I work on Broad Street, one block south of the Stock Exchange. Here's how my day went:
I got to the office all was fine. Early in the morning someone said he read on the net a plane had crashed into the Tower. We didn't hear it though. We figured it was an accident.
As we stood around discussing it and reading the news on the net we heard a
**BOOOM**that shook the building. I thought it was a secondary explosion.
I went out side to the corner of Wall St. and Broadway to see the towers. I could only see tower #1.
The south side of the tower had a huge jagged gash about 45 degrees along the length of the building. Fire and smoke was along the East and North side. COuldn't see tower #2 but could see thick black smoke coming out of tower #2 and blowed SE.
Lots of offical papers and documents floating down. Also saw much items of clothing. I don't think it all came from the plane luggage either.
When I got back to the office I heard the Pentagon had been hit. Everyone was just standing around in shock. Then the Exec VP of Marketing came running in and yelled "Look out the windows!". We saw a cloud of thick dust rolling down the street. He yelled "We gotta get out of here!" So we evacuated down to the lobby (along with just about everyone else in the building).
I went out side to see if I could see the tower but with all the dust couldn't see more than a block or so.
The dust started to clear so I was going to make a break for it along with some co-workers to head North away from the dust. We went outside, got about 1/2 a block when
***BOOM*** something shook the ground. I could see the sillouette of a thick black cloud rolling down the street towards us.
I yelled for everyone to get back in the building and we made it back just in time as the debris cloud swept down the street. That was the cloud from the collapse of the first tower. After the second tower also collapsed it took a good 45 minutes or so for the air to clear somewhat to be able to go outside again.
I decided to walk East then North to get away from the dust. I was concerned about some contamination from the dust (who knows what the terrorists had put on the plane).
As I walked East the dust was coming down like snow. COuld hardly see. Lots of papers littered the street and more items of clothing. A couple of blocks away I ran into an EMT who was handing out breathing masks. It helped.
By the time I reached the Brooklybn bridge I was out of the dust cloud. Going by the court house and federal buildings there were armed riot police with shot guns and armor.
I finally made it up to 34th street where cops were ordering cars going through the tunnel (Queens Mid-Town Tunnel) to load up with passengers. I hoped on a truck to Queens. TO make the story a bit shorter. I was dropped off along Queens Blvd and walked a couple of miles to my mother's house in Jackson Heights. Staying the night here then going out to LI tomorrow.
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