Region responds to terrorist attacks

This story was updated at 5:20 p.m. Wednesday.

By: Jeff Milgram
   Central Jersey residents woke up Wednesday with the knowledge that Tuesday’s nightmarish terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were all too real.
   "It was one of the scariest things I ever experienced," said Keith Duckett of East Windsor, after getting off a NJ Transit train early Tuesday evening at Princeton Junction, soot covering his shoes.
   He said he was able to see the entire sequence of events at the World Trade Center from his office window.
   "The Trade Center literally burned and collapsed right before my eyes," he said. "The streets were like a morgue. It was literally silent. I never experienced anything like it. On the street, people were putting wood together to put bodies on."
   People gathered in churches and synagogues to pray for the safety of the victims of the attack. Or they watched in disbelief as the extent of the devastation was shown on TV sets in area restaurants and bars.
   Rail service to New York City from Princeton Junction resumed Wednesday and NJ Transit trains were free. The highway tunnels into New York City remained closed Wednesday.
   By 9 a.m. Wednesday, it was virtually impossible to find a daily newspaper in Princeton.
   William Boyle, an officer in Princeton University’s Department of Public Safety, said the smoke from the World Trade Center collapse could be seen from the roof of the university’s Fine Hall.
   University President Shirley M. Tilghman told freshmen at a previously planned class gathering in Richardson Auditorium on Tuesday evening that Princeton would keep its regular schedule this week to demonstrate that terrorism will not stand in the way of higher education.
   "What has transpired today is antithetical to everything we stand for in the academy — respect for others, solving differences through human discourse," she said. "We will get on with the business of education."
   At a candlelight vigil sponsored by the university’s Office of Religious Life Tuesday evening, hundreds of students, faculty and staff came together in McCosh courtyard to pray, observe moments of silence and sing.
   "We gather to share our shock and sorrow, our grief and fear and our outrage and confusion," said Sue Anne Steffey Morrow, associate dean of religious life. "We gather to pray for strength and courage that we might be channels for peace and understanding."
   About 200 people gathered Tuesday afternoon at a "town meeting" in Robertson Hall, where a faculty panel assembled by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs explored the emotional, moral and political implications of the tragic events.
   Emeritus Professor Robert Gilpin, who was in the audience, captured the magnitude of the occasion: "I think this day will always be etched in your minds, whatever your politics are. The world was never the same after Pearl Harbor; it was never the same after the Kennedy assassination. This country will never be the same after this day."
   Area first aid squads sent personnel and equipment to staging areas in North Jersey before they were sent into lower Manhattan, where the World Trade Center was located.
   Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad Chief Greg Paulson said Wednesday that one ambulance with a five-member EMT crew was deployed to the disaster area 8 a.m. Wednesday. The EMTs were put up overnight in Newark, he said.
   "I’m mostly concerned about them," Chief Paulson said.
   Local emergency personnel remained on standby into the night following the attack, the chief said.
   Princeton Township Police Lt. Mark Emann said two officers and two firefighters, all four trained as EMTs, arrived 10 p.m. Tuesday at a staging area in the Meadowlands sports complex.
   The team escorted a truck carrying oxygen and other emergency supplies into New York City through the Lincoln Tunnel.
   "They got as close as 20 blocks away," Lt. Emann said. "They said it was just absolutely quiet, but there were lines and lines of ambulances lined up, just waiting."
   Lt. Emann said township police have activated the township Office of Emergency Management, and said personnel are available to assist in New York if needed.
   The American Red Cross of Central New Jersey in West Windsor activated its disaster-response team Tuesday and two emergency response vehicles were sent to lower Manhattan to assist in the relief effort.
   Eighteen minutes apart, two commercial jets crashed into both of the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan’s financial district. About a half hour later, another jet crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Va.
   The attacks forced the evacuation of lower Manhattan and the closure of all bridges and tunnels between New York and New Jersey.
   The Medical Center at Princeton was placed on alert and was prepared to treat large number of patients, spokeswoman Carol Norris said Tuesday morning. The Medical Center held a blood drive Tuesday.
   Today the blood drive continues until 10 p.m., but only those with O-positive and O-negative blood are asked to attend. The blood drive resumes for all blood types on Thursday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Anyone who has not given blood in at least eight weeks is eligible to donate. Call (609) 497-4366 for more information.
   Princeton University students will hold a separate blood drive later.
   Princeton Airport in Montgomery Township was secured, Montgomery Township Administrator Donato Nieman said.
   First aid squads in Montgomery and Rocky Hill also sent ambulances and crews for a North Jersey staging area.
   In West Windsor, two members of the emergency services staff were sent to North Jersey, where they will take part in the operations in New York City as part of the state’s Urban Search and Rescue Team, according to Jim Yates, the township’s emergency service director.
   The Plainsboro Township Police Department contributed volunteer fire and rescue personnel as well as police and EMS personnel to the Middlesex County Office of Emergency Management emergency operations center, the staging area for countywide response in providing assistance to New York City, according to a Police Department press release.
   Plainsboro police ask that calls regarding the incident be directed to the non-emergency telephone number (609) 799-2333. Updates on response efforts and resources can be found on the township information line, (609) 799-0909.
   Schools remained open Tuesday.
   The Princeton Regional and West Windsor-Plainsboro districts called in crisis teams and counselors to assist students and staff.
   Princeton Regional schools have identified several students in the district whose parents have not been accounted for following Tuesday’s attack, according to Superintendent Claire Sheff Kohn.
    Princeton public schools were placed in a "lockdown," and students spent recess periods indoors. Only one entrance at each school was open and visitors had to be let in by a school official
   All after-school activities were canceled in Princeton schools. West Windsor-Plainsboro public information officer Gerri Hutner said all after-school programs were canceled, and teachers will be sent on buses to make sure there is someone at home at the end of school.
   A West Windsor-Plainsboro Board of Education crisis-management team made up of administrators, teachers and guidance counselors met early Wednesday morning to prepare for the school day.
   Clergy will be available to students in the middle and high schools.
   Officials from the Montgomery School District placed a teacher on each of the 46 buses from Orchard Hill and Village Elementary schools to counsel students who might have become distraught during the journey home on Tuesday, but assistant to the superintendent Jack Rotter said that there were no incidents.
   Students were instructed to telephone police if no parents were there to greet them when they arrived home, but again, there were no incidents. Montgomery police and Township Committee members also said they had heard of no local incidents.
   "Apparently, our community wasn’t affected to the degree that we had feared it would be," Mr. Rotter said. "We had a boring day, thank God."
   Rep. Rush Holt (D-12) and his staff were evacuated from the Capitol on Tuesday, said the congressman’s press secretary, Peter Yeager.
   A statement issued by Rep. Holt that afternoon said: "I am deeply saddened by today’s tragic events. My prayers and thoughts are with the families of victims and the heroic rescue workers involved in responding to this crisis. Today’s cowardly assault on the people of this country and on the values of our democracy should not go unpunished. The true strength and character of the American people will rise to meet today’s attack. Our democracy, and the freedom we hold sacred, will prevail."
   United Ways of the region are joining with the United Way of New York City in establishing a relief fund to aid victims, the September 11th Fund. Mail checks to United Way of New York City, 2 Park Ave., New York, NY 10016.