By Jacky Gerzema
Nick Chiechi emerged from Penn Station on Tuesday morning as usual. As soon as he made it to 6th Avenue, he saw the explosion.
"It was surreal," Chiechi said. "I had no idea what was going on. I picked up information from people on the street."
After continuing to his midtown office, Chiechi said the most he and his co-workers could do for the remainder of the day was stare out the window in disbelief. But the next day, Chiechi was back on the platform at the Baldwin train station.
"I'm going back to work today, but I'm not too worried about it," he said. "Public transportation should be fine."
Chiechi did say he was concerned about the threat of bombs around bridges and tunnels.
"Life is different now," he said.
Lisa Pollack, another Wednesday morning commuter, said all her friends are accounted for, but her fiancee's cousin was a firefighter.
"This affects me to the extent that you're calling loved ones, calling friends. Everyone knows someone, or knows someone who knows somebody else in that building, or who was affected by it," Pollack said.
Pollack wondered aloud why Afganistan was still standing.
"New Yorkers are like cats. We always land on our feet and come back full force, but in our hearts, we'll never be the same," Pollack said. "They hit us right at home."
A number of Baldwin residents extended their homes to Manhattanites in need. "I met some strangers who live here, and they took me back to their home yesterday," said one woman at the Baldwin station Wednesday morning who declined to give her name.
She was returning to the city where she lives and works, but not for long. "I'm going back in to get my cat, my boyfriend and my taxes and we're going to hide out for a week or so," she said.
Bladwin residents James and Linda Pettaway were both in the city when the twin towers fell.
"I'm horrified. In a word, stunned," said James, who works XXXX. "I saw the second building come down. Unfortunately I have to go back to work today. There's still work to be done."
Linda said she was not returning to the city immediately or maybe ever.
"I took the rest of the week off and I'm going to look for work around here," she said. "I want to be home. It was a horrible feeling being stuck in the city. All I knew was that my husband was near there. I went to his job which is closer to the World Trade Center than mine, but I just wanted to find him. I found him right away when I got there. He said 'let's go and get out of here' and we left."
Linda's sister worked in the World Trade Center and was trapped going up on the escalator. She was able to get out and caught the last subway to Queens, where she was treated at a trauma center in Jamaica Center.
"She's still in shock," Linda said. "She said they [those trapped at the WTC] were like dogs. They'd rather leap than burn. My sister is still traumatized."
Linda, a New York state corrections chaplain who helps community citizens in need, said she will focus her attention on her family for now.
"Right now my help starts at home with my sister, and once she's okay then I can start helping others," she said. "All we can do now is pray."
