I work about seven blocks east of the World Trade Center... or where those mighty towers once stood. I flirted with death, not upclose and personal, but we definitely made eye contact. I have never been so scared in my entire life. I never have seen such utter chaos, terror and fear in people's eyes. None of really knowing if we were going to make it out alive...if the world was coming to an violent end.. if the sky was falling.
Words will not do justice to the wash of emotions flowing threw my vains at the moment. Fear, relief, sadness, anger and every other emotion that one can ever think of having.
I was late for work this morning and lucky me... I would have been directly under Tower One when it was hit at 8:42 am. Once I made it into work and walked out of the Broad Street train station, I realized the utter devastation. Thick, black smoke filled the air as paper rained down on us from above, floating through the sky like snowflakes. I ran to my work ... hoping against hope that my cousin, who works on th 40 floor of Tower Two, was not anywhere near the building...thankfully, she was home safe and sound with her kids.
No one knew what to do or where to go. Was it safer to stay inside? Was it safer to make a run for it? But to where? And than the unthinkable happened, Tower 2 collasped...eastward, according to most news reports and in my direction. I was on the 10 floor of the building and felt the sickening rumble and shake as my building absorbed the impact of 110 floors of steel hitting the ground less than a .5 miles away. The lights flickered. Thick smoky air ripped through the canyon of the downtown buildings, right up Park Row, down Wall Street and through Water Street. More sheets of paper rained down. My friend Amy, who has an office with windows facing the Tower's general direction, began to yell.. "I saw it, I saw it..I saw the windows shake..oh my god.." She was sobbing. I ran into her office, comforted her and yelled for everyone to get the hell out ... I grabbed my things and made the mad run down the 10 flights of stairs. But where to go? What to do? There was no way out of Manhattan. We were trapped. All of us had to face facts, we were safer upstairs, away from the ash-like debris floating through the air... but we might every well be next.
A tense couple of hours followed as we tried to figure out what was going on and what to do. And than, the sickening scene repeated itself... Tower One collasped...sending even more debris, smoke and ash into the air... the late morning sun was covered. It turned to night. An unnatural and eerie darkness covered lower Manhattan and now it was chaos... people running for of their lives, a scene right out of those bad Godizlla movies we all watched as kids. I called everyone I could think of...my mother, my brother...telling them I loved them and hoping I would see them again.
After the ash lifted abit, I tore up a spare gym shirt I carried with me in my backpack and gave it to all my workmates to use to cover their mouths and prepared for the long journey into the unknown. With a rag that was once my gym shirt tied around my mouth, I walked into the street. Cars were covered in ash inches deep like Mount St. Helens errupted..people staggering like the walking dead trying to figure out what to do and where to go..people bleeding, just trying to make it home.
I walked home. Across the Manhattan bridge with thousands of other Manhattan refugees, hoping against hope, the worst was over.. I finally made it home... to NorthWestern Queens...about four hours later. Walking across the bridge, I looked back to what was once the beautiful NYC skyline.. and didn't know what to think or how to feel.
When I got home, I hugged my mother and told her that I loved her, played with my dog, and once the gravity of what just happened hit me and the thousands who weren't so lucky and will never be coming home.. I went into the bathroom and threw up several times.
Let's just say this has been the worst week of my life. And it's only Tuesday!
Appreciate what you have, tell the people who mean the most to you just how much they matter, kiss 'em hard... and just love 'em 'til there's no love left in you. Because you may not get that chance tomorrow.
I hope all you Kittens in the WTC and Wall Street Area made it out safe and sound.
My heart goes out to all the families who's loved ones didn't make it home tonight.
-tot
[This message has been edited by tot2525 (edited September 12, 2001).]
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