My nephew lives in Brooklyn, and sent me this email, about today, which is long, but I think vivid and interesting. He said it was okay to post it.
11:45AM in Brooklyn.
I believe that the antennae on top of the world trade center were the main
broadcast point in the city. Only one broadcast TV station is on the air. Out
of my 9 radio presets, two are dead air and three are extremely faint. Cell
phones can't get a connection, and the landline phone doesn't give a dial tone.
The Internet, needless to say, is down.
Watched the towers on fire starting about 9:30 from Metropolitan Ave, where they
were in clear view. At that time could see what seemed to be a hole spanning
5-6 floors on the northeast side of tower 2, the more northern of the two
towers, with smoke billowing but not yet obscuring the stories above, no flames
at that time; in tower 1, the more southern of the two and I believe the lower
tower, more smoke, one flame visible and of course smoke. The smoke slowly grew
and the flames in tower 1 spread. I tried to call Tania, who lives in
downtown Manhattan, on the cell but couldn't get a connection.
After watching a while I walked the dog a few blocks over to the butcher shop to
get some bones. In the butcher shop the two old italian guys who run it had the
tv on full blast to the WTC fire. I learned about the pentagon at that point.
The one of them who doesn't speak any english jabbered urgently at me in
Italian. The other ranted about mickey mouse security allowing the planes to
get through, like the government should somehow control all flight paths. I saw
the explosion and collapse of tower II on the tv and rushed towards Metropolitan
Ave. When I got back to Metropolitan Ave tower 2 was gone.
12:07 now.
Traffic towards Manhattan, westbound, was stalled dead, except for police vans,
ambulances and some private cars breaking through by driving in the eastbound
lane. People were trying to use their cell phones. Tried again to call Tania.
People were clustered on the street watching the remaining tower burn and
watching the hole in the sky, the missing landmark that has always defined a
walk down this street, people stunned, slightly entertained by the spectacle,
not yet knowing the scale of the damage.
The dog was panicky, disturbed by all the deviation from routine. People all
around but nobody giving him attention. Me standing at a random spot on the
street, not walking him, stationary but not sitting. I decided to get him home.
Walking past the barbershop, I pass the lady barber from the Ukraine who really
doesn't give good haircuts. She asked about West 4th street, where her son goes
to school; not far from the WTC but not close enough to get hit if it fell down
(unless it snapped clean at the base and fell straight over towards it). I
didn't know.
On my block, which is a quiet residential block lined with two or three story
homes, the neighbors were standing in the middle of the street, loosely spread,
clumping wierdly into not-their-usual cliques, watching the one remaining tower
burn, mainly speechless.
call from tania, 12:26
on delancey st, (by the williammsburg bridge, about 1 mile from WTC) people are
standing around saying we have to go to war. only like half the payphones are
working. cops on motorcycles with masks. people walking around with dust
covering their bodies. nobody running or screaming but people are crying. no
WTC from her roof. she thinks she saw it fall from the park. you could see
the tops of the towers and then they weren't there anymore. black smoke all
downtown. right at houston, it's clear and sunny, and its amazing. they opened
the traffic lanes to people, covered with masses of people fleeing manhattan
(trying to get over the bridge) fire engines everywhere, zooming by. (I hear
fire trucks in backgroun) they have blocked all the exits from manhattan with
trucks. "I want out like everybody else here. " Everybody's trying to get out
of manhattan.
I went inside. turned on tv. all stations down but one. See live picture of
the remaining tower go down. Rush out to street. Neighbors are flabbergasted.
Again, standing in cliques that aren't their normal. One loudmouth is trying to
say what's going on, tell news, spouts some bullshit, doesn't even know that it
was planes. A mousy blonde lady, pretty, with afamily, who lives down the
block, gives me an urgent look from halfway down the block. 50-ish italian guy
with sock garters rants about how anybody could do this without the cops being
able to stop it. 20 something italian guy, a sensitive but not I think gay guy
who takes good care of his garden, says nothing, blown fucking away. I rant to
these two: "it's just gonna be some more lunatics with some stupid cause. like
that guy in oklahoma, what did he accomplish?!"
There's nothing to say. The WTC towers defined the view from our block, loomed
as soon as you walked out the door, and they're not there anymore.
12:37.
phone rings. tania. her phone at home is back. she's chipper.
tania says one guy was saying his bldg was right across the st from wtc and it
just set on fire. says there's fires in a bunch of bldgs, though probably right
there. if you're below canal st you have to evacuate your bldg. they're
setting up triage right here.
tania says she heard that canada is closing borders to US. I say that I heard
that US is closing borders to canada. she can't believe she got a dial tone on
her phone. she's in shock. there's a fucking giant cloud of smoke right
outside her window. just don't know what to think.
we discuss conspiracy theories. the middle east? the ira? the mafia?
she says some planes are just missing. just missing. maybe the economy will
get a boost. only the wmsbgr bridge is open. 100s of Ks of people are on that
bridge right now. thank god I live on the lower east side instead of the lower
west side. but there's no real mass panic. there's a very orderly progression
across the bridge.
the only decent news I can get is the BBC. I'm in New York and I'm getting the
news from fucking England. |
