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Point Lookout memorial honors those sickened in 9/11 recovery efforts

By Ed Adamczyk
The new Sept. 11 memorial in Hempstead, N.Y., gives special tribute to first responders who became ill and died after recovery efforts at the World Trade Center. Photo courtesy the Town of Hempstead
The new Sept. 11 memorial in Hempstead, N.Y., gives special tribute to first responders who became ill and died after recovery efforts at the World Trade Center. Photo courtesy the Town of Hempstead

Sept. 11 (UPI) -- A new memorial honoring those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks pays tribute to those who were sickened in the rescue and recovery effort and died.

The $1.3 million memorial at Point Lookout in Hempstead, N.Y.,a beach in the Long Island community 24 miles from the World Trade Center towers, where residents gathered to watch the towers fall, was unveiled on Friday. The memorial was scheduled to be formally dedicated Monday. The site includes granite plaques engraved with the names of those who died in the attack, a 30-foot tall piece of steel from the World Trade Center and a granite-engraved poem by New Yorker Walt Whitman.

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Notably, a plaque with the names of 582 rescue workers -- police officers, firefighters, construction workers, cleanup volunteers and others -- who contracted illnesses while working in the rubble of the buildings and later died of causes that doctors suspected were linked to smoke inhalation and toxic ash, also will be permanently displayed.

The town of Hempstead lost 190 residents in the fall of the towers, and the beach, with its view of the New York City skyline, has been an annual gathering site on Sept. 11.

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On Sept. 11, 2001, those in the town could see smoke rising from the tower, and Hempstead Town Supervisor Anthony Santino recalled the day, and the reason for the memorial.

"It was clear, you could see the tragedy unfolding before your eyes. So this is the right spot, this is the right time," Santino told WABC-TV, New York.

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