Uneasy silence under flight path
Paul Clinton
NEWPORT BEACH -- An eerie silence has blanketed Santa Ana Heights in
the days following terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and
Pentagon.
In the usually bustling neighborhood that lies beneath the John Wayne
Airport flight path, the streets have been quiet and deserted as most
residents have stayed in their homes watching the ongoing coverage of the
aftermath of the bombings.
One woman, who declined to give her name, said she was content staying
at her Pegasus Street home.
“I just feel bad for the people” on the East Coast, she said,
quivering in her doorway.
A Delta Airlines flight heading to Atlanta broke the nearly three-day
silence Thursday shortly after noon as it began a trip to Atlanta.
The flight did not comfort those living in neighborhoods off the
southern tip of the airport. The roar of the jet engines was a sobering
reminder of the deadly power of a fully loaded commercial airliner with a
nearly full tank of fuel.
“We’re waiting for something to happen,” said James Sterner, who lives
on Redlands Drive. “People are scared to death.”
Throughout John Wayne’s flight path, emotions were tight. There could
be no enjoying the rare, unusual quiet when it came at the cost of
perhaps 5,000 people who lost their lives when the trade center’s two
towers collapsed and the Pentagon stood gouged after being struck by
hijacked airplanes Tuesday.
“It’s been surreal, not just with the airlines,” Newport Beach
Councilman Steve Bromberg said. “Not only were the skies clear, the
streets were clear.”
Bromberg and others said they regretted that an act causing so much
devastation and suffering would be the thing that gave their communities
temporary relief from jetliners.
Still others lashed out at hijackers who commandeered four planes
Tuesday. Clem Apeles, who hung a “God Bless America” banner on one of his
trees, said President Bush should show no quarter.
“We need to retaliate,” Apeles said. “There’s no room for mercy.”
Ann Watt, a Santa Ana Heights leader who has long campaigned against
airport noise, said she was sad to watch the devastation caused on the
East Coast.
“I’d rather hear planes any day of the week,” Watt said. “I don’t want
to politicize this horrible tragedy.”
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