Today, it wasn't rain that fell from the sky...
I live in Manhattan. I used to work at a building 2 blocks from the WTC. Now I work in New Jersey.
At about 852AM I boarded a small passenger ferry at West 38th Street. While waiting for the boat to return from its landing site on the New Jersey side, we had no idea of any problem. WE were just going to work.
We were at sea level with no view of the downtown area 4 miles south. But after we boarded and cleared the formidable pier, we were heading west toward New Jersey.
Immediately we could see the smoke pouring from one of the towers. Its north face, seemed to have a big crater in it very high up. Maybe 75 floors above street level.
Everybody stopped chattering and just looked at the building bellowing smoke. And then as we watched, all of a sudden, a new explosion, and a huge fireball exploded
out one side of the building.
I can't say that I saw the 2nd plane on its approach path because no one was looking out over the river. We were watching the building.
At once we all said, A bombing! Its a bombing of the Trade Center. At once many people got on their cell phones. The financial community is not that big, and
many knew people who worked in the WTC, In fact the NASDAQ itself is there. I worked in the building myself, many years ago, but only for a few months.
The ride across the Hudson River is barely seven minutes, and minutes later I was upstairs in my office building. We face south and the entire panorama of the
Hudson River and the broad expansive sweep of Midtown to downtown was on view. Most people were huddled in front of the TV monitor.
Expressions of disbelief and frustration as again and again we watched the replays. Then, as people watched stunned, many screaming and crying, Oh my God, Oh my
God - the South WTC Tower collapsed before our eyes.
It was kind of surreal - watching this epic disaster on a television screen, then by simply looking out the window, we could see the real event only 3-4 miles away.
We were stunned. Then within the hour, The North Tower plunged earthward. I was reminded of the photos of Mt. St. Helen's, that volcano in Washington State. The cloud
of smoke and soot and dust was staggering.
The day unfolded, and we watched as the fires
continued, we knew only all what was shown on TV.
All day we were watching the commuter boats, the sight-seeing boats, the dinner cruise ships leave Manhattan and disgorge thousands of people on our shore only a few
hundred feet away. The boats carried mostly unharmed people but we later found out that triage centers were set up on the Jersey side of the Hudson so people needing emergency medical services could be treated.
These boats would drop people off, and then return back to Manhattan empty, as no one was allowed in. All approaches to Manhattan, whether by train, bus, boat, tunnel, or bridge were sealed off. Every avenue had to
be wide open so ambulances could bring patients to the city's trauma centers at Bellevue Hospital, St. Vincent's Hospital and others.
We went downstairs, and saw a motorcade of twenty ambulances flying past our building, either bringing hurt people to hospitals or making a convoy to go into Manhattan to help with the carnage.
Eventually, we got on a bus at 500 to head to Hoboken. We had heard that the PATH trains were running to Midtown but not to downtown. And it was true.
I made my way home. And upon arrival home, I learned that a third part of the WTC, a 47 story tall building had also collpsed. I expect that Wall Street and the stock exchanges will remained closed tomorrow. As well as schools.
Thanks to everyone who offered up prayers for the well being of those of us that live or work in New York. My prayers go those who we will not see again. And to so many, many of the bravest of our society, the firemen,
and rescue workers who were lost in today's holocost, I offer my prayers for you.
There's no other term that I can think of -It was a holocost. When steel, and concrete, and glass, and all that make up each and every office in those towers, along with the flames from the thousands of gallons of
combustible aviation fuel in those planes' tanks falls from the sky, how else can you describe it.
Hoping for a better tomorrow for all of us.
This is JustMeMike
[ September 11, 2001: Message edited by: JustMeMike ]