TUESDAY
It's noon on Sept 11.
Sam and I are fine.
I was on my way to vote when I saw the WTC was on fire. I came home.
We are here together and thinking of all of you. The phone lines are flooded, but strangely, AOL is coming through! Email if you can -- we'll check this account later.
We hope you are all well.
Much Love,
Jamie


WEDNESDAY
Dear All,
Thank you to all of those who have responded to my email from yesterday. I am glad so many of you are safe and sound and have the opportunity to hold your loved ones closer today. Many of you posed questions that I'd like to answer now. I'm sorry for the impersonal response -- in some ways I just need to get as much information to as many of you as I can, in other ways, I just need to vent.

Yesterday I was on my way to vote sometime between the first crash and the second. There were a group of people on my street corner looking up -- I thought there was a cat stuck in a tree -- honestly, this was my first thought. It became apparent as I saw people crying that it was more serious than that. Someone said, "that's the world trade center." I moved a little among the crowd so I could see what they were looking at. I was confused. I saw smoke and fire and shiny debris. I tried to call Sam on my cell but I couldn't get service. I started to walk home and then something overcame me, fear, or reality, and I took off running. When I got home he was already on the phone with my mom. I am so glad I was able to speak to her and my dad before the phones got clogged for the day. I am so glad that neither Sam nor I had left for work. I can't imagine being separated from him or my phone, computer, and tv. Many of my friends in the city were in that situation: teaching 8th graders in Harlem, attending meetings on 14th street, coming out of the subway in the vicinity of the WTC only to be hit with smoke and debris, trying to find loved ones and get back to brooklyn.
The rest of the day, in some ways, flew by. We sat in-front of the tv and attempted, by phone and email to get in touch with our loved ones. We have located and spoken to many of you.

Here are some important facts that some of you have asked about or may not know:
--We live in Brooklyn: part of New York City, but not Manhattan (Manhattan is a separate island surrounded by rivers)

--"as the crow flies" I think our apartment is between 2 and 3 miles from the World Trade Center which is located at the southern tip of Manhattan towards the West Side. We are off of the south-eastern tip of the island across the East River. This may seem close, but it doesn't feel that way. Ash and debris fell all day long, the air smelled like soot, but it is nowhere near the scope of the pictures you have seen on TV of "ground zero."

--We both work in Manhattan, though above 42nd Street. Our offices have not been involved in this tragedy.

--Some of you have asked about looting in Brooklyn. I HAVE SEEN NONE OF THIS AND HEARD NO REPORTS TO THIS FACT. Both my brother in SF and my friend in Australia have called or written about these reports. We have not heard them locally. Last night around mid-night the police chief of NYC said there were no reports of looting. Sam and I walked around the neighborhood yesterday afternoon and it was STRANGE, but calm.

In closing, I just want to say thank you to those who were concerned and called, emailed, or got in touch with my parents. I am ok. I hope you and your loved ones are as well. I can only imagine as the dust settles that we will all know someone personally affected or be personally affected ourselves. I imagine we can only continue to reach out to each other to try to make sense of this. I'm not sure how we will do that. It pains me to be so far away from the people I hold dearly. If you haven't had a chance to check in, please do. There are many of you I haven't heard from yet. The phone lines are still pretty crowded, but I haven't had trouble getting on-line.

I wish there were something more profound I could say. I am not sure I completely understand what is going on. I'm not sure any of us do.
Much love to you and yours,
Jamie