By Heart of Illinois ABC
BLOOMINGTON – In McLean County, a former sheriff’s lieutenant is remembering heading to New York City right after the 9/11 attacks to help with recovery efforts at Ground Zero.
20-years ago, Bonnie Serone was a lieutenant with the McLean County Sheriff’s office.
Two weeks after the towers went down, Serone and three other officers went to NYC, where they offered emotional support to struggling officers at the Port Authority Trans-Hudson station, also known as PATH.
“They had about 70 officers assigned to that building,” Serone said.
“And of that, 13 of them perished at the World Trade Center,” she added. “Because that unit in particular unit was hit the hardest, they want us to work there.”
When Serone went to Ground Zero, she said she finally understood what those officers had been through.
“I’ve never seen a war zone, but this looked like a war zone to me,” Serone said.
“It was massive destruction. Bigger than anything I could have ever imagined,” she added. “It was phenomenal to think that these buildings came tumbling straight down. Such a massive area of destruction.”
Three months later, those same four officers returned to New York City as victims’ families began crisis debriefings at the Family Assistance Center in Liberty State Park.
Serone remembers helping a widow who was struggling to pay the bills after losing her husband.
“By the end of the day, she had just emotionally broke down and was crying and was frustrated,” Serone said.
“We went to one of the supervisors and pretty much said ‘I don’t care where you got to go or what you got to do, but this woman should not leave empty handed,'” she added.
Serone said after she came home, she struggled with survivor’s guilt, but she’s still glad she was able to help.
“I just felt guilty coming home knowing that those officers out there as well as the civilians and anyone that was a victim that lost ones were still suffering,” Serone said. “It’s something I’ll never forget. Something I’m proud of. Something I’m glad they called upon us to do. Makes you feel like an American.”
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