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so what happened?
Posted by: Brian from NYC Monday September 09, 2002 @ 06:27 PDT
so what happened? people keep asking me? did you feel it? did you see anything? 8:45 - i am home, definitely not normal, my wisdom teeth hurt and i had an 11:00 am appt with the dentist uptown. and after onto nj for a meeting in woodbridge. amy in the bedroom watching the today show and me doing work on the computer also in the bedroom. boom! what the hell! we look at each other and ignore to what most ny'ers is just city noise. sirens soon followed closely and i looked out from the balcony just as the tv started to report that a plane has crashed into the wtc. i grabbed the video camera and went outside expecting this to end soon. i am now running up and down fulton, broadway, and park row with a video camera shooting the fire. flames are smoldering in the highest of floors and i can see people escaping from a burning death and choosing a crushing one 100 floors below. now i start to realize the magnitude of what i am witnessing. all of a sudden boom! the other tower explodes for reasons i can't see. people running with arms in the air like a cheap godzilla movie. i am watching this through the viewfinder. i am filming cops yelling for people to get out of the road. citizens and samaritans do the same. woman standing on the corner of fulton & nassau crying to god and praying for us all. i decided that this is more than i should be doing and i had to get home to amy & peri and see what was going on. i was home by 9:30 and i walked in and just hugged amy and said, "i am not leaving you again today". "th, the baby just went down", amy said. "good", i thought. i was scared. of what i don't know, but i knew there was something very, very wrong. we listened to siren after siren go whizzing by our building (less than 4/10 mile from the carnage) watching the tv gave us some news about the other planes in dc & pennsylvania. friends started calling giving us their perspective from skyscrapers uptown. they saw everything. the first explosion caused people to pay attention for the rest of the day. nobody missed anything. friends from chicago called to make sure we were alive and to tell us they were leaving for the suburbs. hmm, the burrs, what a pleasant thought. 11:00 - then it happened; everything started to shake. rumbling like a nightmare coming from outside. the towers started to collapse and it was not on tv yet due to delay. we watched it on tv. we were shaking. more phone reports from friends. frenzy was building. the windows were closed and blocked by smoke, debris, and soot. the baby was sleeping for about and hour now. phones dead. 2:00 - in the hallway a makeshift meeting was going on. what should we do? what could we do? the phones died. cell phones not working. now people must really be worried. it was one thing to worry about us when they could speak with us. now that the phones were down worry levels escalated. we were fine. the baby woke up. she joined the meeting in the hallway. the baby went to everybody and i think she really lightened the mood. she really is a great kid. we found out that angelo’s is the best place to eat in little italy from a few neighbors. we plan on going there the first chance we have. 5:00 i start to fill the tub up with water. i don't know why, but that is what we do. the baby is now drinking her last bit of formula. cvs or duane reade will be open in the morning when normalcy will return, so i suppose. building seven now collapses, the smoke, soot and rubble start to engulf our building again. the baby is now in the crib. we are lying in bed watching the updates then pow! there goes the electric. time to leave. 6:00 i am holding the dog, amy has the baby in the baby bjorn. we follow a large group of neighbors down the fourteen flights of stairs to the ground. i go outside to talk to a cop to find out how to leave. he told me there was no way i could get my car. he said there was nowhere to walk. he told me i would be arrested if i brought my baby outside due to very dangerous air quality. back to the apartment. fourteen flights up. so far that's 28 flights of stairs, not that i am counting. we put the baby in the crib and i scrounge together a walkman, headphones and some aa batteries. we now lie in bed until 10:00 just talking about anything but the obvious and listen to 1010 wins. the only sounds are the sounds of sirens and dump trucks with their empty payloads bouncing around and creating frightening noise. shabbos candles light the room. we both sleep for no more than ½ hour at a clip and keep listening to the radio throughout the night. eventually, somehow the morning comes. 6:00 am - the baby wakes and amy tries to put some food together for her. i go back down the stairs (that makes it 36 flights) to find a cop or con ed worker to fill me in as to when i could get my car. i also needed to use the bathroom. we had no water. in the hospital they gave me all the formula i needed and then some more. it was quiet and almost empty in the hospital. i made. i walked around the neighborhood looking for someone who looked official. it was early silent. i spoke to a few cops who said they could not help me because they were correction officers from south jersey. they knew nothing. i saw a few nypd who told me there was absolutely positively no way i was going to drive out of the area. we had to walk. con ed officials told me that power should be on soon, within the hour maybe. i thought he was just trying to get rid of me. back to the stairs. up the stairs. (56 flights total, so far). i went up and amy was making a bottle from some powder she found. i spent a few minutes catching my breath and then packed up some stuff. 7:30 the power came on. we high five and high tailed out there! now you have to vision this because on some level it is actually funny. i am wearing a ratty t- shirt, basketball shorts and sneakers. amy is wearing sweats and a t-shirt, baby is dressed and in baby bjorn being carried by amy. i am pushing the stroller and have my computer and a travel bag in it. oh yeah, amy has the dog on the leash. and we take off. the dog has now gone to the bathroom seventeen times and we have traveled 2 blocks. she went to the bathroom right in front of two cops who laughed at our feeble attempt to look for something to clean it up with. i asked him if pooper-scooper laws were being enforced due to the situation and he just laughed and told us to go on our way. we walk past soldiers eating and being fed from the back of army vehicles. they all have automatic weapons and we have to be some sight for them. eventually the dog ended up in the stroller and just sat up and enjoyed the ride. we walked from fulton to houston street. 1st ave. & 1st st. 8:45 it is not that it is a far walk but it is just a pain in the ass with the baby, the dog, a laptop, and a beach bag bigger than my desk. up to this point we have passed over 1000 cops. none of which could give us a ride. 500 us army soldiers. none of which could give us a ride. the sun was getting hot and we were sharing a gatorade i bought from a somber looking middle eastern. i did not think of him as the enemy. i felt like he was sorry. amy and i struck up conversation with some nypd for the 30th time that morning. it was scary how little they knew about what was going on. it was as if they were told "just stand here!” some told us the trains were not running, some said they did not know and some said everything was fine. just then a woman driving a nissan altima, a woman named luba we later learned, was lucky enough to be stopped at a light right in front of us. "go ask her!!" amy said. i slowly crept up to her window and asked her for a ride. before she could ask "where to?" she grabbed the dog and threw her in the back seat. she folded up the stroller in record time and placed it in her trunk. i asked her if she had a problem with dogs or babies. she said she was a dog groomer and single mom. that explained her proficiency with our stroller. she said she was going to queens then to westchester if we wanted to bypass grand central. we decided to take our chance with the trains. 9:23 - on a metro north train to tarrytown. safe at last. we are very lucky. to us it was the worst. we are alive and in love and healthy. the baby has no idea and never cried a tear. we always stayed calm and the baby always stayed smiley. now we can start to recover. it is only two days later but the sounds of sirens, sight of flashing lights and thoughts of what we went through are still very strong in our minds. i just heard that the police want any amateur video. as soon as i get into my apartment i am going to give it to them.