Community Corner

Sept. 11: Finding Friendship Amidst Tragedy

Emergency management workers build lasting friendship during weeks, months following 9/11

As deputy coordinator for Office of Emergency Management, Alex Craige did not have much time to process the news a plane had crashed into the Pentagon on a personal level.

Instead, she went straight into action mode, contacting county officials and coordinating response support. For five days, she did not see her daughter Lauren, then 22 months, arriving home long after she had gone to bed and leaving long before she woke up.

In the hectic weeks following the attack, she made a new friend. Mark Penn, then a newly assigned emergency manager for Arlington County, worked with her in planning a cooperative response, which included other local, state and federal agencies. For weeks, Mark and Alex only knew each other through phone meetings and developed a camaraderie before finally meeting.

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Mark is now the emergency management coordinator for City of Alexandria. Alex, on the other hand, left the field and opened a kids clothing store in Oakton called .

To this day, they are still good friends. Though the majority of their relationship is still over the phone or via email, they feel bonded.

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“You tend to cling to people you were around at the time. You always have that connection,” Alex said.


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