[Mb-civic] Enduring a Kinship of Loss - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Enduring a Kinship of Loss
Sept. 11 Emergency Teams Mark Anniversary in New Orleans

By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 12, 2005; Page A01

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 11 -- Gerry McCarty lost 70 friends in the World 
Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and to this day, the former New 
York City police officer cannot travel past Ground Zero.

"I don't go down there," he said Sunday, visibly steeling himself for 
questions he'd rather not contemplate. "I don't drive by. I don't walk by."
For each of the three previous anniversaries, when thousands have 
gathered at the site in Lower Manhattan to memorialize nearly 3,000 
victims, McCarty stayed away.

"In those 29 minutes, I lost more friends and family than in all my 52 
years," he said. "I've seen death. Close friends of mine in the police 
department have been killed. But it was one at a time and they were 
doing what they chose to do."

His eyes moisten. A quintessential Irishman -- tough on the outside, 
marshmallow soft inside -- he is embarrassed.

Sunday, McCarty marked the four-year anniversary of the worst terrorist 
attack in U.S. history by helping with the rescue and recovery effort in 
a disaster of similar magnitude. Though Hurricane Katrina ultimately may 
not claim as many lives as the 2001 attacks, the storm and its aftermath 
have wrought far greater damage on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

"I have to remember them the way I lived and worked with them, and 
that's what I am doing here today," he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/11/AR2005091101630.html?referrer=email
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20050912/4681c9ba/attachment.htm