Subject:  @#$?!*&%!
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 14:13:04 -0400
From: Mark Allen <logan5@ix.netcom.com>
To:  gregory <gregoryvincent@mindspring.com>

Can't get through to you. Got your messages.

No words can describe.  : O   : O   : O   : O

The first blast jolted me out of bed!!!! My apartment shook and I heard all these people on the street screaming. Dashed outside - Armageddon??? WTC on fire! Both towers! I watched them burning from the Williamsburg Bridge. Unsure why - no one around me spoke english! Run back inside my apartment no phone - all TV stations static - cell doesn't work - modem does - weird - quickly listen to news on my little battery operated transistor alarm clock radio. Terrorists! Hear first tower COLLAPSED right outside my window - freak! On radio - radio news people are freaking out. - run outside with my bike and camera. Everyone I see on the street is saying shit like "Oh my fucking God!" - everyone is in weird shock. No one is not effected.

In a chaotic Chinatown. Looking at only ONE WTC tower - on fire - so surreal. Just one - superbizarre! Was on cell phone with Bryan - only person I could get through to - weird) , camera in hand, as 2nd tower COLLAPSED right in front of me!! You could feel the dull roar in the concrete. Will never forget it - EVER. It was like a blooming grey daffodil that bloomed big and then dissipated into dust. An unbelievable image I will never forget. People on street - totally edgy. Super razor blade vibe everywhere - no traffic. EVERYONE - MOBS walking AWAY from disaster. I can't believe I am looking up and there are no twin towers - like a fever dream.

Were you able to watch from your window? Roof? What did you do?

Couldn't call anyone - including you. Oddly my cam/modem works.

Domenic is OK - he works across from WTC. He's here - not covered in debri for some reason. Only channel 2 is working.

Can you smell the burning?

I would give blood but I don't have a doner card.

Williamsburg Bridge is GLUTTED with people walking into Brooklyn.

???
Mark

ps. Will keep trying to call you.


one tower left


This black woman got into a mean argument with two Jewish women about politics. Vibe is total edginess - saw a few fist fights break out - people are looking in the direction of twin towers in dazed disbelief.


Still one tower left.


Closer.


Closer.


Able to call Bryan on my cell in Austin - only person I can reach for some reason.


As I'm talking to him 2nd tower literally explodes into a weird "bloom" of various shades of grey (camera didn't get this part). I gasped and teared up and couldn't breath for a second - an automatic reaction - weird!


People everywhere are freaking - start running in my direction. Then stop. Camera couldn't get everything.


 


 


 


 


 


This debri-covered woman wandering from Wall Street area. Saw lots of people like that.


 


 


 


 


Throngs moving north.


Can't tell you how WEIRD it is to look in this direction - my jogging route - and not see the twin towers.


Dust covered ambulance vehicle arriving near relief center.


 


View from where I started with now both towers gone. Beyond surreal.


Hours later

...on to page 2 of photos - late that night

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