Thick dust rolls through the streets

I had a consulting job in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, training government workers. We were in the Federal Building (at Duane Street and Broadway) about eight blocks north of the World Trade Center. A call came over the public address system shortly after 9 a.m. to evacuate the Federal Building. My immediate thought was there had been a bomb scare - it was a familiar event for me as a retired Federal government worker.

As my group slowly descended the stairwell, others in the building told us that two airplanes had collided with the World Trade Center. My first thought was that two small private aircraft had tried to avoid a mid-air collision and, instead, hit one of the buildings.

Once outside on Thomas Street, I saw people assembling at the northwest corner of the Federal building looking up. I reached the street corner and looked skyward. There was a gaping hole two-thirds of the way up in the middle of the north tower of the World Trade Center. It looked to me like the entrance to an airplane hanger. The plane had completely disappeared inside. Smoke and flames were pouring out the sides of the building.

Masses of people filled the streets. A panicked security guard at the Federal building was yelling at me and others to leave the area immediately. She looked at me and screamed that she had seen the planes hit the buildings and we were under attack by terrorists!

The wife of my work colleague was at their hotel on the opposite side of the World Trade Center - about three blocks from it. He didn't know how to get in touch with her. Neither of us had a cell phone with us. I told him we should head to my hotel next to the Brooklyn Bridge to wait for her. I was anxious, too, about calling my husband, Mark, to let him know I was all right.

We slowly worked our way through the crowd. We walked across Broadway and then headed south. As we rounded the corner of the Federal building, the damage caused to both towers of the World Trade Center became plainly visible to us. Both towers were on fire with thick, black smoke pouring out and upward into a clear blue sky. We made our way among the sea of people. There were sirens blaring everywhere. Masses of people moved in every direction. We paused, again, on Broadway near City Hall to look up at the World Trade Center. Just the night before, the taxicab that brought me into New York City from Newark airport had passed along the base of the World Trade Center. I thought to myself, "What a beautiful lobby!" The building was so tall that that is all I could see.

While standing near City Hall, a young woman standing beside me said she'd seen both airplanes hit the building and many people falling out of them to their deaths. No sooner had she finished telling me this, I saw someone else fall out of the building. She began weeping. I put my arms around her to comfort her.

My colleague and I decided we should move on. We meandered through the crowd. Fire engines, police cars, ambulances, and a group of motorcycle policemen were moving through the crowded streets with their sirens blaring. The streets were jammed with cars and buses trying to find ways out of the city or heading north to upper Manhattan.

We then left Broadway and headed east on Beekman Street to the Brooklyn Bridge. Suddenly, I heard a huge rumble. People began screaming. I could hear them rushing toward us. The rumble sounded like another airplane coming in, so I looked skyward searching for it and the building it may be targeting. I saw a massive white column of smoke rising high above the buildings on Beekman Street. It was the first tower falling. Someone far behind us yelled "Run, run!" I stayed near to the buildings so I wouldn't be trampled. Many people ran, but others of us kept walking quickly. I didn't want to add to the panic. A thick dust rolled through Beekman Street and filled the air.

We were getting closer to the hotel. As we crossed Spruce Street, there was another huge cloud of dust and black smoke rolling toward us. I saw shoes in the street where people had run out of them in their panic. I found myself walking side-by-side with a woman who was crying. I reached out and touched her shoulder. I asked her if she was all right, but she was dazed and just kept walking toward the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Brooklyn Bridge was filled with people walking out of the city. We reached my hotel at Peck Slip and Front Street. I was able to reach Mark - what a relief! Moments later we could hear the second tower crumbling as we watched it happening on the television.

I could hear military aircraft flying over the city. I even saw one far above flying over the bay. It flashed in the sunlight. All day long the smoke and dust ebbed and flowed over the hotel. There would be short periods of sunshine, and then it would be gone again and become dark. There was a steady stream of people well into the night who were either heading over the Brooklyn Bridge or northward to upper Manhattan.

Sometime after 4:30 p.m., the electricity was turned off in our area for as far as I could see. Emergency lights turned on in surrounding buildings. That evening, caravans of dump trucks and buses passed by my hotel. Throughout the night, police vehicles and National Guardsmen on foot patrolled our neighborhood. A water pump droned all night long next to the Brooklyn Bridge, pumping water from the East River to fight fire where the World Trade Center once stood.

In less than an hour the world was forever changed - set on a course for battle we did not desire or choose. In less than an hour thousands of people died.

Throughout that day, and until I reached home four days later, I was never afraid or worried. I knew I was in the hands of the Lord. It gave me special comfort remembering the first line of the Lord's prayer... "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name..." As well as the 23rd Psalm, "...yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me." I also sang to myself over and over again the ageless hymn "It Is Well With My Soul" - "When peace, like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul."

How marvelous it is to know Him! He is my hope in this world in the midst of life's troubles and trials, and He is my hope for eternal life with Him.

Catherine Dymkoski is an environmental consultant living in Rathdrum.