Tuesday, September 11, 2001


for those of you who are worried about today's events -- the attack on the world trade center -- i'm ok.

most of you long-time readers know that i work directly across the street from the south tower of the world trade center. my building was evacuated, and so everyone in my office was evacuated unharmed before the tower collapsed. from news photos, it appears as if only a corner of my office building was hit by debris and our office may be fine.

as you know i live very near the promenade, and so was able - as the thick smoke allowed - to see the whole thing. the twin towers have lit up my living room for ever.

i left the house at 8:35 am to go vote in the city's mayoral primary. otherwise i would have been downtown earlier. i left the polling place and went to get on the subway. i was told that my normal n and r trains weren't running due to an emergency. but the subway clerks did not say what happened. so i switched trains and arrived downtown at about 9:20 am, just after the second plane hit the trade center. there were no cops or firemen there yet. i walked down towards the trade center. both towers were burning like candles. burning paper was flying through air -- like in a ticker-tape parade. with the ticker tape on fire. debris and what i thought were people -- human beings -- was cascading off the top of the world trade center.

i approached my building, 22 cortlandt, which is directly across church st. from the south tower. no one was standing in the street. this surprised me as i would have thought a lot of evacuated people would be in the street from the building. at this point i still didn't know exactly what had happened. then i realized no one was in the street because no one had yet been evacuated! they were all still trapped inside!

then the smoke began to thicken and i heard a boom. i looked behind me. there were thousands of people lining broadway half a block behind me. no one made a single sound. everyone's eyes were glued to the towers. i went into the lobby of my building, only to have a guard tell me it had been evacuated at 9:10am. he told me to leave the area immediately because the trade center gas lines could easily explode.

i took this advice and fought my way through the throngs -- burning ticker tape everywhere -- the three blocks or so back to the wall st. station of the 4 and 5 trains. i caught a train right away and returned to court st. in brooklyn. i walked the four blocks home and joined my husband in my living room. since i live very near the promenade, i could see it all right there. i arrived home at about 10:15; we were standing with the workmen who are painting my house at about 10:20 as the first tower collapsed. after that, we could not see anything due to the smoke.

so far this is my report. . .

posted by fortune | 11:22 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments