Kcreary posted this as a comment to Monday's 9/11 post.
Where was I? Standing there, looking up at a sight I just couldn't comprehend. Just minutes after the second tower was hit.
I had just exited the subway at the Brooklyn Bridge stop because the train would bypass the rest of the Manhattan stops due to "a police action at Fulton St." When the train doors opoened there was mass hysteria. People screaming - running into the subway station as I was exiting, saying "Don't go up there." But there was no where else to go. There was even more pandemonium on the street level.
I joined a large crowd just standing and staring. The first image was of Tower 1 with thick black smoke and bright orange flames against a crystal blue sky. There was also so much paper in the air it was almost like a ticker tape parade. I stood there for what seemed like a long time, but was in reality only a few minutes before the enormity of what I was seeing settled in.
Since my cell phone would not connect, I decided to go to my office on Maiden Lane - 2 blocks from Tower 2 - to make calls and figure out what to do next. As I walked along Broadway the images of the towers became more surreal. Big, gaping black holes, vicious flames, and dense black smoke. And people. People visible at the upper floors. I remember thinking it won't be too long before the tops of those buildings fall due to the fire. How would those people get out in time? Would I be far enough away if it fell to this side? Good lord! People are hanging outside the building!
There seems to be little official direction on the streets. Streets are blocked with fire and police vehicles, but there is no one to direct anyone away, so I made it to my office eventually. There, a handful of the normal complement of colleagues is trying to figure out what to do. Ouside phone lines do not work. However, our internal phone network does work and we are able to make and receive calls to other sites. The internal network is also working fine and we can Instant Message and access web sites.
My wife (who works for the same company) was in China so I contacted her assistant to let her know I was fine and to please ask if she would contact my parents to pick up my daughter from school since I didn't think I would be able to get there in time. I had no clue how long it would be before the trains started running again!
There was very little information available to help us decide what to do. Scattered reports of mandatory evacuations were filtering in, but no information on how to evacuate ever materialized. We could only stay and watch the activity outside, the hundreds of people in the streets below, dozens of emergency and fire vehicles, and of course, visible through the buildings the burning Tower 2.
Looking back to the time line, it all happend so fast! However, even thinking back now to that time, it seemed to go on forever. It was just about 40 minutes or so that I was coming out of the subway till the time when we were standing looking out the window at 2 World Trade Center. Suddenly, ever so slowly, the top of the building started to turn. I thought that, as I earlier expected, it would lean and fall to the ground. Never did I imagine what would happen next.
The whole tower just started to sink. And as it sank, a huge black/grey cloud engulfed the building. The sound wes just totally unnerving. It was unlike anything I've ever heard (or felt) before or since. A few seconds later that black cloud was racing through the street - headed right at us! We ran from the window into the center of the building amid screams of horror - not knowing if the tower was coming this way or if the windows would be shattered by debris.
Luckily, nothing more devastaing than dust was in the cloud by the time it reached our building. (To this day I am amazed that so little of those towers remained behind and how much of them were turned to dust.) The windows held, but it was blacker than night on the outside. Eventually the dust began filtering into every opening in the building. It wasn't difficult to breath, but the smell was quite disturbing.
We began getting reports that the tower had collapsed and that the Mayor had ordered everyone south of Canal St. to evacuate. I remember at the time wishing the Mayor would come tell us just how to do that. Ther was no way I was going to go out in THAT!
Most of us decided that we would just wait until things cleard a bit before venturing out. A few, however, decided to heed the Mayor's order to leave and try to get to the Brooklyn Bridge to make their way home from there. Thankfully, they all eventually did make it home because 30 minutes or so later we heard and felt the north tower collapse.
Eventually, the dust cleared enough to be able to see out the windows again. What we saw was an unholy sight. It was a totally black and white and grey world, devoid of color. It was as if a massive snow storm had dumped inches of snow in a matter of seconds. Two blocks away, where there were once fire trucks, was a massive pile of rubble. And people. Alive, but indistiguishable from the surrounding grey background they were so covered in dust and ash.
After moving down to the second floor of the building (the upper floors were getting uninhabitable) we were given a warning that there might be fires that would be uncontrollable if the gas lines were involved. That made our decision to leave a lot easier!
My sales partner and I made our way out using paper towels to cover our noses and mouths until we found an anbulance crew who gave us a couple of paper masks to use. We trudged through the dust and made our way uptown while fighter jets flew overhead and National Guard troops took control of the streets. Along the way to Grand Central Terminal we stopped in a great bar on Park Avenue and tipped quite a few Jack Daniels.
The shoes I wore that day are still where I left them the next day. Still covered with the dust from the trek uptown.
* * * * * * * * *
Labels: commentary
