 But soon everything would change, and that day would become one of
the most extraordinary days in the history of our country.
Following is an account of the day according to Lincoln couple
Tim and Liana McCormick. Tim was in Lincoln that day, Liana in New
York, just a few blocks from the World Trade Center.
TIM
Tim McCormick arose that morning with great expectations of it
being a very nice day. He recalled the sun was shining in Logan
County, the weather was perfect.
As he went about his morning routine, a few things were out of
place, though. First, he woke alone, as his wife, Liana, was out of
town on business. She was scheduled to return to Illinois from New
York City that day, and it was something to look forward to.
Next he discovered that he had no running water in the house.
"Because of that, I had things to do that I didn't usually do.
And, I started my day not turning on the television and not
listening to the news," McCormick said.
Instead, he went to investigate the water problem, found a broken
pipe and water spewing in places it shouldn't be. He called for a
plumber and waited for that person to arrive and resolve the
problem.
Looking back on it now, McCormick said it was an odd thing.
Living in one of the city's oldest historic homes, the Hoblit House,
built in the mid-1800s, McCormick said he'd never had an issue with
the plumbing until that day, and he hasn't had an issue with it
since.
McCormick remembers the day clearly, and the shock he experienced
when his phone rang and it was Liana on the other end.
"The first thing she said was, 'I'm all right, I'm all right,'
but I didn't know what was wrong," her husband said.
As his wife described to him the events taking place just a few
blocks from the hotel where she had stayed, the calamity of a broken
water pipe became a mere inconvenience compared with the
life-threatening situation his wife now faced.
LIANA
Liana McCormick awoke on the morning of Sept. 11 as a guest at
the Marriott Hotel on Lexington Avenue in New York. Located on the
island of Manhattan, she was just a few blocks from the World Trade
Center.
She remembers it as starting out to be a perfect day. From her
room she could see the sky was a clear blue and bright. She still
has vivid memories of the sights and smells of the city as she left
the hotel, stepping out onto the steps of the building.
"New York is a walking city. In the morning the sidewalks are
filled with people," Liana said. "There are a number of little
coffee shops and bakeries, and people stop in for something as they
walk. When you step outside, you can smell all the good smells of
coffee and vanilla and sweets."
She then added, "It was a perfect fall day, the kind of day when
you would think nothing could possibly go wrong."
A representative for a major pharmaceutical company, with her
office in Bloomington, Liana had traveled to New York to attend a
grand opening party for a good client who was opening a new practice
in the city. She had attended the event the night before and was now
anxious to get to LaGuardia Airport and fly back home.
Standing on the steps of the Marriott, she waited for the private
car provided by her company to come and take her to the airport.
In a city of skyscrapers, one has to look straight up to catch
glimpses of the sky. She remembers looking up, and she remembers
what she saw was not the clear blue sky she had seen earlier.
Instead she caught glimpses of a heavy dark cloud with a greenish
hue. Living on the Illinois prairie for over 20 years, she likened
it to a stormy, almost tornado-like sky.
Concerned about the weather, she stepped back into the lobby of
the hotel, hoping to catch a forecast on the television, but instead
what she learned was that a plane had crashed into the north tower
of the World Trade Center. The heavy cloud she saw was actually
smoke emitting from that crash.
For Liana, it was a tragic accident, but there was nothing she
could do about it. Her mind was still on getting to the airport and
getting home to Lincoln.
Back outside, her driver arrived. He was a retired police officer
who now owned his own car service. Liana had been to New York before
and had him as her driver. But this time, he was different from
normal. She recalls that instead of being his usual polite self, he
practically shoved her into the back seat of the car, telling her,
"We have to get out of here." He threw the luggage into the trunk
and headed away from the hotel.
At that point, neither one of them knew what exactly was
happening, but the New York-savvy former police officer did know how
emergency services would respond to this horrible accident. His
hopes of getting Liana to the airport rested on getting off
Manhattan Island before traffic became gridlocked with emergency
vehicles.
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TIM & LIANA
When Liana called Tim, saying she was all right, he hurried to
switch on the television. He then could see for himself the dramatic
scenes she was describing to him over the phone.
At that time, the second plane had not yet hit the World Trade
Center's south tower, and both Tim and Liana believed they had
witnessed a terrible accident.
"I thought it was a commuter plane or a private plane -- a pilot
who'd gotten lost or made a terrible mistake," Tim said.
With New York being a hub for all the major networks, news
cameras were focused in on the World Trade Center literally within a
minute or two of the incident, and they remained focused there.
With a thousand miles between them, Tim and Liana witnessed the
same horrifying scene -- he on television, she in person -- as the
second American Airlines passenger plane dove into the south tower.
Tim, Liana and her driver all knew in an instant -- one plane
could be an accident, two could not. Something horrible was
happening right before their eyes, and they were helpless to stop
it, unable to avoid it.
LIANA
In the chaos of the day, Liana and a retired New York City police
officer-turned-limo driver navigated through the streets of
Manhattan, surrounded by chaos.
Liana said that as she was being driven around Manhattan Island
on that terrible day, she never really felt afraid for her own life.
"I was in a car with someone I trusted. I felt a strange sort of
calm," she said.
She went on to say she believes when one witnesses something so
horrible, the mind and body have a way of shutting down, and that is
what she believes she experienced.
"I did have concerns, though. I didn't know where I was," she
said.
In the bedlam, her driver had taken her away from the scene. Now,
as the second plane tore into the World Trade Center, the bridges
and tunnel were being closed, and Liana felt she was somewhat
trapped in a part of town she'd never seen before.
Adding to her concerns was the fact that at that moment, she and
her driver were on their own. In past trips to New York, and even
this one, her company had provided all of her accommodations, and
she had very little to worry about anything.
Now, she was in a different situation. Thoughts turned to cash,
shelter, gasoline for the limousine and getting out of Manhattan.
Liana recounted that as they drove through the city, she realized
they were indeed on a bridge, even though they perhaps were not
supposed to be.
"Even now, I don't know how he did it, but we got on a bridge and
left Manhattan. By now it was 1 in the afternoon. There were
practically no cars on the bridge, and I remember we stopped and
looked across the river, and it was just devastating."
The two ended up in Sheepshead Bay in the Coney Island district
of Brooklyn. They were lucky enough to find an ATM with cash, and a
gas station to fill the car. Their choices of shelter were not as
desirable as one would have hoped, but Liana said they took it in
stride.
When they checked into the motel, Liana got a room, but the
driver chose to stay in the lobby. She remembers that she did lie
down to rest and fell asleep.
At 3 o'clock the next morning, the driver came knocking on her
door. He had been monitoring the news and had just heard that the
bridges were going to reopen to traffic.
With no air traffic and virtually no rental cars available, Liana
asked the driver to take her to New Jersey, where her company had
corporate offices.
Once she was there, the company found her a place to stay and put
her to work helping with a training seminar they were conducting.
As it turned out, there were several Midwestern attendees at the
training seminar, all in the same predicament, with no way to get
home. After a few days, the company was able to rent some passenger
vans, and the Midwesterners left the East Coast and headed home,
Liana among them.
The main thing she remembers about that trip is that when they
got to her drop-off point in Illinois, Tim was there, in the middle
of the night, waiting for her.
[Adapted from two articles published
in LDN 09/10/2011]
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