People react to attack with anguish, rage

Connections to New York bring terror close to home.

By Times staff reports

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 12, 2001

Just after 9 a.m., Betty Habel cut off the country music at her Land O'Lakes cafe so her customers could listen to the news.

At the same time, Anna and Tony D'Antonio of Hudson slid from horror to fear, television to telephone, desperate to contact relatives in Washington and New York.

With no other way to express his grief and patriotism, Luis Diaz lowered the flag at his Holiday Citgo station to half-staff.

Tracy Gahagan stood in pouring rain, posting a message on the sign outside Southern Nights Bar and Grill south of Dade City:

"Donate Blood. Pray. Proud to Be An American."

In Pasco County, as elsewhere in America, people reacted to Tuesday's bombings with terror, anguish and rage. It seemed that everyone had a relative or friend in New York, or had once worked there, lived there or visited.

Elaine Klein of Hudson worked in the building demolished to make way for the World Trade Center. Beth Keenan's father-in-law spent 40 years on Wall Street. County Commission Chairman Steve Simon's future son-in-law works at the Trade Center. "I can only hope he wasn't at work today," Simon said.

Through the day, Pasco residents listened to the relentless news reports and threaded into churches to pray for the dead or lined up to donate blood for the living.

"We don't know enough now to do anything other than to cry out to God for him to protect us," said the Rev. Bruce Moore of First Baptist Church of Dade City. "It's times like this that show us how fragile we are."

Even those who didn't see Gahagan's message in Dade City poured into local blood banks to donate.

Amy Dool, 19, came home from work to drive her brother Andrew, 17, to the Pasco Blood Center of Florida Blood Services in Hudson, where they both donated.

More than 80 people crowded into the building, waiting to donate; some had been waiting more than three hours.

The waiting room at the Citrus Regional Blood Center in Zephyrhills mirrored the Hudson center. People stood against walls, sat on the floor and waited outside.

"I feel there's nothing else I can do, but I can do this," said Judy Weicht, 54.

Patrick Graham, 36, brought four cases of soda and a half-dozen packages of cookies for the growing crowd. He paid half; the local Amoco donated the rest.

"This is the least I can do from this far away," said Graham, an Air Force reservist who says he has been placed on alert. "It's frustrating being here and not up there providing aid."

Blood Center spokesman Greg First said donors were standing in lines at centers in Polk, Pasco, Hardee and Hillsborough counties to give blood.

Because all airline flights were grounded, First said, the center sent its first shipment of 200 pints to New York by car on Tuesday afternoon.

Pasco veterans were hit especially hard.

"I wish I was young enough to go over and do something," said 76-year-old Andy Anderson, a Navy veteran of both World War II and Korea, who was watching the news at the Chester McKay VFW Post in Veterans Village. "I really do hope that everyone who considers themselves an American is mad as hell about this."

Post commander Steve Ward called the attack "a big wakeup call for the average citizen in the United States."

It's war, he said -- "a different kind of war."

"What are we going to do now? Are we going to do more diplomacy? I think as soon as we learn who did this, the response is swift and sure."

Officials at the New Port Richey recruiting office for the U.S. Army said that their phones had been ringing off the hook with calls from eager volunteers who wanted to join the armed forces.

Ralph Cudworth, 24, a student at Pasco-Hernando Community College, spent two years in the Army. Tuesday he was preparing himself to be called back to active duty.

"It's a sense of duty, and I'm ready for it if that's what I'm meant to do," he said.

After five years of delays, Gene Randolf Szeremi's trial for the rape and kidnapping of a Land O'Lakes woman was set to begin Tuesday. Terrorism put the trial off again. Because the airline shutdown kept out-of-state witnesses from getting to Dade City, Circuit Judge Maynard Swanson sent jurors home. Even if airlines are allowed to fly again soon, backups from Tuesday's shutdown probably will tangle travel for days, he said.

"Realistically, we don't know when we're going to be able to get the witnesses available to get this trial started," said Swanson. The trial date is now Nov. 26.

Though County Judge Marc Salton canceled a misdemeanor trial scheduled in New Port Richey, a foreclosure sale went forward on the courthouse steps.

Nobody was in a buying mood, said Curtis Brooks, who drove up from Tampa for the sale.

"Nobody wants to remember that they bought anything on a day like today," said Brooks, 52. He didn't buy anything, but he had to get out of the house. "It was tough to sit anywhere else."

Before the Gulf View Square mall closed at 1 p.m., shoppers crowded into the aisles of the electronics department at Sears, eyes glued to the bank of TV monitors that showed the catastrophe.

Larry Allen, 33, was doing irrigation work across the street from the mall when he heard about the attack and ran over to Sears.

"It's unreal -- the same type of shock as Oklahoma City, but on a scale that's totally different," Allen said. "If it is a terrorist, what can we do?"

Bailiff Joe Page, 53, was working his regular shift in a Dade City courtroom when he learned of the attack. From 1974 to 1988, Page worked as security liaison and was in charge of fire safety for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at the World Trade Center. He was there when the remake of King Kong was filmed. He can name each building in the six-unit complex and recite the floors where electrical and air conditioning equipment is located.

