DAY ONE:Subject: Answers to "Are your ok?" queries
No, you don't want to be here. It is hell.
Over the last few days I've sent friends my instant takes on NY, because I was deluged with "Are you OK?" Emails. So, FYI, here they are, in order.
Laurie
Sept. 11
First of all, I am ok, and so are the folks who were visitng from out of town for the big birthday bash. Everybody is fine.
Which is not to say it hasn't been traumatic.
This morning, as I was hurredly getting things together to rush to the airport for my day trip to Detroit, Jill Hannum (who is visitng from Mendocino) said, "did you just hear that blast?"
Yes, we could see, hear and feel it in my neighborhood, as my home is directly across the river from the WTC. I grabbed my camera and went up to the roof, then raced over to the Brooklyn Bridge where several thousand people, many of them completely covered in ash and soot, were running and walking, some in absolute shock, from Manhattan. I interviewd and photographed dozens, and got photos of the moment the first and second towers collapsed. I crossed the bridge to the Manhattan side, and then interviewed more people.
Everybody on the Bridge seemed to have made a new best friend or two, and I saw people of all races, ages and languages helping one another. I met a white lady from Chicago who had bonded with a young African American woman from Bed-Sty, and an Indian immigrant from Queens who befirended a WASP, well-dressed businessman. Contrary to many terrorism wargames scenarios I have seen and participated in, NY'ers have NOT behaved like assholes, nor have the paniced. By in large, everyone has reached out to help others, and the mood of the city is one of quiet emotional trauma, and the beginnings of genuine Gotham anger. The anger is directed at whomever did this, of course, not imaginary foes or racial groups.
By the time I got home cell phones weren't working because too many people were calling. Absolute overload.
I have been reporting the story, and safely made it into the office, though with several hours delay as all arteries, subways and bridges were closed most of the day.
Manhattan is eerie. Every potential target (e.g. Empire State Bldg, UN HQ) is evacuated and cordoned off. So many streets are blocked that few cars or cabs are moving. Pedestrians are everywhere, often in hushed clusters comparing notes on the disaster news.
In Brooklyn people have sponaneously gathered to be helpful. The Marriott, for example, set up a blood donation site and the lines instantly grew so long that they had to beg people to go away and come back after five. Little old ladies have put coffee tables on all the corners where the evacuees passed, giving out ice water. People are trying to do the right thing. A call went out for construction workers to help with operation of demolition and clean up equipment and within an hour too many men had showed up, coming from all over the city. The Hassidic community mobilized its people immediately, no doubt as a show of Jewish solidarity, and hundreds of Hassids, decked in high rubber boots, poured across the Brfooklyn Bridge to assist in rescue operations.
More later. I have loads of reporting to do. Thanks to those of you who called, worried. But don't be.
Laurie Garrett
