Saskatchewan man remembers helping in New York after 9/11 attacks

For one Saskatchewan man, September 11 was more than something he watched unfold on television – it became an experience he would carry with him for the rest of his life.

Even 25 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Henri Regamey, a retired Salvation Army officer living in Saskatoon, said he remembers feeling “disbelief and utter shock” as he watched the planes crash into the World Trade Center towers.

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“I just couldn’t believe that was happening,” he said. “I thought it was a movie or something.”

Regamey said that at the time, he could never have known that just two weeks later he would be on his way to New York City, joining volunteers in an emergency van to help however they could at the site where the Twin Towers once stood.

“I never thought that I would go down there and be a part of that within just a short time,” he said.

For Regamey, there was no hesitation about why he was going.

“I just felt like I could maybe help, and I believe I did when I was down there,” he explained. “I felt like I was very helpful to the many people.”

When he arrived at the site, Regamey said it felt like a war zone. More than two decades later, the images of what he saw remain vivid in his mind.

“Everything was white and like soot,” he said. “Everything was bent and twisted. There were iron workers. There were just so many different personnel there.”

Amid the destruction, Regamey said his work with the Salvation Army meant helping provide food and support to those affected by the terrorist attacks. He said he still remembers the stories of the people he met there.

“Standing with a firefighter, looking over the rubble and all the twisted metal and just the dust, and I’m just talking about the loss of his fellow firefighters,” Regamey said.

“That sticks in my mind the most – listening to this individual. I don’t remember his name, but I remember the conversation. It was very powerful.”

After spending a two weeks helping in New York, Regamey said he remembers coming home to Saskatchewan tired but grateful to be reunited with his wife and kids.

“That was enough. Part of me wanted to stay longer, but part of me was exhausted physically and emotionally,” he said.

“Two weeks can be a long time in a situation like that.”

Regamey said it’s still hard to comprehend just how much time has passed since the attacks.

“It’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years,” he said.

But even after so much time, Regamey said he still has some tangible reminders of the work he and the Salvation Army did at Ground Zero, including some of the letters students from across the United States wrote to thank emergency workers and volunteers.

“I have some of those as well in my keepsake bin,” Regamey said.

American reporter reflects on 9/11 anniversary

John Montone is a retired American radio news reporter who was on the ground in downtown Manhattan on September 11, 2001.

During an appearance on the CKOM Morning Show with Mark Loshack, Montone said he was at a different event in the city when his pager sent him a message saying a small plane hit the north tower at the World Trade Center.

“I got on the highway, the FDR Drive on the east side, and I got behind emergency vehicles, and they were just roaring down the highway. They had cleared everyone else off,” he said.

“On the way down, I heard our news anchor Lee Harris. He was interviewing a woman who lived very close to the towers who worked for us, and as he was talking to her, she screamed.”

Montone said the woman was screaming because she’d just seen the second plane hit the World Trade Center.

“I knew we were under attack,” Montone said.

“As you can imagine, it was complete chaos. People were running away from the towers.”

Listen to the full interview with Montone:

He recalled seeing the fuselage of the plane stuck on one of the upper floors of the south tower, which was billowing black, oily smoke.

“I saw a line, two by two, of firefighters walking right to the South Tower,” he said. “These are young guys carrying their equipment, going in for duty. I’m sure they thought it was serious. I’m not sure any of them knew that it was as serious as it turned out to be.”

Montone said he started interviewing a couple of people, but within a few minutes people started screaming that the building was coming down.

“When I turned, it wasn’t as if a building fell, which would have been horrific enough, but it just vaporized. The south tower vaporized, and it spewed out what I remember calling a dry tsunami, which just covered everything for blocks and blocks,” he said.

“It was steel, it was concrete, rebar, it was plastic from computers and workstations and, of course, the human beings that were in the building.”

One interview that stuck with Montone after all these years was with retired New York Fire Department captain John Vigiano, who lost two sons that day.

“Already suffering from cancer, he went down into the pit, and for months, he dug through the pit, hoping against hope that he would find some piece of his sons. He worked until one of his arms literally snapped in half,” said Montone.

“This tragedy didn’t end on September 11. It really continued to take a toll on the lives of so many people in our city and in the entire metropolitan area.”

–with files from 980 CJME’s Lisa Schick