Intro

"The following is the email I sent after the twin towers fell, on the day I was teaching at Brad University in New York. As soon as I saw the buildings hit I shot an email to my parents to tell them I was Ok and then I went about facilitating the crisis. The following email is what I sent once things had calmed down. What is remarkable is that this email was later forwarded to me from a complete stranger. I have no idea how many thousands of people ended up reading it."

Mark

The Day After Sep 11

"Well, I am not really sure where to start. I guess everyone will remember these last few days like they remembered Kennedy’s assassination.

I have spent today walking the streets of New York. Tonight the wind has changed direction and we can now smell the smoke in the North of the city. It smells like burning steel, the type of smell you get when you use a grinder. The pedestrians have taken over the streets. Last night we walked home about 20 blocks as the trains were out, and there weren’t any cars. The city that never sleeps was asleep. It was silent.

Today the only traffic were fire trucks, ambulances and related vehicles. A lot of unmarked police cars, dump trucks and soldiers in unmarked cars also. One dump truck went past me today, it had chunks of concrete amongst twisted metal. It was very eary. On the lighter side I saw five police officers driving a taxi. I guess they were out of police cars. They were having a laugh about it. It reminded me of that joke - how many elephants can you fit in a mini?

I can’t believe I saw it fall. Our school is on the forth floor and we could see the whole thing. Suddenly we had two hundred students in shock and about 25 seriously concerned about loved ones, but after the sudden shock it just kept on building with more incidents. We were in shock too. We gathered everyone and started to talk about the tragedy. As we did the second tower fell. Everyone was in shock. Some laughed and jumped around not knowing what to do, others just went ghostly white. Occasionally I was able to steel moments away from the students to process it myself. I stared out the window. I couldn’t believe I saw the whole thing fall. It was the city I am living in and it was under attack. Everyone at first thought that the first crash was an accident. I didn’t think that. I always thought of terrorism. I thought the Americans somewhat naive not to realize actually. It seemed pretty obvious. But Holly shit, when it fell!

The sirens hardly stopped all day. Police cars driving the streets telling everyone to get inside, to get off the streets. Parents ran into the building to collect their children. One Lady made it off Manhattan to the school and addressed the students to let them know how things were. She kept a brave face but in private moments with her she worked hard to hold back tears. She sat in a chair I gave her out the front of the office for the rest of the day. She just sat.

Our phone lines were down all day. Mobile access was limited and everyone shared phones. Kids with walkmans commentated to the rest of the class what was going however their information was often distorted and at one stage we had heard that Chicago, LA and Camp David had been attacked.

I have never experience d anything like it. As I write they have just evacuated the Empire state building. I expect it is a false alarm. … it is.

I am feeling better now but I was numb. We could see it all day and as we finally found a train that would get us close to home. From it we could see the mass of smoke filling the sky. There was an electronic billboard amid the skyline which had been cleared and just the word ‘peace’ remained. I welled up. It was powerful.

Everyone on the train was impacted by it. I keep feeling these waves of emotion and want to cry but moments never seem appropriate.

The strange thing was that when I called home, it didn’t seem different that I saw it all in real life. The whole world watched it happen. One of the other teachers commented on exactly the same thing and there is a global feeling like people saw it happen. They did, but just as experiencing the MCG on Grand final day is different to watching the tv, it has been very impacting here.

Although I wasn’t doing first aid amongst the rumble I felt like I was somewhat on the front line. I was looking at the shock on kids faces. Their eyes looked at me pleading to help them but no words were coming out of their mouths. They were looking to us for it not to be true, but it was. Behind their silence were the loud cries of ‘oh my God’ by the more boisterous students. Kids sobbing in corners. A girl from Iraq not saying anything. Other groups of kids calculating that they were too young to get drafted. Teachers running classes even though they couldn’t get through to their spouses. One of our teachers Tom was at the Oklahoma bombing and was very shaken.

Half way through the day we got the emergency signal from the Board of education. The school went into lockdown and all exits were closed and all visitors and departures were recorded. We have kids that commute for two hours and I, with a few other teachers, were expecting that we would be sleeping in the school with the kids.

There were often speeding cars in the streets, screeches of breaks followed by silence. It was very strange. Pandemonium followed by deserted streets.

It was a dark, dark day. The worst day I can recall in my life I think. In a way.

I pray I never see war. This was too much to be part of. I have had next to no part in it but I am often holding back tears. The people in the front line saw bodies explode as they hit the pavement. They are going to be looking at that sort of thing for two months or more. Life will never be the same for them. Or for New York.

As for today, we can’t get close to the area. The city is well quardend off. But we can smell it. The sirens aren’t stopping. Emergency vehicles are no where to be seen then suddenly there is a mass of them. Every corner has police on it. The police academy is out in full strength also. The news stands only have magazines.

Everything is sold out unless you can read Spanish.

We are so lucky to live in our country. Everyone feels safe here now but every package, aircraft and truck is under constant suspicion. A plane flew over head earlier. It was the first for 24 hrs or so and everyone gasped with nerves. We know better but there is still a feeling that it may not be over.

Personally I don’t think it is over. There are planes sitting in Canada with people still sitting on them after over 20 hours on the tarmac. Any one of those may still have unhealthy intentions.

I guess it puts everything in life in perspective.

Pray for everyone here, not so much their health but their emotional stress. Myself included I guess. I am sad to say that we now unfortunately await the smell of rotting flesh which is inevitable. As we do the hysterical families wanting to retaliate and all the other natural consequences associated to such an event. No body knows what to feel. I don’t.

Love you all.

Mark"