This is something I wrote the next day. My friends thought it made them
feel closer...
Today was almost stranger than yesterday, if possible. Things started to
sink in a bit. I ran into two friends out buying underwear because they
live 5 blks from the WTC and have no idea when they are going home. People
are starting to realize who is missing. We still have no conception of what
the death toll might be.
And yet, life goes on. A lot of businesses are closed, so people are
outside, in the parks. Today and yesterday were both incredibly beautiful.
Everyone seems to be doing a lot of walking, but people are quiet. I went
today to the red cross to sign up to volunteer. They were mobbed, which is
a nice sign. Everyone feels helpless, so we are trying to help where we
can. (Of course, in typical New Yorker fashion, people were demanding to
know why they couldn't volunteer or give blood NOW.)
It is a a small small taste of living in a war zone. Whole sections of the
city are closed off and the police are everywhere, working in 15 hr shifts
or more. There is a checkpoint three blocks from my house and I have to
remember to bring proof of where I live when I leave home. The avenue next
to me is closed to all but emergency traffic, so it is completely quiet
except for the sirens. New Yorkers usually block out the sirens, but right
now we are hyper-aware of them, because we know where they are going.
Every where you go, there are little signs. Lines and lines of trucks full
of debris, all of it that distinct light grey. Ambulances parked all over.
Yesterday the wind went South East, but today the smell of burning city has
started to seep north. I don't think any of us will forget that smell.
People walk around with dust masks and the air is indistinct.
And above all, there is a big hole in the landscape. There is a dust cloud
to the south. There are those images that everyone has in their minds,
whether they were looking out their windows, or on the television. I don't
know how many people I have talked to who happened to be looking in that
direction and thought, "That plane is flying awfully low..."