Emotional outbursts as oral histories are revealed
NEW YORK, August 13 – NYC opened a large part of its’ archives to the public on Friday after being ordered to do so in court. In early 2002 the New York Times already requested access to these archives but the administration of Mayor Bloomberg refused to do so which led to a fight in court. The Court of Appeals then demanded publication of these archives earlier this year and finally NYC has complied to this.
It was an emotional moment as many of the survivors and families of those killed in the terrorist attack finally had access to those chaotic records of communication of that unfortunate day. The amount of information released was massive, consisting of over 23 compact discs containing all communication of that day. These histories were collected in 2001 by the order of the fire commissioner at the time of the attacks, Thomas von Essen.
Among the records were many unreleased communications from emergency medical technicians, paramedics and supervisors which shed a whole new light on the chaos of 9/11. Fire officers and families of those killed were reviewing the material in an office building in Manhattan, it quickly turned into an emotional situation when the desperate calls of fellow fire fighters were heard and it became clear that there was no real plan for the massive amount of casualties that arose that day. No doubt that we will hear much more about this as more and more of the released tapes will be reviewed.
