1. As someone who was not in NYC when 9/11 disaster happened, a lot of this information is new things to think about for me. I only knew that the disaster damaged the health of some people and businesses of others due to the 9/11 help ads in the subway. This article made me think about the way these businesses work. I was wondering how come they are losing so much money. It is obvious that the businesses won’t make a profit shortly after the disaster since people won’t be going there to buy things due to lack of train service and other problems, but wouldn’t the stores just close for that time? The only losses I could think of would be losing food if it’s a food business and having to pay rent, but I would think that people have some kind of savings to not go completely bankrupt. I would imagine no one ordered more food to sell shortly after the disaster, so they wouldn’t be losing money there. I am not familiar enough with businesses to realize what exactly was such a source of devastating losses if the business remained closed for maybe a month or so after the disaster. The real issue I see here is the workers who were not able to get to their jobs at factories after the disaster and therefore were not able to get money.

2. I was surprised to hear that lay-offs, though short, are really common in the garment industry and that most women have been laid off in the past and collected unemployment benefits. Unless the garments made are very specific, it is surprising to me that this happens.

3. How come it was more difficult for women to get relief funds? Also, how is it possible that the city did not notice that some areas were hit by the disaster, such as the area south of Canal street? The people who live in NYC must have seen that that area is obviously affected by the disaster and yet the government failed to act on it. I am glad at least that women and children were able to retain their health benefits.