about the time Suzy goes to work. I was almost crazy. I was so worried." McNeill, who was down in Machias when she heard the news, arrived home to find a message on her answering machine. Her daughter was uninjured, although not at all sure how she was going to get home to Jersey City. "For some reason, she went to work earlier," and because of that she survived.
Paramedic and heavy duty rescue technician Edwin "Butch" Huntley of Lubec was in Calais on the morning of September 11. Grabbing some gear, he headed to New York City, where the Federal Emergency Management Agency directed him to Ground Zero. Hundreds of ambulances were there. He worked for search and rescue teams for two days. Whenever he found a body or body part, whether it was two feet under the surface or 20 feet beneath, he would mark it by placing a weighted body bag on top of the wreckage. One especially poignant moment was when a search team next to Huntley's group found a firefighter who had survived. "We all worked hard to get him out, and everything around us stopped. There were 500 to 1,000 men waiting, and when that [rescued] fireman was lifted out, you should have heard the cheering."
Sue Lank, daughter of Sandra (Peacock) Stevens and granddaughter of Gordon and Calla Greenlaw, all of Eastport and Florida, was at her workplace in Bowling Green, a few blocks from the World Trade Center. There was total pandemonium, she said at the time. When she decided it was time to get out of the area, she looked up at the towers. "What I saw I will never forget. A huge wall of black smoke and debris was hurling itself directly towards us. 'Run!' I screamed. People scattered. They ran in every direction. It was total chaos. The smoke was upon us before we made a block. It turned a beautiful sunny day into total blackness."
A young man, Christoffer Carstanjen of Massachusetts, was aboard United Airlines Flight 175 when it was used to hit the south tower of the World Trade Center. Carstanjen had spent most of his senior year of high school living with Marie and the late David Orrell of Eastport. The Orrells were living in Connecticut when the young student came to stay with them so that he could graduate with his class rather than move with one of his divorcing parents. The Orrells' daughter knew Carstanjen as a classmate and took him in. He was "unconventional," remembered David. The teenager had been told the house rules, including making his bed every morning. It turned out that the young fellow followed the rules by sleeping on top of the made bed. "He was a blond, kind of tousle headed and very personable," remembered Orrell. Carstanjen went on to work for the University of Massachusetts as a computer specialist. "There were no [personal computers] at that point, but Chris would play computer games. He had a remote control car that he'd race up and down the street. He was very much into gadgets. He was his own character."
Many vigils were held in the Quoddy region to mourn the victims, with memories shared, candles lit, speakers and musicians giving voice to sorrow and gratitude, and funds raised to assist with relief efforts in New York and Washington.
The aftermath of the World Trade Center collapse took a long term toll, with many in emergency management later succumbing to illness that was attributed to the toxic materials concentrated at the site. Larkin McGarvey, daughter of Meg and the late Bill McGarvey of Eastport, lost her battle to leukemia in 2008. Her illness was attributed to her work as a volunteer paramedic at the site just hours after the buildings fell. At the time, McGarvey told The Quoddy Tides, "We were treating a lot of firefighters who were suffering from smoke inhalation and cuts." Before Building #7 crumbled, McGarvey went out to the site with other medical personnel. As they walked along they saw more and more cell phones and briefcases lying around and found themselves stepping on body parts. "There was so much ash, it was up over everybody's shoes," she remembered. "And, in closer, because the hoses were running, it turned into fine mud. You could see where the [collapsed towers] had shot pieces out from the bottom, and [the pieces] had gone through buildings, windows, cars." McGarvey continued to volunteer her service. "In a situation like that, I wanted to help make it as positive an outcome as possible," she said. "But it wasn't just me. There were lots of volunteers coming in."
Former Perry Fire Chief Paula Frost wrote a guest column for the November 23, 2001, issue of The Quoddy Tides, an account of her reflections while visiting Ground Zero and at the funeral held for New York firefighter Angel Juarbe, who had endeared himself to Eastporters as a participant and winner of $250,000 in an early reality show, "Murder in Small Town X," that was filmed earlier in the year in Eastport. Frost wrote of the October 27 service, "The church cannot hold all who have come, and so hundreds of firefighters gather outside in small, quiet groups, as we listen with heavy hearts to Angel's eulogy." On November 28, Juarbe's body was identified, and his family notified the people of Eastport that he had been found.