There are a lot of people out there who are still hurting, and many of them don't know why because it is a year later. The pain really never goes away. A year after the second-worst air disaster in U.S. history took place off Long Island's coast, life for legions of responders is a professional challenge and a personal odyssey. Police officers still cry. Clergy members still pray.
Soldiers still have nightmares.
Ordinary moments of living are today shrouded with the emotions of yesterday's tragedy. Many still struggle to deal with what they saw even as they prepare to one day deal with something like it again. Others push the memories aside, putting off opening a scrapbook or staring at year-old photos. Instead of recalling heroic rescues or trips to hospitals to visit the wounded, there are only memories of the dead. F OR NEW YORK City Police Department diver John Drzal, thoughts of the tons of airplane wreckage floating in the water were still triggered nine months later when he responded to an April helicopter crash off Manhattan.