On Sept. 11, 2001, shortly after tragedy unfolded in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, phone calls started coming into the We Energies call center in Pewaukee.
We Energies was asked by federal officials to take calls from people seeking information about loved ones who were injured, killed or missing following the terrorist attacks. Twenty-five years later, some of the people who took those calls agreed to talk about their experiences.
Danielle Bly helped establish a process to train employee volunteers to answer phones during the emergency response, including guiding them on what to ask when receiving calls.
Danielle recalled her experience on WISN-TV.
The employees had to ask for information that might help investigators identify people. They asked what the person was wearing, whether they had facial hair, or if they had tattoos.
Employee Vicki Hawk recalls a conversation in which a caller went silent after being asked about tattoos. Initially, she thought the call had dropped, but soon realized the question had struck a nerve.
“She wanted to know if I was at a triage center and if there was someone matching his description, and if I was trying to match his tattoo to one she knew her son had. Being a mom myself, I could feel the fear in her voice, along with the hope that maybe I was near him to somehow assure her he was going to be OK. I listened to her cries and allowed her all the time she needed to speak about what a great young man she had raised and how proud she was of him,” Vicki remembers.
Each call employees took grew harder. Vicki said that people became more desperate, clinging to the hope that their loved ones had survived.
Danielle added that as she continued receiving calls, she felt increasingly helpless.
“You really didn’t get closure. You didn’t get the opportunity to hear the outcome. You just took the information, and you hoped for the people on the other end that eventually they would connect again with who they were looking for.”
More than 700 employees from across the company volunteered to take calls, most working after ending their regular workday.
Each year, employees mark Sept. 11 with moments of silence and thoughtful reflection. Vicki still spends time with current and retired employees who helped those days after the attacks.
“You would think that after all these years you would be less affected by talking about the calls we took. Whenever I get together with a special group of friends that all worked here back then and answered the calls, if we see each other around that date, we still have a solid cry about it. All of us wonder if any of the people we discussed had made it home, or if their names are all etched in a horrible date in history at this point.”
Twenty-five years later, Vicki looks back with pride on the small but important role she and her colleagues played in helping the U.S. through one of its darkest times.
“I’m glad I did it. I still feel it. I wouldn’t have changed anything. I’m glad we had the opportunity to do something for those who needed us.”