Day
1, Sister Tzu Ding Shih's Diary, September 11 World Trade Center
Terrorist Attack
|
Reported by Tzu Ding Shih,
Commissioner, New York Branch Office
|
> Day 1: 9/11
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
September 11, 2001
Around nine o'clock in the morning,
I came home after exercising in the park. When I turned on
the television, the first thing I saw was an image of thick
smoke coming from the World Trade Center. I thought it was
a special effects shot from some movie, but as I watched I
learned that it wasn't a movie, but a terrible tragedy happening
in real life! Around ten minutes before, fires had started
at the World Trade Center after a plane crashed into it. It
happened during the work day, and there were around 40,000
people in the building. Oh heavens! This tragic scene immobilized
me. I knelt in front of a statue of the Buddha and cried.
I prayed that the bodhisattvas would be merciful and save
the people in the midst of so much pain!
Around 9:40, I called the Tzu Chi New York branch office,
but no one answered. I called a few other commissioners, but
they were all at work. Around 10, I called the office again,
and Brother Lin Chi-yi picked up the phone. He didn't know
what was happening, so I told him to turn on the news. After
I hung up the phone, I rushed to the office. Many Tzu Chi
members had already gathered there to watch the news on television.
At that moment, Manhattan was filled with smoke and the roads
were sealed. No one from Queens could get in, and no one from
the city could get out. I just remembered that my husband,
Ji-cheng, had gone to the United Nations first thing in the
morning to conduct interviews at the opening of the new session
of the General Assembly, so I immediately called him on the
cell phone. I called several times, but I couldn't get through.
My daughter and one of my sons had also gone to work in Manhattan
first thing in the morning, and I couldn't reach them either.
But I believed that they would all be safe.
Many Tzu Chi members called to ask if the branch office would
do something to help immediately. But traffic was blocked,
so the volunteers could only wait in the office. Around 1
pm, Sister Su called from Amsterdam Hospital to let us know
that the hospital she worked at was starting a blood drive.
She hoped that we could call for members or the general populace
to donate blood at the hospital.
By 3 in the afternoon, the volunteers had already made posters
in Chinese and English. We wrote "Please Donate Blood
for the WTC Victims." Around seven or eight volunteers
stood at the entrance of the office, holding the signs. Soon,
people started gathering and asking where to donate blood.
But the blood donation vehicle still hadn't arrived. So Brother
Lin and Brother Chang went to the nearby New York Hospital
to ask, and found out that so many people were donating blood
that the medical personnel couldn't come to the office on
time. The volunteers then asked people to fill out blood donation
forms and delivered the forms to the hospital, so that the
hospital could notify people about times to donate blood.
I could see that people were so full of love, and made no
distinctions of race or religion. To save others, they each
did what they could. They exemplified the best of humanity.
It's one of the few comforting thoughts that came out of this
moment of misfortune.
Brother Wayne Liu, who worked on the twenty-eighth floor of
the World Trade Center, escaped the tragedy because he was
late. Around 10, the office received the news that he was
safe. Everyone worried about Brother Lee Yang-der, because
he worked at the top of the World Trade Center. We called
his house, but no one answered. We finally reached his wife,
Sister Lee Mei-Je. She anxiously said that she hadn't heard
from her husband since he went to work around 7. We tried
to comfort her by saying that he was a fortunate person and
nothing would happen to him. When a bomb exploded in the basement
garage of the World Trade Center in 1993, Brother Lee had
something to take care of on the top floor instead of taking
his usual nap in the basement, so hopefully he was all right
this time. Around 10 that night, I called her again. She sobbed
and said that she hadn't heard from him at all. As time went
on, her hope was diminishing and she was prepared for the
worst. All I could do was ask her to recite the sutras and
ask for protection from the bodhisattvas. I told her that
we were all there for her, and she could call us anytime.
After I put down the phone, we all felt so sad. We remembered
that my husband and I were there when Brother Lee's son got
married on August 12. Life is so impermanent! How can we not
look at the heavens and sigh?
In such a short period of time, the world has changed so much.
A building as grand and tall as the World Trade Center turned
into history in a moment. Now it only exists in our memories.
After this scary day, my heart was so heavy. In the morning
I watched the planes crash into the building, engulfing it
in fire. Then the smoke rose, the skyscrapers fell, and people
ran for their lives. Each heart-rending scene replayed itself
in my mind, like a nightmare.
