No Help From Government
Health Fight Embitters 9/11 Cleanup Leader
Leo DiRubbo blames ailments on exposure to debris.
LAKELAND | Leo DiRubbo still bears the scars of 9/11.
There are the nightmares of heads rolling down slopes or stairs, of burning or rotting bodies, of coming across the dead unexpectedly in stairwells or under wreckage.
There's the returning stench of Ground Zero and the panic attacks years later, such as when he smelled smoke from candles in a church at a funeral and had to leave. Or when he's watching a movie at home and a building is blown up and burning, and it all comes rushing back.
For 10 months, DiRubbo was a leader in the effort to clean up the rubble left when the World Trade Center buildings collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001, after being hit by two airliners flown by terrorists.
Today, the North Lakeland resident has a bevy of serious health problems: kidney failure, heart disease with a pacemaker and stents installed, 40 percent use of his lungs, post-traumatic stress disorder, panic attacks and insomnia. He is on oxygen around the clock and takes a variety of medications.
DiRubbo says he was not bitter for some time after the attacks. He is now. The government, he says, has offered no financial help, and he has paid many expenses out of his own pocket, even with some health insurance.
He still speaks strongly, clearly, not flinching from horrific descriptions of late 2001 and early 2002, but he doesn't discuss it often. 'He hardly ever does,' said his wife, Angela DiRubbo
.
The couple moved to Lakeland in the fall of 2005 to be near their daughter and two grandchildren. They live in a subdivision off Old Polk City Road. There was no longer any reason to remain in New Jersey, across the river from New York, with its 'high taxes and stuck inside in the winter,' Leo DiRubbo said.
Besides, the memories would only stay sharper there.
Leo DiRubbo said he's convinced the cleanup work and all his maladies are related. He was in perfect health before 9/11.
'I used to walk forever on a (building) project,' he said. 'No golf cart. Fifty acres or a 50-story office building, I walked.'
Leo DiRubbo was on top of the world. He had risen to nearly the top of his profession, the construction industry in the New York City area. He had an adoring wife, was doing what he loved and was in good health.
He enjoyed an active social life, was full of energy and loved to laugh, Angela DiRubbo said.
SELF-MADE
Leo DiRubbo, 62, was a classic case of starting at the bottom and working all the way up.
Born in the Bronx, he began as a construction worker in the 1960s. He worked for various firms in his career, including the former Morse Diesel. It later became AMEC (not an acronym), one of the largest construction companies in the world.
'In the construction business, everybody knows each other,' he says. 'You competed with people (for bids), but they were still your friends. Once someone got the job, you wished them well, and later you'd see them on the floor (working) and you'd be friendly.'
Leo DiRubbo served in many leadership positions on committees and boards linked with his work. He was treasurer of the Contractors Association of Greater New York, which negotiated union contracts for management, and on its safety committee. He was on the safety and grievance committees for the Building Trades Employers Association. And the list went on.
'I dealt with a lot of important people — owners, architects, subcontractors,' he said.
Eventually, he was promoted to senior vice president of AMEC. 'I loved the construction industry,' he says.
'Everyone knew he was the Rolls Royce of his profession,' Angela DiRubbo said. 'It was such a pleasure to go to functions and be told by so many people that I was married to a very brilliant man. He doesn't like me to say it, but I'm still proud of him.'
THAT AWFUL DAY
After the attacks 'the firefighters, of course, were the initial heroes,' Leo DiRubbo said
Then we went in for 10 months to clean it up.' He was site supervisor for AMEC, one of four major contractors to which the city paid $10 million each for the work.
'To do things like move 80-ton columns, we were the only ones with the knowledge and equipment,' he said of his and the other companies. He confirmed a quote attributed to him by the New York Times that enough steel was removed from the 16-acre site to build 20 Golden Gate Bridges.
'At first I was fine. I walked everywhere,' Leo DiRubbo said. 'After a while, I couldn't walk three or four blocks without having to sit down. I couldn't climb stairs.' He was too out of breath.
But, he says, city representatives repeatedly assured workers the air was safe to breathe. 'It was a hundred lies,' he says.
But Leo DiRubbo didn't know it at the time and didn't worry.
'I had to be strong for the superintendents. Some were drinking too much, having a lot of trouble. … There was nobody to be strong for me. But I was never so proud. Everybody was running out of New York, and we were running into the site,' Leo DiRubbo said.
'I wasn't bitter then because I was so proud of all of us. There was cooperation. It was very patriotic, a great atmosphere.
As time went by and he started developing health problems and paying for related medical care, Leo DiRubbo said, his attitude changed.
'The longer time goes on, the less people care. It's not fresh in their minds. Unless you live in New York, nobody thinks about it,' he said.
Families of victims of the attacks received millions of dollars from the federal government, based on various factors.
Cleanup workers, Leo DiRubbo said, unless they had broken bones, have yet to receive anything, although there is a long, ongoing lawsuit on their behalf. '(New York City) Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg is fighting it tooth and nail.'
Leo DiRubbo said he received health coverage through COBRA for 18 months after leaving the company and now draws Social Security and Medicare because of the disabilities. But he says he has averaged $1,400 per month out of his own pocket in medical expenses.
Worse, he feels unappreciated and faces a dangerous future.
'At one time I said I'd do it all again,' Leo DiRubbo said.
'Not anymore.'
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