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By Kent Larsen
Local LDS Impact Huge in WTC Attack
NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- The attack on New York City's World Trade
Center this morning will have a huge effect on LDS Church members and
the Church in the region because of those injured or killed in the
attack. In what is now being called a terrorist attack, two planes
slammed into the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center at
about 8:45 am, leading to the eventual collapse of both towers.
Members in Washington DC may also feel the impact of today's attacks,
since they included a plane that crashed into the Pentagon and a car
bomb that struck the U.S. State Department.
The Church in the New York region includes the New York NY Stake,
Brooklyn NY Stake, Westchester NY Stake, Plainview (Long Island) NY
Stake, Caldwell NJ Stake, Morristown NJ Stake, Scotch Plains NJ Stake
and Yorktown NY Stake as well as 3 districts in Queens NY -- all told
membership of 40,000 within commuting distance of the city. At this
point it is not known how many Church members worked in the center,
which could hold as many as 70,000 people, and is thought to have had
as many as 50,000 people in them at the time of the attack.
The stake that is likely to be the hardest hit is the New York NY
Stake, which covers the island of Manhattan where the towers were
located. That stake's 10 wards and branches include three singles
wards, populated by students and young professionals, often from
elsewhere, that came to New York to work. The stake also has a high
proportion of professional workers like those employed in the towers.
Calls for prayers on behalf the victims and their families have also
gone out. As hospitals in the region are already experiencing a blood
shortage, those in the area, as well as nationally, are encouraged to
donate blood.
Source:
Local LDS Impact Huge in WTC Attack
Kent Larsen
New York NY 11Sep01 D1
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