- Nearly 3,000 people died in the 9/11 attacks, and over 400 of them were first responders.
- The 1,650th unidentified victim was finally given a name in January.
- Watch the video to hear from neighbors who happened to be in New York that day.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT
"In mid-town Manhattan, the Rockefeller Center area, that's where I worked."
Most Americans watched their TVs in horror when a terrorist attack caused the Twin Towers to collapse.
Diane Samedy had the misfortune to have a front row seat.
"It's not the same. Even though they have the memorial there, you know, I'm so used to the buildings being there. It's a sense of…Violation."
She grew up in New York, living there for over 50 years.
"Manhattan was the happening spot."
By the time of the terror attacks happened, she lived in the suburbs of Long Island.
The smell of soot and panicked screams of civilians are still fresh on her mind.
She tells me most of her fellow New Yorkers had to walk home, due to transportation systems closing in the aftermath.
"Most people who work in the city don't live in the city. They even live in Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, New Jersey, but that's how that's the only way they could could get and to give them those bridges. Ohh, they're like a mile and a half, two miles long. You know, just to get off of the off of Manhattan."
Diane isn't the only one remembering Sept. 11 today.
Hundreds of her fellow neighbors here in Valdosta gathered at the historic courthouse in remembrance of the over 3,000 who lost their lives to attacks at the Towers, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Bill Slaughter, chairman of the Lowndes County Commissioners, took time to thank the first responders for their bravery, 400 of whom were also killed.
ABC News reports more than a thousand 9-11 victims, remain unidentified.
In Valdosta, I’m Malia Thomas, reporting for ABC27.
