email41.xml
Title
email41.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
email
Date Entered
2002-03-05
September 11 Email: Body
Yesterday I left my Alexandria, VA condo and took the bus to the Pentagon metro stop as usual. It was a brand new bus driver and a trainer was with him giving instructions and encouragement as he went through the unfamiliar route and the crowded bus terminal at the Pentagon - busiest bus terminal and Metro stop in the area. Everyone said an extra thanks or word of encouragement to the driver and his trainer as they joked together and wished us all a great day.
At 8:35, our biggest problem was that our boss called from the downstairs shuttle area, thinking she'd missed the shuttle from NASA Headquarters (about 2 blocks from the nation's capitol) to NASA Goddard out in Maryland. We were afraid one of us would have to drop everything and drive her. She called from her cell phone at 8:40 and said she hadn't missed it after all. Mayra (my office mate) and I said "Thank God!" and went back to work.
Minutes later our secretary, Doreen, screamed after she'd answered the phone. She shouted that a plane had flown into one of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York. We dropped everything and ran to turn on the conference room TV, and spend the next few minutes running back and forth between the conference room TV and the phones, as we tried to call
relatives and still tried to do some semblance of work. I was the only one sitting in the conference room watching when the second plane flew by and hit the south tower. It took several seconds to realize what I had just seen - I can't say that I still believe it.
Our boss, called in from the road and I had to try to tell her what I'd just seen. She wanted to be told that they were going to be able to rescue people with helicopters from the roof, get the fire under control, etc. It was hard to describe the magnitude of what was happening while she couldn't see it. Nobody wanted to believe it.
Mayra went off to a meeting with a colleague and Doreen said she didn't feel safe and started to make preparations to go home. I spoke with John and we were shocked but not worried. I went back to watch the TV. A few moments later, the screen split and they started showing scenes from DC. At first they thought something was happening near the White House - smoke from a lot near the Old Executive Building. But then they switched to the Pentagon and told us another plane had crashed into the building, or possibly just beyond it into the heliopad.
We started hearing a number of other rumors, most of which later turned out to be false. But at the time, we were told that another plane had been seen coming toward the city that shouldn't be there, that a bomb had gone off at the State Department, that another suicide bomber had blown himself up on 15th street, etc. There was so much confusion, no one knew what to do.
I wanted to wait for Mayra, not only to make sure she was safe but as my only means of transport out of the city. Before she left, Doreen had gotten a call from someone who told her that the Metro had shut down. It seemed likely. I live about 10 miles south west of the city in Alexandria. But, the order came to evacuate the building and I had to get out. In the following street confusion, I knew I had no chance of connecting with Mayra, so I started walking. I got most of the way to Memorial Bridge between the Washington Mall and Arlington, the only bridge across the Potomac that I was sure had sidewalks, but was told that it was closed to all traffic so as not to pose a target for further terrorist attacks. Police were also chasing people off the Mall for the same reason. But I did hear that the Metro was operating, except for a few stretches and, of course, the Pentagon and Airport stations. So, I got on and managed to get near enough to home to walk the rest of the way.
I saw the first tower of the World Trade Center collapse before I left work. On the way home, I sat on the metro next to an Army officer who had been at the Pentagon when the plane struck. He was in a briefing near, but not immediately at, where it struck. He said first all military personnel who
were nearby had been organized into squads to help evacuate the area and any of the injured they could reach. They when they had done all they could, he and most of the others who weren't required for the emergency response were sent home. He said the building shook like it was a terrible bomb, and then the room immediately filled with smoke. When I finally got home, I heard on the radio that the second tower had collapsed and that the damage at the Pentagon was worse than they had originally thought. It split the building open.
I spent the afternoon listening to the radio and cleaning compulsively, and calling others to make sure everyone had gotten home safely. I think the cleaning was because I HAD to do something to make order out of chaos, if only in the little environment I control in my condo.
This morning I carried my breakfast out onto the patio at the condo to watch the beginnings of the sunrise. I had to reassure myself that it was really going to rise. It seemed just as likely that it never would again. I started early and walked to the Van Dorn station, since there is no more Pentagon station stop to take the bus to. The buses seemed to be running, but I don't know where they were going.
The metro was eerily quiet. Yesterday we had been jammed in to capacity as the city was evacuated, but people were talking to each other, even laughing, trying desperately to connect and reassure. Today everyone looked sad and introspective, even some tears. (I didn't cry myself until this morning at
breakfast, yesterday there was just a great emptiness.) But what was unusual besides the quiet was the number of people holding hands or with arms together. In the seat in front of me a man and woman sat close with arms entwined. When she got up to get off at Crystal City, the man rose too, carrying her bag, and handed it to her with a kiss as she stepped out of
the car. Then he sat back down and rode with me to L'Enfant Plaza. I know how they felt. I wanted John - just as he had wanted me to drive overnight back to our home in southern Virginia. But the President has said that it's important to the nation for the the Federal government to be open for business as usual today. Since so many will have to stay away for the sake of their children, who are all out of school, I thought it was important that I be here. I wanted my mother too, but am glad she never lived to see this day.
My metro train went through the closed Pentagon stop and the closed airport stop. The skies are strangely quiet. When you live as close to a major airport as I do, it's the absence of continual air traffic that makes you very uneasy. And the usually jammed Pentagon stop was both quiet and dark. I only remembered at the last moment that I couldn't change trains there, as I ordinarily would if I'd taken the metro from Van Dorn. It's those little changes in the daily routine that drive home for me how much changed for the world yesterday. Nothing can be taken for granted anymore.
