Former Iowans witness New York carnage

Two former Grinnell residents work in New York City near the site of the terrorist attacks today on the World Trade Center. Jeff Wasney works in the World Financial Center right across the street from the Trade Center. Wasney was on his way to work when the first hijacked plane hit. He says he heard a loud noise as he was walking across the street and he got a radio call that there had been explosions. Wasney went to his office and began evacuating personnel. Wasney was able to get out of the area.He was taken two miles away by a fishing boat in an emergency evacuation. Even miles away, he can still see the carnage and a plume of smoke and debris. He says “it’s amazing the number of pedestrians on the street.”Brenda Michaels, a Grinnell native who works as a fashion designer in New York City, says her office is quite a ways away from the World Trade Center, but she had a clear view of the buildings. She says they saw the fire in the first building and didn’t know what happened. She called her mom and says co-workers saw the second plane fly into the World Trade Center.Michaels watched as the second tower of the Trade Center collapsed. She says everything was flying all over.Michaels says debris flew all the way to her building, breaking windows in the process. She says she’s never seen anything like, “it was unbelievable.”Creston, Iowa, native J-R Flynn works half a mile from the Pentagon in Washington, and heard a loud boom this morning. He says the windows shook like it was a thunderstorm. Flynn went outside, and Pentagon workers were running across the street.Flynn lives on Capital Hill, and it was an eight-mile-walk home, but says he ran all the way home. Flynn had a one o’clock meeting scheduled in the Pentagon.