TRAVEL TALES

Young Chang

Nora Novak took a trip to Antwerp, Belgium early last month. She

visited her mom. She had a nice time. She got on a plane to head home to

Newport Beach.

That’s where the story starts.

It was Sept. 11 and Novak’s flight departed from a Brussels airport,

headed for Newark, N.J. The mixed-media artist and receptionist for the

Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach had planned to take a

connecting flight to John Wayne Airport.

She’s still not sure how close they were to Newark when the captain

announced that commercial planes had been hijacked, the World Trade

Center towers had crumbled and a plane had hit the Pentagon. Details were

scarce during the announcement. The plane crash near Pittsburgh wasn’t

mentioned.

Everyone was to fasten their seat belts and remain calm as they made

an emergency landing on St. John Island in Newfoundland.

“Just hearing it, inside the plane, it was hard to imagine the

devastation. Everyone was kinda freaked out,” Novak said. “Everybody was

starting to look at each other.”

Nobody knew just how bad things were on land in the U.S. And nobody

imagined that for the next five days, with only a toothbrush given them

by the airline, they’d be stranded in Canada with simply the clothes on

their backs.

Almost 30 planes landed on the runway of the small St. John Island

town, population 4,000, that unforgettable morning. The total number of

passengers and crew members in the airport totaled 4,500.

“They had to figure out what to do with us,” Novak exclaimed.

After 12 hours of sitting on the tarmac -- Novak watched every movie

offered and finished her Motley Crue book while some members of the

flight crew took desperate cigarette breaks, leaning out the door --

passengers were bused to a sports arena. For safety reasons, women were

only allowed to take their purses, and men could only take their wallets.

After receiving the free toothbrush, free phone-calling privileges and

a ride to a nearby shelter from the sports arena, Novak arrived at the

Home for the Handicap. Everyone was taken to a different place.

She slept on a blanket in this haven and didn’t get to shower until

the next day, when she was bussed to the YWCA.

“It was roughing it, I tell you,” Novak laughed. “No combs, no

conditioners... donuts around the clock. If I never see donuts, that will

be fine.”

After a couple days, nearby residents in the intimate town had heard

about the “passenger people.” Families even visited the shelters to host

as many of the weary travelers as they could. An Irish Catholic family

took Novak in.

“All their neighbors came to look at me,” she said. “They said, ‘Oh!

You’re the passenger girl.’ Teenagers, dogs, everyone came to have a look

at me.”

Throughout the five days, Novak had let her museum co-workers, friends

and family know the situation. She watched quite a bit of CNN while on

St. John Island. She got to know the details of Sept. 11, but from afar.

Be it from jet lag, sheer distance or the fact that she was displaced,

Novak didn’t start grieving until later, when the rest of the country had

reached the first weekend after the attacks and news coverage aired

memorial services back to back.

“You didn’t feel the impact the same,” Novak said. “The whole

experience was so surreal. It didn’t hit me until I was home.”

* Have you, or someone you know, gone on an interesting vacation

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Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627; e-mail [email protected]; or fax to

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