Thu, Oct 11, 2001 page4

• New Yorkers flee city in aftermath

  EXODUS Truck-rental firms are experiencing a surge in business from people wanting to leave the largest city in the US after the Sept. 11 disaster

  • REUTERS
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  Michael Niewodowski landed his dream job as a chef at the "Windows on the World" restaurant, at the top of the World Trade Center, in the fall of 1999, a few weeks after arriving in New York from his hometown in Florida.

  Two years later, on a crisp September evening, he jumped in his car with only the clothes on his back and started driving south. He rested only when he got to his parents' house in Bradenton, Florida. He went back to stay, with no plans to ever move back to New York.

  "There's nothing left for me there," he said.

  Niewodowski, 27, is among a growing number of New Yorkers who are leaving the city in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. For the first time in years it appears that more people are moving out of the city than into it.

  Truck-rental company U-Haul, for instance, said the number of outbound moves exceeded inbound by 18 percent between Sept. 12 and Sept. 25. In the two weeks before the attacks, inbound moves outnumbered outbound moves by 7.4 percent. Moving companies throughout the city have reported a rise in bookings and requests for estimates. Real estate offices outside the city have been busy as well.

  The urge to move was just one of the many responses in a city where millions viewed the devastating attacks unfold. Some New Yorkers have simply relocated to the suburbs, say moving companies. But a portion are set to cut all links to the city and go far away -- and they are willing to quit good jobs and uproot themselves and their families to do so.

  People living and working near ground zero have shown the most emotional and immediate responses.

  Radio producer Jule Gardner was at her job at New York radio station WNYC when the two hijacked planes smashed into the towers. She was evacuated with her co-workers from the building at 1 Center Street, a few blocks from the burning towers, and fled across the Brooklyn Bridge to her apartment.

  "I turned around and saw the first tower collapse, then everything disappeared in a cloud of smoke and dust," she said.

  When Gardner went back to work the following Monday, she couldn't go her usual way across the still-closed Brooklyn Bridge. Even if she could, however, she wouldn't have.

  "What I loved about New York was walking over the bridge to go to work. After [the attacks] I couldn't do it without reliving that morning. It was always there," she said. "You walked around and could taste the concrete. There was no way to get away from it."

  The following weekend Gardner went to Erie, Pennsylvania, to a friend's wedding. For the first time since the tragedy she felt serene. That same week she found an apartment in Erie, quit her job, packed her things and moved to Pennsylvania.

  "I couldn't go back to my old life in New York, because it wasn't there anymore. I decided that my career is not that important."

  Windows chef Niewodowski was supposed to start work at 10am Sept. 11, just over an hour after the attacks began. But he knew immediately that there would be no work that day.

  "I saw everything from my apartment," Niewodowski said.

  His first impulse was to track down colleagues. Over the next day and a half, Niewodowski discovered he'd lost 79 co-workers -- most of whom were also good friends. He also lost his job, and all his interest in the glamorous lifestyle of the busiest city in the world.
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