Sisters, brothers read loved ones’ names on Sept 11 anniversary

NEW YORK: America grieved the victims of September 11 yesterday as the brothers and sisters of the dead recited their loved ones’ names and tearful messages of remembrance to a weeping crowd gathered at the site where the World Trade Centre once stood. The roll of the lost began with Gordon M Aamoth Jr, an investment bank employee. Then, one after another, the names echoed across the site where the twin towers collapsed four years ago in a nightmarish cloud of dust and debris. Relatives in the crowd bowed their heads and sobbed as speakers uttered brief, personal messages to the brothers and sisters they lost.

“You’re still our hero, please keep watching over us,” Elizabeth Ahearn said to her brother, fire lieutenant Brian Ahearn. “Donald, there’s not a day that goes by that we don’t think about you,” a sobbing Suzanne Gavagan Mascitis said to her brother, Donald Richard Gavagan, Jr, a 35-year-old bond trading firm employee. As the names were read, weeping mourners filed down a ramp to a reflecting memorial pool at the floor of the 16-acre site, which remains virtually empty four years after the attack killed 2,749 people and tore a hole in the New York skyline. Families dropped red, orange and yellow roses in the still water, 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 national catastrophe that has thousands of citizens dead and grieving.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg opened with words of condolence for those devastated by the terrorist bombings in the London Underground, and for the thousands of people devastated by Katrina. “Today, as we recite the names of those we lost, our hearts turn as well toward London, our sister city, remembering those she has just lost as well,” Bloomberg said. “And to Americans suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, our deepest sympathies go out to you this day.” In New Orleans, firefighters from New York helping with the relief effort gathered around a makeshift memorial for their fallen comrades. At the service, a bell from a neighboring church, its steeple wiped out by Katrina, was given to the New York firefighters.

The trade centre site fell silent at 8:46 am, the time at which a hijacked jetliner crashed into the north tower, at 9:03 am, the moment a second plane struck the south tower, and at 9:59 am, when the south tower fell, and at 10:29 am, when the second tower collapsed. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice read a poem by Christina Rossetti after the second moment of silence. Gov George E Pataki also offered a commemorative reading, and former mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who led the city at the time of the attack, also spoke. “We all stand together to help each other and to help those who need our help in the future,” Giuliani said. “We remember forever all the brothers and sisters that we lost on that day.”

Parents and grandparents read the victims’ names at ground zero last year, while children’s voices were heard in 2003. A selection of politicians, relatives and others read the names on the first anniversary. In Washington, president George W Bush marked the anniversary with his wife on the South Lawn. And in southwestern Pennsylvania, a memorial service was planned in the field where Flight 93 crashed after it was hijacked by terrorists.

Other memorials planned on Sunday included a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey service for the 84 employees it lost on September 11. Firefighters plan-ned to roll out their trucks and other equipment in front of their firehouses. The Fire Department lost 343 firefighters in the attack. Two light beams inspired by the twin towers were to shoot skyward Sunday night in an echo of the towers’ silhouette. The “Tribute in Light” will fade away at dawn on Monday. Mourners worldwide also marked the anniversary of the September 11 attacks Sunday with memorials and calls for peace.