story49.xml

story49.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-02-08

I was heading to work from the 42nd Street subway station at The Main Library in NYC. I waited for the bus for awhile and than decided to walk down 5th Ave to 34th Street even though I would be a little late for work at 9am. It was a beautiful day - might as well walk, even though it would make me a little late. I was on the west side of the street and noted that there wasn't a cloud in the sky except for a huge billowing cloud of dark smoke from lower Manhattan. I reasoned that the only building high enough to cause that kind of smoke would be the World Trade Center and hope that wasn't the case - a fire in that building would be a tragedy. I crossed over to the east side of the street and the buildings came into view, it was an incredible sight. I started to notice groups of people stopped on the sidewalk, talking on their phones and murmurs of a something out of the ordinary. As I started to cross 37th street, a huge fireball exploded from the south tower and the man next to me cried out "jesus, oh lord, jesus" - I was very confused. How could the fire in the one building cause an explosion in the 2nd building (I was north of the buildings so didn't see the 2nd plane hit from the south)? I began to hear people talking about terrorism and dismissed that as paranoid rambling. I did ask someone with a phone what had happened and they said a plane had flown into the WTC. I reasoned that a pilot had a heart attack or it was all just a freak accident. I got to work and immediately tried to find a radio or TV - the people in my office were unconcerned and oblivious. I didn't know what to do - part of me wanted to leave the building and head toward the disaster (we were fire watchers in my small home town in Wisconsin - barns burning at night were especially exciting) but decided to stay put as my boss wasn't in yet. I headed for the roof of our building but the engineers wouldn't let me out there - security had closed the roof as we are directly under the Empire State Building. I went back to my office, tried for news on the web but found nothing, so decided to call my sister in Wisconsin - she watches Katie Couric and probably knew what was happening. She told me that 2 planes had flown into the Twin Towers and they said it was terrorism. I vehemently denied that that was possible, she assured me that it was - what else could be the cause of 2 planes flying into the buildings. My head was reeling and I had this unreal feeling. I went to CUNY TV to find a television but they wouldn't let me in - everyone looked like they couldn't decide if they should just ignore this thing or panic. As I walked down the hall, Ray Ring told me the another plane had crashed into the Pentagon - finally I had to admit that that it was terrorism. Whole new world - what kind of crazy bastards would do such a thing? I went outside and now there were crowds of people standing watching the buildings burn - car horns were blaring from everywhere but the number of cars on the streets were becoming less and less. I heard that the bridges and tunnels were closed, no one could get off or on the island and all air traffic had been ordered grounded. Someone told me that people were jumping out of the buildings and I felt sick - that is when the horror of the situation actually hit me. I didn't stay to watch the towers burn or fall - I went back to my office and called my sister-in-law and sister in Wisconsin so they knew I was alive and ok. I was scared but decided to not panic, to make sure everyone in the office was ok and to wait for my boss to arrive. One of the staff's husband and son were on a flight back to the US from India that day. Their flight was grounded in Canada and they did not arrive back in the US for another 5 days. They finally got some televisions wired, the images were amazing,and we were told to stay in at the Graduate Center. People were worried that the Empire State building would be hit next. I didn't know what was going to happen next, thought maybe it would be really bad and decided to go to the bank and draw out a large sum of money. Masses of people were walking up Fifth Avenue from lower Manhattan, heading uptown or to the 59th street bridge to Queens. I saw a number of young men covered in white dust - I asked them if they were ok and they said they had escaped and it was an incredible sight to have witnessed. I also bought alot of candy for everyone back at work. I am not a big candy eater but I guess it felt like a comforting gesture. I wasn't sure what to do or where to go. Around 1:30, I realized that we had not heard from David Levine, a member of our office who lives below Canal Street on Wooster Street. Steve, my boss said he thought that David's son was in day care at the WTC. I called David and was able to reach him, he said that everyone was safe but he had to force his way into the building before it collapsed because he thought Griffin and his mates were still in there. They had immediately been evacuated but he had no way of knowing that. I decided to stay at work until the bridges were openned but didn't want to be alone so I emailed a friend who lives at 84th Street on the east side of Manhattan - just across the east river from my home in Long Island City. I wrote an email to my friends and family with a description of the day's events, the staff made their way home to Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. I left work around 4pm, there were no cars on the street and it was incredibly quiet. The smoke was blowing south west so it was surreal. I stood at the main library for a while and watched people - I remember in particular a very old man walking very slowly up Fifth Avenue aided by a younger man. I can't really describe the sense of the place. I heard a plane fly over and everyone looked up with fear. I made it to my friends house, we watched the television coverage. The next morning I made it home to my cat and watched more television. I was thankful that the coverage was sincere - everyone was so honest. It wasn't about selling anything. I stopped watching TV after several days because the tone changed and it didn't seem real or honest anymore.