Escaping devastation

By Deborah Lilly

Robin Wood BA ’77, MDiv ’80 (member of the AU Board of Trustees) and Carma (Withrow) Wood AA ’82, BA ’82 of Arizona had just spent the weekend enjoying the U.S. Tennis Open in New York City. They received the trip as a gift. “It was one of those treats someone does for a pastor,” explains Robin. They planned to stay two extra days to take in a musical and enjoy the view from their corner room in the Embassy Suites, less than two blocks from the World Trade Center complex.

Robin was in the shower Tuesday morning when he felt the hotel rock. “Does New York City have earthquakes?” he asked his wife. Carma was already watching the live television coverage. There was no mention of terrorists — only that a plane had struck one of the Twin Towers.

Robin walked down to the corner and joined a police officer looking up at the billowing smoke. From that corner, they never saw the second plane. They assumed the sound of the second crash was a secondary explosion from the first crash.

Back inside the hotel, Robin learned otherwise. He and Carma discussed what to do. The hotel loudspeaker was asking everyone to stay in the hotel. Then the hotel shook again and the electricity went off. Robin and Carma thought a third plane had hit; instead, one of the towers had tumbled to the ground. The hotel was immediately evacuated. “All we had time to do was grab our IDs,” says Robin.

Still unaware of the falling building, they were surprised to find the white powder of crumbled cement falling from the sky. Five blocks from the World Trade Center, they were able to reach Carma’s mother in Anderson, Ind., by cell phone. They had enough time to reassure her before the second building collapsed.

“It was the loudest thing I’ve ever heard,” remembers Robin. “It was like an earthquake. We were looking at it and it fell right in front of us. It just threw out cement. It was just horrendous.” Robin and Carma ran. When they felt safe to walk again, they found themselves in a silent exodus of thousands of people escaping Manhattan.

Robin and Carma walked seven and a half miles to 50th and Broadway, home of Hilton’s Doubletree Inn. A connection through a friend secured them a room. They stayed at the hotel until early Sunday morning, when they were able to get a flight back home to Arizona.

Robin arrived home in time for the 10 a.m. worship service. His congregation had grown from 1,600 to 2,600 in one week. “It was like an Easter attendance,” says Robin. “We had standing room only for two services.” But this time they came for comfort instead of celebration.

For Robin, this has been a lesson in relationships. He was touched by the 17 phone messages from friends and family to his cell phone on Sept. 11. He’s learned that Carma and their three children — Leah, Annie and Brady — are more important than the number of things he can accomplish in a day. And there’s a new urgency in helping people develop a relationship with God.

“Relationships are the most important thing in life,” says Robin. “People in those towers who only had a few minutes left to live called to tell someone they loved them. They took time to e-mail their son or their daughter. That says something about what’s important to God and to us.”