Exclusive | NYCs youngest 9/11 survivors reveal their post-attack trauma: I was helpless

As a cloud of white smoke barreled toward Alexandra Minaya on Sept.11, 2001, her 10-year-old body shook with fear.“It was terrifying,” Minaya, now 35, told The Post.

“We all ran screaming into the school building.”Minaya remembers the screams of her fellow classmates at P.S.19 — the teachers shrieked, too, she said — as they sprinted inside from the school’s outdoor playground, not yet understanding that just a few blocks away, the Twin Towers were crashing down.She recalls being “covered in white ash,” and how “the air smelled like burning chemicals.” And even though she has never been formally diagnosed with any post-9/11 health conditions, Minaya, now a mom of one living in Brooklyn, remains haunted by the catastrophe 25 years later.“You know, as a kid, you look to the adults for support in times of chaos,” explained Minaya.

“But the adults surrounding me were crying and just as confused as us kids.”“I was so scared something bad had happened to my mom, but had no way to contact her,” Minaya said.“I didn’t have a cell phone and landline phone service was down.

I was helpless.”Minaya is one of the thousands of New York City kids in the eye of the tumult, completely out of the reach of their parents, frantically stumbling around amid the confusion and chaos of what unfolded that morning 25 years ago, as the earth shook beneath their tiny feet, leaving them with indelible, invisible scars.They are not among the 3,000 victims who tragically lost their lives during the event, or the 6,000 who’ve since died due to 9/11-related illnesses like lung cancer.But by witnessing the biggest terrorist attack in the world, these millennials now cope with anxiety, survivors’ guilt and insomnia, even years after the disaster.On 9/11, Diana Bejasa was a senior at the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in Lower Manhattan — mere blocks from the WTC.

Now 42, she says the tragedy still impacts her mental health, as she can still fee...