ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
The New York Times
October 4, 2011
The federal government’s September 11th Victim Compensation Fund began taking registrations Monday from people who believe they were physically harmed by the terrorist attacks and who are seeking financial compensation.
Registration — by providing basic information like a name, address and email address — is the first step toward filing a claim for financial damages. The fund was reopened by the passage of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, which put $2.8 billion in the fund to compensate people with health problems related to the terrorist attacks.
The next and perhaps trickiest step will be for people who register to prove that they were actually present in the attack areas during the period covered by the fund — Sept. 11, 2001, to May 30, 2002 — and that they suffered physical harm as a direct result of the attacks and the plane crashes at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pa. Psychological harm is not covered by the fund, though people with mental health troubles related to the attacks can seek treatment at government expense if their insurance does not cover it.
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