And from MSNBC.com:
Should note the obvious, that these are incomplete as of yet.
Verrain and I just got the email with no particulars. Thanks for clearing that up
If you are concerned about someone and know the business name, the Washington post has provided a list including type of business and floors occupied. Many, many people appear to have been successfully evacuated from WTC 2 and roughly floors 80 and below of WTC 1. Please note that “cncr” refers to the retail concourse, i.e. shopping mall. http://a188.g.akamaitech.net/f/188/920/15m/www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/articles/tower1.html
They are saying that WTC Building 5, which is 1 Liberty Plaza, is threatening to collapse. Officials are moving people away from it as a precaution.
Will this ever end? 
I just found out my SIL was on the 34th floor of the second tower to be hit when the first plane hit. She got out fine before the second plane hit the tower that she had been in…And hightailed it out of there in time to avoid fallout from the collapses.
I am very grateful that she made it out alive.
It’s my understanding that those buildings all shared a common foundation (from the news last night - I’m sure someone will straighten me out if I misunderstood) so it’s likely others will either collapse or shift.
I just saw on CNN that somebody caught on video the first plane hitting the first building. I have seen hundreds of images of the second building being struck, but this is the first time I have actually seen that first airplane striking the first tower. It is just as horrible as the second crash. There is also apparently videotape of the plane that struck the Pentagon. I guess it flew straight down the Mall first before circling around and hitting the Pentagon. Some tourist caught it on tape, although apparently they didn’t actually get the crash on the tape. I have yet to witness this tape though.
I went to work today. Our flags (I work at Flint City Hall) were at half mast, and I imagine they’ll stay there for a while.
I spent nearly all day here on the boards yesterday. The only pictures I saw were when I went to visit a friend with a TV (my cable isn’t on right now). The internet news stations were packed out, and I never could get on.
My husband got on to the CNN.com today. My 4-year-old daughter saw some pictures. Then she saw more when I brought home the newspapers.
She doesn’t understand, really. And as bad as it might sound, I don’t know that I really want her to just yet. She knows that big planes with people in them crashed into some buildings. Lots of people are hurt, and lots of people are dead, and lots of people, including Mama & Daddy, are very, very sad.
She doesn’t know about hijacking, or terrorism, or war. Not yet, anyway. Living in Flint, a city with much cultural diversity, she knows that people come in all shapes and colors and sizes, but she doesn’t know prejudice.
One of these days–and Goddess help me now I know it’s going to be sooner than I ever dreamed–I’ll have to explain war to her. How? How in whatever-Deity-exists-name HOW do I do this?
Latest, per local reports on CBS-2 and NBC-4: Further collapse of south tower (WTC 2). Evacuation of personnel and media to points well north. Also, One Liberty Plaza, a 54-story building cater-corner to WTC, has experienced a partial collapse. It sounds as if the south facade of that building has fallen into Liberty Plaza. Century 21, the department store facing WTC, is in danger of “imminent” collapse.
I heard a really cool thing on the radio today. Yasser Arafat condemned this attack, and in an effort to help, he donated blood.
There is hope, folks. There is hope.
This is supposed to be shown tonight on the Discovery Channel:
Suicide in the Air?
Type: Special / Reality
Duration: 1 hr
Description: Exploring the crashing of planes on purpose by pilots, including four such occurrences in the past 20 years. (In Stereo)
If I were the programming director, I’d seriously consider postponing the broadcast…
From NY1, the CNN local affiliate:
"Earlier, One Liberty Place had been said to be partially collapsed and was in danger of toppling completely. The nearby Hilton Millennium Hotel had also suffered serious damage and was in danger of collapsing. A number of other nearby buildings were also known to be heavily damaged.
“Shortly after 5:30 p.m., rescue efforts were halted and authorities cleared the area as the plume of smoke that has covered Lower Manhattan since Tuesday morning thickened with new debris. Officials said that Five World Trade Center and the remaining four floors of the southern World Trade Center tower had collapsed.”
I’m not in shock anymore; I’m just horrified.
