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What amazing pictures, did you have to evacuate your apartment because of the dust? There were news reports of how people in the surrounding neighborhood could not go home for weeks.

I was not able to return for a week or so after being evacuated to New Jersey, stuck there until the bridges to Staten Island reopened, and then told that my street was off limits until further notice. At first, my street was a staging area for debris and equipment, but then they finally started escorting us into our apartments, which were void of all utilities. Luckily, I had my windows closed, so the only dust in my apartment was tracked in. You might be able to see in the photos that my neighbors weren't so lucky. Their apartment was completely gray inside since they had their window open that morning.

As they started opening up southern Manhattan, they put up a chain link fence around ground zero. My building was right inside the fence, so I started to get a sinking feeling. Then they started laying cable on the street and covering it with asphalt guarded by cement highway barriers. I started to give up at that point even though the utilities were coming back online one at a time, and I could get my mail at the next closest post office (my old one was accross the street from WTC 7). About mid October they moved the fence one block north, so I could finally move back in, but then I got laid off at work the very next day. Perfect timing! I could no longer justify living in Manhattan without a job, so I moved my meager belongings and myself to Staten Island. The day after I moved, they were diging up all the streets to bury all that new cable. Not very livable down there now that it is a big construction site. Of the 9 units in my building, every one moved out except for the couple next to me. I assume that is because they had to have the place cleaned before they could even get their stuff out.