-- -Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies like a banana. Stranger things have - -happened but none stranger than this. Does your driver's license say Organ -Donor?Black holes are where God divided by zero. Listen to me! We are all- -individuals! What if this weren't a hypothetical question? [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Amery Burnham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> This from a friend of a friend in NY. Reach for them all. ____________________________________________________________________________ > Hello all, > > I just can't bring myself to send out anything funny yet, however, I > received an email from a friend who lives in New York City today. I thought > I'd share it with you. I hope this missive finds you and yours healthy and > coping well. > > J. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > > I have just come in from Sixth Avenue and Thirteenth Street, the corner of > the street on which we live. It is a surreal scene. All traffic is stopped a > block north of us, where barriers, manned by police, State troopers, and > fully armed combat troops, block the streets. The only vehicles moving are > ambulances with sirens blaring, and police cars, with lights flashing. As I > stood, trying to take in this scene, a Military jet roared overhead, and an > army truck rumbled by loaded with battle ready troops. I turned to look > south to where the twin towers had stood, a sight we had come to take for > granted as part of our lives. The towers which gleamed with lights late into > the night, and reflected the setting sun almost every evening. Now all that > remains is a huge cloud of smoke and dust rising thousands of feet into the > air. The residents of Greenwich Village are still in shock. They walk slowly > on the traffic bare streets. Stand and squat in the middle of the tarmac, > just staring. When someone recognizes you as a neighbor, they come to you > and hug you. A blind man on a corner, was taken by the hand by a passing > lady, and they walked on down the Avenue like a mother and son, neither > speaking nor questioning where each was going. It hasn't yet sunk in. > > Christina was home as the first plane hit. It went over our apartment so > low, and at full throttle, that she thought it was a crashing plane. We live > fairly close to the towers, and Sixth Ave leads right down to them. The > pilot must have been following Sixth as a guide line into the side of the > North Tower. I was in Ohio, Columbus (The Capital), up on the 32 ND floor of > the American Electric Power Building. I was there to coach the executives in > a major presentation they were to give next week. We got the news twenty > minutes into our 2 ND day session. Everything stopped, as Federal troops > surrounded the building as we were right next to the Federal Building in > Columbus. We were due to leave for New York by plane in the afternoon. That > was out. My client and I wanted to get back here of course. The Company was > terrific. They gave us a company car, said drive home, leave the car > anywhere, don't worry about it, we'll pick it up. They did this as within > minutes, there was not a rental car to be had in Columbus. We drove straight > through Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, for eleven hours. All > bridges into the city were closed. We drove north to the Tappan Zee, and > crossed into Tarrytown, but that was as far as we got, as troops and police > blocked all routes into the city. All local hotels were completely filled, > but luckily my client had a friend in Tarrytown, and I spend the night on a > couch in their den, she on pillows on the floor of the their office. This > morning, we caught an early train into Grand Central, and I caught a subway > to the last place it now stops in the City, 14 Th. Street. The car is still > in Tarrytown. On the train, we saw a historic sight. Not one car traveled on > the multiple highways, bridges and drives. It was an extremely eerie sight > as these roadways are normally crowded almost nose to tail with constantly > moving vehicles. At one hospital on the way in, we saw dozens of nurses, > doctors, and triage staff, all in their OR room clothes and gloves, simply > standing outside among ten or so ambulances, drawn up at angles along the > street. A bad sight, as the hospitals were getting no more injured, meaning > the rest were buried or dead. With 50,000 people working in the buildings, > plus maybe another 1500 - 2000 passing through and under on subways, we know > the death toll will be horrendous. "More than any of us are willing to bear" > as Mayor Guiliani said. > > There was one miraculous escape. A policeman or guard in the building, > checking the stairwells on the 87th. floor of the North tower after the > crash, rode the building down as it collapsed, suffering no more than a > broken leg. Our neighbor a teacher at a school with a perfect view of the > Towers, told me her kids on one side of the class saw the first hit, then > the rest watched as the second plane came in. There were cries of, "My > (daddy) (mommy) works there." Nearly 40 kids failed to be picked up at the > end of the day. > > I had to run up town to sign some papers. I found my broker on the phone > consoling another worker who had lost her uncle. A policeman on TV, was > telling how he was holding out hope for his sister, who had started work on > the 101st floor as a trainee, the day before. The rubble is five stories > deep ABOVE ground. The buildings go down seventy feet below ground into > bedrock. It doesn't leave anything except miracles, for the saving of those > still alive under there. Several were in contact by cell phone, but the > batteries die out pretty quickly. Police and fire fighters who were buried, > managed to make contact via their walkie talkies, and five were rescued that > way. Meanwhile two hundred and two fire fighters and police are missing. The > first 125 fire fighters on the scene were buried when the South tower > collapsed. Right now, we here, are under a cloud of dust and smoke which > makes it feel like we're living inside a giant fireworks. > > The scene uptown at 56th Street and Fifth Avenue, is totally different. > Tourists stroll in and out of the shops, holding hands, taking pictures -- > with their cameras pointing AWAY from the very clear fires still burning > downtown -- as if nothing has happened, and as if they didn't want 'that > nasty scene' to spoil their shots. Coming downtown again was like entering > another world. > > So goes the news From New York. [ To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body "unsubscribe man-bytes-dog" (the subject is ignored).]
