title: THE DAY THE WORLD CAME TO TOWN:   9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
author:  Jim DeFede 
description: The events of September 11 have seemingly been covered, analyzed, and discussed from every angle imaginable. So the subject matter alone of Jim DeFede's <i>The Day the World Came to Town</i> makes it noteworthy. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, 38 commercial airliners carrying over 6,000 passengers were forced, as a precautionary measure, to land in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada. Due to the ongoing closure of U.S. airspace, the passengers spent four days in this isolated town of 10,000 before being allowed to continue on their way. In that time, Gander's residents rallied together to extend a kind of hospitality that seems too expansive for the word <i>hospitality</i>. Townspeople not only opened schools and legion halls for use as emergency shelters, they invited the passengers into their homes for showers, meals, and warm beds while local businesses simply gave toiletries and clothing to passengers stuck without luggage. Despite the grim consequences that led to the situation, DeFede finds humor: two flight attendants are offered a car for sightseeing by a local woman who happened to be driving by; the stranded chairman of Hugo Boss finds himself shopping for men's underwear at the local Wal-Mart. But the real message of the book is how, even in times of great turmoil and conflict, people can and must look to one another for comfort, help, and hope. <i>--John Moe</i>
zlib_text:  
  
  The Day the World Came to Town
   
  9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
   
  
  Jim DeFede
   
   
  
  Dedication
   
  For my mother, and in memory of my father
   
  
  Contents
   
  Cover
   
  Title Page
   
  Dedication
   
  Introduction
   
  Day One
   
  Chapter One
   
  Chapter Two
   
  Chapter Three
   
  Chapter Four
   
  
  Chapter Five
   
  Day Two
   
  Chapter Six
   
  Chapter Seven
   
  Chapter Eight
   
  Chapter Nine
   
  Chapter Ten
   
  Day Three
   
  Chapter Eleven
   
  Chapter Twelve
   
  Chapter Thirteen
   
  Chapter Fourteen
   
  
  Chapter Fifteen
   
  Day Four
   
  Chapter Sixteen
   
  Chapter Seventeen
   
  Days Five and Six
   
  Chapter Eighteen
   
  Chapter Nineteen
   
  Epilogue
   
  Acknowledgments
   
  About the Author
   
  Credits
   
  Copyright
  
   
  About the Publisher
   
  
  INTRODUCTION
   
  Where are you going?”
  The man sitting next to me was curious, since we’d both been on the
  same plane from Miami to Montreal, and now, by coincidence, we were
  sitting next to each other on a connecting flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia. It
  was early February and he was on his way home after vacationing in the
  Ca