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ACADEMY OF CERTIFIED ARCHIVISTS
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You are going to have to forward
this note to everyone and let them know I'm now at a friend's apartment in
Greenwich Village, two blocks from St. Vincent's where the emergency
vehicles are going. Here's my story so far: At 2:00 yesterday afternoon, AIG
told everyone to begin leaving. I live 7 blocks from work; it normally is a 10-minute walk. It was eerily quiet, muffled from a one inch
layer of ash. I walked
through a maze of detours that took me past several checkpoints where I had to show
my ID. I walked for one hour before arriving at my building. My concierge hugged me,
she was so glad to see me. Most of the dog owners were wandering around
the lobby and the front door area. The police used the staff
facility for their potty break, checked everyone coming into the
building, and verified with the doorman that we really lived there. I felt
safe. I discovered on the 26th floor
where I live that the couple in 26C, their two cats, and dog were still
present. They face the WTC and were awakened by the first plane crash (remember,
my apartment building is 4 blocks from the WTC). They watched in horror as
the second plane crashed. Unbelievably, not one pane of glass in my building
cracked, no dust even, it was unbelievable. They stayed glued to the
horrific scene until I arrived, when I brought my telescope over. We couldn't
see much through the smoke, but watched in horror as Building 7 (The Verizon
building) imploded. It was awful. That was at 4:00 pm and it took
the electricity out with it. The gas was shut off and my building went
completely silent. It was too much. We had only my kitchen phone (old
fashioned kind) that would work at all, called friends in Manhattan and
arranged to become refugees in their homes. Walking down 26 flights of
stairs with very small bags, masks on our faces, hats and a large dog that
wasn't happy about the stairs, we made it to the street, checked with the
concierge to discover we were about the last to leave (it was now 6:00 pm). We asked the police how to get to
where we needed to go and were told we had to go south to Battery Park, over
to the east side of FDR and walk north of Canal before we could head west.
It was incredible: a true war zone, just the color and filth, dust, debris, etc.,
you see in the movies. It felt like a movie only it isn't. Two and a half hours later I
arrived at 6th and W. 4th where my friend Anne lives. A hug, a
beer, a hot bath, a gyro sandwich and more TV until we couldn't stay awake,
but I was safe and with a good friend, able to talk to my family when they
called (it's still sporadic at times to call out especially in the 212
area code). It was unbelievably quiet sleeping
last night – but the lights from the WTC rescue efforts were glowing
through the smoke and can be seen from Anne's bedroom. Yes, I've taken
photos (I am an archivist after all and have this need to document what I
can when I can). This morning we took photos at
8:00 with the sun rising on the smoke. Iit is still unbelievable to not see
the WTC, a favorite landmark and awesomely beautiful buildings - the brain
hardly computes it still. All of my staff got home safely. It is amazingly calm and for NYC
utterly quiet even now at 2:00 in the afternoon the day after. We were able
to buy some food but milk is gone, no newspapers (no deliveries of any sort
below 14th street). A couple of diners are open until they run out of food.
The ATMs are almost out of money -- had to try several before finding one
that had cash as the banks are closed below 14th and again, no deliveries of
any sort allowed. I will try to check this email
later today. Anne doesn't have a DSL line so it ties up the phone when
the computer is on. We don't know which we want the most! It is unbelievable, horrific,
and no words exist that describe it. The loss of life is
unimaginable in a place not considered a war zone. I've been heartened on
the one hand by the outpouring of calm, kindness, and help in NYC, and on the
other the misplaced concern over the price of AIG's stock
when thousands of people are dead and not yet found (this happened on my
trudge north last night: I had on an AIG T-shirt and while asking for
directions a young man asked if I'd heard AIG's stock tanked in Europe, I
replied that I thought his remark was completely out of line in lieu of the
fact that at that moment I needed a place to put my head down in and there
were others by the thousands whose heads were laying dead in the streets of
NYC -- he looked at me sharply and then said nothing -- I think he truly had
not made the connection between material wealth and humanity until that
moment -- I was livid!). Sorry -- this is bringing out a lot of emotion to say the least. It is so heartening to hear from everyone -- it's been a tough month already with my surgery and now this -- but my difficulties are nothing compared to thousands of others. I am grateful for life, for your friendship, for family, good neighbors and being an American! |
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