I was at school yesterday until 1, when my classes were canceled. I had found out about the attacks as I drove to school, but I didn’t see footage. It wasn’t until I saw the actual tape of the second tower being hit that I started crying, and I’ve been weepy all day.
What hurts most is that my feeling of safety has dissipated. I was in work, using a box-cutter, and I started thinking how anyone could just walk in a take out several people. I feel like all bets are off, meaning none of us a safe.
Like Persephone, I definitely feel different. I was only 13 when the Oklahoma bombing happened, and I have to say it didn’t touch me. I was in the middle of final exams when Columbine happened, so I wasn’t that involved. But this is so much more to me. I’m generally a pacifist, but I want to kill the fuckers behind this. I was them to hang over New York Harbor in effigy. I’m not patriotic, but I’m definitely proud to be an American, proud to defend our nation and what we stand for. Hell, if we go to war I would join the draft if I could. It’s crazy.
I also feel much more connected to the people around me, since this is something we’re going through collectively. I want to hug and bless (this from an agnostic) everyone I see. I even went to church last night with my mom for a prayer meeting. I feel like my skin fits differently.
I’ve donated blood and made a donation to the Red Cross, but I want to do more. I want to put on a yellow coat and cap and get in there with the firemen. I want to go back in time and catch the people who jumped.
I know this is very stream-of-consciousness, but I needed to get it out of my system. Everytime I think of what a senseless, senseless tragedy this is, I start to cry.
Hopefully we’ll find some but of sense in this. I think Rob Brezsny sums it up nicely. I’m just so upset about the whole thing right now.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by SuperTer *
**I read my horoscope (Free Will Astrology) in a local publication about a month and a half ago that said that coming up was an event that I would look back on five years from now and realize it had changed my life. So occasionally since then, I’ve wondered what this event would be. Perhaps a soul mate would show up and I’d live happily ever after? A winning Powerball ticket? Well, I think the life-changing event punched me in the gut yesterday, with the whole event emcee’d by Tom Brokaw…
Nacho4sara…Thanks, I couldn’t remember how to spell Rob’s name so I didn’t use it.
I finally cried in front of my daughter.
Had a minor problem with the sound on my computer, so I haven’t been glued to MSNBC.com. Got that fixed, though, so now I’ve got the pictures I’ve been craving.
My daughter saw some stuff for the first time, too. The replay of the plane flying in to the building. It didn’t scare or startle her, though–she’s at the age where all she wants to know is “why?” about everything.
I have three copies of the Flint Journal, all with pictures of what’s happened. I showed her pictures of what the WTC looked like before this happened, then pics of the impact, and then pics of the pile of rubble that is all that remains. She sort of understood the mechanics.
So, I set two boxes of baby wipes on the coffee table. I told her that the coffee table was the ground, and the boxes were the buildings. Then I knocked the baby wipes on to the floor, and told her that the empty spot on the table was all that was left of those great big buildings.
That she got. But, she also thought that Mom knocking things over on purpose was cool. She started to stack them up again, so she could do it herself. With sound effects. Booms and crashes.
I got down on my knees in front of my daughter, put my hands on her shoulders, looked her in the eyes, and said “Honey, I know you thought what Mama did was funny. But let me try and explain. The people that flew those planes in to those buildings did it on purpose. They wanted to make those buildings fall down. They wanted to hurt all those people. And that is why Mama has been very sad. Very sad, very mad, and very scared. And that’s why I’m going to ask you to please, please, please don’t pretend this.”
And that was when I started to cry.
She understood that. Praise Goddess, she understood.
She still doesn’t know about terrorism. But she knows now that some people did a very bad thing, and they meant to.
She hugged me and told me to not be sad. I hugged her tighter than I ever have, and told her that I felt better now, and that I love her very, very much.
We spent more time looking at the newspaper pictures. I showed her pictures of firefighters, and told her about what firefighters do, and how great they are. I told her the same thing about doctors, nurses, police officers, EMT’s (I called them ambulance drivers, though–she knows what ambulances are, but I don’t think she’d quite understand Emergency Medical Technician), and soldiers. And I told her that whenever she sees anybody that does any of those jobs, she should smile and wave at them, because they’re very, very good people.
