After Ground Zero : Everyday Americans and the Unhealed Scars of 9/11

This first-hand reporting spanning from Ground Zero on the day of the 9/11 attacks through decades of trauma and healing offers a stark reminder of just how forcefully the events of September 11 and the war on terror have impacted the lives of countless Americans.Mike Kelly was across the Hudson River when the two jets crashed into the World Trade Center’s twin towers in downtown Manhattan on September 11, 2001.His immediate goal was to get to the scene and gather some first-hand reporting to file on deadline.But this was just the first step of a decades-long journey through another kind of rubble, through the pain left behind and the unhealed scars of people’s lives in the wake of a terrorist attack.After Ground Zero traces the lives of a diverse portrait of Americans forced to confront the pain and mystery of the terrorism that tore apart their lives beginning on that September morning.From Kelly’s on-the-ground reporting at Ground Zero, following the through line of the survivors and the loved ones of those killed, to the present day, twenty-five years later, we witness the efforts of Kristen Breitweiser, Juliette Scauso, Terry Strada, Thomas Kean, Father Brian Jordon, Phil McArdle, James Yee, and numerous others as they search for answers, policy changes, reparations and accountability, faith, and healing.Kelly’s up-close storytelling is a powerful reminder of just how impactful the 9/11 attacks were and the ripple effect they have had in the decades that followed.