Robbyn Navatto lived in an apartment complex in Forest Hills neighborhood, west of Queens, in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. She was awoken that Tuesday morning by her then husband calling her from work and telling her to turn on the television because a jet airplane had just struck the World Trade Center.
“I watched the news footage in horror knowing all of this is taking place five miles from where I was sitting,” Navatto said.
Navatto said the most chilling aspect of the day was that bustling New York City was almost silent. Living next to a railroad track, constant noise was common — but not then.
“It was an eerie lack of sound, quiet in NYC is not normal,” Navatto said.
Navatto said that when she stepped out onto the street, there was zero traffic. The usually heavily traveled section of Queens was now a ghost town and every business was closed. All public transportation was closed, roads shut down except for emergency vehicles and people had to walk from island to island.
“The city that never sleeps, was closed,” she said.
Navatto eventually met with her husband and they went to a local Irish pub serving as a search-and-rescue hub for the day. She said the atmosphere in there was surreal, with survivors and emergency workers barely speaking since they didn’t know what to say.
“The firemen coming in looked exhausted,” Navatto said.
Navatto said the rest of the day was a blur highlighted by her mind running wild with what could happen next.
“As the evening went on the news had shifted to rescues and death tolls,” Navatto said. “I was in awe watching the diligence and passion displayed by the search and rescue workers. We returned home and couldn’t sleep all night. The what-ifs: Is there more to come? When will life return to normal? Will it ever?”
Navatto’s life returned to her business in New York City until she flew to Minneapolis on Sept. 17 for her brother’s marriage on Sept. 21.
“I have never been afraid to fly — I figure if it is your time to go, it’s your time to go,” Navatto said. “There were 13 people on my flight and two were flight attendants. We all sat in first class. All races, types, walks of life, all talking like we had been best friends for 20 years.”
Navatto said walking through the Deutsche Bank Building, one of the few towers that survived the attacks, and seeing the piles of dust, debris and memorials was shocking.
“Every picture had a story, that day caused a ripple effect for so many people,” she said.
Navatto and her husband went to look for apartments to live in near the Two Towers collapse two months after Sept. 11 and found that many of the apartments were still fully stocked with personal items.
“Many families just got up and left because the future was so uncertain,” she said. “We couldn’t believe it.”
Navatto said the biggest takeaway for her from the Sept. 11 attacks was to not take anything in life for granted from that moment on.
“The whole thing made me appreciate everything in life and the people we interact with every day,” she said. “An event like that made people realize the U.S. and New York City need to band together and not take anybody’s views for granted.”
Navatto was born in St. Paul and was living in New York City at the time to expand her modeling, acting and talent agency known as Robbyn Navatto Management. She moved back to Minnesota to take care of her aging mother who lives in Wall Lake. She has since settled down in Greater Minnesota.
Navatto still works with the agency from Underwood and has co-workers and clients based in New York City. She also works at Pioneer Pointe in Fergus Falls.
———
©2015 the Fergus Falls Daily Journal (Fergus Falls, Minn.)
Visit the Fergus Falls Daily Journal (Fergus Falls, Minn.) at www.fergusfallsjournal.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
