email151.xml

email151.xml

born-digital

email

unknown

yes

2002-04-12

Sorry- left out the subject header the first time I sent this.

> 9/12/01 - I wrote this during the afternoon yesterday but was not able
> to send it because the phone lines are screwed up and I can't connect to
> the internet. Sorry if the formatting is off - I'm sending this from work
> from a different email program. I made it in at 3PM today, although the
> office is pretty empty. The wind has changed, and now there is a choking
> acrid smoke all over my area downtown, as well as up here in midtown on
> the 22nd floor.
> -------------------------------------
>
> 9/11/01 - Just wanted to let everyone know we're OK after this
> incomprehensible devastation that has been wrought.
>
> As you know, we live about a mile from the World Trade Center. At 8:45
> this
> morning I was getting ready to go out, first to vote in today's mayoral
> primary election (which has now been called off) and then to work in
> midtown.
>
> I heard a plane pass over our apartment building, very low and loud -- I
> remember thinking it sounded wrong -- then 10 seconds later I heard a
> BOOM. You know the rest. I saw the second crash live on TV. From the
> tapes, you can see that both planes essentially went right *through* the
> buildings.
>
> Standing out in Washington Square Park, people were in a daze, some
> crying. You could see the flames flaring up from the WTC and the huge
> billow of smoke blowing east. It's still billowing now (6:45 PM).
>
> I went back to the park after hearing that the south tower (which was
> actually the
> second one to be hit) had actually collapsed. It was so surreal to see
> that only
> one tower was still standing. People going through unimaginable hell.
> Then we
> saw the second collapse with our own eyes -- it was unbelievable.
> There is really nothing left of the buildings at all, all the way to the
> ground. The heat
> must have buckled the buildings' steel columns, and those 40-50 story
> segments
> crushed the rest.
>
> After the first collapse but before the second, one of the local crazy
> drunk guys
> in the park was standing on a pedestal next to the fountain screaming
> "Judgment!
> Judgment!". Everyone else was yelling "Shut up!" and "Fuck you!".
>
> Needless to say, I didn't go to work. There was a zombie-like march
> of thousands of people, many covered with dust,
> headed north. Helicopters and F-14's occasionally circled above - I hear
> one now.
>
> The fire must still be going strong judging from the smoke and the sirens.
> The
> devastation is just incomprehensible, as anyone who has seen the huge size
> of the
> towers in person knows.
>
> Walking around near Houston Street around 3:00, there was an eerie silence
> (lots
> of people around but hardly any cars). I heard, of all things, a seagull
> (unusual in
> this neighborhood -- it was perched on the cross at the top of St.
> Anthony's Church.
> It must have been escaping the smoke in the harbor area.
>
> Apparently WTC building no. 7 has also collapsed (dwarfed by #1 and 2 but
> still
> 47 stories -- much bigger than the one in Oklahoma City). At least it had
> probably
> been fully evacuated.
>
> My knees started to shake when I saw that second crash which confirmed
> what
> I already expected -- it was an intentional act. Then the news about the
> Pentagon
> and the other explosions and crashes. But when first one and then the
> other twin tower
> collapsed and were totally obliterated, I just could not believe what I
> was seeing. I
> almost got physically sick. Everyone left the park after that - it was
> just too much and
> there was nothing left to see.
>
> What an outrage.
>
> Seth
>
>

Wed, 12 Sep 2001 16:23:10 -0400

We're still here