Random Thoughts, Notes, & Incidents

on 9/11/01 8:17 AM, nan wrote:
>
> What the FUCK is going on in our world?! Are we safe?!

We woke up to the clock-radio, the Greg Kihn show, at 6:20. I was still half asleep, and couldn't really hear what he was saying, but Leslie asked me, "Is he serious?"

"About what?"

"Did he just say the World Trade Center is burning?"

This situation is surreal enough, but hearing it first from a former rock star ["(Our Love's in) Jeopardy" "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'em Like That Anymore)"] turned morning DJ just made it even more surreal.

I've been glued to the radio for the past 90 minutes - I think I need to start taking notes to follow which planes have hit which targets and which reports have been confirmed and which were just nasty rumors.

Certainly, we're at war. The question is, with whom?

Are we safe? Maybe. Los Gatos (just outside San Jose) is not likely to be a major target, but the local radio is reporting all the precautionary evacuations in San Francisco (the city schools just closed, 20 minutes after they opened). The only San Jose evacuation, so far, is the airport.

Recap, so far (8:15 AM, PST):

• 2 hijacked planes took down the World Trade Center in NY, both towers, all 110 stories of them, are now rubble
  
• 1 hijacked plane took out a corner of the Pentagon
  
• A truck bomb did NOT go off at the State Department, as previously reported
  
• Plane crash outside Pittsburgh - Not sure if it's related yet
  
• Washington DC on alert for one more hijacked plane that may be on its way - F16's are in the air ready to shoot it down
  
• Possible report of a plane crash at Camp David - need more detail
  
• President Bush in the air, en route from Florida - Was going to DC, may be diverted elsewhere
  
• All flights, anywhere, in the US are cancelled for at least 5 or 6 more hours - International flights to the US are going to Canada
  
• The White House, the Capitol, and what's left of the Pentagon have all be evacuated, with similar evacuations of Federal properties nationwide
  
• Manhattan has been evacuated - Mayor Giulliani has requested that everybody move "above Canal Street"
  
• Stock markets all closed

I can't get onto CNN.com, even Yahoo! News is too busy to get into. I have no television (the cable guy's coming on Friday). So, I've just got the AM radio going to keep me up to date.

This is certainly not what I had planned on writing this morning.