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First-person account: Senators running around like everyone else after the attacks By
Amy McIff, with introduction and additions by Julie Sulunga
There will never be a time in my life when I won't forget the bewilderment, shock and disbelief I felt when I turned on the news to see the World Trade Center on fire and to hear from my boss that we had been attacked earlier in the day by terroists. I can't even begin to fathom how it must of felt for the people in New York City or Washington, D.C., where the events actually took place. They saw these horrible events take place right in front of their eyes. One of Utah State's interns in downtown D.C., a few miles from the Pentagon, is Amy McIff. Her first account of the event, pretty much in her own words but with some of mine as well, in brackets, is what follows. • • • I got to work at around 9 a.m., Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday morning right after the World Trade Center had been bombed. I had no idea what I was walking into, however, because it takes me 40 minutes to get to work from my apartment. Many of my co-workers were shocked I didn't already know. We have televisions all over our office and the people I work with, as well as myself, were just glued to them watching all that was going on. At around 20 minutes to 10 a.m., the office received word or someone in our office heard that the Pentagon had been hit as well. We didn't know whether to leave our offices or stay. We were not in a good place -- the building that is connected to the west of ours is right across the street from the capital. If they were to attack, there were so many places on the Hill that were likely targets that could get hit, there wasn't anywhere that was totally safe. I saw people running out of the buildings; people were just running all over the place. There was no formal signal as to leave or where to go, or what to do. Everything was chaotic. There was no direction. There were senators walking around like everyone else, and that is pretty rare because they usually access the buildings through secret walkways underneath the street. We then decided to exit to the south side of our building, which is Constitution Avenue. Once we were out there though, we decided to go back inside. [ After much speculation, Amy and some of her co-workers decided to head home, the drive home was even scary because the freeway runs right in the middle of everything. It runs right by the side of the Pentagon, she could see the fire and smoke from the freeway on her way home. ] I also rode home with one of the guys who works in my office and he has a major dealing with terroist relations and he said that the attack of the Pentagon is only the first part of their attack. He said soon there will be car bombs going off. It had me very scared because I realized anything could happen. [ Her apartment building where she resides in Washington was all smoky because it is about 18 blocks away from the Pentagon. The hotel by her apartment building was being used as a relief center for counciling family members and victims. ] [ The next day McIff was told to report back to work. She also learned that all the freeways into the Capital were closed. ] The feeling in the office was an unsettling one because you felt like you didn't know if there was an end to things and there was so much you didn't know. The attack, however, has pre-empted a lot of new work for me that I don't normally have to do. [ Though McIff can't speak for Senator Orrin Hatch, she feels that he "feels that it is an awful thing to have happened in such a proactive approach and also very concerned." ] There is still some shock in the capital. What do we do next? There is this huge hole in the Pentagon, it just dosen't seem like it happened and than you wonder if there is more to come, it makes you worry. This whole experience has made me appreciate how valueble things and life is. It also helped to make me see how life is for other people isn't like the life in the United States. Everything is so good here and we as people always feel that that's the way life is everywhere even though people are starving in Ethiopia. It also scarry to think that we are still at the whim of terroists who have people that will die for their cause and that is why they pose such a significant threat.
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