story2460.xml

story2460.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was in my Park Ave&55th St cubicle when I overheard co-workers talking about a plane hitting the WTC. Such unbelievable news brought back memories of an afternoon in high school when a classmate and known prankster ran around telling anyone who would listen that President Reagan had been shot, but it was much easier to confirm the whispers this time, with WWW-based news sources a keyboard away and a big television in the company cafe next to our office.

After some time, I walked into the cafe to see what was happening and eventually found a seat from which to watch the TV. The producers for the channel that was on (CBS-2, if I recall correctly) were regularly switching between live shots of the Tower area and videotape of the plane impacts and of the first tower's collapse -- when the 2nd tower collapsed, I (and many others) initially thought it was a tape replay of the 1st collapse...and then the awful shock sunk in that no, we had just witnessed the other tower's collapse live, with all the terrible effects that implied for the people in the tower and surrounding area. I went back to my desk, but I couldn't go back to work, and I knew it wouldn't be a good idea to eat anything at that time, either, as I was totally nauseated.

Around midday, I was back in the cafe when the mother of a co-worker and friend (I grew up knowing her and her family) walked in. She had just walked all the way up from the downtown Courts area -- quite an achievement for a short-legged, middle-aged, portly woman who didn't walk much during a given workday -- and she was somewhat covered in ash, but she was happy to be alive.

After the initial attack, I was able to call my New Jersey home and let my wife know that I was fine. Between various calls and e-mails, I ascertained that every family member and close friend was OK (including my brother-in-law, whose insurance-industry firm had moved from 7 WTC to New Jersey a few months before, against his and many co-workers' wishes -- he was certainly glad they had moved, but he was torn up watching his old building in peril of collapse and wondering what had happened to people he knew), but one person couldn't be located: a nephew of the above-mentioned woman, who was a member of the Hatzolah volunteer-ambulance service and had possibly rushed to the scene, together with so many other EMTs and related official and voluntary personnel, ASAP after the initial impact. It wasn't until the next day that I found out he was OK (he *had* been down there). Thankfully, no one in my community was killed that day, but many (especially those who took PATH trains into lower Manhattan) had stories to tell, and one later sponsored a s'udas ho-da'ah (Hebrew for "communal meal expressing gratitude") in gratitude to God for allowing him to escape his WTC office before the 2nd plane hit.

I did a lot of work the next few days trying to get the word out re some missing people in nearby communities, as well as passing their Jewish names out so that we could all pray for their welfare, but it eventually became blatantly apparent that none had escaped the carnage. May they and all who were murdered be strong Heavenly advocates for those of us remaining in this world, such that we speedily see the elimination of all our enemies, including all who were involved with or celebrated the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.