Though the terrorist attacks that took place one week ago touched everyone in the nation either directly or indirectly, no groups were as close to the events as those in New York and in Washington, D.C.

In particular, New Yorkers at Georgetown have been especially affected by last Tuesday’s events. Not only have New Yorkers here had to face the devastation that occurred at the Pentagon, but they have also had to confront another difficulty, the imminent threat to their homes.

“It was 9 a.m. and my phone started ringing. I thought, who is calling me this early? It was my friend, letting me know there was a hole in the World Trade Center towers, but he did not know exactly how it had happened, ” Kate Morrison (COL ’02) said.

Morrison said it took 12 tries to get in contact with her mother by telephone who works at home in Manhattan, and she kept trying to reach her father but had difficulty because many of the circuits were busy.

Morrison spent most of the day trying to get through to her close friends, with the “dread of calling a person who was not ok.” It did not become reality for her until the following afternoon when she learned a friend of hers from high school who worked on the 95th floor of Tower Two was missing.

“It seems eerie,” Alex Novak (SFS ’04) said. He found out what had happened when a roommate woke him to tell him about the incident at the Pentagon, but did not find out about New York until later. “I couldn’t get through at first, but around 12 or so I finally heard my parents were OK.”

Novak said, “It did not sink in right away, not till Thursday or Friday, Friday night everyone was talking about it, but by Saturday things pretty much seemed normal and I don’t think I talked about it that night.”

“Not to diminish from what other people are feeling, like in California, or anywhere else, but my home was attacked. The World Trade Center towers were a backdrop for everything that I did,” Morrison said. “I think it would have been really hard to see it at a complete standstill.

“Going back will be very different; it will be very difficult.”

Wednesday afternoon an E-mail was sent to 1,014 students in the College whose permanent addresses are in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The E-mail said that though the disaster was difficult for everyone, it was probably particularly painful for the people who live in New York City or in neighboring areas.

“Several students have needed to go home and be with family, but we’re dealing with that on an individual basis,” said Dean of the College Jane D. McAuliffe. “I’ve been very proud of how the Georgetown community responded to this. Both the individual faith services and interfaith services have been a model to the rest of the academic world.”

According to University Registrar John Q. Pierce, the total number of students on all three campuses at Georgetown who have a permanent address in the state of New York is approximately 1,361.

Preliminary statistics indicated the figure is approximately 11 percent of the total student body, including undergraduate and graduate students. Nearly 278 students on main campus are from New York City, according to Pierce.

Some students from New York, especially those from the city, are accustomed to traveling to and from school on the Delta Shuttle.

Several students still have remaining shuttle tickets that are unusable at this time, because Reagan National Airport, the departure airport for the shuttle, is still closed.

Marianne Johnson, part of Delta Airlines’ online support staff, said, “We’re refunding [flight packs] until the 18th but that date may be extended; I’m not sure.”