[meteorite-list] Report from New York, Sept. 18

From: geoking_at_notkin.net <geoking_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:49:01 2004
Message-ID: <v04220800b7cd889fabb0_at_[209.245.114.136]>

Dear Listees world-wide and across America:

Greetings from the city that now really never sleeps.

I made it to lower Manhattan yesterday, very close to the WTC. The
first thing you encounter is the smell. It's everywhere, and the dust
is too: In the subways, on the sides of buildings, sidewalks, and
potted plants. The fires are still going, but New York is open for
business! The Stock Exchange was open, with a Stars and Stripes the
size of Rhode Island displayed outside the building. It was really
something to behold.

The military are everywhere, and they are being extremely patient and
polite with the public, even after answering the same questions all
day long (i.e. "How can I get into to my office without ID?").
Hummers patrol up and down lower Church Street. Civilians can get to
some of Broadway, and part way down Fulton Street -- only about 2 1/2
blocks from the wreckage.

The WTC "skeleton" that we've all seen on the news is many stories
tall (at least 15, I'd estimate). I was surprised that it was so much
larger than it looked on TV. The Brooklyn Bridge is closed to private
traffic but a never-ending stream of New Yorkers walk back and forth
from near City Hall to Brooklyn (it's a big bridge and a long walk --
I went part way).

American flags are absolutely everywhere: on police cars, hanging out
of backpacks, taped to the helmets of Con-Ed workers, and unfurling
from the pockets of fully decked-out combat troops. Combat troops on
the streets of New York! Who would ever have imagined such a thing?
And New Yorkers are glad to have them here, and are making a point of
telling them. I chatted with a friendly young sergeant from Troy, New
York, who thanked me for "my support." Somebody had set up outdoor
speakers, and Sousa marches played to the crowds that gathered near
Fulton and Broadway to catch a glimpse of our ruined Twin Towers.

I've been shooting 100+ pictures per day, and spent the entire day --
today -- in front of the computer processing as many as I could. I
have a new set of images up now, which means we have 65 pages of WTC
pics currently. Unfortunately, I am about four days behind, which is
really annoying, because yesterday's pics were my best so far.

List member Darryl Pitt has been much more actively involved in the
rescue effort than I have -- really doing "front line" stuff, but
he's probably too modest to post his astounding experiences (how
about it Darryl?).

Okay, here we go:

My disaster image gallery and journal: http://www.notkin.net/disaster.htm

New pics added today (Sept. 18): http://www.notkin.net/disaster4.htm

I apologize to the many List members who have written to me over the
past few days. I intend to answer everyone personally, but -- as you
can image -- time has been rather short here.

More later, back to work, best to all,

Geoff N.
Received on Tue 18 Sep 2001 07:46:19 PM PDT