Aftermath of disaster: a volunteer looks back on terrorist attacks

Nevada resident David Jackson, like all of the nation, has memories of the attacks on the World Trade Center. His, however, are more personal -- Jackson spent two weeks in New York in the aftermath of the attacks helping victims, their families and workers deal with the disaster. Jackson was part of an American Red Cross effort to help those most affected adjust and get much needed help. "Mostly I talked to them. I talked to victims, families, workers, cab drivers, cops, just everybody I came across." Jackson helped hundreds of people during his stay. "There were several centers then they moved us to a pier to centralize all the services. We (the Red Cross) were there, Medicaid, food stamps, the FBI, police, and fire department officials. There were a massive amount of services." Families brought in clothing, hair brushes and other items to provide DNA samples to help identify the remains of victims. "As the families came in we would escort them and while doing that assess how they were doing. When we weren't escorting the families we were on the other side talking to the workers to see how they were. When we left the pier we'd talk to people in the streets and everywhere we went it was the same," Jackson said. Jackson said the response most people had was the same -- a state of shock. "Most people were in a state of shock and that's a normal reaction to an abnormal situation. They were grieving and feeling guilty for being alive when so many died. Those are normal mental responses to a terrible catastrophe. What they mainly needed was reassurance they were behaving normally."