At 10:00am that morning, I took a call at work from a local firechief who was my old boss (I was an EMT for a few years until the state did some restructuring in the cities). He was contacting current and former paramedics that were willing to drive to NY and help. I didn't think twice, I left work, ran home, packed a bag, called my wife and told her I was going.
14 hours later, we pulled up on scene and got to work right away. I was there for 5 days, helping crews, tending to injured, passing out water, helping cook/clean and in general, doing anything I could.
That 14 hour ride was ridiculous. I've done the ride home to NY from Michigan 50 times over the years. It's a standard 11 hour drive keeping close to the speed limit.
We were in a caravan of ambulances, fire trucks, police cars and even personal vehicles. We were driving about 80-90mph, bubbles on most of the way. We made great time, but when we got close to the city limits, we were in lockdown. There was no moving. A few of us actually jumped out of the passenger seats, grabbed a bag and ran across the bridge on foot to try and get through the crap.
You could see the smoke from the bridge. You could smell it from the bridge. I had no clue what I was about to get involved in, until we started getting closer to Manhattan. When we crossed the bridge, we were picked up by a NYC police truck who drove us a lot closer, a lot faster than we could have made it on foot. I remember getting out of the truck with miles to go still, grabbing my bag and seeing people on the sides of the roads with dust on them, telling us things like "good luck", "go get 'em" and "God will help us".. I didn't understand at that point, because we hadn't seen pictures or any coverage, just what we heard on the radio. As we were running up the eerily abandoned streets, I realized the skyline that I usually saw, wasn't the same. Obviously I knew the buildings had come down, but I guess you don't realize what it would be like without those mighty landmarks. It's funny; when we were nearing the Penn/Jersey border, I had to pee SO bad. We needed gas soon, but figured we would make it and we'd just worry about it at a later date.
It was probably 6 hours later that I pee'd. You just don't think about it when you're in that kind of slop. You forget everything else in your life and all of your priorities and thoughts change.
I worked along side my uncle who was a Manhattan firefighter, an uncle that was an NYC cop and other relatives who were from Long Island FD's. I slept maybe a total of 6 hours in those 5 days. I was hugged by literally thousands of people and had my hand squeezed by thousands more.
I put my family through absolute hell because I couldn't call or make contact for at least 3 days (no cell reception, no available lines, no time).
I had nightmares for a couple of months after returning home. The smell there was something I could never describe to anyone. To this day, I still catch a whiff of something that reminds me of it and makes me sick. It was at least a month after getting home that I still smelled the stench of dead bodies/burning/dust/dirt/nasty.
I threw away all my clothes before I even walked back in my house, but for some weird psychological reason, I could still smell that stench in my closet or on the couch, or on the bed.. It was just so real.
As someone who grew up in NY (Brooklyn) and walked by these buildings on a somewhat regular basis, I was stunned and in awe. I'll never forget what we went through the following few days, but at the same rate, i'll never forget how the people of a city bonded and worked hand in hand to overcome a disaster.
While everyone thinks of those that passed on that day, don't forget all the firemen, policemen and EMT's that lost their lives, or were seriously injured during this.
That uncle I mentioned that was a Manhattan firefighter..
He was my hero growing up. He was only 4 years older than me and I spent my younger years trying to keep up with him and be just like him. He was a marine that became a paramedic afterward. So I jumped into paramedic classes right after high school. He made the move to firefighter and I started following suit and began working on the firefighters test. Michigan doesn't hire their Firefighters/EMT's like NY does, most of the EMT's here are outsourced through 3rd party companies and many of the firefighters are volunteer. I was actually looking into making the move to NY with my wife when this happened. Afterward, my wife just didn't feel comfortable, so it never happened.
Anyway, working with him, even if it were only minutes at a time and seeing his dedication (and ALL the NY emergency crews) was amazing. I can't type or speak words that would help someone understand what the people of NY did to help.
I was 28 at the time and it was so strange thinking "That's why I wanted to be like him".. It never occurred to me until then.
Last thing in this huge book i'm typing..
One of the days I was at a firehouse on an "off-shift", was out front getting a breather. An older black woman walked up to me and handed me a bottle of water and a pot full of food. I stood up to thank her and she fell into my arms in tears. I held that woman for 5 minutes as she cried. It wasn't that she lost a loved one, just that she lost a staple of her life.
Later that day we were grabbing our gear to head back out and 3 middle eastern kids ran up to us with food, drinks and just wanted to talk.
There was no color barrier, there was no religious barrier.. People were all the same for a few days.
People always ask me if I regret going because of the memories that were burned into our head when we got home.
Hell no.
We experienced the greatest brotherhood that this country has seen since WW2. We were part of the greatest city in the world bonding and becoming one united group, even if it was only a week, a month or a year. Those people worked as one and worked damn good together.
