I was working at the time as a tourist guide for Misa Tours Int’l and I was doing a tour starting in Quebec and ending in New York with a group of 40 French tourists, aboard a company coach. Bell Horizon of Cap-de-la-Madeleine. The group was, in principle, to leave for France on September 12…
The trip went like a charm until Tuesday morning the 11th.
That morning, our coach leaves our hotel in Newark to cross the Lincoln Tunnel and take us into Manhattan, where our local guide, Simone, is waiting for us….
As we have to eat lunch in Chinatown, which is to the south of the city, she begins her guided tour with Central Park. Afterwards, we must descend south and, weather permitting, stop at the World Trade Center. It was as the bus turned south onto Fifth Avenue that everyone on board noticed the immense plume of smoke rising above the downtown buildings.
– « Hey, a big fire! » said Simone, no more upset than that.
In New York, you can never see far because of the skyscrapers, so it’s impossible to tell which building is on fire. However, as we head in that direction, and seeing the immensity of the cloud, I think that a fire this big might force the police to close streets and make the trip to Chinatown complicated. I decide to check with the restaurant owner. I report the number on my cell phone. Line is busy.
While Simone continues her explanations, I make several other attempts and still without result. Little by little I notice the large number of New Yorkers coming out into the street and looking towards the cloud of smoke. Several are typing frantically on their phones and don’t seem to be able to get through either, judging by their frustrated expressions.
Finally, the bus stops for a photo stop at Trump Tower. Someone shouts something to our driver. He uses Simone to translate what the New Yorker says to him.
Simone explains to the passengers that, according to the individual, a helicopter had just hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) and that we do not know whether it was an attack or an accident. In fact, all kinds of rumors circulate among passers-by: a plane, a helicopter, two planes, a large and a small aircraft, an accident, an attack, etc. I ended up finding an unoccupied public telephone. Unable to reach the restaurant so call the Misa Tours office in Victoriaville to find out if we have another number to reach them.
This is where they explain to me what is happening: it is an attack, two planes have hit the twin towers. In Victoriaville, like everywhere in the world, we knew what had happened. You had to be in New York not to be able to find out!
Obviously, it’s impossible to go to a restaurant in Chinatown. The police make us turn back. We stop on a street corner surrounded by several restaurants to eat. Simone leaves us to go looking for her daughter who was going to school near the WTC (I found out later that she was unharmed).
Having turned on the radio, I learned that the island of Manhattan was going to be evacuated, but on foot. Only the Tappan Zee Bridge, located completely north of the city, remains open to vehicles.
In the midst of chaotic and extremely slow traffic due to detours (the main arteries leading to hospitals were reserved for emergency vehicles), and pedestrians (eight million pedestrians!), it will take us eight hours to get back to our hotel in Newark. The reverse journey, through the Lincoln Tunnel, had taken us twenty minutes in the morning.
The next day, September 12, 2001, was to be the last day of the tour, the day my passengers had to fly from John F. Kennedy Airport to France. Of course, that’s impossible.
In fact, we are going to spend the week in the hotel, waiting for seats to be found on a plane to allow my clients to return to France.
Finally, on Saturday morning, September 15, I received a phone call.
– « André, leave for Montreal right away, we have a flight for your group leaving from Dorval (which wasn’t yet called PET) this afternoon! »
I’ve never seen tourists pack their bags so quickly. It will take us five hours to get from Newark to the Canadian border, which is probably a record for a tourist bus.
As soon as the passengers disembark in Dorval, I release the coach as I was instructed. At the airline kiosk, the attendant tells us that no one has heard of us and that, no, there is no space on any flight! The error, however, comes from the airline which pays for the tourists’ hotel room for the night.
The next morning, we finally found them places on a flight leaving from… Boston! We also found a bus to take them there.
It is therefore from Boston that my tourists will leave. I am replaced for this last part of the journey and I (finally) return home. It’s rare for a historian to experience a historical event on site!
2023-09-11 11:33:52
#September #York #Drummondville #historian #André #Pelchat #tells #experienced
