TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE MEMBERS SEPT. 11 MEMORIES

Ian Grodman

I remember coming off the PATH train at World Trade Center at 8:48am. I was watching the time closely, as I was contemplating a job offer from another firm and was "timing" what my new commute would be like that morning. As we went up the long escalators, there was a commotion caused by a man that I at first thought was mentally ill, but realized was a maintenance worker from the WTC with a walkie-talkie. He started yelling "move it people," and a moment later security guards at the top of the escalators were yelling at everyone to run for their lives. As I came out of the WTC to screams, smoke, breaking glass, and paper flying everywhere, I saw the same homeless woman I saw down the block each day I went to my firm's New York office telling everyone she saw a 747 crash into the WTC.

At first I assumed that someone had had a heart attack, and that it was probably actually a small plane that had crashed. When I got to my office at the corner of Wall Street and called my wife to tell her not to worry, that everything was alright, we heard the explosion of the second plane crashing. After evacuating our building, a short while later I was in the street when plumes of black smoke came rushing down Pine Street. I had no idea what was happening, and at first thought bombs were being dropped all over the city. When we made our way into a restaurant and saw television coverage, only then did I learn that the first tower had collapsed.

Lawyers being lawyers, there was disagreement as to what the next course of action should be. I just wanted to get home, and as soon as the dust had dissipated a little, got us all out the door to head uptown. We ended up near the Brooklyn Bridge, which looked like a line of refugees fleeing the city, as fire department and ambulance equipment headed in. It was a long road home that day, that ended up being via Orient Point, Long Island and New London, Connecticutt. Everywhere we went, we were treated with immense kindness and compassion (it took days to get rid of the dust from our clothes, skin and hair-people realized, even in New London, that we had come from downtown). I was fortunate to arrive home that night at 9:00, after renting two different cars and traveling by Ferry. I was thankful to be one of the lucky ones.


India Larrier

My recollection of that day was that it was clear and sunny. I vividly recall thinking that. I had just returned to a new job at work. I had my children in the day care at Blue Cross and Blue Shield where I was working. I remember teaching a course and hearing that the towers were on fire. I recall my coworker saying she saw the second plane hit. I recall hearing that the daycare workers were very frightened and as a result, so where the children. From the vantage point of our building, we were able to see the entire  thing happen. We watched both Towers fall  and the knowledge that so many could not possibly have escaped  weighed heavily on us. I also remember the fear of not being able to reach friends and loved ones .  As a result, many of my co-workers  stopped  for a time of collective  prayer. We all came together regardless of our backgrounds or anything, and I marveled  at how this tragedy brought us so close together. I recall going outside of the building getting my children going home and watching the drama and tragedy on television with them. And having to explain to them what was happening. It was a horrible day. God was good to us, and we were blessed not to have lost any loved ones or friends. However, we do know many who did.

Our country, all of us, Was 1 during those hours and days and weeks. It's a stark contrast to what I see going on today. It's sad that we seem to have forgotten some of that togetherness and Oneness.

Greg Lembrich

On 9/11/2001, I had just started my second year at Columbia Law School.  I had been out late the night before celebrating a friend's birthday and watching the Giants lose on Monday Night Football, so woke up the morning of September 11th with little time to spare before my first class of the day.  On my way out of the dorm I ran into a classmate and we began walking to school together.  He asked me if I'd heard that a plane had struck the World Trade Center, and I said "no" but that it was probably just a small plane that had an accident.  As we walked up Broadway, we starting hearing snippets of conversations that cast doubt on my optimistic assumption: "hijacking", "second plane", "explosion at the Pentagon". 

When we got to school I saw a large group of students gathered around a television in the lobby, enraptured by images on the screen on flames and smoke coming from the Twin Towers.  I hurried to my classroom only to find a very shaken and confused professor who cancelled class.  I wandered back through the law school, where I watched in horror with other students as one tower, then the other, fell.  With classes cancelled for the day, I made my way over to the Columbia Law Review offices, where I sat with fellow staffers in our lounge following the news coverage together and pondering what was happening and what it all meant.  We had very few answers. 

One thing I remember clearly was a series of phone calls that morning, starting with a calm call to my mom earlier in the morning to let her know that I was OK, to more frantic calls to my then-girlfriend (who worked at One Liberty Plaza) and her parents to make sure she had made it out of the area safely, to anguished friends and colleagues trying to reach loved ones who worked in the Towers, some of whom never made it out.  Another clear memory was starting to walk towards St. Luke's Hospital with some friends to donate blood, only to be met by other classmates who told us that donations were no longer being accepted; the area hospitals had more than they needed, and didn't expect to need much since they did not expect many survivors. 

Later in the day, smoke from downtown had begun making its way all the way up to Columbia, providing acrid proof that the terrible things we had seen on TV were all too real.  As I walked back to my dorm that evening, I began thinking about September 12th.  It was only then that I realized that I had missed being at the WTC by a mere 24 hours.  It was the middle of interview season for law firms, and I was scheduled to interview at Sidley Austin Brown & Wood's offices in the North Tower at 9 AM on September 12th.  It was harrowing to think of how close I came to being at the heart of the horror, maybe more so because I hadn't even thought about where their offices were located until that night.  That interview obviously never occurred, though I did have two interviews with Midtown firms that did happen later in the week.  I spent the rest of the night trying to complete a law review assignment and reading for classes the next day (Columbia held classes on September 12th).