Barnet's twin town residents' tales of horror

5:29pm Thursday 13th September 2001

Free counselling is on offer to Montclair residents coming to terms with the enormity of Tuesday's terror strike against Manhattan.

It may be many days before the full extent of casualties in Barnet's New Jersey twin town are known but the grieving has already started.

Speaking from America, Mark Porter, editor of the weekly Montclair Times, told of the strength of links between the 38,000-strong township and Manhattan.

His own wife, Cynthia, an attorney, fled the 30th storey of the World Trade Centre's south tower minutes before it was struck by a passenger jet.

She escaped as the devastating aftermath was beamed to television screens around the world.

"When the first jet struck she watched the debris falling past her window and she just felt she had to get out of the building," Mr Porter said.

"Many of her colleagues just stood there staring out of the window. My wife looked up and saw the second airliner strike her building: she fled the area."

Mr Porter said many hundreds of his readers commuted to Manhattan with an untold number working in the now devastated World Trade Centre.

He added: "There is no knowledge of how many people from Montclair perished."

The town, which has enjoyed close links with Barnet since World War Two, was slowly coming to terms with the terror attack, Mr Porter said.

"I would say it is a grieving feeling but very positive in the sense that people are coping," he told the Hendon Times Group.

"There are counsellors in every school and signs up all over the township offering free counselling for anyone in distress."

Special church services had been hastily organised and residents have been rushing to donate blood. There was more disbelief than anger.

"People are extraordinarily concerned and deeply troubled by what happened but there was no anger at the time, just astonishment" Mr Porter added.

"Montclair is a fairly sophisticated town and there are no mobs rampaging in the streets and looking for Arab Americans."

* Visit the Montclair Times web site at www.montclairtimes.com.

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