NEW YORK -- The Dartmouth community joined the rest of the United States today in mourning yesterday's horrific terrorist attacks against New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. While students on campus monitored developments through TV news outlets, some Dartmouth community members in New York were experiencing the horror from an uncomfortably close vantage.
"When I heard the news, I presumed it was a joke," said Josh Green '00, who lives in uptown Manhattan. "But then I looked out the window, [and] I saw smoke and realized it was real."
Green saw many individuals on the streets "in tears," but said that so far, the Dartmouth alumni he spoke to were safe. Green remains concerned, however, adding: "I am still trying to get in touch with people."
Sadiq Malik '00 works in the Times Square offices of Morgan Stanley, the largest tenant of the World Trade Towers. Malik said he was on the 35th floor of his building for a meeting when he heard the first plane crash. After the second crash, his building was evacuated.
Ashley Nowygrod '03, who lives a mile north of the Trade Center area, said the attacks were "like something out of a bad movie."
According to Nowygrod, a number of people gathered on rooftops and street corners. Also, as most area businesses, shops and restaurants were closed, many huddled around radios and televisions in store windows.
"I'm still getting over the shock," Amit Anand '03 said. A New York City resident, Anand was in Ohio at the time of the attacks but was concerned for the safety of friends in the area.
Anand attended Stuyvesant High School, located roughly a block away from where the World Trade Center buildings stood, and has also worked at the Twin Towers in the past.
"This is all very tough to believe," he said, "[but] hopefully the people I worked with are not badly injured."
While the day's events were extremely traumatic, New Yorkers responded with substantive action. In addition to the police and fire rescuers, civilian volunteers lent a helping hand. Nowygrod described scores of potential blood donors lined up around the block, with local residents providing glasses of water to those waiting.
In New Hampshire, deployment of emergency teams has been unnecessary but crews are well-prepared, Governor Jeanne Shaheen told the Associated Press.
Shaheen was in Washington D.C. at the time of the attacks, attending an education conference. The governor reportedly could see part of the Pentagon being engulfed in flames from the hotel where the conference was being held.
Shaheen called the attacks "acts of war" at an afternoon media conference. In a press statement released earlier Wednesday. she emphasized that there is "no reason to believe that there is any threat to the State of New Hampshire at this time." State government offices, she said, will remain open, and security has been heightened throughout the state.
