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CNN Live At Daybreak

Family Touched By Tragedy Twice

Aired December 11, 2001 - 06:02   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A family that narrowly escaped tragedy on September 11th became the victims of another blow just last month. CNN's Maria Hinojosa talked with them about their loss.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Three long months, but Rafael Hernandez (ph) still can't get September 11th out of his mind.

(on camera): You haven't washed this shirt since September 11th.

RAFAEL HERNANDEZ (ph), WORLD TRADE CENTER SURVIVOR: I don't wash the shirt. I just put it over there.

HINOJOSA: He tore ligaments in both knees escaping the disaster.

HERNANDEZ (ph): Oh my God, you don't know, you got no idea. This is nothing that you describe when you got the pain.

HINOJOSA: Rafael (ph) always hated planes, has been on one only three times. Now the images have been burned into his memory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I see that plane go into the building, like the building in the plane and at the same time, that explosion, I say that's it.

HINOJOSA: His eldest daughter worried about him, but she counted on his wife Carla (ph) to help him through this.

UNIDENTIFIED DAUGHTER: He was traumatized and she was the one there every time he woke up at 2:00 in the morning, and so she assured me that he was going to be fine.

HINOJOSA: He was starting to be fine - so much so that he ignored his nightmares about planes crashing, and for his wife's birthday, put her and their baby girl on a plane November 12th. It turned out to be Flight 587 to the Dominican Republic.

HERNANDEZ: When I see that 587 to the Dominican Republic, only I read this, and I call on my cell again. I say I'm dreaming. I don't know what it is. Then I see 587 and I look again and I raise the volume. The crash - when I hear the crash, then is when I crash myself. What am I going to do? I just have to walk back and forth - back and forth. I white with no blood.

HINOJOSA: His 10-year old daughter, who had cried on September 11th thinking she had lost her father, went into shock hearing that instead she had lost her mother and baby sister.

HERNANDEZ: She say, you better go back to the airport and pick mommy and Yuani (ph). Papa, you better bring her back to me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: All right, obviously we lost the tail end of that package from Maria Hinojosa, but CNN will have live coverage of today's memorials. We are going to begin with a prayer service at ground zero at 8:40 a.m. Eastern Time. A few minutes later, there will be a moment of worldwide remembrance. The astronauts on the space station and the space shuttle will also mark the occasion, and at 9:00 a.m. Eastern, there will be a ceremony at the Pentagon to remember those who died in that attack.

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