This is the third article in a nine-part NotiCel series by journalist Marvin Fonseca commemorating the September 11 attack on New York's Twin Towers. The piece profiles Nino Correa Filomeno, then a specialist and later Commissioner of the Negociado de Manejo de Emergencias (Emergency Management Bureau), who led a team of 35 Urban Search and Rescue specialists from Puerto Rico's Emergency Management Administration.
The group departed on September 12, 2001, along with 15 firefighters and three search dogs, under orders from Puerto Rico Governor Sila María Calderón, heading to New York City to assist with rescue efforts after the terrorist attack. Correa Filomeno recalled that he never imagined the people who had come to Puerto Rico to give a training session would die in the Twin Towers four years later.
He also described the tense atmosphere in Puerto Rico that day, noting that the former Office of Emergency Management was located on Eleonor Roosevelt Street, near the flight path used by planes landing at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, and that authorities were put on alert over five flights that had departed New York and were headed there.