9/11 Responders Remembered Park was badly damaged in last week’s storms.
The memorial plaque, which honors those World Trade Center recovery workers who have died due to illnesses contracted from their work, was damaged, the gazebo was destroyed and many trees were uprooted.
Park President Judi Simmons, the widow of FDNY FF Martin Simmons, who died of World Trade Center-related illness in 2008, told Long Island News 12, “I … was just shocked at the amount of damage that had happened. The gazebo was unrecognizable, it was just shattered completely,” she says.
It is hoped that the worst of the damage can be repaired in time for the for the park’s 9/11 Reading of the Names ceremony on September 14th.
The park has some funding and insurance; Barry Bros. Landscaping is donating its time and labor to repair the damage, and the FealGood Foundation has pledged to cover some of the remaining costs.