"I probably still know a lot of people who were in there," Page said as the news trickled in.

At their morning meeting in Dade City, county commissioners flew through the agenda as two board members fretted over the status of family and friends in Washington, D.C., and New York.

Commissioner Pete Altman couldn't keep his mind on county matters.

Summoned from the dais by his ringing cell phone, he rushed outside the room to check on his grandson, who was pouring concrete at RFK Stadium in Washington.

Commission Chairman Simon called for a moment of silence about midway through the meeting, but decided to plow ahead with commissioners' business.

Simon had his own worries about his daughter's fiance.

"It's completely surreal," Simon said.

Some 50 worshipers attended a 12:30 p.m. Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in New Port Richey. Father Thomas Connolly urged them to hold to their faith.

"We are extremely helpless when it comes to evil and people who are trying to destroy us," he said. "We are completely dependent on Almighty God."

The Rev. Kevin Morris said the Presbyterian Church of Dade City will begin a prayer chain for the nation and families.

The First Baptist Church of Zephyrhills is holding a prayer service for the community at 6:30 p.m. today.

First Assembly of God of New Port Richey will hold a prayer service at 7 p.m. today.

The Federal Aviation Administration's order to shut down the nation's airports had only a minimal effect at the Zephyrhills Municipal Airport.

Airport manager Jim Werme said that when the call came to ground planes across the country, there was only one ultralight plane flying over Zephyrhills.

The brightly colored parachutes from jumpers at Skydive City also were absent from the sky.

"It's really quiet out here, one of the quietest days ever," Werme said. "There is not one plane in the air. The radio is dead silent. We normally hear chatter from 12 airports. It's stone cold quiet."

Joseph Lechner, 80, of Port Richey could make only one comparison to Tuesday's attack.

"In my estimation, it is the modern re-enactment of Pearl Harbor," said Lechner. On Dec. 7, 1941, Lechner was in the Air Corps, flying in a plane from San Francisco to Hawaii when he saw Japanese planes bomb the harbor.

Lynn Roy, a 78-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor, said that he wasn't surprised by Tuesday's act of terrorism.

"I knew probably some time before I died, I'd see people on this continent, our people, die from some sort of an attack," said Roy, a Brooksville resident who was on a Navy destroyer in Pearl Harbor when Japanese planes bombed. "We'd better get on the stick and find out who did it and retaliate without any thought of mercy."

Although Tuesday's terrorist attack didn't seem to affect gasoline prices at many east Pasco stations, the president of Flying J truck stops announced huge increases at the pumps "in response to the cowardly acts of terrorism."

At the San Antonio Flying J truck stop, the price of regular gasoline jumped from $1.37 a gallon Tuesday morning to $1.67 Tuesday afternoon. Other stations throughout east Pasco held the morning's prices, ranging from about $1.33 to $1.41 for regular gasoline.

In a letter of explanation, J. Phillip Adams, president of Utah-based Flying J, wrote:

"In response to the cowardly acts of terrorism carried out this morning on American soil against Americans, we wish to advise you that during this time of peril for our country, many major fuel terminals, both at ports on our coastal waters as well as inland, are being closed for security reasons. This will result in temporary shortages over most of the country."

The letter continues: "We encourage you to avoid panic buying and the hoarding of petroleum products. Doing so will only intensify this most difficult situation and cause undue added stress to the anticipated critical supply of fuel."

Station manager Donna Frello said she had trouble simply getting tankers of gasoline Tuesday to resupply her busy station.

"We're just trying to keep up, to get the supply," she said.

At the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, things were "business as usual," said spokesman Kevin Doll. The same was true at Pasco Fire Rescue, where they have no plans to send paramedic or firefighters to New York.

But, to Pasco County Deputy Jim Campbell, the calm was deceiving. Tuesday's attack changed everything, Campbell said: "It's a new way of life we're going to have to live with from now on."

Staff writers Cary Davis, Ryan Davis, Brady Dennis, Kent Fischer, Jennifer Goldblatt, Steve Lee, Tamara Lush, Michele Miller, Angela Miller-Hood, Chase Squires, Jim Thorner, Matt Waite and Collins Conner contributed to this report, which was written by Conner.

Pasco reacts

Pasco public schools, Pasco-Hernando Community College and Saint Leo University will be in session today.

Gulf View Square mall and Pasco-Hernando Community College closed on Tuesday but will be open today.

All county and municipal offices will be open today (except Saint Leo, which was closed for vacation).

Blood centers around the county reported hours-long waits to donate Tuesday.

Several churches scheduled special prayer services for the victims.

Hundreds of parents picked up their children from school early.

Call us

Tuesday's attacks took place hundreds of miles from the Tampa Bay area, but how have these attacks affected Pasco County? Do you know someone involved? Call us toll free at (800) 333-7505 ext. 6108, then ext. 27.

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