Ann
At 8:35, our biggest problem was that our boss called from the downstairs shuttle area, thinking she'd missed the shuttle from NASA Headquarters (about 2 blocks from the nation's capitol) to NASA Goddard out in Maryland. We were afraid one of us would have to drop everything and drive her. She called from her cell phone at 8:40 and said she hadn't missed it after all. Mayra (my office mate) and I said "Thank God!" and went back to work.
Minutes later our secretary, Doreen, screamed after she'd answered the phone. She shouted that a plane had flown into one of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York. We dropped everything and ran to turn on the conference room TV, and spend the next few minutes running back and forth between the conference room TV and the phones, as we tried to call
relatives and still tried to do some semblance of work. I was the only one sitting in the conference room watching when the second plane flew by and hit the south tower. It took several seconds to realize what I had just seen - I can't say that I still believe it.
Our boss, called in from the road and I had to try to tell her what I'd just seen. She wanted to be told that they were going to be able to rescue people with helicopters from the roof, get the fire under control, etc. It was hard to describe the magnitude of what was happening while she couldn't see it. Nobody wanted to believe it.
Mayra went off to a meeting with a colleague and Doreen said she didn't feel safe and started to make preparations to go home. I spoke with John and we were shocked but not worried. I went back to watch the TV. A few moments later, the screen split and they started showing scenes from DC. At first they thought something was happening near the White House - smoke from a lot near the Old Executive Building. But then they switched to the Pentagon and told us another plane had crashed into the building, or possibly just beyond it into the heliopad.
We started hearing a number of other rumors, most of which later turned out to be false. But at the time, we were told that another plane had been seen coming toward the city that shouldn't be there, that a bomb had gone off at the State Department, that another suicide bomber had blown himself up on 15th street, etc. There was so much confusion, no one knew what to do.
I wanted to wait for Mayra, not only to make sure she was safe but as my only means of transport out of the city. Before she left, Doreen had gotten a call from someone who told her that the Metro had shut down. It seemed likely. I live about 10 miles south west of the city in Alexandria. But, the order came to evacuate the building and I had to get out. In the following street confusion, I knew I had no chance of connecting with Mayra, so I started walking. I got most of the way to Memorial Bridge between the Washington Mall and Arlington, the only bridge across the Potomac that I was sure had sidewalks, but was told that it was closed to all traffic so as not to pose a target for further terrorist attacks. Police were also chasing people off the Mall for the same reason. But I did hear that the Metro was operating, except for a few stretches and, of course, the Pentagon and Airport stations. So, I got on and managed to get near enough to home to walk the rest of the way.
I saw the first tower of the World Trade Center collapse before I left work. On the way home, I sat on the metro next to an Army officer who had been at the Pentagon when the plane struck. He was in a briefing near, but not immediately at, where it struck. He said first all military personnel who
were nearby had been organized into squads to help evacuate the area and any of the injured they could reach. They when they had done all they could, he and most of the others who weren't required for the emergency response were sent home. He said the building shook like it was a terrible bomb, and then the room immediately filled with smoke. When I finally got home, I heard on the radio that the second tower had collapsed and that the damage at the Pentagon was worse than they had originally thought. It split the building open.
I spent the afternoon listening to the radio and cleaning compulsively, and calling others to make sure everyone had gotten home safely. I think the cleaning was because I HAD to do something to make order out of chaos, if only in the little environment I control in my condo.
This morning I carried my breakfast out onto the patio at the condo to watch the beginnings of the sunrise. I had to reassure myself that it was really going to rise. It seemed just as likely that it never would again. I started early and walked to the Van Dorn station, since there is no more Pentagon station stop to take the bus to. The buses seemed to be running, but I don't know where they were going.
The metro was eerily quiet. Yesterday we had been jammed in to capacity as the city was evacuated, but people were talking to each other, even laughing, trying desperately to connect and reassure. Today everyone looked sad and introspective, even some tears. (I didn't cry myself until this morning at
breakfast, yesterday there was just a great emptiness.) But what was unusual besides the quiet was the number of people holding hands or with arms together. In the seat in front of me a man and woman sat close with arms entwined. When she got up to get off at Crystal City, the man rose too, carrying her bag, and handed it to her with a kiss as she stepped out of
the car. Then he sat back down and rode with me to L'Enfant Plaza. I know how they felt. I wanted John - just as he had wanted me to drive overnight back to our home in southern Virginia. But the President has said that it's important to the nation for the the Federal government to be open for business as usual today. Since so many will have to stay away for the sake of their children, who are all out of school, I thought it was important that I be here. I wanted my mother too, but am glad she never lived to see this day.
My metro train went through the closed Pentagon stop and the closed airport stop. The skies are strangely quiet. When you live as close to a major airport as I do, it's the absence of continual air traffic that makes you very uneasy. And the usually jammed Pentagon stop was both quiet and dark. I only remembered at the last moment that I couldn't change trains there, as I ordinarily would if I'd taken the metro from Van Dorn. It's those little changes in the daily routine that drive home for me how much changed for the world yesterday. Nothing can be taken for granted anymore.
Ann
September 11 Email: Date
08:49 AM, 9/12/2001
September 11 Email: Subject
today in DC
Collection
Citation
“email41.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed July 8, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/38064.