Ian Williams WTC Day 1

Ian's Day Four Report

received 9/15/2001

At 1:28 AM -0400 9/15/01, Michelle Williams wrote:
...obviously, one of her best emails ever.

After last night, when Tessa went down into Ground Zero, we've taken a break. We actually ended up writing a play together tonight that will go up in London tomorrow night (ah, the blessings of email) - actually, I got greedy and wrote most of it, and Tessa acted as sage advisor. It felt really good to stretch the cerebellum once more and not be inundated with sympathetic hormones (which are misnamed, if you ask me).

However, you can't avoid this disaster, no matter what you do. I forced myself to go shoot baskets at Chelsea Piers today, and ended up in the middle of Manhattan's food drive - literally, the bottles of Poland Spring stack about thirty feet into the air. Every kind of food item, clothing - I'm going to stop describing the sheer volume of stuff because you have to see it to believe it. Imagine our house on 19th St. in Cedar Rapids made entirely of cans of Clam Chowder, and you'll get the gist of it.

On the way out, I literally ran into Bush's motorcade as he left downtown. People are glad he showed up in general, but there was WAY more fanfare for the average nurse making her way down the West Side Highway. I think most New Yorkers view Bush as a bit of a necessary hassle, and from my admittedly biased point of view, he hasn't said anything quotable or particularly soothing since the disaster. As soon as he passed by, an emergency truck full of firemen went up the street, and everyone started cheering again.

A few seconds later, I crossed the road and found a line of 10 or so handicapped people in wheelchairs by the curb, holding signs that said "Thank You!" that they waved as rescue workers drove by. Some of them couldn't even wave them correctly through paralysis or cerebral palsy, but they tried as best they could. A few blocks away, I sat down with Tessa at lunch, where "Going to Carolina in My Mind" came on the stereo, and I went to the bathroom to try and stop sobbing.

-ian