I feel a little better now. Somehow, I managed to get my child to understand a little bit about something that I myself still don’t get at all.
I don’t know where else to post this, so I’ll just stick it here.
I really wish we didn’t have to strike back. I don’t believe in vengeance. Don’t get me wrong-- I fully support whatever actions the U.S. feels is necessary over the next several days and weeks. But I really wish we didn’t have to do this. I don’t want more people to die and I am very afraid of what will happen. I am afraid for our soldiers and I am afraid for the innocent people that may die when we strike back. I believe that our country will do the right thing, and I believe we should do what we have to in order to avoid further attacks. But I wish it wasn’t about revenge, and I know that revenge is a big part of why we will do what we’re going to do. I am very much against violence and yesterday I wanted vengeance. I know that’s a normal reaction to have, but I was ashamed of myself for a while. I just want to do the right thing. And I believe we will.
I feel like nothing will ever be okay again. I’m afraid that I’ll never smile or be happy again. I have a lot of faith in God, but my faith is shaky right now. I am afraid that this will never end. I want someone to make it all go away. I want peace.
The only thing I feel good about right now is that I am proud of my country.
Wow, I just heard the most amazing thing…
A policeman was rescued from the rubble, and he had been on the 86th floor WHEN THE TOWER COLLAPSED. He described the feeling of “riding the building down.” If he can survive an 86-story drop with 20-odd floors on top of him, this gives trememdous hope that there are more survivors. We can only hope that the crews can get in there quickly enough.
There was a report on the BBC about how an Irish national who was one of the workers in the WTC (can’t remember which building) managed to escape injury, only to learn that his sister and niece were on the plane that crashed into his building. Just one of thousands of terrible stories.
People are talking about how they are feeling patriotic for America, their country. But I’m in Australia, and as soon as I heard about this I broke down crying. I didn’t know anyone in the buildings, I live thousands of miles away from all of this, but it’s affected me JUST as hard as anyone living in the US. I couldn’t sleep last night, I kept breaking out into a cold sweat thinking about how if we do go to war, the people I love will surely die fighting for America and how now as a result of this, my whole life has changed forever.
Americans aren’t only patriotic towards the US, I am also and I’m an Australian.
I just wanted to share something i put together a little while ago.
LIVE AND LIVE FIERCELY
Monday was my birthday. The professor in my calculus 2 class gave us a sheet to work on that said Sept.10, 2001. I thought that was neat and figured I’d hold on to it for amusement’s sake. I was up way past my bedtime and had a good day.
Tuesday i woke up to my husband calling to tell me to turn on the news. I flipped on the TV I think just shortly after the last plane hit. I watched the towers and the pentagon burn, and i cried. I watched the towers fall on live TV, and i cried. I heard about the plane crash in washington, and i cried. I cried for the dead, the wounded, the families and friends, the rescuers and volunteers. I cried because there was no way i could get there from Kansas City, Missouri, to help.
Later I went to class and got another sheet from my professor, dated Sept.11, 2001. I put the one from the other day next to this new one, and marveled at how different one day can be from another. And, i cried.
Today, i stopped crying. As i lay in the sunlight streaming through my window, smelling the fresh air and hearing life go on around me, i decided I will no longer mourn. I will not mourn for the loss of these innocents.
Instead, i will live. I will live strongly, i will love fiercely, and I will fulfill my dreams and help those around me to do the same. I will embrace the differences of others and I will rejoyce in whatever we can share. And i will do so, a thousand times over, ten thousand times over, whatever it takes, for everyone that has been lost. It will be hard, my willpower tested, my patience strained and my heart broken. But i will live!
I beg all of you to help me. If you have a heart beating in your chest, then you have the power of life and love that we all need so badly. Help me; help us. Help us live for those who can’t.
Sincerely,
The White Dragon