Over the past year, Hermosa Beach residents responded to the events of Sept. 11 by showing their support through anything from fund-raisers to public vigils to school projects. The terrorist attacks were such a monumental event that even a small city thousands of miles away from the East Coast felt the impact in its community, economy and sense of security.

Reaction to the attack

In the early hours on the morning of Sept. 11, many Hermosa Beach residents awoke for just another day of school or work to discover that the entire country had just suffered its worst terrorist attack in history.

Hermosa Beach Mayor Kathy Dunbabin remembered first hearing about the terrorist attacks and discussing whether the City Council should have canceled its meeting scheduled for that night.

“We had a real debate about it and decided to hold our scheduled meeting because we thought this country needs to continue on,” she said. “I think because of Sept. 11, our city is more in tune with emergency procedures, and what the police and fire personnel need to do in the case of an emergency.”

Friends and family

Many Hermosa Beach residents tried to reach their loved ones on the other side of the country, only to discover that the only dependable means of communication was through the Internet.

New York native and Parks and Recreation Commissioner Howard Fishman spent the day on the phone trying to reach members of his family, some of whom work only blocks away from Ground Zero. School Board member Cathy McCurdy tried to contact friends and family, including her brother-in-law who works at the Pentagon.

Local politics

The events of Sept. 11 came just as Hermosa Beach City Council candidates were gearing up for the city’s municipal election. Then-candidate and current Councilman Art Yoon recalled that people lost interest in the election immediately after the attacks. He also noticed during his door-to-door campaigning that people were acting more neighborly after Sept. 11.

“I stopped campaigning for a week after 9/11,” said Yoon. “People needed time to recover and the issues in Hermosa Beach didn’t seem so significant relative to what was going on in the rest of the world. I noticed an overwhelming presence of patriotism and it seemed as though people got more involved in the election after Sept. 11 and they wanted to participate in the process.”

Law enforcement

Many commuters stayed at home Sept. 11 while the Hermosa Beach Police Department was put on alert by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Since then, Hermosa Beach Chief of Police Mike Lavin has noticed no significant shifts in law enforcement procedures. However, he said he would like to focus more on guidelines relating to states of emergency.

“We will be doing nothing out of the ordinary during the week of the one-year anniversary of Sept. 11,” said Lavin. “We have had some talk about focusing on emergency procedures. I would like to spend more money on training officers on how to respond to emergency incidents and to know what to look for.”

Schools

Within the Hermosa Beach School District, attendance on Sept. 11 dropped slightly from its normal 95 percent to 90 percent at both Hermosa Valley and View schools.

Valley Principal Chris Jones said the School District has experienced increased awareness since Sept. 11 through the actions and behavior of both students and administrators.

“I think there is a heightened awareness in the community,” added Jones. “I think kids are more alert to strangers, and there is more of an awareness to our system in general and in understanding the ways of the law and how scary it can be when they are taken away.”

Hermosa Beach school teachers mediated discussions about Sept. 11 with their students. Some teachers even went as far as to integrate the tragic event into the daily curriculum as a way of providing an emotional outlet for their students.

Hermosa Valley art teacher Dave Erving suggested making a large American flag with his seventh- and eighth-grade art students who enthusiastically agreed to the project.

Over a nine-week period, dozens of Hermosa Valley art students created an 8-foot by 14-foot flag which was then sent to New York City. The flag — a collage of more than 200 illustrations synonymous with love, hope, peace and unity — draw in the colors of red, white, blue and gold.

The flag now hangs in the New York City Fire Museum located in Manhattan’s Soho Village.

As a way of acknowledging the overwhelming support of schools and cities in California and along the West Coast, two New York City firefighters, Vincent Diforte and Erik Wiener, visited Hermosa Valley School and told students about their experiences on Sept. 11.

Local economy

Several businesses closed on Sept. 11. Companies with both clients and employees on the East Coast had trouble communicating with them throughout that entire day.

Companies like Beach Travel waited for more information about the airports reopening across the country. Churches all over Hermosa Beach held vigils and services. Although city offices continued to operate as normal, many thought the day to be somber and surreal at times.

During the past year, the city’s budget was affected slightly from its stock market investments. However, the city did experience a rise in its transient occupancy tax revenues.

A day of remembrance

Following Sept. 11, U.S. President George W. Bush proclaimed Sept. 14 a day of remembrance. It marked a day of vigils and prayer services for the victims and their families.

As people did in many other cities across the country, thousands of Hermosa Beach residents gathered on the city’s pier plaza to participate in a citywide vigil organized by local resident Jennifer Hamlin.

Hamlin spread the word through e-mails, and posted fliers on business windows in Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach. The restaurants and bars on the pier plaza turned off their music for the event, and agreed to spread the word about the vigil.

Several businesses donated flags and candles. Then-Hermosa Beach Mayor John Bowler gave a speech and led the crowd in singing the national anthem and “Amazing Grace.”

Homeland security

In January, Congresswoman Jane Harman, D-Redondo Beach, spoke to a crowd of more than 100 people at the Hermosa Beach Kiwanis Club on America’s war on terrorism and its efforts to improve homeland security.

Following Sept. 11, Harman and several other House representatives who were appointed to the country’s homeland security subcommittee visited Egypt, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Syria. The group discussed America’s intentions to eliminate terrorist networks with the leaders of each country, including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

City officials from around the South Bay — El Segundo Mayor Mike Gordon, Torrance Mayor Dee Hardison, Hermosa Beach Mayor Dunbabin, and Hermosa Beach councilmen J.R. Reviczky and Michael Keegan — attended Harman’s speech at the Kiwanis Club along with dozens of residents and club members.

Community support

In the days following Sept. 11, three Hermosa Beach residents — Tony Liou, Jeff Bartlett and Joe Derhake — raised $30,000 for the victims of the attacks by organizing a fund-raising effort for the American Red Cross and its global volunteer program.

The three men met Sept. 14 and discussed the prospect of raising $100,000 in a 48-hour period. The conversation prompted a trip to City Hall in the hopes of setting up a booth on the pier plaza to collect donations on behalf of the organization.

With the help of the Hermosa Beach Kiwanis Club, Liou, Bartlett and Derhake set up the booth at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 14. A slew of volunteers joined the effort and stayed on the plaza until 1 a.m. both Friday and Saturday, and returned to the booth at 8:30 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.

Many people who donated money had a story to tell the volunteers. One man gave $1,000 to the fund which he had intended to spend on a trip to Germany. Three young girls sold American flags for $1 each and donated all of their $1,000 in earnings.

Local restaurants like Sangria, Patrick Malloy’s, Brewski’s, Sharkeez, the Lighthouse Cafe, Cantina Real, Zeppy’s, Paisanos, Robert’s and Hennessey’s donated food to the volunteers and money to the cause.