What a mess!

[RAD]

For all my online friends, here's an email I sent to my friends and family this morning:

We're okay.

I'll never forget this. I saw the second plane hit; the husband of the girl who sits behind me saw the first one hit and came running over to our desks, shaking; he could hardly string three words together. We were evacuated shortly thereafter, around 9:00a. I remember standing outside our office with hundreds of other people, looking up at the WTC burning, and smelling the acrid smoke.

A chaotic scene ensued. I could not get in touch with Amanda; local cell phone sites were maxed out and the lines were 20 deep at the pay phones. Two of my co-workers and I began walking to Amanda's offices near Times Square, about 3 miles north. As I walked, the first tower fell, and people screamed;
I turned around, and it was gone, replaced by a tower of smoke. People were packed in the streets, all heading north. Then, we heard reports that the Pentagon was bombed. Then that a plane crased in PA. People started screaming again, and I turned around, and the second tower had collapsed.
Finally, fighters were scrambled, and a pair of F-16s buzzed overhead, creating temporary panic below, if only from the extra noise. People huddled around radios, clustered around storefronts that had TV sets, desperate for information. For a time, I honestly thought the world was going to end, and my thoughts were only of getting to Amanda and making sure she was safe.

After we were far enough north, we got under coverage of a difference cell site, and I was finally able to get through to Amanda. I instructed her to wait in the usual place that I pick her up if she got evacuated; meanwhile, I gave her the phone number of my two friend's wives, and told her to call
them, as my friends were not able to get through.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally got to Amanda, who was sobbing
outside. We had a plan of action: head immediately for the car, pick it up at the garage, fill up the gas tank, go home, pack a suitcase, and get the hell out. As we walked through Times Square, crowds of people were stopped, looking up at the streaming news tickers. Amanda commented about the stupidity of that exercise, and I couldn't have agreed more; at the time,
Times Square felt like another target. It still might be. But this plan was to no avail, as all bridges and tunnels were closed. We were trapped.

I must say that in all honesty, this has left me a little rattled. When a fighter roars by, I jump. I don't feel safe; I don't think I'm alone in that thought.

Now, there's all kinds of talk to the effect of "we're going to come back bigger and stronger." You may have heard NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani say on TV last night something to the effect of "we're going to rebuild it
(ostensibly, the WTC) better than before." Such talk, I believe, is utterly ridiculous. While it's true that there is a desire, even a need, to show whomever did this that we're strong, that this won't topple us--the fact of the matter is this event has made a huge impact, and will have tremendous implications going forward. As far as NYC itself is concerned, this is a huge wake-up call for decentralization. In this day and age, with the telephone, Internet, and (now to a lesser agree) the ability to travel long
distances rather quickly, to have such a concentration of resources, human and otherwise, in any one area is extremely poor risk management, at every level--corporate, city, state, and federal. Security is never foolproof, and to offer up obvious targets is the ultimate in myopic superiority.

Shakespeare's Falstaff said in Henry IV (V.v.119) "the better part of valor is discretion." This, of course, begs the question: "As far as valor is concerned, where does discretion end and foolishness begin?" To twist a metaphor, I feel comfortable in saying that architectural foolishness begins when in the name of humanism we create a multitude of static Icaruses (Icarii?), each drawing ever-closer to the sun. While I'm not becoming a New
Luddite advocate per se, I think we would all be well-served with a heaping portion of good old common sense.

We should not have to live in fear; nor should we live in false security.

RAD

[This message has been edited by RAD (edited 09-13-2001).]