(no subject)
Hello,
Here's my eyewitness account if anyone cares.
Monday the 10th was the first day of our (Natashka's and mine) New York vacation. We were to stay one night in Millenium Hilton, 55 Church street (across the street from WTC) and then move to my friend's appt in SoHo. On Monday evening we bought CityPass (a package with tickets to three museums and two observatories - WTC and Empire State). We decided to go to the WTC first thing Tuesday morning, weather permitting.
I should mention our room was on the 15th floor, facing the Twins. I woke up a few minutes before 9 am of loud noise; incidentally, the first thing I thought of was the attempted bombing of WTC that took place a few years ago. We stumbled up to the window and drew back the curtains to see the top of one tower blackened and smoking, and a torrent of papers and assorted smithereens showering down. I pulled out the camera and started taking pictures. It never entered my mind this could be much more serious then the botched WTC car bomb from before. People were pouring from the exits; police and ambulances quickly pulled in and blocked off the area. Hotel intercom came on, imploring everybody to stay inside to avoid falling debris. Then Natasha yelled: Look, look, there is a man falling. I looked up, but didn't see him. She kept repeating: He was falling, he was jerking, he was flapping his arms. Paper and debris quickly covered the ground below. Then people started throwing themselves off the 80th floor - one, then another, then several almost at once. We must have seen perhaps ten people; they seemed to fall slowly, writhing in the air. I turned away from the window when the second tower erupted in a cloud of fire. I realized it was more serious than I thought; we dressed quickly and ran down the stairs, taking the room key and my wallet.
The street was full of people. Most were trying to call on cell phones. Several women were hysterical. The paramedics were already rolling a cart covered with a bloody sheet. Police tried to move people on; a lot just stood there staring at the burning towers.
We started moving north. People kept calling on the cell phones, there was a long line to every pay phone; people exchanged bits of information they overheard on the radio or saw themselves. I heard somebody mention it was a plane crash, but didn't believe it at first: I kept thinking those were bombs. Several parked cars had the doors open and news stations on full volume: each was surrounded by a crowd. I was listening to one of those when the commentator stopped in midsentence, audibly gasped and yelled: Oh my god, it fell down! I turned around to see a huge cloud of white smoke rising and spreading in the distance.
I tried to call my friend, but nobody was picking up; it turned out later that he was to fly to NY that morning, but got stuck in Boston.
We had no place to stay. We rambled through the streets aimlessly for a while. One of the grocery shops ran an extension cord and put a TV set out on the street. The reception was very poor, but the TV was surrounded by a crowd anyway. We overheard a call for blood donations and headed for the hospital some 20 blocks away. By the time we got there, a line of volunteer donors run around the block. We spent some three hours waiting: first outside, then inside in the chapel (it was a catholic hospital), then upstairs in the doctor's room; eating free sandwiches and listening to the radio. The phlebotomists were overworked and couldn't keep up with the flood of volunteers. It turned out the guy next to us lived downtown and lost both his job and his home. "It's hard to believe the twins are gone," - he said quietly, - "they were so huge, monolithic, they literally blocked out the sun..." He said he would be staying with his friends and invited us along, as well. He kept typing something on his Palm Pilot. I peeked over his shoulder to see: "It is hard to believe the twins are gone. Those monoliths blocked out the sun..."
As of now, we are staying in Manhattan with Benya and Riva, may Allah bless them; without clothing and documents, but with the keys to our hotel (I wonder if it's still standing), waiting for the airports to open.
M.
NOTE: We never recovered any of our stuff from the hotel besides Natasha's wallet with her driver licence. They got the access to the building several months later. The official version was that the windows broke and everything was ruined by the toxic soot, dust, and rain, but we suspect that the hotel was looted.
Here's my eyewitness account if anyone cares.
Monday the 10th was the first day of our (Natashka's and mine) New York vacation. We were to stay one night in Millenium Hilton, 55 Church street (across the street from WTC) and then move to my friend's appt in SoHo. On Monday evening we bought CityPass (a package with tickets to three museums and two observatories - WTC and Empire State). We decided to go to the WTC first thing Tuesday morning, weather permitting.
I should mention our room was on the 15th floor, facing the Twins. I woke up a few minutes before 9 am of loud noise; incidentally, the first thing I thought of was the attempted bombing of WTC that took place a few years ago. We stumbled up to the window and drew back the curtains to see the top of one tower blackened and smoking, and a torrent of papers and assorted smithereens showering down. I pulled out the camera and started taking pictures. It never entered my mind this could be much more serious then the botched WTC car bomb from before. People were pouring from the exits; police and ambulances quickly pulled in and blocked off the area. Hotel intercom came on, imploring everybody to stay inside to avoid falling debris. Then Natasha yelled: Look, look, there is a man falling. I looked up, but didn't see him. She kept repeating: He was falling, he was jerking, he was flapping his arms. Paper and debris quickly covered the ground below. Then people started throwing themselves off the 80th floor - one, then another, then several almost at once. We must have seen perhaps ten people; they seemed to fall slowly, writhing in the air. I turned away from the window when the second tower erupted in a cloud of fire. I realized it was more serious than I thought; we dressed quickly and ran down the stairs, taking the room key and my wallet.
The street was full of people. Most were trying to call on cell phones. Several women were hysterical. The paramedics were already rolling a cart covered with a bloody sheet. Police tried to move people on; a lot just stood there staring at the burning towers.
We started moving north. People kept calling on the cell phones, there was a long line to every pay phone; people exchanged bits of information they overheard on the radio or saw themselves. I heard somebody mention it was a plane crash, but didn't believe it at first: I kept thinking those were bombs. Several parked cars had the doors open and news stations on full volume: each was surrounded by a crowd. I was listening to one of those when the commentator stopped in midsentence, audibly gasped and yelled: Oh my god, it fell down! I turned around to see a huge cloud of white smoke rising and spreading in the distance.
I tried to call my friend, but nobody was picking up; it turned out later that he was to fly to NY that morning, but got stuck in Boston.
We had no place to stay. We rambled through the streets aimlessly for a while. One of the grocery shops ran an extension cord and put a TV set out on the street. The reception was very poor, but the TV was surrounded by a crowd anyway. We overheard a call for blood donations and headed for the hospital some 20 blocks away. By the time we got there, a line of volunteer donors run around the block. We spent some three hours waiting: first outside, then inside in the chapel (it was a catholic hospital), then upstairs in the doctor's room; eating free sandwiches and listening to the radio. The phlebotomists were overworked and couldn't keep up with the flood of volunteers. It turned out the guy next to us lived downtown and lost both his job and his home. "It's hard to believe the twins are gone," - he said quietly, - "they were so huge, monolithic, they literally blocked out the sun..." He said he would be staying with his friends and invited us along, as well. He kept typing something on his Palm Pilot. I peeked over his shoulder to see: "It is hard to believe the twins are gone. Those monoliths blocked out the sun..."
As of now, we are staying in Manhattan with Benya and Riva, may Allah bless them; without clothing and documents, but with the keys to our hotel (I wonder if it's still standing), waiting for the airports to open.
M.
NOTE: We never recovered any of our stuff from the hotel besides Natasha's wallet with her driver licence. They got the access to the building several months later. The official version was that the windows broke and everything was ruined by the toxic soot, dust, and rain, but we suspect that the hotel was looted.