NEW YORK -- You can almost judge proximity to "Ground Zero" by the honking horns and number of parking spaces.
The noise of still-bustling Midtown fades to a murmur only a few blocks into Greenwich Village, where cars are prohibited from entering and subways do not stop. And south of Houston Street, the silence of a dead zone stretches from Canal Street to the south shore of Manhattan.
The reactions of New Yorkers seem equally varied -- while some are still searching for missing friends and relatives, others begin to open their businesses and return to their jobs. Many others offer themselves as volunteers at sites throughout the city.
But no one can forget the cloud of smoke and dust that still lingered in the air above them.
"I got out of the subway at Fifth Avenue [and Central Park South] and I looked down Fifth Avenue and it looked like a nuclear bomb," New York University junior Annie Baker said. "It just looked like... a mushroom cloud. It looked like part of Manhattan was missing. There was this beautiful skyline and then there was this hole."
Several people said they were still in shock from Tuesday's events, and many noted that the notoriously quick pace of life in the city had slowed significantly.
"Its the first time ever I've seen New Yorkers not in a rush," second-year NYU graduate student Negeen Yazdi said. "I think it's ridiculous that they're trying to prove how great the city of New York is by opening everything in two days. It's silly and it's dangerous. You can't forget that people are still there under the rubble."
Mourning the missing
People crowd the entrances of hospitals to post photographs of their missing friends and relatives, hoping that passersby might have information. And people said they were trying to figure out how to go on with their lives while waiting to learn about their friends and relatives.
"I still have family that are missing," said one NYU sophomore who asked not to be identified. "I went home last night. I didn't have any clothes or anything [because I was evacuated]. We've got to keep moving and it's very difficult, but people have to get back to work. It's flowing but it's definitely not normal -- the heavy presence of police, the way everyone is walking around looking bewildered... people are still talking about it."
Counseling services are being offered around the city at temporary sites set up to accept overflow from hospitals. And downtown churches remain open to welcome those waiting to hear about family members and friends at nearby hospitals.
"Yesterday the chaplain from St. Vincent's [Hospital] asked that we continue to be open," said Jane Ritter, an usher at the First Presbyterian Church, which has been open for public worship since Tuesday afternoon. "They want a place for people to be able to come.
Volunteers coming together
Hundreds rush downtown to offer moral support, while others travel to designated centers to contribute to the rescue effort. Construction workers, electricians and volunteers arrive on the site, and women distributing coffee and water support workers.
"Shoveling, searching and rescuing -- they have iron workers there and they have everyone doing separate things," said Andre Faria, an insurance broker and volunteer firefighter who spent the day sifting through the rubble. "They have some volunteers that were not experienced and a lot of volunteers that were experienced."
Other pedestrians walk the streets of Greenwich Village trying help people who were wandering around and distribute masks they had made from old T-shirts.
"We're just trying to see if everyone's OK," filmmaker Karen Cinorrey said. "We saw on the news that people were cheering on the rescue workers -- we were thinking about going to do that. I think that the homeless people are drunk and confused, and we should probably get them some masks. We're going to a couple of stores to buy masks."
Hardware stores in lower Manhattan are crowded with people buying protective face masks and gas masks to filter the asbestos and dust in the air. Some workers estimate they sold thousands of the masks.
Businesses offer support
And while many stores and restaurants are closed, others use their proximity to the situation to offer their own kind of support to workers.
At Cafe Alyss, a small bar and restaurant on Thompson Street in Greenwich Village, the storefront doors are opened wide, and a chalked sign out front reads "1/2 off for volunteers and blood donors." Owner Steve Linder sits at an outdoor table offering free drinks to volunteers on their way home.
"We only opened for drinks yesterday," Linder said. "We didn't open for meals, but we had a good crowd. People sitting around talking, commiserating, trying to get back to normalcy. We got a lot of volunteers walking back and mostly we just gave out beers."
Other restaurants and movie theaters find business is slow but returning to normal -- except at Union Square's United Artists Studio, which offered free films and popcorn to the public. And postal workers are back to work in neighborhoods bordering the police barriers -- but wear face masks.
Work in the financial district, however, is nowhere near back to normal. Nick Plagge, a 2001 Wharton alumnus, was employed at Spear, Leeds and Kellogg, located near the World Trade Center at 120 Broadway. Plagge said that his building may have been destroyed, and he knows little of what has happened to his co-workers.
"I think [my building is] still there, but I don't know," Plagge said yesterday, noting that the building next door had already collapsed.
And as to what will happen to his company now: "No clue."
Crisis at NYU
And even at New York University, blocks north of the World Trade Center, students are still evacuated from dormitories and waiting in limbo to return to their homes, classes and lives.
"It's been kind of eerie and surreal," second-year NYU graduate student Vanessa Varalli said. "People are walking around totally stunned."
Students are still barred from entering four residences, leaving about 2,000 students stranded. And NYU's Coles Sports and Recreation Center above Houston Street became a makeshift shelter for 400 students on Tuesday and 50 students on Wednesday. Signs ask students to invite evacuated friends to stay with them, but many camp on the hundreds of yoga mats, high jump mats and cots that are scattered across the gymnasium floor.
"Everyone's been working pretty hard and pulling together," said NYU Director of Athletics Chris Bledsoe, who is running the crisis center. "The university counseling office and the university health service have been giving a lot of good help to people. We were serving food here until yesterday, midday, and now all the residence halls and dining halls are open and are serving food free of charge."
Bledsoe said that NYU is distributing deodorant, soap, shampoo, contact lens solution, clean underwear and socks to students, along with firemen, policemen and doctors who come to rest between shifts.
Daily Pennsylvanian staff writer Tristan Schweiger contributed to this report.
