Sent: October 16, 2001 10:43 AM
Subject: Anthrax in NYC 10/16/01
> Saturday 10/13/01
>
> Hi all,
>
> I woke up this morning to a burning building smell coming in through my
> window, and to the tune of NPR stating that the latest craze here is the
> anthrax paranoia.  There was a case at the NBC studios, which are about 5
> blocks away from me here in midtown, and now also at the ABC studios uptown.
> So a lot of people (who don't know the facts) are freaking out.  No one I
> know is freaking out, but that's mostly because I tend to run in the circles
> of Those Who Have More Common Sense Than Your Average Bear circles.
>
> The pharmacies here are selling out of cipro (sp? ciprofloxosomthing)
> though, one of the antibiotics used to treat anthrax.  One pharmacist said
> in one day he filled orders for 300 requests for anthrax, he usually only
> has about 20 a day.
>
> I went down to the Frozen Zone again Saturday, this time I took the 4/5
> train (this tracks/tunnels on this line are fine) all the way south on
> Broadway and walked back up to the southern border on Rector Street.  A tiny
> part of the beautiful park (on the NY Harbor) down there was open - usually
> crowded with people on a Saturday, it was pretty vacant.  No one living
> nearby anymore, I guess, no kids, no families... and since the
> rollerblade/bike path was unusable no reacreationists from uptown either.  A
> smattering of German tourists, but hey, some things never change.
>
> Battery Park, where the ferries for the Statue of Liberty and Eliis Island
> leave from (but haven't since the 11th) was taken over by the National
> Guard, completely cordoned off.  They were Jeeps and Humvees everywere
> inside the park and  army-green tents were set up, many of them with a big
> red cross on them.  It looked like an episode of M*A*S*H.
>
> The view further up, of the wreckage, again, was just devastating.  Utter
> desruction.  So many cranes carefully picking apart the wreckage.  The wind
> was blowing uptownwardly, so I didn't smell much of it from my southern
> vantage point.
>
> Trucks (garbage and debris-filled) coming out of The Zone were sprayed with
> water to clean them of the dust and debris from the sight... as they drove
> away and the water trail from thier wheels disappeared you would never know
> where the trucks came from and that they contained wreckage from The Site .
>
> There were temporary plywood structures with heaps of hastily applied
> tar/blacktop running along all of the curbs down here, housing some of the
> 30+ miles of new (temporary) cable that the phone and electric companies had
> laid and are still repairing.  Window/building washers were everywhere,
> still cleaning up dust and dirt from facades of buildings.
>
> The National Guard were everywhere, really getting nasty about the
> photography and videography.  They threatened to take away peoples cameras.
> I only got asked once, very nicely, to not take photos, before I put my
> camera away for the day.
>
> I walked down one ally between vantage points, which was semi-cordoned off.
> I wandered in between the blue "police line do not cross" horses at one
> point,  with a group of people in the street (where there was more room to
> walk), and walked with them to the next block.  There I tried to get back
> onto the sidewalk but realized I was IN the frozen zone.  An older man in
> the group I was with said "She's not with us!  She's not supposed to be in
> our group!"  I looked helplessly around, trying to see where I could get
> back to the group of onlookers, who were now staring at ME instead of the
> wreckage a few blocks behind me.  I said "I just want to get over THERE!"
> and pointed to where the onlookers stood, safely behind the barricades.  A
> National Guard laughed, shook his head, and moved the blue road block so I
> could squeeze back in to where I should have been.  ("Stupid tourist", he
> was probably thinking). I don't know what the "group" was doing that I was
> with, perhaps press?...  They have also been taking victims' families down
> to where the workers are, to see things close-up and talk with those who are
> dealing with this every day, like they are.
>
> As I walked away from the scene there was an abandoned car, window blown
> out, full of gray dust.  There was a University of Wisconsin sticker in the
> rear window, and I couldn't help but wonder if the owner of the car was a
> fellow Wisconsinite, and did he/ she survive the collapse?  and why was the
> car still here? where was the owner?
>
> Heading back I saw the entrances to the 1/9 Subway Station at Rector Street.
> All of the stairways were completely covered over with huge peices of
> plywood and all had large yellow signs reading "CLOSED BY ORDER OF NYPD".
