"It was the white noise of the helicopter blades slicing through the air - not the incessant emergency vehicle sirens - that tipped me off that something was wrong. In New York, the chaos - the wailing of an ambulance, the incessant honking of the horns - is so commonplace that it becomes an unnoticed, repeating chorus. Which is why when I heard the sounds of fire engines and cop cars while sitting on the 14th floor"
"By 7 p.m., I slid my laptop into my backpack, took a few last sips of my mango tea and headed to the main area of the co-working space to toss my trash. That's when I started to catch snippets of full-voiced conversations. Something about an active shooter. Something about the building across the street. Something about us being stuck here. That can't possibly be right, I thought. I even asked one guy about whether there was an alternate exit,"
A person in a Midtown Manhattan co-working space initially dismissed emergency sirens and street noise as routine city sound. Helicopter blades eventually signaled that something was wrong, prompting attention. The person worked in a designated "Quiet" room and noticed colleagues gathering, peering out windows, and murmuring. After about half an hour of distraction, the person packed up and moved to a common area, where louder conversations revealed mentions of an active shooter and a nearby building. The person went to the lobby, saw heavy police activity through glass doors, and realized the situation required immediate attention and evacuation.
Read at BuzzFeed
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