W000242
Thursday, November 08, 2001 1:50 PM
Victims Compensation Fund
Before 9/11, my husband and I lived in Battery Park City (BPC)one block west
of the World Trade Center. My husband lived there since 1990 and loved
being that close to the Trade Center. He had a special relationship with
those structures and with downtown Manhattan. On his recommendation, I
acquiesced to stay there after we married in 1998. I quickly learned to
love city living since it was nothing like typical city life. AND I was
able to walk to work! Being so happy to live there, my husband did his
daily drive to work over an hour away in Westchester. I do not exaggerate
how we loved living in BPC. It was a quiet spacious enclave where we could
live close to the financial district, the focal point of our careers. And,
the apartment was rent stabilized.
I was walking to work and was a block away from the WTC when I heard the
first plane hit. I saw the floor burning and stayed to help out anyway I
could. The first shock was seeing people leap from the building. It was
unbelievable! Then another plane flew right over my head and crashed into
the second tower. We ran to a park further south. It was such a beautiful
day! We congregated there in that beautiful space with the Statue of
Liberty at our backs watching the towers burn as we tried to phone our loved
ones. "Thank God they built those buildings to withstand that kind of impact
and not collapse", the woman to my right commented. That was about 5
minutes before we heard the rumble of the building coming down. Within
seconds the dust was falling all around us. Eventually, after the other
tower collapsed, a bus drove us north.
My husband and I haven't lived in our home since. Because of the effect of
the poor air quality on my health, we can't move back to our apartment at
this time. Although we'd like to keep the apartment and wait a few months
and move back, we could never afford two rents. Our only choice seems to be
to move.
Do you know what all that means? To name a FEW...
>It means our life is turned upside down.
>It means we have to live in a furnished space that costs a lot -- PLENTY
>more than our BPC home cost.
It means we've gone to others for assistance, such as FEMA which so far has
only given us $2038 for rental assistance.
>It means we have to deal with a lot of paperwork. One example is that FEMA
>ceased assistance because we had insurance and we were told that we must
>submit more paperwork which is obtained from the insurance company which is
>swamped with work and takes awhile to get to. (P.S. Our insurance was
>used up in the first 3 weeks).
>It means we can't have a lot of belongings with us because we have to move
>those belonging with us wherever we go. Which means, for example, that you
>can't stock a kitchen with food and condiments and supplies.
>It means that suddenly we may have to find another place to live in a town
>that we never considered moving to.
>It means that I've found it impossible to keep on working because we have a
>lot of things that need to be taken care of ASAP in a situation that has a
>lot of uncertainty.
>IT MEANS THAT WE'RE SPENDING A LOT MORE MONEY THAN WE DID BEFORE 9/11.
Please understand that the residents of lower Manhattan have also been
victimized by the events of September 11th. Everyday our lives are effected
by the reverberation of the collapse of the WTC. We need not to be
forgotten, we need not to be overlooked, we need recognition of our plight.
We need financial support.
Individual Comment
New York City, NY