World Trade Center Stories - Day Two

From: "Jeff Wishnie" 
Subject: Re: Eerie                                                              Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 00:13:53 -0700

Cell Phones:
------------
They are also banned in the air because from above, they hit too many cells
at once (on the ground the transmission is blocked and can only hit a cell
or two, in the air with no obstacles, and a good high angle, they can hit
many) causing interference with other cell phones and havok on the
cell-network.

Paraglider and Sailplane pilots flying around 10,000ft have gotten busted
for making calls--it's easy to track as the logs show your transceiver id on
several cells at once--or so I've been told by a pilot who received a nasty
letter from his cel-company.

---

1 AM.  Peter Jennings nearly incoherent.  "We all thank each other for
sharing today."



From: Rachel Gibbs

"i' m here. I'm in shock. Paul and I were here when it happened. we saw the
second tower go down from our balcony. the towers- they just aren't there
any more. it's really the most horrific thing in the world. i've been sick
to my stomach with emotion. i just keep praying for these people, praying
for this city which i love so much. if i start feeling better i will try to
give blood."



From: rigpa
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 09:27:28 -0400

they are calling yesterday "911" because of the date

Nova



From: PenfoldG15

What a nightmare. I'm really rocked, but ok. I was on the Manhattan Bridge,
looking at the skyline when the towers collapsed. It was the most awful,
heartbreaking moment. The bridges were choked with streams of people coming
over into Brooklyn in biblical proportions. The screams and gasps of a
million people as the buildings went down, one then the other, was horrible,
just horrible. Everybody's head dropped and we all wept for our beloved city,
for those poor people.  It's just unbelieveable.  It was like looking at
Niagara Falls, or some enormous, breathtaking wonder of the world, but it was
the opposite of spectacular beauty, it was spectacular horror. Like the hand
of God. We're all very sad, very dazed. But now we're all trying to do what
we can. I'm volunteering at Chelsea Piers dealing with all the food and
clothes that's coming in. Others are volunteering at hospitals where
everyone's giving blood.  It's a terribly sad day for New York.

-Roger



I'm famous! :-)  Quoted in the following article:

http://www.contracostatimes.com/biztech/stories_business/ocommunicate_20010912.htm

"This is what the 'Net was designed for, to withstand a large scale
attack or catastrophe," said Alex Chaffee, a Java programmer who moved
from New York to San Francisco two years ago. He began compiling
e-mail dispatches to send to hundreds of friends and family who wrote
that they were OK and created a Web site, www.stinky.com/wtc/. Wrote
one friend: "I worked on the 80th floor of the building that collapsed
second, but thank God I was on my way to work when it happened."



From: marjorie ingall
Subject: more to do in nyc

my brother has been volunteering at Chelsea Piers for the last 2 days,
sorting clothing and handing out water to emergency workers. right now,
they don't need any more volunteers, but they do desperately need
aspirin, large garbage bags, first aid supplies, and more clothing
donations.




From: heather champ

alex,

for people with web pages:

http://www.notsosoft.com/update/                                                          
an inlude with information updates.

heather



From: Ritesh Patel

I have recently been added to Alex's mailing list....

Words cannot express the grief I endured yesterday after witnessing the
carnage that unfolded before me and a lot of my colleagues at Agency.com.

For those who do not know, my office is a short distance from the World
Trade Center and I was in the office at 8.00 AM this morning (unlike my
usual 9.15 am walk through the World Trade Center) for a meeting. We heard a
Boom at 8.45 but ignored it as loud noises are sometimes part of life in
Manhattan.

At 9.00 am, we walked out of our meeting to be told by someone in our office
that the WTC was on fire. Our immediate reaction was that of a bomb again !
You can imagine our horror when the plane crashed into the second tower. A
few of us went up to the 50th floor cafeteria to get a better look and saw
people jumping out of windows of the higher floors in desperate attempts to
escape the fire. We had no idea what was to unfold next but all of you
should know what did by now.

I and a few others stayed in the office until 11.00 am to ensure everyone
was out of the building. Walking past the carnage and following the throngs
of people leaving the scene was eerie and distressing. At least 3  inches of
dust and debris lined the streets.

I thought I would send you a short note to let you know that I am alive and
well, very shaken, and still trying to track down a few folks who were in or
near 2 WTC.  Overall, I am happy to report that I seem to also have all of
my friends and colleagues alive and well.

I am not sure when our offices will be up and running again as there is talk
that the area around our building is off limits until the rescue and clean
up operation is complete. So if you need to contact me, itıs best to use
this personal email address.

I shall never forget this day and what I have witnessed for the remainder of
my life on this earth.

It is a sad day for the human race.

Ritesh



From: Tristan Louis 
Subject: Here's my first person account...

http://www.tnl.net/newsletter/2001/wtcbombing.asp 

Thanks for all the work you've done with your site.

TNL



From: Marc Rettig 
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 12:13:43 -0500
Subject: Re: SIGIA-L: OT: Prayers for those in New York and Washington
 
Those of you waiting to hear about the safety of others might find this
useful.
 
"This simple Spy notifies you when a name you enter appears now or is
eventually posted on one of the major "I'm Okay" sites created since the
New York/D.C./Pennsylvania tragedies."
http://www.spyonit.com/Add?_spyid=spy724_imokay                                            
Only as reliable as the data it's fed, of course. If you don't already
have an account at spyonit, you'll need to use the (free) registration.
 
===


Ken,

We are safe but we literally live only four blocks
from the world trade and the situation here is
certainly something to witness.  Yesterday, our
apartment literally shook twice (my wife said it was
worse than the tremors she experienced growing up in
Los Angeles).  There is no phone service or tv or cell
service (DSL is up and down).  Currently,  outside our
window, it looks like it has just snowed as everything
(no exaggeration) is covered with a thick layer of
dust and debris.  There are literally hundreds of
burnt pieces of paper and documents strewn all over
the street (some have the address of the World Trade
Center stamped on them) that travelled several blocks
in the blast.  The scariest part was shortly after the
second tower collapsed yesterday and the sky went
completely black for nearly 10 minutes with people
running for cover in the street.  One man rang our
buzzer for help to get out of the smoke and we let him
in (he was caked in soot and coughing terribly for an
hour).  I can see the hospital across the street from
our apartment (NYU downtown hospital) and there is
still a steady line of people waiting to be admitted
along with police, ambulances, and camera crews.  It's
like a bad Bruce Willis movie...scary, scary
stuff...My dad works a few blocks down at one wall
street and his building was evacuated yesterday right
before the second tower fell (he said he could see
people jumping from the world trade about every five
minutes from his office window).  There is no
transportation in Manhattan below 14th street and
everything is closed.  Once the dust settles we will
probably move uptown for a few days to my parents in
the village as the debris is considerably less up
there.

-stewq



Name removed:

Sun had offices for approximately 350 people on the 25th and 26th floor
of WTC #2.  The good news -- all of them have been accounted for.  The
bad news -- a Sun director from the Boston area was on one of the
hijacked flights that hit WTC, and was killed.



Alaina's ok.  The streets are filled today with the acrid smell everyone's
been describiing on tv.  Yesterday the only sounds you heard here in Chelsea
were sirens.....

Alaina