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Saray Garcia’s reaction to the news? “I was like, World War III!” said the 15 year-old student at Cathedral High School. Twenty minutes after the plane hit the first building, teachers had stopped class, made an announcement and put on Channel 2.

When her uncle came to pick her up at lunch around 11:30 a.m., they walked across the bridge to Queens. They caught a taxi back to her house. “When I got home, my mom was crying. We have an aunt who works down there and she thought my aunt died. She was really worried about us because we’re four kids and my father died.” They watched the news the rest of the afternoon and called their grandparents in Brooklyn.

Later that night, they had a “family reunion” in a restaurant where they met up with their aunt, who turned out to be fine. “My aunt was talking about what happened down there. We were talking about whether we were moving or not.”

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New York state of mind
I n t h e f r a y . c o m written by Jia-Rui Chong | illustrated by jasper@hyperreal.org | Identify | October 8, 2001
In the fray in New York

Part one | Monday, October 8, 2001

Part two | Tuesday, October 9, 2001
Part three | Wednesday, October 10, 2001
Part four | Thursday, October 11, 2001
Part five | Friday, October 12, 2001

The days after

Hanging out on the corner

Upper East Side, September 18, 2001

World War III?

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