Sunday, 16 September 2001
Last night Carol decided she wanted to spend her birthday with friends. We met for dinner, and there were several people I didn’t know, including two teenage girls, a child, and a few adults. Carol’s friends Steve and Adrian had brought them, which I thought was odd for a small birthday dinner. Then I found out they were Steve and Carol’s refugees. They are among the over 9,000 people who have been evacuated from Battery Park City alone (I don’t know the total from other housing down there) and are staying with friends. They haven’t even been able to get in to get a change of clothing. I don’t know about pets.
Meanwhile huge piles of food donations are rotting and attracting rats. People sent trucks from all over, many without pallets so they can only be unloaded by hand. Too many homeless. Too much food going to waste. How to coordinate the two? I hope more supplies come in next week, next month, next year. As of this morning, they’d carted out about 30,000 tons of rubble, which was about five percent of the total. At that rate, they’ll still be cleaning it up for a few weeks.
I ran into the circus’s old sound designer on the subway. We smiled, said hello, and kept walking — both in the New York hurry. Then, at the same time, we both turned around and came back together and hugged and kissed and just hung on. He’s alive.
Today I woke up with a horrible, choky cough. My throat has been sore all week. I’m afraid it’s from breathing this stuff. How many kids with asthma are breathing it too?
More than impressions today I’m just filled with questions. Who is going to clean up the thousands of missing persons posters when every Streets & Sanitation worker is loading up rubble? When am I going to be able to concentrate again and get back to work?
Tim made it out of town tonight. Moose, who has been stranded here all week, is supposed to be allowed out tomorrow. Jimmy rented a car to get here from Michigan because his flight was cancelled. We were supposed to have lunch today, but he cancelled because Suzanne’s entire company’s computer systems were failing, and they needed to move them out of the office. I didn’t really understand what was going on because I was asleep when he called, but how many businesses are going to fold over the coming months because of residual IT problems or lack of customers? There was an online request for geek volunteers to help restore IT systems, but King Rob tried, and it’s impossible to negotiate the sign-up. One-fifth of the city’s lawyers can’t get to work. What will that do to our court system?
I kept forgetting to write that when Tim and I skated to Houston and looked south, we both thought we could still see them. Maybe it was other buildings shimmering behind the fog; maybe it was just the phantom limbs.
I’m getting the nicest emails. I didn’t think anyone would read these, I just knew I had to write them. I hope they’re making people feel a little more connected to us here. We need connection right now.