The Human Toll

The astonishing and disheartening news of the day was that more than 4,700 people were missing in the rubble of New York’s World Trade Center. In Washington, workers kept up the grim work of picking through the wreckage of the Pentagon. As the human toll of Tuesday’s tragedy continued to mount, the reality of the disaster began to sink in for those left behind.

Death was indiscriminate. At the Pentagon, a three-star general was killed in the suicide attack, as were enlisted men and women. In New York, the dead included wealthy stockbrokers and clerical workers. Loved ones lined up around the block to file missing persons reports on people who most likely will never be found. Still, they continued to hope, to believe that somehow a relative or friend might be found in a hospital.

For many people, it was time to attempt the first small steps toward a return to normalcy.