email619.xml

email619.xml

born-digital

email

unknown

yes

2002-08-28

Tired of these things yet?

Well, I'm so jacked up right now I need to do a little typing.

At around 10:15 pm tonight, Cathleen and I were in our living room, watching
the ongoing TV coverage when we heard what sounded like shouting coming from
the streets below. I went over to our living room window, which overlooks
Madison Avenue, and I saw a police car pull up into the middle of the
intersection of Madison and 34th Street. Four cops jumped out of the car
and started to frantically direct traffic to the east. Other cops were
screaming at people to run towards the east.

My heart started to pound. One block to the west is the Empire State
Building, and it didn't take long for me to realize that something bad was
afoot. I turned to Cathleen, who had joined me at the window, and said,
"they're directing everyone away from the Empire State Building. Let's get
the hell out of here." Oscar, also sensing trouble, took this opportunity
to scarf a three-inch piece of camembert off of the coffee table.

I grabbed the dogs' carry-bag out of our closet and grabbed my wallet.
Cathleen stuffed the dogs into the bag and we left the apartment. I locked
the door and we headed for the stairs.

When we reached the lobby, we saw Mr. Camacho, our super, buzzing the
apartments in the building. The doorman, Sham, said, "you've heard? There's
a bomb threat in the Empire State Building." People were running past our
doorway.

We hauled ass out onto 35th Street and headed east. As we moved, Cathleen
and I discussed how the Empire State Building had been sealed off for more
than 24 hours and that we had seen bomb-sniffing dogs around the building
earlier today. It didn't seem likely that any threat could be real. It
also didn't seem likely that this rationale would keep us from moving
towards First Avenue.

Cathleen's only thought was that this news was bound to be broadcast
nationally, and that her mother would have a heart attack. Fortunately, she
had grabbed our cell phone and we were able to call and let her know that we
were OK. We asked her to call my mom and we kept moving. By the time we
reached Lexington Avenue, the streets were fairly thick with people making
the exodus away from danger. At 35th and 2nd we encountered a horde of
young women from the Stern School for Women (of Yeshiva University) -- can
you imagine coming to New York for college and dealing with this?

Cathleen and I decided that we might as well just get our car and drive up
to my mom's house in Yorktown for the night. We made more phone calls, and
Cathleen's mom told us to take her brother Sam with us. Sam is in his
second year of college, and he's living at 23rd and Lexington. We made
arrangements to have Sam meet us at 23rd and 2nd Avenue.

On the way to our garage, we passed by the NYU Medical Center/Bellevue
Hospital. It was a scene. Floodlights lit up the outside where you could
see that tents and tables had been erected for triage. The garbage cans on
the surrounding block were overflowing with medical gowns and the like. I
had heard on the news earlier today that Bellevue had treated somewhere
around 53 victims of the WTC attack.

We finally got our car and headed down to 23rd and 2nd. By the time we
hooked up with Sam at around 11:15, Cathleen's mom, my mom and my brother
had all called to let us know that the news was reporting that the police
had cleared the Empire State Building as a threat and they were allowing
traffic to return to the area. We decided to stay in our home tonight, and
so we drove back to our garage and parked our car.

Back at our building we chatted with Mr. Camacho. He not only had to call
the entire building to get people out, but he then had to go assist two
elderly women in the building, one of whom insisted on finishing her
business in the bathroom first, and the other who wanted to put on stockings
before going out in public.

Now the winds have shifted north and the smoke has permeated the entire
area. It has created a minimal haze, but you can definitely smell it, and
we saw many people walking around with masks or clothing covering their
mouths.

Cathleen and I also realize that we need to start doing bomb scare drills.
Of all things, we left the computer disks with her novel on it in the
apartment!

Needless to say, I'm glad it was just a scare. Oddly enough, I was only
scared during the moments when I was looking out at the police in the
intersection, watching people running towards the east. Once Cathleen and I
had decided to get out, we both felt calm.

time for bed.

- Rick

9/12/01

Rick's Take: A Near Debacle on 34th Street