Borderland Leaders Talk About Memories Of 9/11

Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on our country.

That day remains a painful memory for many, including some local leaders in the Borderland. After all, most people remember where they were and what they were doing when the planes hit the World Trade Center that morning, a decade ago.

“El Paso, like communities around the country, have been impacted by those attacks,” said El Paso Rep. Silvestre Reyes, who was in Washington, D.C., that day. “I think when the towers went down we realized the magnitude, because up to that point, we were unwilling to accept those towers could collapse. I think that more than anything crystallized the impact of those attacks.”

El Paso Mayor John Cook was the Northeast City representative and had arrived at City Hall early that morning.

“It’s forever changed life, forever changed the way we do business,” Cook said. “We shut down City Hall. I think it was right around 11 a.m. or so. We decided to shut the building down. We really didn’t know whether other public buildings around the country were subject to the same type of attacks.”

City Rep. Susie Byrd was an executive assistant to then Mayor Ray Caballero at the time.

“I was down in the City Council chambers when I realized what was going on,” Byrd said. “Everybody was stunned and worried and felt really terrible about what was going on.”

County Judge Veronica Escobar was a faculty member at the University of Texas at El Paso back in 2001.

“I remember going to teach my class, but everyone was in a complete fog,” said Escobar, whose brother was in D.C. at the Pentagon that day. “The panic of that day, the pain of that, wondering if my brother was OK, wondering if he was nearby, wondering what happened.”

City Rep. Steve Ortega was a student at George Washington University in D.C. when the terrorists hit the city.

“It was a day I’ll never forget,” Ortega said. “The librarian came in and said everybody had to vacate the building, so I left and the streets were a mess. It was just a chaotic scene when I left the library. I was on the streets and people were just running everywhere; traffic was backed up. It was like a scene out of a movie.”

Check ABC-7 and kvia.com for complete coverage of the 10th anniversary of the attacks, including throughout the weekend. Coming up on Sunday at 10:35 p.m. we’ll have a very special ABC-7 Xtra, as the Borderland remembers 9/11.