Hackensack, Old Tappan residents share their stories from Sept. 11Friday, September 9, 2011 Last updated: Friday September 9, 2011, 1:24 AM
BY MARK J. BONAMO
MANAGING EDITOR
Hackensack Chronicle
On first glance, the municipalities of Hackensack and Old Tappan don’t seem to have much in common.
Hackensack is more urban, the seat of county government, a place where traffic jams could happen. Old Tappan, on the other hand, is an idyllic, suburban community, where leaf-shaded driveways replace city-style double parking.
But 10 years ago, these Bergen County communities were united by the same sense of shock and solidarity that united the region and the nation. If anything, a look back now at Sept. 11, 2001 reminds both places of a crucial commonality: the threads that tightly bind family, friends and even complete strangers together, when fate conspires to tear them apart.
Kelly Rice, the wife of David Rice, a teacher at Fairmount School in Hackensack, went to lower Manhattan on that sunny morning a decade ago full of hope – she had a 9 a.m. job interview at Aon Corporation, an insurance brokerage and consulting firm located on the upper floors of the south tower of the World Trade Center.
"I was there early, so I was in the company’s offices when the planes hit," said Rice. "I saw the first plane hit the other tower from the window. First, I thought it was an accident. But I said to myself, ‘I’m getting out of here.’ I took the stairs. I didn’t want to be stuck in an elevator on the 105th floor."
Rice proceeded down the stairs to the 79th floor, where the elevator banks from the top floors stopped. There, she heard announcements over the public address system saying that the building was secure and advising people to go back to their offices.
"Most people just stopped to catch their breath. I decided to keep going," Rice said.
Rice remembers little about the rest of her trip down the stairs to the ground floor. But she does remember her last moments on the way out of the building.
"There was debris, fire and smoke. All of the windows were blown out," Rice said. "The building was shaking. I didn’t think that I was getting out. I was saying my goodbyes. I ducked into a phone pod, and prayed that death came quick. But I opened my eyes, and I saw a police officer standing in front me. He put his hand out to me and said ‘Come.’"
The police officer led Rice to a broken escalator, on which Rice made her way out, about five minutes before the building came down. On the way out to the street and on the long way home to a relieved family via ferryboat and train, Rice remembered someone she saw running in.
"There was this fireman: about six foot five, blond crew cut, built like a tree. This guy was moving like his life was dependent on saving someone that day. He was not going to leave without saving someone."
Old Tappan Mayor Victor Polce was also in close proximity to the site of the 9/11 attacks.
"I was right across the street," said Polce, who was sworn in as mayor in 2000 and was working on Wall Street at the time. "At about 8:45 a.m., I heard an explosion, and started to see debris coming down. There was a lot of chaos going on. We didn’t really know what was happening. We started to evacuate, and while watching from the window, you could tragically see people dropping to their deaths. Some were holding hands. The sound was devastating."
Polce helped evacuate his building and, once outside, was convinced by a friend to not get his car and head to the waterfront to get a ferry ride out of lower Manhattan.
"My friend and I got one of the last water shuttles over to Hoboken. I’m very grateful to him now," Polce said. "We squeezed on, and as we pulled away, we could still see the bodies dropping. Not long after, we began to see the towers come down. We were stunned. No one could believe it."
No one in his family knew exactly where Polce was until a friend gave him a ride to Old Tappan.
"When I walked through the door, there was so much relief," Polce said. "There were tears streaming down everyone’s faces."
Safe at home, Polce did his best to provide support in his role as mayor.
"We all did what we had to do," Polce said. "We tried to strengthen our volunteer ambulance corps and other service organizations and make our town as safe as possible. Safety, for our town and everybody else, became a much bigger concern. We tried to comfort people and help people understand what was going on. Our message was that they were safe here."
In Hackensack, Joe Montesano, then the city’s superintendent of schools, tried to convey the same message of calm to students and teachers alike during a trying time.
"We were flying by the seat of our pants, but we decided the best thing to do was keep the kids safe with us inside the building," Montesano said. "We tried to keep the kids occupied and busy. I’m sure that the staff had their own issues and concerns, but they really rose to the occasion. They tried to answer the kids’ questions as well as they could. It made everything a lot easier."
Montesano had his own issue on 9/11: one of his own children was working on Wall Street that day.
"I was on the phone with my son Joe right after things started to happen, and then all of a sudden he said ‘Dad, I’ve got to go’ and dropped the phone," Montesano said. "Very soon after that is when the first tower fell, and I couldn’t get any contact with him. Turns out he got one of the last ferries headed to Jersey City. When he finally picked up the phone, it was a tremendous relief. It was such a release of emotion, you can’t imagine it."
Hackensack lost four residents on Sept. 11: Denise Crant, Shashi Kiran L. Kadaba, Srinivasa Shreyas Ranganath and Anil Shivhari Umarkar. Courtney Wainsworth Walcott, a New York native who coached basketball in Hackensack, is also remembered by many people. Old Tappan, fortunately, lost no one. But no matter the level of loss, the impact of the event left an indelible mark.
For Montesano, the prescription for what should be done for children to help them heal in the wake of the attacks applies for adults as well.
"In any event like that where kids could be emotionally affected, the thing to do is to let them talk," Montesano said. "You shouldn’t avoid it and go on like it’s business as usual, because it certainly isn’t business as usual. Let’s deal with this."
Old Tappan is a place where people move to feel safe. But Mayor Polce, now working on this side of the Hudson River, admits that safety has become relative in America in the aftermath of the attacks.
"Someone turned to me not long after what happened and said ‘We’ve got to move on from this.’ I looked at her and said ‘I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.’ We will never forget this day as long as we live. 9/11 was a defining moment for us. You’ve got to be on your guard. Tomorrow is promised to no one."
As for Kelly Rice, 10 years ago she thought that tomorrow was definitely denied to her. Now, every day is its own state of grace.
"When I read about people who died, I wondered why they died and not me. I had those thoughts for a long time," Rice said. "I got past that. But now, I don’t sweat the small stuff. I’m just glad I’m still here. You could be here one moment, and gone the next. It can happen in the blink of an eye. I realized that before, but not as acutely as I do now."
Email: bonamo@northjersey.com