Monday, January 5, 2009

Today....Maxine's report

Report from Maxine Dorot, an Ashkelon resident of a missile fall a few hours ago: Ashkelon: 19:04 There we were, a sunny Monday morning, averaging maybe one grad/hour from about 10:30 the morning. And once again, the siren wails, we run downstairs under a hallway in my mother-in-law's house. My neice and one of my sons were with here and just as this parade of Dorots gets to the hall, this enormous "BOOM!" shakes the house. "It's here!" my son and husband yell together. "Nobody move!" We waited for less than a minute (although you have to wait 5 but we couldn't) and ran outside, noticing that the window over the kitchen sink had a huge hole in it and what was left was all cracked. Smoke was coming from the houses across the street and at first, we thought it was there. Then we thought it had landed around our friends' house behind those houses and knowing Miki was alone and on the hysterical side, ran over to her house. By the time we got to the corner, sirens, ambulance, police, Home Front Command, t.v., cameramen, neighbors I hadn't seen for years and neighbors I had never seen in my life, you name it, were already there and the police were taping the site with red tape, like the kind they use at a crime scene (well, it is a crime...). We ran across the street to Miki's and by the time we got there, not more than 5 minutes after the grad had landed, teams of Home Front Command were already going door to door to see if everyone was okay. Amazing! After making sure our friend was okay (her husband had to leave his car 2 blocks away and walk because the street was full of service vehicles) we made our way back home but of course, I had to see what was going on. The grad had landed only a few feet from the last house on the street, one owned by a rabbi and his wife (daughter of the city rabbi) and I kept staring and repeating "It's a miracle" because it was. It's also the route we take daily when walking the dog at night. A miracle. A tiny bit to the left or right, a little bit more to the east or west and it would have landed on a house....maybe even mine! As I was standing there, I was approached by a Brazilian newsman (Global TV) who asked if he could speak to me. The first thing I thought of was "Aww! No make-up!" but what the heck, no one in Brazil knows me. Suddenly, in the middle of our interview, there was another alarm and everyone ran, literally, for his life. I followed some Home Front people and we ran into the yard of a house and crouched low; others just went down, flat on the ground, hands over their heads. It was like being in a movie. Totally surreal and unreal. There may have been, 30 seconds earlier, 60-70 people on site and within seconds, everyone had scrambled and except for the 3 on the ground, there wasn't anyone there. After the all-clear, only some of the crowd went back towards "my grad" while the rest went running up the road towards the 2nd one which had fallen in a neighborhood about 6 minutes away by car. My phone started ringing and it was my husband screaming, "Where are you? Get home!" and this time I did. Fast. We've gotten invitations from so many people to stay with them til this is over, people we know well, vaguely or not at all, and this is what makes this country special. Meanwhile we're here. We figure the statistics are on our side, but if we do leave, it'll be to a hotel somewhere in the country that gives special rates to refugees from the north. And I'll make sure it's a 5 star one. Maxine ----------------------------------- There is an article in www.ashkelonim.co.il that Ehud Barak rented an apartment in Ashkelon, and furnished it with furniture he bought in Ashkelon at the popular furniture store Tiv Rehitim. You can see a photo of the bedroom suite that he purchased on the site. We are wondering if and when he will spend the night here? http://www.ashkelonim.co.il/index.php?act=articles&id=3111

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