I’m from Santa Ynez and was sent to NYC after 9/11 on assignment for the Red Cross as an Emergency Relief Vehicle (ERV) driver.
I arrived in NYC about two and a half weeks after 9/11 and was there three weeks. We were in and around Ground Zero many times and had to have the Hazmat teams spray off our truck when we left.
At Ground Zero, there were a lot of busy construction-type trucks and other vehicles doing a lot of clean up, so we were not surprised to see a lot of dust in the air. But, the dust went way beyond just that confined area.
From the top of the Empire State Building, I could see just how far the dust particles spread, encompassing the whole of lower Manhattan. It wasn’t the normal kind of dust you might expect. It was a very fine powder and smelled like a combination of finely ground office building ceiling tiles and crushed drywall. A very peculiar smell. Kind of hard to un-smell even after we left the area.
The daily air quality reports were always changing. Wear a mask. Mask optional. No mask needed.
I did not think I had any lingering effects from being there. That was until a few months later when I got bronchitis for the first time ever. When I was sick, at times I felt like I was re-smelling that peculiar Ground Zero odor. I was sick for quite a while but eventually recovered and have never been that sick again. Was the air in NYC the cause of my bronchitis? Who knows.
What I do know is the memory sticks with me to this day.
Coleen Hefley
Santa Ynez
