[ExI] 9/11

[Dylan Distasio]

I was working at 110 Wall St. in a trading shop which is almost on the East
river.   After the first plane hit (it was reported as a small craft
accident initially), a friend and I stepped out to go see the tower.
 Immediately upon leaving the building, there was a shower of confetti and
what looked like tin foil pieces raining down on us (which reflects the
incredible force of the impact as if you look up 110 Wall in relation to
ground zero, it is not an insubstantial distance).   There were even
burned, half sheets of documents l could see on the ground.

On our way to see the tower, the second plane hit and all hell broke loose
on the ground.    There were people running everywhere near the Park
chaotically, some of them trying to make cell phone calls in vain.   After
seeing both towers on fire, we fled back to the office.   It was hard to
believe what I was seeing.

We ultimately decided to walk up Wall St to Broadway to make the trek to
midtown in an attempt to get out of the city (I live in CT).   As we were
walking up Wall St near the stock exchange, the first tower collapsed and I
saw an enormous cloud of debris coming over Trinity Church like something
out of a disaster movie.   We tried a side street and the cloud was still
coming.   At this point, as I ran back to the office, I was concerned about
a domino effect as I was unaware at the time that the collapse had been
straight down.   I briefly considered jumping into the East river
(seriously) but ultimately made the decision to return to our office
building.

As I stood in the lobby with others, I watched the cloud make its way to
the end of Wall St and engulf the entire area, leaving inches thick layers
of dust over the entire area.  I also saw one unfortunate who did not get
to cover in time and was completely covered in dust/ash when enough of the
smoke cleared to have some visibility.

I went back up to our floor to figure out what to do next in shock.  In the
most surreal moment of the day, we watched the footage on CNBC showing the
full extent of the cloud now covering the lower third of Manhattan with us
firmly .  Those of us who were non-residents of the city decided to get the
f out of Dodge as quickly as possible by hook or crook.  The landlord gave
us water soaked rags to cover our faces as best as possible from the toxic
miasma that hung over the city all day.  It was very irritating to the
lungs without the rags unsurprisingly, but they provided a great deal of
relief.

We walked along the now empty East Side highway as Broadway was totally
inaccessible and inadvisable.  Kind residents along the way handed us
waters and encouraged us on our trek.   We eventually made it on foot to a
friend's apartment in Midtown and I began monitoring the Metro North train
schedule.   I also seriously contemplated walking out of the city along the
train tracks if none were running, but I would havee been lucky not to kill
myself in doing so as it involved going into an underground tunnel with
live third rails and walking over bridges.

Eventually, I found out Metro North (train) was doing one emergency run out
of the city to destinations north including CT making all local stops and
was able to get standing room only on it.   It was packed with people in
every conceivable space, and while an uncomfortable very long journey home
I was thankful at the end of it.

I consider myself extremely lucky compared to everyone more unfortunate,
but at the same time, it was the most powerful large scale trauma (and
only) I have experienced in my life.   It is still extremely difficult for
me to watch any footage from that day as emotions come flooding back even
now, these many years later.   I'm not someone who needs to be reminded to
never forget.

In an unfortunate coincidence, my wife's birthday is today, which makes
this a bittersweet one for me.

On Fri, Sep 11, 2020 at 11:16 AM Dave Sill via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> “Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day?”
>
> I was sitting in my office at ORNL in Building 1000 (now a parking lot)
> when a coworker came down the hall saying terrorists had a crashed a plane
> into the World Trade Center. My office had a TV cable for some reason, so
> we wheeled in a TV and hooked it up. People gathered around and watched as
> the second plane hit.
>
> Of course, if it happened today we'd all be watching on our
> desktops/laptops/phones.
>
> -Dave
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>
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