Dana Newman, 55, a sales associate at Brooks Brothers in midtown Manhattan, called his family from work after the biggest terrorist attack in US history. Then he headed to Grace Church in Greenwich Village.
Newman and fellow parishioners at the Episcopal church set up a table from which they offered water and lemonade in paper cups to people -- some of them covered in dust and wearing paper masks -- who were making their way uptown from the attack site at the World Trade Center.
"It's a way to do God's work in a very difficult time," said Newman. He planned to donate blood for victims of the attack, which occurred this morning when two hijacked commercial planes slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, causing explosions that destroyed the buildings. A plane also crashed into the Pentagon.
Other New Yorkers fled midtown office buildings, trying to find a place away from possible danger.
"This is Pearl Harbor times 10," said Michael Vass, who left his job at midtown brokerage firm Westrock Advisors Inc and ended up at the Subway Inn bar at 60th Street and Lexington Avenue. "This seemed like a smart place to be. There are no tall buildings around here and nothing important," said Vass as he sipped a bottle of Heineken beer.
Vass walked the 20 blocks north with colleague Barbara Lorenzo, a sales assistant, from their offices in the Helmsley Building near Grand Central station. They spent the morning calling their families and watching the news.
Lorenzo, who lives in Queens, and Vass, who lives in the Bronx, said they didn't expect to be getting home anytime soon because the subways weren't running. (Most service has since been restored.) "This is going to be where we stay," he said.
Other New Yorkers worried about having money and supplies in the event the city shuts down for several days. A line at the Citibank on Park Avenue and 57th Street was more than a dozen people long. A periodontist, Dr Carl Caravana, who had sent his staff home and cancelled his patients for the day, was waiting in line, where all the automatic teller machines were still working.
"I decided I'd better get some cash," he said.
About 75 people were in line to buy groceries at the Food Emporium on Third Avenue near Gramercy Park. Some shoppers had carts that were full to the brim, and said they were unsure how they were going to carry all their purchases home. An employee at the store was directing people to cash registers.
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