Klarinet Archive - Posting 000413.txt from 2001/09

From: MVinquist@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Report from NYC
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 12:34:08 -0400

Dear Listmates -

I was there and escaped unhurt, as much by luck as common sense.

I work at 1 Liberty Plaza, across Church Street to the east of southern end
of the World Trade Center and 2 blocks south of the location of the towers.
I got there by subway at 9:00 AM yesterday. (The subways were running slow,
due to what the announcements said was a "smoke condition" at the WTC
station.)

Tower # 2 had already been hit and was in flames at about the 75th floor.
Broken glass, dust and thousands of sheets of paper were all over the street.
People were still standing on the sidewalk, looking up at the fire. I
thought a bomb had been planted in the tower. Nobody was saying anything
about a plane.

As I went around the corner toward the Liberty Plaza building entrance, the
second plane hit Tower # 1. I didn't see it hit, but there was a gigantic
explosion, and everyone started running.

My building was already closed, so I went up to Broadway, another block east.
Debris and papers from Tower # 1 were falling there. I quickly got on the
subway and was back in Brooklyn when the towers collapsed.

I was surprisingly calm, as were most people. The horror started to come out
in dreams last night. You lose a lot of sense of security when things crash
down this close.

Thanks for letting me talk about this.

Ken Shaw

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