New York Under Attack:
Queens Tells Its Story

During a radio program on the afternoon of the attack that destroyed the World Trade Center in Manhattan, Queens Congressman Gary Ackerman said, “They’ve succeeded in changing the skyline and they’ve changed our lives forever.”

He added, “This evil will not prevail.”

This week the people of Queens proved that their spirit and good will can survive this tragedy. Here are the stories they told the PRESS: 

Cory McCruden of Flushing reported to work on Sept. 11th at a banking firm just opposite the WTC. “Ordinarily I stop at the Tuesday Farmer’s Market outside the WTC. Fortunately, this morning I did not and was inside when the first building was struck. I still wonder what happened to those poor people still outside?  When the first building was struck, it seemed unreal so I continued to work until I felt the building shake a second time. Then, even though there was no announcement to evacuate nor were any alarms sounding, I and my co-workers said, ‘Let’s get out of here’.”

Tuesday was Karen Kreiger’s birthday - one that she will never forget.

She began her morning as a CAO for Lehman Brothers which was on the 40th floor of Tower One. There were balloons and flowers from her co-workers, but the celebration was cut short. “We felt something like an earthquake or something hit the building. We saw mounds and mounds of debris.” The elevators were out, so she began walking downstairs as Fire Department personnel rushed up the stairs.

The Jamaica Estates Ambulance Corps called for volunteers on the morning of Sept. 11, and Mike Hartmann and Shelly Kramer were among the first to go to Manhattan. What they found resembled a movie set.

“It was pitch black, said Hartmann. “You couldn’t see 50 feet in front of you.  The ash was thick, and people were shell - shocked. It looked like a scene from a Vietnam movie bomb site.”

John Rowling, Long Island City: “I woke up and I left my house thinking I was going out to vote. I got my usual cup of coffee at the corner, and I was talking to the guy behind the counter about the mayoral race. I thought that was the most important thing and that I was going to be watching my set all day to see who was winning. I leave the shop, and I hear this deafening explosion. And then the whole world seemed to go in slow motion.

Carmine Gallo, Howard Beach: “It was like the end of the world . . .I heard a beam fall through the sky. It had a metal sound. You could tell it was something heavy. All you could hear is screaming and yelling – the fear type, you know. People were leaping from the windows hand in hand. It was like they were doing a flip into a pool. There were computer parts and monitors, books, papers and appointment books strewn everywhere. Then there was a rumbling.”

Gallo was able to beat out the tidal wave of dust and debris that was to follow. “I made it to six or seven corners down,” before crossing the Brooklyn Bridge to safety.

Mike Cutler of Fresh Meadows: “My jaw opened.” For the past 10 years, Cutler has worked as an executive chauffer for the president of a bank on the 60th Floor of Tower One. He arrived at the building’s parking garage at about 8:50 a.m. and “I smelled something, at first I thought it was garbage burning.” As people raced towards him trying to get out of the building, “I just got out of there,” and he did so in time to witness the second jet crashing into Tower Two.

Getting to work on the number 7 train on Tuesday was easy enough for Victor Ortiz of Flushing - it was getting home that was the hard part.

PRESS contributing writer D. Vega snapped this shot with a disposable camera as smoke from the Twin Towers fires blocked out the sun on Chambers Street.

The 27-year-old started his Tuesday morning at a publishing company at 49th Street and Park Avenue until he got a phone call. “A friend called and told me that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center.”

Ortiz soon found himself joining the throng of pedestrians walking  across the Queensborough Bridge, Ortiz walked across the bridge - a trip that took over an hour, he said.

It was like a marathon. It was unbelieveable.”

James Montefinise of Floral Park said, “I was sitting at my desk typing when all of a sudden I heard this huge boom. It was so loud, I thought something happened in my building. I looked out the window, and the World Trade Center was on fire. Other people in my office came to my window to see it, and then the other tower blew up. I couldn’t believe it. We all said we’re getting out of here. So we walked downstairs to the subway and a train came right away. Everyone on the train looked stunned. They couldn’t believe what they just saw. Then of course the towers collapsed probably right on the train station I left from. I didn’t know they collapsed until I got home. I was shocked.”

“I was walking on campus when I heard this long, low booming sound. I stopped and looked around, but I didn’t see anything. Everyone was looking around like, ‘what was that?’ Nobody knew. So I just kept walking to the bus, and then I found out what I heard. You could see the smoke from campus,” said Queens College student Kateri Whited.

Let out on the Queens side of the midtown tunnel Staten Island resident Dawn Venosa and Manhattanite John DiMeglio were two of dozens and dozens of people hitchhiking rides and they ran into PRESS photographer Ira Cohen, who offered them a ride east in the right direction.

In the PRESS office, Venosa, who was two blocks away when the first plane hit one of the twin towers and was not hurt, said it was “horrific, you kept thinking you were going to wake up and it wasn’t going to be real.”

Forest Hills resident and college student John Bloom was about to leave for classes at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, two blocks away from the World Trade Center, when he heard the news.

As it just so happened, Bloom had late classes that day. “Thank God. I couldn’t believe watching news footage of the wreckage on the street, right where I was supposed to be.”

Stacy Roebuck, Hollis: “I got into Manhattan at about 10 after eight, and the conductor said that there were delays on the subway. Then the conductor said two planes crashed into the World Trade Center. I got off the F-train at 23rd Street and I looked up because, you know, the World Trade is right there.

Well, I looked at that first tower and all I could see was a hole. That’s all that was left. I could hardly see the second building because of all the smoke.

I started to walk to my sister’s building so we could find a way to go home. While I was walking, I heard a guy say, ‘Look at that,’ and I looked up and saw the second tower collapse. There wasn’t even any warning. There wasn’t a sound.”

Kecia Jackson, Hollis: “I walked home over the Queensboro bridge. There were cars on one side of the bridge going to Queens and then the other side was filled with people. We were supporting each other. We all felt the craziness of Manhattan. It was really different on the bridge. We were all happy to be leaving. When we got to Queens, there were people who I think were merchants, handing out cups of water. It was nice. But the crowd was amazed. When you look across the Queensborough Bridge, the Twin Towers should be there.”

Streets around police precincts in Queens were closed to allow police cars to enter and exit precincts with the ease needed to deal with the immediacy of the World Trade Center attack.

Officer Arnie Aprea, a community affairs officer from the 107th Precinct, said, “We were calling in a lot of off-duty police officers and we had to make sure that they were able to get into the precinct with room to park. To make it easier, we just closed off our block to make room for the cars and to allow our police vehicles to maneuver easily.”  

They were the “Best” of Queens Finest in the Tribune’s annual issue applauding the borough.

Police Officers from Queens Emergency Service Unit 10 have wrestled some huge problem situations in the past year. From marauding chickens to a 500 lb. calf in Astoria, to a heroic rescue of flood victims after a Jersey hurricane, ESU-10 responded and got the job done.

Members of the unit were some of the first to arrive at the Trade Center chaos. They went into the buildings to help victims escape - and have not been seen since.

Hopes are high at the unit’s headquarters that the missing heroes from Flushing will soon be rescued. We at the PRESS offer our prayers for their safe return.

— Stories compiled by Nick Abadjian, Ira Cohen,
J.Davis, Liz Goff, Arlene Lewis, Stephen McGuire,
Angela Montefinise, Michelle Sellers and Richard Schack.