Attack on the World Trade Center – 9/11 one week later.
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport – 16th September 2001
a silent camaraderie surrounds those of us
boarding the first plane to New York
since the attack.
for six days there were few flights
westbound over the atlantic
and seats were scarce.
at 5:30 a.m. 200 apprehensive passengers line up
to check in at silent and empty schiphol
for Singapore’s 8 am flight to Newark
with an odd mixture of joviality and a sense of
meeting with destiny.
despite the massive television coverage
uncertain what we’ll find on the other side
watching every passenger of colour
have their bags extensively checked
by security
Letter from New York – 18th September 2001
Few things are more beautiful
than New York on a nice day.
The sun is shining and the air is
warm and clear
except for the column of smoke and dust that
rises stubbornly from downtown
visible even a week after the attack
and five miles away.
In midtown, people are trying to
return to normal
which is an act of defiance that
says we will not be defeated.
The traffic on Eighth Avenue is much quieter than normal
no cars are honking – which is eerie in New York.
There is also the quiet that comes from
the deep sadness that sticks
to everything and everyone
and there is
the quiet that comes from fear.
In the large, silent dining room at the Howard Johnson’s Hotel
at 8th Avenue and 51st Street
for two days in a row I am
the only person eating
breakfast at 8 a.m.
5400 people are missing
218 are confirmed to be dead in New York
179 people have been rescued but
not a single one has been found alive
in the last six days.
The television reports that there must soon be
the painful decision of whether and when
to change from a rescue and cleanup operation
to the much swifter
just cleanup operation. That is,
when to declare the missing to be dead
when to give up hope.
The rescue workers - thousands strong
are valiant and none wants to
quit working around the clock.
The restaurants have joined together
to cater food to the rescuers.
They are serving 20,000 meals every day.
Though 50,000 tons have already been removed
the mountain of debris is hardly smaller.
Rescue workers have trod gently – using dogs
to sniff out signs of life.
Hope centers
on “voids” in the rubble where people might survive.
The fire department has allowed fires in the wreckage to burn unchecked,
for fear that water would drown trapped survivors.
But the mayor and his aides
– as though trying to break the news gently –
are frequently on television with ever more pessimistic messages
about the possibility of finding survivors.
Stories of courage abound
about the hundreds of unsung heroes:
the cripple who was carried by his co-workers
down 77 flights of stairs
the firemen – 300 of them have been lost –
who rushed back uptown to handle normal fires
in the midst of the crisis.
Today’s NY Times editorial praised the teachers
who evacuated 8000 children from nearby schools,
walking through smoke and chaos,
without sustaining a single serious injury.
One school was so close to the towers
that it was damaged by fiery debris. The Times said:
“Their achievement was even more amazing given that the disaster occurred on the third day of the school year, requiring the teachers to deal with frightened children that they hardly knew. Some students and teachers took shelter in a parking garage to avoid falling debris. Many of the children were screaming for parents who actually worked in the towers. As one teacher stepped into the street, a small child saw burning bodies falling from the tower and cried out ‘Look, teacher, the birds are on fire!’ The teachers at Public School 234, on Chambers Street, had to evacuate 6- and 7-year-olds during the most harrowing part of the disaster, just after the second Trade Center tower collapsed, enveloping the school in a debris-filled cloud. Taking some students by the hand and carrying others on their shoulders, the teachers plunged through the rubble-strewn streets that were clogged with adults running for their lives. With their small charges in tow, they walked 40 minutes north to the safety of the nearest safe school in Greenwich Village. Some children whose parents could not get to them by the close of the day went home with teachers with whom they stayed until their mothers or fathers could be reached by phone.”
And everywhere on the streets
there are homemade notices posted on walls
by relatives searching for the missing.
HAVE YOU SEEN JULIO GONZALES?
AGE 27 – WORKED AT BROWN AND WOOD, 87TH FLOOR.
And people have placed
high piles of flowers of gratitude
in front of fire and police stations
On some street corners people have
spontaneously created memorials
laying flowers and candles and photos
on tables.
People applaud as rescue workers walk by.
On the subway platforms
the city has stationed many transit workers
who wear bright red vests
to guide people
through the system that changes
as every day different stations downtown are open
or closed. When you ask directions
people are elaborate in their
kindness and want to
walk with you until you reach
your train.
There are lots of trains
they are clean and not crowded
but if the train you are in
stops unexpectedly in the tunnel
near World Trade Center
you can’t help but wonder whether
that tunnel might collapse and everyone
becomes very quiet.
My cousin Barbara
told me that people jump, startled by ANY loud noise or siren.
That’s what terrorism does.
Mayor Giuliani , scorned for years as a tyrant
is the calm hero of the day.
Many who hated him till last Tuesday
now want to cancel the mayoral election in which he cannot participate
due to term limits
and let him stay on as mayor for another year.
--
Downtown - lower Manhattan
- is very different from midtown.
There is no “normalcy” here.
Thousands cannot go back to their homes.
My dear friends Bill and Peter
watched from their 12th-floor roof garden in Tribeca
and saw people leaping from the towers.
They saw the cloud of dust 6-storeys high approach – but not reach –
their apartment building which is
now uninhabitable due to
lack of electricity, water, gas and phone service
and due to an abundance of
foul air. They have left and taken refuge
with friends a hundred miles away in the country.
The stock exchanges on Wall Street have reopened.
Office workers fill the narrow streets.
They show ID to get past police barricades to their offices
and they wear surgical facemasks to protect them
from the thick haze of dust that
still is in the air and that has whitened the buildings.
Skyscrapers that normally house tens of thousands of workers -
Marine Midland Plaza, 140 Broadway, Chase Manhattan Plaza,
appear to be entirely abandoned.
30 older buildings around the World Trade Center
have been structurally “compromised”
and are empty.
Dozens of surrounding stores
and hundreds of offices
have been closed.
Soldiers line the streets
and you can’t get closer than two blocks
from where the world trade towers stood
but you can see the 5-story, white, curvy shards
that still stick up like a haunted forest
in the ghostly mist of dust.
A city of the dead.
You can see them
but not without shedding a tear.
Downtown you realize
that this was an act of war.
Downtown you see
that a monstrous thing has occurred
that cannot be forgotten
and will not be forgiven.
Downtown you can understand
the anger and desire for revenge
that live together with the sadness.
And life will go on. It always does.
But the return to normalcy will cover a
deep wound.
…………………..
Bob Bragar
September 18, 2001
All Rights Reserved
Robert Bragar 2005