I have reprinted the following account several times. Twelve years have passed and time marches on, presenting other concerns. However, we must never forget September 11, 2001.
No American civilian should ever have to experience the events of
9/11 on American soil. And, my experience of that day is in no way
comparable to the heartache of the families of the victims. The
following is just my personal recollection of that day.
As
my train pulled into Grand Central Station that morning, I heard some
buzz from other commuters. But, it was none of my business so I just got
off the train and walked the underground tunnel to the Forty-fifth
Street exit. As I walked up Madison Avenue, I saw a throng of people
standing around a bank looking at a TV. As I tried to see that they were
looking at, somehow I got the message that something happened at the
World Trade Center. I remember looking in that direction, seeing smoke,
and trying to use my phone, and then, trying my Blackberry. No signal. I
proceeded north to my office on 52nd St. When I arrived, I saw that I
had a message from my daughter who worked near the World Trade Center.
However, I could not reach her since I had no phone service.
I
proceeded to work. A short while later, I heard that there was a TV in
Personnel. So, I went to that floor to see what was going on. After a
few minutes, I squeezed into the room. The scene was incredulous. I
decided that for me the best thing was to go back to work. Young people
on my floor were just milling around. We were the IT (computer)
department. They either had IT friends in those World Trade buildings
or, like me, had previously worked there themselves. I tried to work,
but at the back of my mind were all the tens of thousands of commuters
who literally poured out of the ground from the PATH (a train from New
Jersey). What happened to all those people? Many, many times I had
walked through the underground shopping Plaza and the passage ways under
those buildings as a shortcut to save time. Since my commute was 2 ½
hours each way from upstate New York, I was always running to be on time
at work. In November 2000, a co-worker and good friend gave me a job
lead that resulted in my leaving the World Trade Center and moving to
52nd Street. As an aside, I later heard that a very smart female
executive of the Port of Authority ordered the trains diverted to the
mid-town area of New York City, saving many lives. I thought of how I
would take my lunch into one of the glassed-in areas of my building and
look at the Towers. How magnificent they were. Of course, I was just
looking at the lower floors. I thought the design was intriguing.
Later
that morning, I finally heard from my daughter who was with her
co-workers at an apartment in lower Manhattan. One of the workers just
took his whole department to his home. I advised my daughter to stay
right where she was with her co-workers unless they were evacuated.
Then, I was contacted by a great friend from Merrill Lynch inviting me
to stay the night at her place since the City was in "lock-down."
Being
in Computer Security, I decided, since I had no phone, to try sending
emails to get messages to my children. I thank the good Lord for the
“Information Highway.” Being able to contact my family in an event such
as this is why I feel so strongly that there should be no Government
interference with the Internet. I emailed friends in San Diego
requesting that they contact my family. My children thought I still
worked in the World Trade Center. Exactly where I worked was not one of
their concerns. I didn’t know my son’s work e-mail address, but decided
to create the addresses in different ways. Surely, one of the emails
would get through. Not knowing was going to happen next, I wrote to my
son that his sister and I were OK. I gave him the address and phone
number for the apartment where she was staying. Then, I gave him the
phone number of the friend with whom I would be staying. Without being
melodramatic, I thought this might be the last communication we could
possibly have. It brings me to tears when I think of it.
Around
noon, I went to the bank to get money since I couldn’t get home that
night. The sea of people walking, shoulder to shoulder, north out of the
City on both sidewalks of Park Avenue was at least five people deep. It
was an amazing, yet fearful sight.
Around 1pm, my
daughter, accompanied by a co-worker, walked the 30 blocks to be with
me. Her hair was covered in ash. I got her in our “locked-down”
building. When we reached my office, the phone rang. It was my son in
Los Angeles. My daughter, wide-eyed and in shock, told him what
happened….her words just spilling out. I tried to calm her down. Her
only response to me was, “You weren’t there.”
Then, my
daughter told me we just had to get out of the City. She kept pressing.
As far as I knew, we couldn't go anywhere. I decided to leave and walk
to Grand Central to see if any trains were moving. I never in my
lifetime had been prepared for what I saw.
As we walked
the now eerily empty Park Avenue south to the train station, we were
met with men with megaphones ordering us where to go. We walked a
sidewalk cordoned off with safety tape into what seemed like the only
open entrance. Other than the sea of people in the great expanse of the
center of the building, I don’t remember much except that my mind kept
reeling, thinking that something else could happen at any moment. Before
long, we were on a train leaving the City.
That
evening, watching TV, I saw the real events I knew nothing about because
I tried to work that day. I realized that I, being the kind of employee
I was, would have returned to my desk in one of those buildings when
the “All Clear” announcement was given.
My daughter and
I were now safe, but what about those people who died. What about their
families? Even today, my heart goes out to them
I
realize that this is a sharp contrast to my usually light-hearted and
hopefully informative blog. I will always remember my daughter walking
30 blocks to my uptown office, covered in ash from those collapsed
buildings….wide-eyed and in shock, having seen death and destruction not
many American civilians have ever seen. And, as I said in the beginning
of this writing,
no American citizen should ever have to experience the events of 9/11 on American soil and no one should ever forget.
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The photo to the right is of a Snowy Egret who seems to feel that he owns the place. He regularly chases other birds off his turf (so to speak). I believe he was fishing for his brunch this time. Every so often I would spot a silvery fish under the water. I think this Egret did as well.
