Psychiatric nurse put talents to use Orient mother worked at 2 disaster sites

Seven days after terrorists flew a jet into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., Florence Bonney of Orient, a psychiatric nurse, was activated by the American Red Cross as part of a mental health team to work in the capital.

She later was called to the World Trade Center in New York. In all, she estimates that she worked seven weeks at the two disaster sites.

“I’ve worked on maybe 50 different national disasters of all kinds: train derailment, floods, hurricanes,” recalled the foster parent and mother of three. “This was tough because we’ve all been victimized.”

Bonney, 58, worked in the morgue, at food centers and at the attack sites, talking with rescue workers, military personnel, and providing support services to families of people who were killed, who had lost jobs, as well as to victims themselves.

She recalled going to the disaster sites and seeing the workers.

“After a while, people would recognize you,” she said. “After they see you a few times, they’d start venting because all these people were holding all this [emotion] in.

“It was a great, great, difficult, difficult time,” Bonney said before pausing. “I brought a lot home with me.”

Despite that, Bonney said she has been able to cope with what happened. Part of that comes from her training. But part also comes from the fact that she felt empowered because she had a role to play in helping.

“I think everyone should find a role they can play,” she said. “I think it’s helpful to the individual.

“It’s good if people volunteer,” she continued. “It gives you something to do.”

One year after the attacks, Bonney feels that while military and emergency services are preparing for possible future attacks, the general public has become lax in its awareness and preparation.

“People are thinking it’s not going to happen to them,” she said. “We’ve gotten too casual.

“It’s not done,” she said. “[The terrorists] have committed to killing all Christians and Jews.”