Weekend’s Vanport Classic Has Story to Tell
(ÿlL
See Story, Page A3
-Jjlartiatth ©bs
Knight Library
1299 University of'Oreg<
on
Eugene OR 97403-1205
"The City Of Roses"
Volume XXXI
Number 38
www.portlandobserver.eom
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Established in 1970
Wednesday
50*
September 19, 2001
Son Escapes World Trade Center Attacks
by M ichael L eighton
T he P ortland O bserver
China Cleared to Join World
Trade Organization
World Trade Organization negotiators
formalty agreed to terms for Chinese
membership after 15 years o f tough
talks, chief W TO spokesman Keith
Rockwell said.
t
Arafat Announces Cease-Fire
G AZA CITY, Gaza Strip— Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat announced that
he is unilaterally enforcing a cease-fire,
and Israel responded by ordering a halt
to military operations. Both sides have
been under pressure from the United
States to work out a truce.
M ajor Airlines Cut Flights 20%
Hoping to avoid bankruptcy after the
terrorist attacks, Continental, Ameri­
can, Northwest and Delta airlines are all
reducing their schedules by 20%. Con­
tinental said it also is laying off 12,000
employees.
Fed Cuts Rates Half-Point
W ASHINGTON — The Federal Re­
serve cut a key interest rate by one-half
point to 3%. The rate cut was the eighth
this year in the Fed’s effort to stave off
a recession. The Fed’s Open Market
Committee acted in advance o f its regu­
larly scheduled interest-rate session,
Oct. 2.
Bin Laden Handover Considered
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The su­
preme leader o f A fghanistan's hard­
line Taliban will let a grand council of
Islamic clerics decide whether to hand
over suspected terrorist mastermind
Osama bin Laden to the United States,
the Taliban-run radio said.
Painful worry turned to a great joy for a
northeast Portland mother whose son es­
caped New Y ork’s W orld Trade Center
after hijacked planes were used to destroy
the buildings Sept. 11.
Dee Craig-Arnold said her son, Maurice
“M oe” Craig, 37, worked on the 97,h floor
in the center’s No. 2 tower. He was em ­
ployed as an insurance underwriter for
Aon Financial.
Dee said it was excruciating watching
the devastation on TV in the hours after
the attacks, not knowing if her son was
dead, alive or badly injured.
Finally, sometime after 11 a.m., through
a friend’s daughter, she found out he was
able to get out.
She has since been able to talk with her
son and knows he’s okay, though she’s
sure he’s suffering traumatic mental an­
guish from being a witness to one of the
most devastating attacks ever against the
United States.
He told her some o f people in the office
towers were sucked out of windows; oth­
ers were confused and hid under desks.
He decided to exit the building after the
attack on the first tower, giving a helping
hand to a woman crouched on the stairway.
By the time he made it to the 42nd floor,
the second plane hit his building.
When he reached the lobby, it was
littered with glass, broken light fixtures
and blood.
He ran up the street, thinking the city
was under attack by fighter jets and that he
was going to get shot, she said.
Upon hearing the thundering noise
when the second tower collapsed, he
looked back to see the massive and deadly
Terrorist attacks
survivor Maurice
"Moe” Craig in a
1993 family
photo.
Dee Craig-Arnold
spreads the word
and thanks God
for her son's
escape from the
attacks on the
World Trade
Center, along with
her husband Jim
Arnold, and
grandson, at their
Northeast
Portland home.
P hoto
by
M ark W ash ­
P ortland
ington /T he
O bserver
devastation, but never looked back again,
she said.
He then walked across New York’s
Manhattan Bridge and another 7 miles to
his home in Brooklyn.
Moe Craig grew up in Portland, attend-
ing O ckley G reen, Portsm outh and
Jefferson High Schools. He graduated
from Howard University in 1987.
Tragedy Inspires Local Patriotic Response
Stocks Plunge
NEW YORK — Clearly nervous in­
vestors sent stocks falling sharply in
the opening m inutes o f trading on
W all Street, the stock m arket’s first
»day back since last w eek’s terrorist
v t attack. The fall cam e despite the lat­
est interest rate cut.
Senate Approves Using Force,
$40B in Emergency Aid
The Senate approved $40 billion in
emergency aid to help the victims and
hu n t dow n th e p e rp e tra to rs o f
Tuesday’s attacks in New York and
Washington. Federal investigators also
have identified as many as 52 potential
conspirators in the hijacking attacks.
NATO Vows M ilitary Support
NATO declared that the catastrophic
terrorist attacks on the United States
were an act o f war against the entire
alliance, and it pledged military support
for any U.S. retaliation. The declaration
marked the first time in the alliance ’ s 52-
year history that it has invoked a clause
to come to the defense of a member that
has been attacked.
State Sen. Margaret Carter and Portland Mayor Vera Katz are at the
podium with several religious leaders behind them to help lead a day
o f mourning for the victims o f last week's deadly terrorism. An
estim ated 5 ,8 5 5 people died when four hijacked planes crashed into
the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon and into a field in
Pennsylvania.
photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
American flags decorate a horse driven wagon ride at Saturday ’s Alberta Street Fair.
Flags can been seen all over Portland as people show their patriotism in the wake
o f last week's terrorism attacks on the East Coast.
P hoto by D avid G iezyng ZT he P ortland O bserver
Oregon Mental Health Workers Assist New York
(AP)— A team of Oregon mental health
professionals flew to New York Tuesday
to help victims and rescue workers in­
volved in last w eek’s terrorist attack.
It will be the first time in 700 missions that
Northwest Medical Teams has sent a group
focused solely on providing counseling
assistance after a disaster.
T wo of the six group members are mak­
ing their first trip for the organization. The
other four have taken part in previous
missions, including earthquake relief in
Turkey and India and assistance for
Kosovan refugees in Albania.
“The psychological impact on every-
one associated with this will be enormous.”
said Bas Vanderzalm, president of the
Tigard-based emergency relief group.
The initial call from New York requested
a team of mental health workers to go to
Nyack College. About 25 students from
the school's Manhattan campus were re­
ported missing late last week. The mission
has since been expanded to include work­
ing with rescue workers and others off the
stre e t
w ho
seek
c o u n se lin g .
The need for emotional help after a disas­
ter can't be overstated, said team member
Deborah Pack-Patton, a West Linn High
School psychologist. She cited a study
done five years after the bombing of the
federal building in Oklahoma City, which
showed a marked increase in suicide, di­
vorce and alcohol and drug abuse among
rescue workers.
“These folks need to talk about what
they are seeing and going through, or face
severe personal consequences down the
road," she said.
As the number of confirmed dead rises,
other groups are also focusing efforts on
counseling.
Laurel Hughes, a clinical psychologist
from Beaverton, is already in the thick of
things. The 48-year-old American Red
i
Cross volunteer has been dispatching
mental health workers from a com m and
post in Princeton, N.J., since Sunday m orn­
ing.
On Saturday, the Portland-based hu­
manitarian group Mercy Corps rushed 700
grief guidebooks to New York City. W ith
titles like “Helping Children Cope with
Death" and “When Death Impacts Your
School: A Guide for School A dm inistra­
tors,” the guides will be given to teachers,
day-care workers, parents and others.
The guides came from the Dougy C en­
ter, Portland's nationally known organiza­
tion for grieving children and families.