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By C.T. BOWEN
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 12, 2001
Peter Altman's cell phone rang. Twice. He apologized.
No need.
"We're under attack," the county commissioner said.
A small audience in the Historic Pasco County Courthouse sat stunned. Most everyone had bits and pieces of information about the planes crashing into the World Trade Center. They shared what they knew.
The news grew more dim as Altman took the call in the middle of the meeting.
Washington, D.C., had been attacked, too. The White House is being evacuated. Altman was worried. His grandson was pouring cement at the Redskins' football stadium.
Suddenly, the debate about appraising a former retail store considered for acquisition by the county seemed superfluous. Dickering over a few bucks was inconsequential when people were dying as the nation watched.
Let's give him his building and take a break, Altman urged.
"Him" meant Tax Collector Mike Olson who had proposed that the county buy the former Frank's Nursery and Crafts store on U.S. 19 in New Port Richey. The vote was quick and unanimous.
There was a moment of silence.
The mood switched from somber to disbelief. Harold Sample from the Circuit Court Clerk's Office said he had been in touch with the county's emergency management personnel. They had been following the disaster via television. The Pentagon had been attacked. The south tower of the World Trade Center had collapsed.
Local governing continued, but with fewer observers. Reporter James Thorner and I split from the meeting and headed for our offices across a Dade City street where a television sat on a second-floor shelf. We had been late to the 9:30 a.m. commission meeting because we stayed to watch President Bush's remarks from Sarasota.
We arrived back in time to witness the live shot of the second tower imploding into a smoke-obscured mountain of rubble.
A woman climbed the office stairs to join us. I presumed she was a customer placing a classified advertisement. She turned out to be a tourist. She had driven from Tarpon Springs for a meal at Lunch on Limoges and came to the Times in search of a television.
"Crazy people," she murmured as we saw the replay of the plane crashing into the second tower.
We talked of President Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, with reporters too young to share that memory.
Thoughts went to the Challenger explosion in January 1986. ABC News anchor Peter Jennings said likewise. The fireball from the plane crash into the World Trade Center was reminiscent of the images stamped into our collective memories by the shuttle disaster.
Everyone worried about family and friends. A former co-worker came to the office. She needed a hug.
After a half-dozen attempts over the course of an hour, I reached my spouse's parents in Westchester County, N.Y. My brother-in-law works in Manhattan. They hadn't heard from him, but the dozen-block buffer between his job at New York University and the World Trade towers should provide sufficient safety.
While the county government hurried through its agenda, Pasco's schools tried to maintain a sense of normalcy. My better half spent the morning observing a kindergarten class at Lake Myrtle Elementary School in Land O'Lakes. During her short visit, three children were called to the office. Their parents decided they wanted them at home.
The school's perimeter was closed. Principal Monica Joiner stood out front checking adults' identification before releasing children.
Our neighbor also was a school volunteer Tuesday. She declined to take her first-grader out of class.
How come?
She wanted her daughter to know that school is a safe place to be.