Remembering 9/11

With the bombings in London, it made me think about 9/11. Here is an edited note that I sent out on the morning of 9/13 to my friends and family outside NYC to let them know that my wife and I were okay. I edited out he really personal stuff and the irrelevant stuff.

I just thought I would send everyone a note on what is going on in New York. From 14th street down is closed to non-emergency vehicles but people are still allowed. On one of the news reports they said that below 14th street people were not allowed, not true. The main reason that it is closed up to 14th street is because the closest large trauma center is on 12th street and 7th ave. My wife and I are near it off 6th ave. The ambulance sirens are starting to get to us, as are the sounds of the fighter jets overhead. They fly over pretty regularly.
Below canal street has been evacuated, but they have been slowly moving that boarder closer to the site, allowing people back into there homes. In some areas they are allowing people to go home and retrieve items and pets. There is an entire 10+ building apartment complex directly across from where the trade center stood that is off limits. The ASPCA is trying to arrange with the police to get the pets out.
If you stand on 6th ave you used to be able to see the trade center, this morning was the first time people really got to look at the new skyline. Since it happened there has been so much smoke and dust that even though you knew it was gone, there was still this sort of weird feeling they were just hiding in the cloud. There is no smoke this morning. They are just gone.
The dust is all over the city, it has a metallic gritty feel in your mouth. The engineers that my wife work with say the is the asbestos in the air. The EPA has been saying that it is OK, the levels are to low outside the "hot area" and that the exposure has to be over a long time to be dangerous.
There is a chance of rain tonight, that might help to get it out of the air.
There was a line outside the local hardware store, people were buying dustmasks. It was strange seeing New Yorkers sitting at an outdoor cafe wearing the dustmasks, lifting them to drink there beers.
The almost the entire crew of the fire department of our neighborhood is gone.
The hotel where my bachelor party was is expected to come collapse sometime this week, if it didn't last night.
Probably one of the creepiest things, for me, it the complete quite. I am not a huge fan of living in NYC, partially due to the noise, but there is always music in the air here. Someone is playing the stereo, a car stereo, music coming out of a store, especially the local record stores and there is always someone playing the guitar for change. Now there is nothing. This may sound like over-dramatisation, but with the car ban, the only sounds in our neighborhood are the occasional sirens and jets overhead.