email385.xml

email385.xml

born-digital

email

unknown

yes

2002-08-19

Hi Everyone -

I've gotten so many message from people (and if I haven't called you back, I will try this weekend - it just takes so long to get home at night), but I wanted to pass along an update of what is going on up here. First of all, everyone in my office is safe. As many of you know, we are across the street from the White House - I can see it from my office. Tuesday was pretty scary. We evacuated when the White House did. I was actually on the phone with my mom when the plane hit the Pentagon. My dad yelled in the background that the plane hit, and I looked out the window and saw tons of smoke. Then people started running through the office saying the Old Executive Office Building and Mall were on fire. They weren't, but there was so much smoke, it was hard to tell. People were running from the White House, and people ran through here saying, "Get out, get out." We dropped everything and left, even leaving our cars. I stuck with two of my friends, and we found one of their dads, who works downtown. After wandering the streets with other bewildered office workers, while Secret Service agents with machine guns directed us, we finally got to the Metro and rode to Maryland to one of their houses. We stayed there until we could figure out where to go, and then took Metro and taxis home. I finally got home at about 6 pm. I could still see the Pentagon burning from my apartment window.

We came back to work on Wednesday (I had to take the bus since my car was still at work). Just about everyone had someone they knew or had a connection with that was missing either in DC or NY. Many of our clients are in Manhattan. One of my friends from Theta was missing in the Pentagon, but thankfully, we heard from her yesterday. Her office was destroyed, but she had been out at a meeting. Clients started reporting in - they would update us on their offices and how many are missing. The head partner at our firm has a nephew from Cantor Fitzgerald, which is missing something like 700 employees, including his nephew. Then we found out that two of the planes may have been meant for the White House. We felt very thankful that we were safe and very sad for the people who died instead.

Yesterday, there was a bomb threat at the Old and New Executive Office Buildings, the White House office buildings directly across the street. They put our building in lockdown, closed the streets, and brought in lots of police. It turned out to be nothing, but was a little scary with the helicopters and all the police. After that, they broadened the perimeter around the White House. Our office is well within the perimeter. All streets and parking garages are closed - had to take the bus again today. The Secret Service has a checkpoint 3 blocks away, and we had to show ID and business cards to get inside the perimeter. It was a little nerve-wracking going through the checkpoint and walking the rest of the way to work with hardly anyone on the streets except the police, knowing we were in the perimeter. But we're probably in the safest place of all. And I was proud of our office - we have big American flags taped to the front of the building and taped to our front doors in our reception area.

I hope all of you are fine and that your friends and loved ones are safe as well. Thanks for your thoughts, and please keep everyone here in your prayers.

- Christy

9/14/01

Update from DC