I was returning from another fantasy trip to Australia this morning...first I
knew anything was wrong was when we landed at LAX and the pilot said
something serious had happened on the East Coast and that there would be no
connecting flights leaving anytime soon. Some of the Turner folks I was
travelling with called home from the plane and that's when it started to sink
in.
It was an eerie scene at LAX...apparently only two planes, both coming from
Australia, were allowed to land in L.A. because we were getting low on fuel.
We picked up our bags, went through customs, then were guided quickly out of
the terminal by airport personnell and FBI agents. We were told to keep
moving to the right where buses were waiting to take us off the premises. TV
crews were already there and the procession of people and luggage carts made
me think (to a much smaller degree) of scenes that we've all seen on TV,
where people are fleeing a war zone. We may have been cross-country from
where the carnage took place, but the sense of urgency in the voices of the
people in charge left no doubt as to the seriousness of the situation.
My niece works just 2-3 blocks from the Towers....my sister and her husband
were a wreck until they heard she was OK. She had to walk across one of the
bridges into Brooklyn (the subway was shut down) and was almost overcome by
the smoke.
I worked in the Wall Street area for 20-years, and watched the Towers being
built. Possibly knowing some of the people who died, I can't bring myself to
watch the TV broadcasts
Don't know when I'm going to get out of L.A....thank goodness I was
travelling with folks from Turner....one of the guys coordinated
transportation and rooms at the Sheraton in Universal City. We'll figure out
what we're going to do tomorrow.
Walt Murphy
