I was working on a Corporate Convention where my company supplied equipment like video projectors, screens, TV cameras, graphics, and machines for video playback. The client was a major copier company, and this was the first stop of a 5-state tour. The convention was at the Javits Center in downtown New York City, about 2 miles away from Ground Zero. We had set up all the gear already and just sat down for rehearsals at 9 a.m. That’s when the show caller said on headsets that there was a report of a small plane hitting the World Trade Tower, and he went to check it out. When he came back on, he said we should all go and look
Walking out to the lobby on the second floor of the Javits, which was all glass, I could see the top of the two Trade Towers and a hole in one of the buildings with smoke coming out of it. We were then told to evacuate the Javits Center for fear that this building was a target as well. All traffic was stopped in the street. As I walked across the street, I looked over the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel and saw it was blocked with buses to prevent anyone from leaving or coming into Manhattan; they basically closed down the island.
Then about 20 minutes later, people were running down the street covered in soot, fleeing from the collapsing buildings. I noticed a man giving water to people stuck in cars because traffic had all been halted. That evening, the streets were empty, it was the only time I have ever seen no traffic in Manhattan. The streets were completely empty that night. So we made our way to a pub on the street and watched it on TV. Then we decided we should walk down there to see if we could help. Along the way, I took pictures. When we got to Little Italy, the roads were blocked by police and they would not let us proceed further. I have to say I was having trouble breathing the air. Then we were told the Javits Center was going to be used as a morgue. We had to move our gear out, and the next day we had to drive back to Florida.
