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CNN Live At Daybreak

Neighborhood Hit By Plane Lost Dozens of People on September 11

Aired November 13, 2001 - 05:39   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now we have two reports this morning about the personal toll of this crash. CNN's Maria Hinojosa reports on New York's Dominican community, which lost so many members, but first the view from the neighborhood where the plane went down.

As CNN's Peter Viles reports, it is a neighborhood that was already in mourning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When the plane fell from the sky, time stopped on Beach 128th Street in Bell Harbor, Queens.

PAT WINTERS, BEACH 128TH ST. RESIDENT: It felt like the tip of my house got hit with something, then a rumble, and then a boom, and then we came outside and we kept hearing "evacuate, evacuate."

PATRICK SHARKEY, BEACH 128TH ST. RESIDENT: And people were running out of their houses screaming and crying. Kids that are running everywhere, and then about five minutes after the fire department came.

VILES: Many of those firefighters did not have far to come because scores of them live in the Rockaways.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know a lot of people that live over here, a lot of friends and people that live over here, so it's scary.

VILES: And when they came they went straight to Kevin McKeon's house,because part of the engine was on fire in his backyard.

KEVIN MCKEON, BEACH 128TH ST. RESIDENT: We were in the kitchen, having coffee and we heard an explosion like -- it sounded like the Concorde with a sonic boom. And my wife said to me what's that- - and the next thing we know we felt a shudder and the room just exploded. My daughter got blown through the patio doors. My wife got blown into the living room, and I got blown out the patio doors behind my daughter.

The black smoke, I just start yelling out for my daughter to see if she was alive - I grabbed her and I ran in and Eileen was alive in the living room and we ran out of the house and with that, the whole back of the house was on fire. The most horrible thing I ever experienced in my life.

VILES: This was a neighborhood already in mourning. It paid a heavy price on September 11th.

SHARKEY: This is the area where a lot of firemen lost and police in the World Trade Center. About 60 people from around this area was killed.

VILES: It is hard to say that any community could possibly be ready for what happened here in the Rockaways today, but this area is home to so many firefighters, so many police officers, lost so many dozens of people on September 11th, but believe it or not, many people in this community have seen worse than what they saw today.

Peter Viles, CNN, New York.

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