story1313.xml

story1313.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-20

Hi Friends,

I am fine, and so is everyone that I know. It was an interesting day
here in DC yesterday. We were ordered to leave work around 10am, but
I didn't get to my house about 20 miles away until after 1pm. Traffic
was bumper to bumper, and the trains, buses, and subway system was
shut down. It was really bizarre to see hundreds of people walking to
get out of town. Some of the trains that carry commuters for long
distances into Virginia and Maryland were shut down, so I don't know
how or when they got home.

We could see smoke from the Pentagon and from a bomb that exploded
near the Old Executive Office Building (a block or so from the White
House) from my building. As well, there were fighter jets and
helicopters flying over the city, and emergency and law enforcement
vehicles were everywhere. It was a pretty strange situation, but I
never felt that there was any eminent danger. If it happens it
happens, and at that point there isn't a whole lot you can do about
it. DC was a mess, but nothing compared to what New York City must
have been like. It must seem like a bad dream to those folks.

I got a call last night from my cousin who lives in Miami. She was at
Miami International Airport yesterday morning waiting to catch an
American flight to Los Angeles to visit her sister. She said that for
several hours they were told that the flight will be delayed "30
minutes," "an hour", "two hours", "canceled, but maybe we can get you
on the 1 o'clock flight," until finally they were told to go home,
and that everything was closed. Our folks here at the FAA shut down
the entire air traffic control system for the country, for the first
time ever. When my car-pooler and I drove into the parking garage of
the FAA building at 6:30am this morning, there were several limos
parked there that belong to officials from across the government.
They were meeting to determine when to reopen the airports and the air
traffic control system.

I got another call last night from a friend who has been a flight
attendant for American Airlines for 32 years. She was grounded in
Dallas because of the shutdown of the system. She said that she
didn't know exactly who the flight attendants were that were on the
American Airlines plane that hit the Pentagon, but knew almost all of
their flight attendants based in DC. So, she had friends and
colleagues that were either killed by the terrorists or that died in
the crash.

My carpool partner also said this morning that his daughter, who is a
school teacher, had two students whose parents were on the plane that
hit the Pentagon. So this is a far reaching tragedy.

It is quite in the streets of DC and the FAA building today, and will
probably take a while for things to return to normal.

Take care and please stay in touch.

Your friend,

Gene