[Mb-civic] Siblings Read the Roll at Ground Zero - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Siblings Read the Roll at Ground Zero
In New York, a Nod To Katrina, London

By Amy Westfeld
Associated Press
Monday, September 12, 2005; Page A06

NEW YORK, Sept. 11 -- America mourned the victims of Sept. 11 on Sunday 
as the siblings of the deceased read their loved ones' names to a 
weeping crowd at the site of the World Trade Center.

One by one, the names of the dead echoed across the place where the Twin 
Towers collapsed four years ago in a nightmarish cloud of dust and 
debris. The ceremony drew to a close after four hours, when all 2,749 
names had been read.

Relatives in the crowd bowed their heads and sobbed as speakers uttered 
brief messages to the brothers and sisters they lost, many of their 
voices breaking in sorrow.

"Mom and Dad ache for you every minute," Linda Giammona-Julian said to 
her brother, Vincent Giammona, one of 343 firefighters killed. "We love 
you and we miss you -- till we meet again."

"My big sister, my better half, life will never be the same without 
you," Rolando Moreno said to Yvette Moreno, who worked for a brokerage 
in the North Tower.

As the names were read, mourners filed down a ramp to a memorial 
reflecting pool at the floor of the site, which remains virtually empty 
four years after a terrorist attack tore a hole in the New York skyline. 
Families filled the water with red, orange and yellow roses, some 
shaking as they inscribed dedications on the wooden edge of the pool.

The ceremony came as Hurricane Katrina left Americans once again 
struggling with a catastrophe that caught the nation unprepared and left 
citizens dead and grieving.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg opened with words of condolence for those 
devastated by Katrina and the July terrorist bombings in London. "To 
Americans suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, our deepest 
sympathies go out to you this day," Bloomberg said.

In New Orleans, New York firefighters helping with the relief effort 
gathered around a makeshift memorial for their fallen comrades.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/11/AR2005091100197.html
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