Sept. 12, 2001 – Gov. Charles W. Turnbull proclaimed a period of mourning through Sunday in the Virgin Islands to show respect for those who lost their lives in the mainland terrorist attacks Tuesday.
"It is the sense of the people of the United States Virgin Islands that the organizations responsible for these senseless acts will be captured and brought to justice," he said in his proclamation, issued Wednesday afternoon.
The governor ordered the flags of the United States and the territory to continue to be flown at half-staff until sunset Sunday, consistent with an earlier proclamation issued by President George W. Bush.
Government House also announced Wednesday that Turnbull had sent letters extending the condolences of the people of the Virgin Islands to President Bush, New York Gov. George Pataki, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Washington, D.C., Mayor Anthony Williams. His references were to the attacks carried out by hijacked commercial airliners that crashed into the World Trade Center towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, and to the hijacking of a fourth plane that crashed in rural western Pennsylvania.
In all five letters, the governor referred to Tuesday's events as a "national catastrophe of unparalleled dimension since the bombing of Pearl Harbor 60 years ago" and conveyed the territory's "outrage and absolute repugnance" at the terrorist attacks against innocent people.
