Rockaway, Breezy Point Among Hardest Hit

By Sean Gardiner | STAFF WRITER

September 20, 2001

In the past, many who live in Rockaway and Breezy Point believed the middle of September was the perfect time to take advantage of the beaches - still hot enough to enjoy the ocean and sand but without the summer crowds.

But on Tuesday, a week after terrorists crashed hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center, perhaps killing more than 5,400 people, the beaches were deserted.

"Usually there would be people down here this time of year," said Joe DiPalo, a plumber working at the Breezy Point Surf Club. "A lot of people think this is the best time of the year. You sit on the deck, have a drink, look at the ocean. It's gorgeous but there's no one here, no one. No one feels like having a good time anymore."

Perhaps no community in the city has been as hard-hit emotionally by the Sept. 11 terrorist attack as the three-mile stretch at the end of the peninsula that includes Roxbury and Breezy Point. These predominantly Irish-American, blue-collar neighborhoods have been enclaves for firefighters, police officers and other city workers for years.

The numbers keep changing every day, but thus far, 14 people who live in Breezy Point have been confirmed to be among the missing. Another four missing in the disaster lived in Roxbury, just down the road. Ten of those are firefighters, said officials at Breezy Point Security and the St. Thomas More Church. As many as another 15 people who didn't live in Breezy but were members at the Surf Club, a cabana-style beach club opened during the summer, may also be among the missing, a worker there said.

In the Rockaways, the number of rumored missing ranges from 35 to 60 or more.

"World War II lasted a couple of years," Frances Farrell, 85, who lives on Beach 130th Street, or "30th Street" as the locals refer to it, said yesterday. "I didn't know a single person who died in it. This, I've been to four funerals in one week."

Msgr. Martin Geraghty of St. Francis de Sales Church in Belle Harbor, said yesterday there have been four funerals this week and another three will take place by Saturday for people who died in the World Trade Center attacks. That, for a parish that usually has about a funeral a week.

Geraghty said that on the evening of the attack, he started to ring the church bell, "just like the old days," to remind people that the church was there for them in their time of need. That night 1,000 people packed the small church, double its capacity. The next day they again held a special Mass packed with people. And those overflow crowds have persisted every night since.

John "JP" Farrell, a police sergeant at the 101st Precinct, spent his first day off since the terrorist attack at St. Francis de Sales yesterday attending the funeral of his best friend, Fire Capt. Walter Hynes, who died trying to get people out of the Twin Towers.

A mural on a wall next to the volunteer fire department has the names of more than 50 missing or dead from the World Trade Center catastrophe. Many of them are friends or relatives of people who live in Breezy, but many others are locals.

When Bill Gorra, a 45-year-old trader for Eurobrokers who managed to escape from the 84th floor of the south tower (Tower Two), arrived at the memorial wall with his son yesterday afternoon, his first words were, "I could have been up there."

Margie Henderson, who runs a knickknack store in Breezy called Henly's Hanger, said that the pain of what the community has lost can be seen on everyone's faces.

"We're usually a happy community," she said. "But everyone looks so tired. We try to put on our best faces for the kids, but it's hard. So many people we know, so many young people."