A week earlier I had spent time with the head of the Red Cross in town. I went to him to get an understanding of the protocol they use in a situation such as this.

I realized I didn't quite fit into the Red Cross' model of relief. I already had a ticket to New York that left in about a week. I wanted to do what I could to help so I flew into the destruction in Manhattan a few days after flights became available. There was much more going on in city than the exhausting repetition on televesion.

I came home two weeks later with over 30 hours of the real life in the heart of New York after 911. Our lives are the result of the decisions we make under our darkest hours." - Enrique Montiel