Working through tears at Ground Zero

Working through tears at Ground Zero
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby NOW assistant editor
Published Sept. 11, 2002

It's the tears that Debbie Clyne remembers the most.

Tears on the faces of the workers, whose job was sorting through the rubble of Ground Zero; tears on the faces of the volunteers, whose task was trying to ease the pain of the workers; and tears on the faces of the countless thousands of ordinary people who came from around the world to see and feel a part of one of the most horrific tragedies ever experienced on this continent.

Clyne, the acting emergency coordinator for the city of Burnaby, had the rare and unique opportunity of volunteering in New York City where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre once stood.

As a member of the Red Cross International Dove program, Clyne helped to coordinate the Ground Zero Respite Centre - making sure the people working on what was known as 'the pile' were adequately cared for, fed and rested.

"We worked with everyone, from the firefighters to police, the port authority and FBI, police K9 squads, DNA people, plus plumbers, electricians and steelworkers," she said from the cozy confines of her desk at Burnaby city hall this week. "On any day, we served about 8,000 meals."

Today, one year after the tragedy, Clyne still has the same overpowering sense of awe about her experience in New York. But while others might say the day changed their lives forever, Clyne says the experience simply reinforced those simple truths which she has always known.

"It's the bigger things that are way more important," she said. "It's about people and taking care of each other, well."

Even in the first few hours after the terrorist attacks, when most of the world simply stared at the television in stunned amazement, Clyne offered to help. When the Red Cross opened a crisis call centre in Vancouver to give counseling to the aggrieved and accept donations of aid, she was among the first volunteers in the doors.

"We had a lot of emotional calls on those first few days," she said. "We were talking to people who had loved ones in the buildings, and many of the people who were donating money were also crying."

But Clyne also wanted to do more, so she signed up to work at Ground Zero. Not surprisingly, she was attending an emergency response seminar in the Lower Mainland several weeks later when her cell phone rang with the call that her services and expertise were wanted in New York City.

"It's all a bit of a blur now," she says. Just two days after receiving the call, on Oct. 18, Clyne flew across the continent to spend three weeks working with the international relief effort.

With 30 years experience as a volunteer, including many years as a volunteer coordinator, Clyne was asked to supervise the respite centre, set up in a warehouse just blocks from Ground Zero.

"I remember driving into Red Cross headquarters in Brooklyn very early in the morning, and it took five or six hours just to get registered. There were line-ups of hundreds of people coming in from out of state.

"You'd see these family members of the missing people lined up with files in their arms and tears running down their faces. Everywhere there were teddy bears and flowers and cards from all over America.

"It was very sober and it was very sad," Clyne said.

Besides the tears, there was the toxic smoke and smell of 'the pile.'

"Even just driving towards Ground Zero with the windows rolled up, I could feel my throat get tight," Clyne said. "The air hurt my throat and we were not even close. Remember, this was five weeks after the tragedy, and there was still smoke everywhere in the air. There were lots of roadblocks, and Red Cross volunteers handing out water to all the people working at the site - the police, the National Guard and the army.

"I felt a mixture of feelings," she said. "I felt awe for the enormity of the operation - these huge trucks going by with debris, the trucks being hosed down because the debris was still smoking, and hundreds of people lining up to do things like getting their boots washed and hosed down.

"Everything seemed out of the ordinary. It seemed surreal, like a bad movie, almost. It felt very sad. All the faces were sad. I saw faces lined with tiredness and sadness."

One of the key functions of the respite centre was providing mental health support to workers, many of whom did not even understand the need for counseling.

"I arrived five weeks after the tragedy, and many of the workers I met had never talked to anyone about the things they'd seen," she said. "Some of these people came to help and simply never went home. Many of them also carried guns, and those are the people you really want to have debriefed. You wouldn't want people in that position holding onto those emotions.

"I remember one steelworker who was very upset one day. He had pulled out a girder that was still burning at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and he knew that nothing could live down there in that heat. For him, it was the first time that it truly hit home for him ...."

But Clyne is an optimist and said the relief effort reinforced for her the truly good side of human nature.

"What I found down there is that people really stepped up to the plate when they were asked to," she said. "Most of them kept their egos at home and opened their hearts and worked wonderfully together.

"What I got to see was people doing something really big, really important and really hard and everybody just worked really well together. They opened their hearts and did what they could.

"There was no laughter, but there was 100 per cent effort. What I saw was man's humanity to man. Now I know how to change the world. I know now that people can do it, they can rise to the occasion and work together when they need to."

Today, Debbie Clyne will speak about her personal experience at Ground Zero when local emergency response coordinators gather for 'Sept. 11 _ The Consequences' a seminar featuring U.S. Consul General Luis Arreaga-Rodas being held the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown Hotel.