Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
5 Facts about the 9/11 aftermath
5 Facts about the 9/11 aftermath
Jan 16, 2026 11:21 AM

Today marks the 16th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil. Here are five facts you should know about what happened in the aftermath of the events on September 11, 2001:

1. It took 99 days—until December 19, 2001—for thefires at Ground Zeroto be extinguished.Cleanup at Ground Zero wasn’t pleted until May 30, 2002. It took 3.1 million hours of labor to clean up 1.8 million tons of debris at a total cost of cleanup of $750 million.

2.There were 20 people pulled from the rubble in the two days after the attack. On the day following the attacks, 11 people were rescued from the wreckage, including six firefighters and three police officers. Two Port Authority police officers were also rescued after spending nearly 24 hours beneath 30 feet of rubble.

3.In 2010, Congress created theWTC Health Programtoprovidemedical monitoring and treatment for emergency responders, recovery, and cleanup workers, and volunteers who helped after the terrorist attacks.As of2015, the number ofGround Zero responders and others afflicted with 9/11-linked cancers has hit 3,700. Those suffering cancers certified by the WTC Health Programinclude 1,100 members of the New York fire department,2,134 police and first responders, and 467 survivors such as downtown workers and residents. Many have more than one type of cancer.

4.Most of the steel from the World Trade Center wreckage was sent to New Jersey salvage yards where it was broken down and sent all over the world for reuse. Nearly 350,000 tons of the steel was sent to be reused in small and large scale tributes, including 7.5 tons for use in the navy battleshipUSS New York.

5. On September 13 a worker at the site, Frank Silecchia, discovered a 20-foot cross of two steel beams amongst the debris. The beams were dubbed the “Ground Zero Cross” and became a spiritual symbol for families of the victims and workers who cleaned up the debris.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
A year after coup, Burmese people continue to resist brutal military rule
February 1 marked the one-year anniversary of the military coup that has seen widespread chaos and destruction in Burma. Nevertheless, a younger generation continues to fight for democratic ideals against terrible odds. Read More… A year ago Burma’s military staged a coup.The juntahas since killed at least 1,500 people and detained another 12,000, of whom nearly 9,000 remain in custody. A couple thousand sought by the regime are in hiding. TheUnited Nations estimatesthat 2,200 civilian homes and other buildings have...
Reply to The New York Times: Online worship is still worship
A Lutheran pastor takes issue with a recent Times essay declaring that online religious services should end. But what does it mean to be church? And what does it mean to worship the God es to us wherever we are? Read More… I love watching men’s college basketball. Three e to mind that I’m so thankful to have seen on TV—Chris Jenkins’ buzzer beater to lift Villanova over North Carolina in 2016, Christian Laettner’s dagger to catapult Duke past Kentucky...
Joe Rogan is not a problem, but a mirror
The controversial podcaster has e a lightning rod for those who don’t want to be associated with unvetted ideas expressed by either him or his guests. Yet those ideas may not be novel as much as reflective of what the silent majority is already thinking. Read More… The Joe Rogan Experience is one of the world’s most popular podcasts and, for the past two weeks, the world’s most controversial. Launched in 2009 edian and martial arts enthusiast Joe Rogan, the...
House of Gucci is Ridley Scott’s “Basta!” to the commercialization of art
Starring Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, and Al Pacino, this mockery of elites as little more than decadent mafiosi may grab some Oscar nods, but The Godfather it isn’t. Read More… My first Oscars essay presented Wes Anderson, the Hollywood dandy’s Francophilia, The French Dispatch, and gentle criticism of liberal intellectual pretense. The 2022 Oscar contenders also include an examination of American Italophilia—veteran Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci, as full of today’s stars as Anderson’s movies are of yesteryear’s. Lady Gaga...
Is The Lost Daughter this generation’s A Doll’s House?
A fine performance by Olivia Colman and a Euro-style directorial debut by Maggie Gyllenhaal have garnered rave reviews, but this film about a mother abandoning her children is amazing in ways that should give pause. Read More… In Henrik Ibsen’s seminal play A Doll’s House, protagonist Nora Helmer, a hitherto devoted wife and mother, walks out on her husband and their three children, significantly slamming the door behind her in the last scene. The idea of a mother leaving her...
Ilya Shapiro’s ill-worded tweet and the crying game
When a Georgetown law mented on the relative merits of a potential SCOTUS pick, all hell broke loose. Black students demanded a form of “reparations” in response, including a room to “cry.” Have we reached peak “white guilt” yet? Read More… Ilya Shapiro, a Russian émigré, a serious scholar of the American Constitution, and formerly of the libertarian Cato Institute until he was scheduled on February 1 to begin running Georgetown’s Center for the Constitution, has found himself in a...
Terrorists and your valentine have more in common than you think
What may seem a bizarre polarity—terrorism and dating—actually speaks to the calculations we all make when investing not just our money but our very selves into any activity. Read More… Economics is the study of human action; it’s the study of individuals making choices. As a result, we can use the “economic way of thinking” to understand the decisions people make when es to all types of behavior, including dating and marriage, Spring break and Vegas vacations, and, yes, even...
Steven Spielberg’s woke West Side Story is a self-contradictory disaster
The original midcentury musical had its own problems, but this updated plete with untranslated Spanish, only makes things unintelligible and unintentionally funny. Read More… Steven Spielberg has recently made a number of movies nostalgic for midcentury liberalism, Bridge of Spies and The Post, especially, very mediocre stories that won him Oscar nominations and praise in the mainstream press at the price of the popularity he once enjoyed. Indeed, he has sacrificed his place as America’s most important director in pursuit...
Why we need more O’Rourke Conservatives
The 74-year-old former National Lampooner and conservative humorist has died and left behind a wealth of mentary and good feeling, even among those who did not share his politics. No small legacy. Read More… So by now you’ve heard that P.J. O’Rourke, journalist, essayist, and, of course, humorist, has died at the age of 74. Those who knew him and those who read him have been pouring out ia like so much best-for-last wine. John Podhoretz shared a lovely personal...
Modesty for thee but not for me: Brian Sauvé, Beth Moore, and Ephesians 4
A recent Twitter engagement on the subject of Christian women and modesty is the perfect jumping off point for a larger discussion of what it means to be modest, and obsessed. Read More… For those of us who have dealt pulsive behavior or addiction in our families or our own lives, there are clues—perhaps too seemingly unrelated for some to notice—that tip us off that someone might be engaged in an internal battle. Everyone remembers the Jimmy Swaggart saga. Once...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved