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NYC After the 9/11 Attacks

Brittany Levithan
Molloy College




















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September 11, 2001 will live in infamy not only for our generation, but also
for our children and our childrens children. You cannot open a history book
written after 2001 that does not have a section about September 11, 2001 and the
attacks that happened on that day. September 11
th
, 2001 was a day that changed
America, especially New York City in general. On this day, terrorists hijacked
two passenger airplanes and crashed into the world trade center. The world trade
center which once stood as two tall towers, were nothing but a mountain of rubble
on the ground. The terrorist attacks on 9/11 resulted in the death of two thousand
eight hundred people (Russo&Cullinan, 2014)!
Even though this day is filled with much sorrow, anger and death, there was
a beautiful thing that came out of it, heroism and community bonding. On
September 12
th
, 2001 you could not drive down a street without seeing houses
proudly displaying their American flag. Urban sociology is the study of how
humans interact with each other in urban areas and how it contributes to society
(Miriam Webster, 2014). The patriotism mentioned above is an example of this!
New York City came together like never before following the days of 9/11. New
Yorkers as well as people from all over the world wanted to help.
On the day the twin towers were attacked, immediately carpenters and
basically anyone who knew how to work a hammer came together to build
stretchers for all of the injured people stuck under the ruble as well as the
corpuses. People donated not only their supplies but also their time and hard work
to accomplish this. The city needed help and the citizens were there to lend a hand.
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One bystander said, You look out here, all races, all cultures no matter, even
people that hit the country, even their family people, they are still here! Look at all
the people, all the races, all the languages; everyone is coming just to help out.
That is not only here, but all over America (History Channel, 2011). Everyone
wanted to do his or her fair share and help out.
It didnt matter the task big or small, everyone wanted to do something to
help the victims and families of the attacks. The days following the attacks, the
American Red Cross had an overwhelming number of volunteers lined up to
donate blood. Due to the overwhelming amount of injuries blood donations were
needed for the high amount of patients who required transfusions. According to a
volunteer at the Red Cross, Here at the Red Cross, they have never ever seen a
response like this; its utterly amazing ( Gilham, 2013 ). Another way people
wanted to help out the society was by temporarily excusing the HIPPA laws. The
HIPPA laws were created in 1996 by president Bill Clinton and stated that it was
illegal to release any information about patients who were under medical care
without the patients permission ( Jacobs, 2014 ).After the attacks many families
had not heard from their loved ones who were in the towers that day. They didnt
even know if they were alive or dead! Therefore, local hospitals who were
overwhelmed with the victims put signs on their front doors of the list of patients
brought in from the attacks. This way family members could walk from door to
door of each hospital and look at the list to see if their loved ones were there.
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Technically this is a violation of the HIPPA act however, due to the circumstances
the people figured it would be in best interest for the citizens.
Local businesses wanted to do their share to lend a helping hand. The Javitz
Center was central control for all the construction workers who came from all over
the country to help in the cleanup and demolition. The Ice Skating Rink at Chelsea
Piers was even used as a make shift morgue! But one of the most resilient
examples of helping out your community came from The St. Pauls Chapel.
Although it was directly across the street from the World Trade Center, the
chapel miraculously survived the terrorist attacks on September 11
th
, 2001 that
destroyed the nearby twin towers without even a broken window. Supposedly St.
Pauls was spared by a sycamore tree that stood in its cemetery, which deflected
debris from the church After the attack, St. Pauls served as a place of rest and
relief for rescue workers at ground zero (Russo&Cullinan, 2014).
During our New York experience class, we got to visit not only ground zero
and the memorial, but we got to visit St.Pauls church. The second you stepped
foot into this church, there was a special feeling. So many volunteers found not
only food but strength and courage there. Hot meals, a place to rest, prayer and
even massages were available there for volunteers. I thought that it was a
liberating thing to experience this place where so many people found refuge. It
was truly amazing for me to see how a community can come together after disaster
to build not only each other ,but the city back up.

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Works Cited
Gillham, P. F. (2013). Teaching and Learning Guide for: 'Securitizing
America: Strategic Incapacitation and the Policing of Protest Since the 11
September 2011 Terrorist attacks'. Sociology Compass, 7(12), 1065-1073.
doi:10.1111/soc4.12091
Jacobs, R., & Townsley, E. (2014). The Hermeneutics of Hannity: Format
Innovation in the Space of Opinion after September 11. Cultural Sociology, 8(3),
240-257. doi:10.1177/1749975514523938
Russo, M., & Cullinan, M. (2014). Essential New York (First ed., Vol.
One). Omnia Press.
Webster, M. (n.d.). Urban Sociology Definition. Retrieved October
17, 2014.
9/11 The Days After [Motion picture]. (2011). USA.