NEW YORK CITY — Days after a bomb exploded in Chelsea and injured 29 people, New Yorkers started the work weak with a mix of extra caution and resolve.
Some took extra time to say goodbyes their families before leaving for work.
“I'm reticent when I kiss my husband and daughter goodbye in the morning,” said an Upper West Side mother who said she had remained fearful after living in New York City during 9/11 .
“Saturday made it even harder.”
Jessica, 30, from the Upper West Side, made sure to tell her husband she loved him before he left for work near Rockefeller Center.
“We don't really know what's going to happen, but you have to keep living,” she said.
Eight bombs were found in New York and New Jersey over the weekend, two of which exploded — one in Seaside Park, N.J., on Saturday morning and another on West 23rd Street near Sixth Avenue Saturday night.
The six remaining bombs were found by thieves who had sought to steal the bags that contained them — one bomb was found on West 27th Street Saturday evening and five pipe bombs were found near an NJ Transit station in Elizabeth, N.J., Sunday night.
Police have since identified a suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, an Afghanistan-born naturalized citizen from Elizabeth who was captured Monday.
“I didn’t expect to feel a little bit scared,” said Emily Hooper, 26, from Inwood, as she waited for the A train to take her downtown. Hooper said the bombs brought up memories of 9/11 that she thought she had forgotten.
“You get all those memories and traumas,” she said. “The fear is now, I guess, there.”
Others said they were trying not to think about it too much.
"I'm just going with the flow," said Cynthia Lemaitre, a Brownsville resident who was traveling to Long Island for her job from Brooklyn's Atlantic Terminal Monday morning.
President of the Fortieth Precinct Community Council president Gabriel DeJesus warned New Yorkers to be vigilant after what the attack.
“We have to be looking out at all times," DeJesus said. “We have to be on our toes.”
“It’s definitely scary,” said Emma Bryant, a barista from New Zealand who has lived in Bushwick for six months. “If I were to see something suspicious I would think more about it."
But Nathan Whipple, a private chess teacher from the Lower East Side, shrugged off the the threat. He reasoned the odds of being killed by a bomb made out of kitchen appliances were low in a city where so many carry traditional weapons.
“Everyone has guns and knives and brickbats and stuff like that,” Whipple said. “There is a very small chance some guy is gonna get you with a pressure cooker.”
