It has been 23 years since the attacks of September 11th, but so many of the stories that emerged in the days that followed are still fresh in the minds of the 60 Minutes correspondents and producers who reported them. 60 Minutes reported at length on the far-reaching aftermath of the homeland attacks, both on the Sunday broadcast and on 60 Minutes II, a weekday edition that ended in 2005. Below are some of the most memorable stories that aired on our broadcasts in the weeks and months after the attacks.
An American Town Originally aired September 16, 2001 When 60 Minutes aired on the Sunday after the attacks, people all over the country were still trying to make sense of what had happened five days earlier. The devastation had extended well beyond ground zero; it splintered into hundreds of small towns in the suburbs of New York City, where families were still waiting for word on their missing loved ones. One of those towns was Summit, New Jersey, a small town where about one in seven adults worked in financial services in Manhattan.
As 60 Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley reported that first Sunday, the World Trade Center was only 35 minutes away from Summit by rail, and in the parking lot outside the town's train station, cars were still sitting unclaimed by the commuters who had left them there that Tuesday. Summit resident Debbie Rancke was among the waiting. Her husband, Todd, worked as a bond salesman at Sandler O'Neill on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center's sou.