DAY SIXTY-SEVEN:Nov. 16:
There were more spores today. So said the FBI: another anthrax-infested letter made its way through the US postal system, arriving today at an undisclosed congressional office. The postmark was Oct. 8, which means this letter was date stamped nearly a month after all of the previous anthrax notes were dispatched. Is it, indeed, indication of a new round of bioterrorism? Or could this letter have been trapped in the system for weeks, caught up in a logjam due to quarantines of suspected mail?Authorities in Paris today discovered small traces of anthrax in letters and packages sent through France's mail system. The Health Ministry said the anthrax concentrations were "infinitesimal" and were equal to levels found in the "natural environment" Ñwhatever that means. North Carolina health officials also said today that they found insignificant traces of anthrax at a mail center in Raleigh, and believed it came from contamination last month at the Brentwood mail office in Washington D.C.
You never know what is coming next. Which explains the government's decision to hold onto samples of the smallpox virus, otherwise were slated for destruction in 2006. "The administration has concluded that the United States should not destroy its remaining repository of smallpox virus until adequate medical tools are available to counter any future outbreak of this disease," HHS Sec. Tommy Thompson said today. "I have this week communicated that decision to the director of the World Health Organization."
No comments yet from WHO.
Meanwhile, Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge roamed about Ground Zero today, making small talk with cleanup and recovery workers. And more names were added to the official list of those confirmed dead, reported dead or reported missing in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "The total number of confirmed dead is 2,326," a coroner's office report said today. "Persons reported dead include those whose deaths have been reported by family, employers, mortuaries, places of worship or by the airlines that listed them as aboard one of the four flights. Includes people for whom memorial services have been held, even if their bodies have not been recovered or positively identified. That number totals 374. Those missing include people listed by name by family, official agencies or employers. In all, 293 are reported missing."
Bot there are positive signs - signals of hope. Today, for the first time since September 11, the wind is blowing hard from Ground Zero but no telltale acrid stench flows with it. Yellow and brown leaves are carried upon the gusts, but not the horrid scent that has permeated everything from out clothing to our dreams for two months. This evening I noticed that - again, for the first time - no puffs of steam of smoke were pouring from across the river, as witnessed from the Promenade of Brooklyn Heights. Could it be that, at long last, the inferno is dying down?
Tourists were sighted today, booking into downtown hotel, much to the amazement of local news reporters. Breathlessly Associated Press' local wire reported this afternoon that, "Sandi Hung, Cherly Hung and Domenic Conte, of Boston, were welcomed to New York's Radisson Hotel Lexington New York by doorman Stanley Fields, Friday afternoon, Nov. 16, 2001. Desperate to lure tourists after staggering losses in the weeks after Sept. 11, the city is awash in hotel promotions and discounts. Bargains are everywhere--from the $111 room with parking at the hotel, to the $234 British Airways flights from London. "
Of course New York is hardly the only site slammed by the September 11 blues. Even Elvis hasn't proven adequate lure: Memphis' Elvis Presley Boulevard has turned into Lonely Street. Fifteen percent of the employees of the company that runs the Elvis-related properties in Memphis were laid off today. With Elvis Presley Enterprises saying tourism is down by thirty percent.
Of the many reasons for tourism's decline the top one has to be fear of flying. This week's plane crash in Queens undoubtedly exacerbated that fear, though it does not appear to have been a terrorist event. Breaches of security at the airports offer another rationale for canceling Thanksgiving travel plans for next week. Today, for example, Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport was shut for several hours following an incident in which a man ran past a security checkpoint and down an escalator used by arriving passengers. Officials said they had not captured the unidentified man but sought to comfort would-be travelers by saying they had security film of him running past a guard and toward an area with access to the airport's departure gates.
It is midnight, and the sound of multiple sirens fills the air. I haven't yet returned to my jaded New Yorker stance, ignoring such cacophony, even reveling in it as if it were Gotham's unique music. It jars the night, reminding us that the jaded old days are gone.
Be well. Stay safe. Stand defiant.
Laurie Garrett
