The gazebo in Clarkesville was the place where people remembered, on Friday. It was the fourteenth anniversary of the date when terrorists piloted airplanes in New York, destroying the Twin Towers office buildings, and burning the Pentagon.
Emergency workers spoke in Clarkesville on Friday of their memories of their colleagues in New York on September 11, 2001.
Habersham Sheriff Joey Terrell remembered how they looked. “They were not black, they were not white, or any other color,” he said. “They all were grey,” he said, remembering the ash that totally covered emergency workers at the Twin Towers.
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Jennifer Moulder, 911 Supervisor in Habersham County, remembered that fifty-three thousand calls were made to emergency centers within three hours that day. Emergency workers were “promising to victims help that would never arrive,” she said, because of the large number of workers who died trying to rescue victims.
Clarkesville Fire Chief Jerry Palmer remembered seeing emergency workers “running into buildings – never once thinking” that their families would never see them again. New York “lost 343 firefighters that day,” he said.
The Remembrance Ceremony at the gazebo also included an address by State Representative Terry Rogers. After the Twin Towers collapsed, “I knew our whole world had changed,” he said. The emotions of Americans ran the gamut, he said, “from sadness, to disbelief – to anger – to rage.” First Responders had to “take the emotion of that day,” he said, “channel it, put it aside, and do the job.”
Friday’s crowd at the gazebo – of emergency workers and the public – heard a stunning final tribute to those who lost their lives on 9/11. Emergency worker Kevin Roy read a list of the “groups that lost people that day.” After he named each group, the sound of a bell rang through the air in downtown Clarkesville.
“…The Fire Department of New York,” he read.
The bell chimed.
“…Sixty-four people on American Flight 77,” he said.
The bell chimed.
Many groups were named. The bell chimed for each of them.
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After the Remembrance Ceremony at the gazebo, a reception was held at Clarkesville City Hall for area emergency personnel and the public. At the reception, event co-planners Maggie Van Cantfort and Jerald Palmer agreed that the Remembrance Ceremony had been a success.
“We’re planning for next year,” Palmer said. This year’s speakers “were straight and to the point,” he added. “We had beautiful weather. It was a very fitting tribute.”
