Valley Streamers remember 9/11

More than 400 members of the community gathered in Hendrickson Park on Sunday to mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some were there to pay tribute to loved ones they lost. Others wanted to see the piece of the World Trade Center that the village secured.

Ten years after the twin towers fell, many people still remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news, noted Nassau County Legislator John Ciotti, who spoke, along with Mayor Ed Fare, Hempstead Town Councilman Jim Darcy and state Assemblyman Brian Curran. “It seems like yesterday,” Ciotti said.

That sentiment was echoed by Dana Palmer, daughter of the late Orio Palmer, a New York City Fire Department battalion chief who died when the south tower collapsed. She noted how much has happened in the past decade, yet the tragedy still feels so close.

Palmer, joined at the ceremony by her mother, Debbie, her sister, Alyssa, and her brother, Keith, said they prefer to come to ceremonies in Valley Stream rather than at ground zero. “To us,” she said, “I think it means more to be in the park where my dad used to run.”

Palmer added that the family also attends the Town of Hempstead’s annual sunrise memorial service in Point Lookout because her father loved the beach.

Orio Palmer’s radio transmissions are heard in many of the documentaries about the attacks. He reached the 78th floor of the south tower, and was believed to be the only firefighter to make it that high before the tower collapsed.

A 15-foot, 3,350-pound piece of steel recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Center was unveiled to the public this year. Partially covered by an American flag, the steel was brought in on a flatbed truck and will become part of a permanent memorial at the park. Fare said that he is still soliciting ideas for what the memorial will look like, but he expects it to be completed in time for the 11th anniversary.