[StBernard] Volunteers turn tragedy into help

[Westley Annis]

Volunteers turn tragedy into help
Oklahoma City, 9/11 survivors on team 
Monday, December 10, 2007
By Paul Rioux
St. Bernard bureau 
Taking a break from floating drywall in a storm-damaged house in St. Bernard
Parish, Priscilla Salyers said seeing the devastation wrought by Hurricane
Katrina dredged up memories of being pulled from the rubble of the Alfred P.
Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. 

 
On April 19, 1995, Salyers was working in the U.S. Customs office on the
fifth floor when she heard a deafening explosion. Then the floor gave way
and Salyers tumbled to the basement, where she was pinned by the wreckage in
a fetal position, unable to move except for her left arm. 

"I didn't realize the building had collapsed. I thought I'd had a seizure
and was still sitting at my desk," she said. "I tried to reach for my
computer but all I could feel was broken concrete and rebar." 

Salyers, 56, who suffered a punctured lung and broken ribs, was trapped for
more than four hours before she was rescued. 

"When they carried me out on a stretcher, I could see the gaping hole in the
building," she said. "I remember thinking, 'Oh, those poor people inside.' I
was so disoriented that I didn't realize I was one of them." 

More than 12 years later, Salyers said she still hasn't fully come to grips
with what happened. She has been wracked by bouts of depression and
survivor's guilt because a co-worker who had been standing next to her was
among the 168 people killed. 

The emotions were still too raw six years later when Salyers declined an
invitation to join recovery efforts at the World Trade Center in Manhattan
after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But when she was recently asked to
help rebuild homes in St. Bernard Parish, she jumped at the chance. 

"Being here brings some of the emotions from the bombing back to the
surface, but it puts them in a more positive light because it feels good to
help people who are trying to recover from their own disaster," Salyers said
Thursday while working on a house in Violet. 


Repaying a debt 

She traveled to St. Bernard with about 50 other volunteers from the newly
formed HEART 9/11, a nonprofit disaster relief group founded by first
responders involved with rescue and recovery efforts after the terrorist
attacks. With financial backing from Bear Stearns, a New York City
investment bank, the group helped rebuild a half-dozen homes last week. 

Co-founder Bill Keegan, a retired lieutenant with the New York Port
Authority Police Department who served as night commander at ground zero for
eight months, said the group was formed in June to repay a debt of gratitude
for the outpouring of support for New York City after 9/11. 

He said the organization's first mission, to St. Bernard Parish, has been
therapeutic for the volunteers. 

"We're healing ourselves by helping others," he said. "It's like a
billionaire philanthropist who says he never feels so selfish as when he's
giving his money away." 

Chalmette resident John Stogner, whose house was worked on by the HEART 9/11
group, said he was inspired by the volunteers' refusal to see themselves as
victims. 

"It helps knowing that they have been through something similar to Katrina
and survived," he said. "Plus, they really know what they're doing. Their
work on my house has been top-notch." 

Jasmine Victoria of Brooklyn said she volunteered in memory of her mother,
Celeste Torres Victoria, who was arranging a conference at the World Trade
Center and died when the north tower collapsed. 

"My mother was a very loving, happy person who would want me to be here,"
she said. 

Even so, Victoria, 26, felt a little anxious about being away from the
Brooklyn seafood restaurant she opened several months ago. 

"Anybody know where I can get some good seafood gumbo?" she called out
during a work break. "I'd like to serve some at my restaurant, but I want to
know what it's supposed to taste like first." 


'A privilege' to be here 

Volunteer Julius Lisner, who works for the chief medical examiner's office
in New York City, helped sift through the World Trade Center wreckage to
search for human remains in a temporary morgue near the collapsed towers. 

"It was extremely emotional and fulfilling to be able to give the victims'
families some closure," he said. "Seeing the devastation here rehashes those
memories, but you become stronger because you're doing something about it." 

Coming to storm-ravaged St. Bernard didn't just reopen emotional wounds for
Lisner, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. He said the dust
from sanding drywall at a house in Violet aggravated a respiratory condition
he developed after breathing the air at ground zero. 

"My health has suffered, but I have no regrets," said Lisner, who is 60.
"This is America; we're supposed to help one another. It's really a
privilege for me to be here." 

As the work week wrapped up, the volunteers expressed satisfaction at what
they had accomplished tempered by the frustration of knowing how much work
remains to be done. 

"The devastation doesn't end. It just doesn't end," said Paul Dessert, a
retired detective from the Suffolk County Police Department in New York. 

Keegan said he had to overcome a similar sense of futility when confronted
with the painstaking task of removing debris from "the pile" at ground zero.


"It seemed almost too big to do. We had to find a way to break it down into
a lot of little problems instead of one huge problem," he said. "I think
that's how you have to approach the recovery from Hurricane Katrina." 

Besides, he said, there is a silver lining in the sheer size of the
disaster: If and when Katrina's victims get back on their feet, they will
become a vast pool of potential volunteers to help the next community in
need. 

. . . . . . . 

Paul Rioux can be reached at prioux at timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3321.