11 Years Later, Memories of 9/11 Continue to Haunt FishHawk Resident

It was a typical September morning in Queens, N.Y.

Third-generation New Yorker Anthony Caligiure was preparing to head off to work at his job at Time Warner. His wife, Leena, pregnant with their second child, was already at work at Citigroup in midtown Manhattan.

Around 9 a.m., Caliguire heard a plane fly over their apartment complex. Shortly after, he received a phone call from his mother, urging him to turn on the news.

"I couldn't believe what I saw," said Caligiure, as he watched the events unfold following the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers on Sept. 11. "I said, 'We're at war.'"

Although 11 years have passed since that fateful day, Caligiure said he'll never forget the feelings of fear and disbelief he experienced as he watched the city he'd grown up in turned into a battle zone.

Nor will he ever get over that loss of safety and security he enjoyed before 9/11.

Caligiure was president of the board of his apartment complex that consisted of six towers with 3,000 apartments.

"Shortly after the second plane hit, I got a call from the maintenance crew working on top of one of the buildings," said Caligiure. "They said the plane flew right over their heads."

Caligiure's first thought, however, was for the safety of his wife.

"I started calling my wife at Citigroup and they were telling the employees to just stay in place," he said. "It was utter chaos. We were hearing one horror story after another, and I just wanted to get to Leena. I told her to stay calm and I'd get to her as soon as possible."

In the meantime, Caligiure received a call from the FBI, asking Caligiure to have his maintenance crew check empty apartments in the complex for explosives, fearing that bombs had been planted at strategic locations around the city.

As soon as his mother arrived to watch the couple's first son, Caligiure got in his car and headed to Manhattan.

"They kept the 59th Street Bridge open for evacuation," he said. "The other bridges were closed. As I'm driving, I could see fighter jets flying overhead. No one knew what was happening. We'd never heard of bin Laden."

A normally 45-minute drive to Manhattan took Caligiure four hours with traffic congestion created by drivers attempting to flee Manhattan.

"When I arrived at Citigroup, there was a sea of people," said Caligiure. "It was a miracle that I was able to find Leena. We grabbed some strangers who needed to get out and we took off."

In the months after, the Caligiures soon realized that life in their beloved city would never be the same.

"The city was like a morgue. There were so many funerals and people were so down," said Caligiure. "At the same time, people were so supportive of one another. It was incredible to see."

But lives were forever changed that day. Caligiure's brother, John, left his job with Verizon to join Homeland Security. His other brother, Michael, resigned from his job as an executive with the NFL and became a member of the first class to graduate from New York City Police terrorism task force training."

For Caligiure, who once believed he would live his entire life in New York City, the city no longer felt secure.

"It wasn't our city anymore. There were armed guards everywhere. So we gave two weeks' notice, sold everything we had and moved to FishHawk Ranch in August 2004," said Caligiure. "We weren't alone. A lot of New Yorkers got the hell out of Dodge. We were part of a mass migration to Florida."

However, Caligiure couldn't escape the psychological effects of 9/11.

"I felt sad, heartbroken, depressed," he said. "The anger and hurt was overwhelming."

The healing came slowly.

Caligiure was working for Terminex in Tampa and was called to inspect the home of an Air Force pilot.

"He asked me if I'd been in New York during 9/11 and then told me he was in one of those fighter jets flying overhead on that day," said Caligiure. "Then he thanked me for my support and gave me a custom 9/11 coin. It was an incredible moment."

Eventually, Caligiure said he and Leena were able to rebuild their lives.

"It took awhile," he said. "New friends and our relationship with our church--that was very important. Eventually we were able to establish ourselves."

Today, the Caligiures have found success as the owners of at 1048 Bloomingdale Ave., Valrico, in Plaza Bella.

"We feel so blessed to be in this country and a part of this community," said Caligiure. "But each anniversary of 9/11 is still hard for me."

Every Sept. 11, the Caligiures create special chocolate coins representing all branches of the military as well as police and fire rescue, which they give out to military and law enforcement personnel to thank them for their service.

"I think it's important that all of us remember what happened that day, and the sacrifices so many people made," said Caligiure.