>
> I also saw huge pieces of twisted, dirty steel lying off to one side of a
> plaza near the Zone.  They had been spraypainted with the word "SAVE" in
> several places.  On closer inspection I realized that they were parts of the
> outer shell of the Twin Towers.  Probably being saved for a memorial.
>
> On tv are news ads for New York City tourism - urging (pleading?) people to
> get out, spend money, buy something, see a show, go out to eat... hard to do
> though, if you're not making any money to spend.  The garment district is
> putting new red-white-and-blue tags on all of its clothes, stating "PROUDLY
> MADE IN NEW YORK CITY" in hopes that people will purchase the items and help
> the economy here in Manhattan.  The latest statistics state that 30 or so
> restaurants/ fast food/ deli stores are permanently closed due to the
> attacks downtown, and 40 more are temporarily closed, still cleaning up from
> the mess.  The restaurants that ARE open down there are all having special
> deals and menus going on, trying to get people back down to lower
> Manhattan.
>
> The top news story is still the clean up of the wreckage, with new missing
> person/death tolls every day, if you don't count the "war" that's going on,
> as well as the new No 1 news story, the anthrax scares.
>
> Also, the movie my sister and I made is finished - we will try to put it on
> the website.  It is a 15 minute film of our trip to the frozen zone and the
> Wall of Prayer at Bellvue Hospital.  I'll let you know if and when that
> happens.  I can also burn copies of it here and send one to you if you like
> if you're interested.
>
> Take care, enjoy your week,
>
> Love,
>
> Sandy
>
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Sent: October 30, 2001 1:57 AM
Subject: Short NY Update
> Hi all,
>
> I was just going to send this off when I heard the reports about the
> "credible threat" of new acts of terrorism against the United States this
> week.  And who knows what was up with that note on the American Airlines
> flight from LGA en route to Texas that left earlier tonight and was grounded
> in Dullas International.  Needless to say, what with the Pres coming here to
> watch the World Series at Yankee Stadium and all, it's put people more than
> a little on edge, especially with the threats being so vague, not knowing
> WHAT to expect.  What could be worse than what happened on the 11th?  But we
> have to remember we're not dealing with rational people here.  Who knows
> what, if anything, will happen.
>
> In recovery news here, work downtown at the World Trade Center site was
> halted Sunday for a few hours to honor the victims who were killed.  Over
> 9,000 family members and friends came, some of them seeing the site for the
> first time.  The Mayor gave family members wooden urns filled with dirt from
> the site - probably the closest thing they will get to a body or belongings
> from their loved ones.
>
> Another postal worker in New Jersey has the inhalation anthrax.  The central
> processing facility here in Manhattan was to be shut down so tests could be
> done - as of now they have been shutting down areas one by one, but the
> building still remains open and people are working as far as I know.   Many
> postal workers are refusing to work until they clean it up, anthrax or not.
> Better safe than sorry, but the anthrax thing is pretty ridiculous - most
> people I have talked to agree.  A neighbor and I walked into our apartment
> building together the other afternoon, and as we headed towards the
> mailboxes she said "so has the anthrax [instead of mail] come in yet today?"
> I just started laughing, you HAVE to.
>
> WNYC, my public radio station, has been having a fund raiser to earn 4
> million dollars they need to pay for emergency expenses.  (Their FM
> transmittors were destroyed in the collapse of the WTC.) They are running at
> a greatly reduced signal, and on one station instead of two separate am/fm
> stations.  The Times wrote more about it, if you're interested:
> >
> It is still amazing to me to see how many people and industries were
> affected by the events on September 11th.  A photographer friend knows a
> makeup artist who was to work all of the spring fashion shows the week of
> the attack.  All of the shows were canceled.  The makeup artist depended on
> that income to live on until the fall shows next April, now he has no money
> to speak of.  A makeup artist, for crying out loud!  Doubtful HE'll get
> Federal Aid...
>
> I will also be sending along a little essay about the subways here, so be
> warned (or excited, if you're my dad or Scott ), as well as an excerpt from
> E.B. Whites essay, "Here Is New York", which has become my favorite book of
> late.  Enjoy them, and I hope you all are doing well.
>
> Stay safe,
>
> Sandy
>