Amid a sea of stars and stripes emblazoned across banners, hats, t-shirts, scarves and painted on bodies, a flag less familiar to many cut its way through a crowd of thousands of mourners at the site of the former World Trade Center towers yesterday.

It was carried proud and high by family members of one of the 2,801 victims of the terrorists attacks a year ago.

Emblazoned with the images of the two Bermudians lost - Rhondelle Tankard and Boyd Gatton - the Island's red flag was carried by Ms Tankard's relatives who travelled to New York to attend the ceremony at Ground Zero.

Her uncle Dwayne Emery and her cousin Trenton Tankard carried the flag throughout the streets sandwiched between parades of victims' families, firefighters and other emergency personnel.

They were among 24 members of Ms Tankard's family who attended the ceremony.

"We're just trying to stick together as a family," Mr. Emery said. "We're all here including her father, her mother her aunts and uncles."

One of the last family members to see Rhondelle alive, Mr. Emery recalled her excitement about her New York secondment from her company Aon Bermuda.

"I took her to the airport," Mr. Emery said. "She was so excited. She started on the Monday and then, Tuesday, the plane struck her tower."

Mr. Emery said the family found it "very emotional" returning to Ground Zero but felt it was important to be on hand. "I thought the ceremony was excellent," he said.

The official gathering at Ground Zero yesterday morning was tightly controlled. Only family members, invited guests and working Press were permitted to pass Police barricades erected several blocks from the site to control for the crowds.

While bagpipe processions from New York's five boroughs began arriving in the early hours of the morning, the ceremony officially started with a moment of silence at 8.46 a.m. - the exact moment the first plane, American Airlines flight 11, hit the North Tower.

"Again today we are nation that mourns," New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said immediately before the sombre silence descended on the city. "Again today we take into our hearts and minds those that perished on this site one year ago."

As the ceremony continued, former Mayor Rudy Guiliani led the reading aloud of the names of the victims.

He was followed by 2,800 other voices including US Senator Hilary Clinton, Robert DeNiro and several representatives from businesses hard hit by the tragedy last year such as Aon and Cantor Fitzgerald.

US President George Bush Jr. visited the site later in the afternoon to lay a wreath for the victims and speak with victims' relatives but Ground Zero was not expected to re-open to the general public until this morning.

The tide of names read out yesterday was paused at moments central to last's year's events: 9.03 a.m. when the second plane hit hit the South tower, 9.59 a.m. when South Tower fell and 10.29 a.m. when the North followed in collapse.

Those times and events are also seared in the minds of two Bermudians living in New York who shared their experiences with The Royal Gazette this week.

Systems analyst Michael Pearman, 29, was working on the 12th floor of a building immediately across the street from the South Tower.

When the first plane struck "it was like a sonic boom and the building shook", he said.

"I ran to the window and looked up.

"The whole South tower was in smoke."

Mr. Pearman said he knew immediately it was a terrorist attack because of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and began to run for his life.

"Lightning strikes twice," he said.

Mr. Pearman left the building and the area while frantically trying to call Bermuda to let his family know he was safe.

"I knew it would be on CNN and everything."

But all the phones were out. Never hesitating, he continued toward his home in Brooklyn.

"On the (Brooklyn) bridge I was really worried," he said.

"There were all these people there but they weren't really moving.

"It was like they were dazed. I thought the bridge might be a target too and when I heard planes flying overhead I thought that was it."

The planes were actually US military aircraft responding to the developing crisis but, not knowing this, Mr. Pearman resolved to jump into the water if he had to.

"I can swim at least, I thought," he said.

As his survival instinct drove him toward his home, fellow Bermudian Warren Fray was jumping off the subway in Manhattan's East Village neighbourhood .

Mr. Fray, 32, heard an announcement that a plane had hit the World Trade Center but did not take it seriously until he peered down Fifth Avenue along with the growingly stunned crowd.

"I honestly thought it was surreal," Mr. Fray said.

"At this point fire had erupted.

"The buildings were burning up."

Mr. Fray ran to his architectural office and got a digital camera to begin recording the events as they occurred.

The images are also frozen in time in his mind.

"I can't even describe to you what you felt when you saw the people up in the building jumping," he said.

"They are hundreds of storeys high and they are getting ready to jump.

"You can imagine what they were feeling.

"They see the first person jump and they think about what to do while their skin is literally burning.

"You knew they were people jumping although they were so far away.

"You could see the movement of the arms and the legs all the way down."

At this point a huge crowd had gathered in Washington Square Park.

As Mr. Fray turned to go back to his office for more discs, the crowd began screaming - the first tower had fallen.

"To this day I can't really comprehend that moment," he said.

Both Mr. Fray and Mr. Pearman say the terrorist attacks have altered forever their attitudes toward their adopted home but neither intends to retreat from the city to the safety of Bermuda in the near future.

Mr. Pearman, who has lived in New York since 1995, said the opportunities the city offers for his career are too great to give up.

"As a foreign national, living and working here, I've been extremely luckly.

"I wanted to make sure I could get as much out of it as I could before I left."

While he is committed to staying longer however, Mr. Pearman said the attacks have altered his timeline on when to return to Bermuda.

"It will be sooner."

Mr. Fray, who originally came to New York in 1992 but spent a number of years in California, is similarly committed to ensuring the tragedy does not stray him from his goal of qualifying as an architect.

"That's all I am focused on right now.

"That will take me at least another year," he said.

"Then I don't know."

Both men continue to feel anxiety a year after the attacks but like the rest of the city, their lives have largely resumed to normal.

When asked how long it took to recover that comfortable level, both men cite Christmas and the closing of the rescue mission at Ground Zero in May as milestones.

"When nothing happened at Christmas, people started to feel more comfortable," Mr. Pearman said.

"People were pretty nice and friendly (after the attacks) for a while, but after Christmas it went back to normal."

Mr. Fray added: "When they stopped clearing the site was very important too.

"I think as long as there was something down there to find, people were holding on to it.

"Once they finished clearing the site, people were like `that's it, let's move on now'."

New York City is moving on.

Many people continued to attend memorials throughout last evening with an Eternal Flame lit by Mayor Bloomberg at 7 p.m. and a free concert in Central Park featuring Billy Joel and Winston Marsalis at 10 p.m. in addition to hundreds of smaller, community gatherings.

But while some took the time to travel to Manhattan in the hopes of getting close to the Ground Zero ceremony, many downtown workers breezed by without notice as they proceeded to their offices.

A year has seemed to have given the city a sense of closure.

And at Ground Zero, two viewing platforms were unveiled to victims' families and media which underlined the desire to remember but look to the future.

The names of the 2,801 victims are listed on plaques on the metal framed and lit platforms along with some of the history of the sites and of the attacks.

"We will never forget the many men, women and children killed on September 11, 2001 or succumb to the hatred that took their lives," it reads.

"To honour their memory and the freedom they cherished a memorial will rise one day beyond this wall."