Where were you? (WTC related)

[ouizy]

HLW is a couple of floors above the firm I used to work for...

 

[OzAurora]

Hmmmm- this is very interesting to hear all of your reports, my story goes like this...

I was watching the late night news here is Australia, which is something I usually do- it is gerally on at about 10.30pm and you just kinda sit there motion less and usually listen to all of the crap, generally about local politics and stuff that happened in the day- never expecting to hear what happened that night...so anyway at I guess about a quarter to eleven the news reader has a guy hand her a piece of paper and says we have some tragic news just come to hand and then they show the first plane and I am thinking what a horrible accident and then they cross to CNN and we are watching live as it happens the second plane go in and I start to think that this is no accident and the news reader on our telly says that they are going to stay with this story and I am watching all of this just in total awe and bewiderment and then I go into my bathroom to brush my teeth for bed and I hear that one had gone into the Pentagon and then I got really scared and all I could think of was where and when is the nuclear bomb going to go off- I was so scared as I live on my own and it was night time here in Australia and so I stayed up watching the news- and sending text messages on my mobile phone to friends of mine who were overseas at the time and then after smoking nearly a packet of cigarettes I finally went to bed at about 3am and then woke up and thought what a horrible dream I had had last night and then I put on the telly and every single station here was non-stop 'Attack on America'- you could not escape it, the radio, the tv everyone was talking about it- it was a pretty full on day!!!!!!

 

[rafmed]

I was at home, usually never watch the morning news, but on this day, I did it, weird, and there it was the fire on one of the towers, after that was hard to stop watching, I still can't believe that I saw a plane crash into the other tower, I don't want to make a recount of events, but it was a sad day, a day where we all feel vulnerable no matter the place on earth we were.

 

[Bonochick]

I was in my MS Office & Business systems class at the college...I had just left my Excel class and had that one right after. I was the first one in the room, and a few more people entered. Then a couple girls came in and asked if we'd heard about the plane crashing into the WTC. I tried going to CNN.com, but it was bogged down, so I came to Interference because I knew there'd be stuff about it. Since my class couldn't access any news sites at the time, I kept updating people with info from what the threads here said. I also emailed my dad at work right away to communicate with him back and forth. I felt sick and was in utter disbelief...it didn't hit me at first how major it was.

 

[dream wanderer]

I really did not mean to bring back bad memories, but whenever a plane flies over New York (I still do not understand why they are allowed to) I get really bad memories. When I hear a plane go over head that is the thing I think of first, and when I see one fly past a skyscraper (well beyond of course) I just remember the images...

All this and it happened about 10 months ago.

Not good, not good at all...

Its not just you people in NYC. I live right outside of DC...and the planes reverse their engines as they prepare to descend to Dulles Airport right over my little town....I always say a little prayer that those people will land safely...

It was a beautiful day....

I got up to go to work and my brother had his radio on. He told me about the planes in NYC so I turned on the TV. It didn't seem real for some reason...like watching a movie. I was in a bit of shock...but then the tv went without a word of warning to the Pentagon. As I said I live outside of DC and I remember how that roughly brought me to reality. Seeing that building on fire was the most frightening thing in my life.. They were here...right here on my doorstep....

I stayed watching and saw the towers fall...then went to my part time work at a locale elementary school ... Virginia went into a state of emergency (the Pentagon is located in Arlington Virginia proper..not DC) and all the schools went into a lock down. We were not allowed to discuss it in front of the children (so many of them had parents and relatives who worked in the DC area and we didn't want hysteria and panic among the kids.)

The in-laws of my son's school's PTO president was on flight 77 that hit the Pentagon, Bud and Darlene Flagg...and their grandchildren go to school with my son. When I went to pick him up...I found at his school they had discussed it all day long and he was ready to talk about it...and we did.

My oldest son's best friend's step dad worked on the part of the Pentagon that was hit...but that day he was out of the building...he had a doctor's appointment.

Over Christmas we went past Shanksville PA...and I was surprised that it wasn't that far away from us. Someone commented that plane could have easily come down on Pittsburg...or any of the little towns between there and DC...including the small town where I live...

Thank you .....

dream wanderer

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

I was just getting out of bed and about to hop in the shower when I turned on CBS. I remember hearing Bryant Gumble on the TV saying that they have a TV crew going over to the WTC because there seems to be a small fire. I didn't think anything about it. I went ahead and hopped in the shower and got ready for work.

I left the house and drove to the drycleaners to drop of some clothes that i needed for the next day, because I was suppose to fly to LA the following day for a conference. I didn't think much about it until my coworker called me on my cell phone and said with a shakey voice "where are you? do you know what is going on in NYC? OH MY GOD ANOTHER PLANE JUST HIT THE BUILDING!" I realized then that I was not going out of town... I turned my radio to the news channel and heard the DJ's giving the details of what they were seeing on the television. I began to tear up and get very scared, because I have family and friends who worked around the WTC, thankfully they survived but they did have to run for their lives... As soon as I made it to the office I saw people gathered in the lobby, people were crying, people were staring at the tv's in shock and people were mad. I took the elevator to my floor and heard a lady crying and yelling out to her co-workers that she cannot find her brother. Apparently her brother worked in the WTC. It was awful. I ran into the office and saw the somber faces on my coworkers. We had coworkers flying at that time. Some just took off from Boston to LA, so we were really concerned about their safety, thankfully they were fine, but one was supposed to be on one of the doomed flights...The day just seem to go numb. I instantly received phone calls from family and friends who wanted to make sure i was still in Atlanta and had not taken off for LA.

I remember thinking that I was a sitting duck for being in a office building. So i took off and ran down stairs, and that is when I heard the Pentagon was hit. My office is situated in between flight paths so i knew i had to leave, but i was hearing reports that the interstates were clogging up because of everyone leaving to go home. I didn't want to go anywhere, because i was scared that i was a sitting duck for sitting on the highway.

I guess the biggest dose of reality hit when i was driving home and i saw on the electronic billboard that normally reports traffic reports on the interstate the following message "DUE TO A NATIONAL EMERGANCY ALL AIRPORTS ARE CLOSED!" I was frightened and freaked out when I saw and heard the fighter jets taking off from the Air Force Base.

It was a scary day for us here in Atlanta. Like many I went to church and donated as much as I could possibly could to help those families who lost loved ones.

 

[Laura M]

I was at school when the planes hit i think- but i only found out about it on my way home- my aunt picked me up in her car and i havent seen her for 2 years (she only lives about 3 streets away)and she told me about it- the last time i saw her was the day princess diana died....she brings bad news I watched it on the news and was like WOW- that can't be real.

I have a question for ppl living near NY: Are you still afriad today of any more terroist attacks?

 

[Laura M]

It was a scary day for us here in Atlanta. Like many I went to church and donated as much as I could possibly could to help those families who lost loved ones.

your story give me goosebumps- thats so scary!

 

[u2loopy]

To clarify before I begin, I work in Midtown Manhattan, though, I am no where near the WTC, I can't even see it from my builiding.

I had just walked into my office and one of the porters in my building came onto my floor to tell me that a plane had hit the WTC. Now, this guy is always fooling with me so, naturally I didn't believe him. So, we have a TV in the office but it's in one of the Principle's office so I had to ask him if I could turn the tv on. He actually giggled when I told him the situation because he imagined it was some idiot who flew a propeller plane into the building. *wishful thinking*

So we stood around watching the tv and realized , "Wow, what a terrible accident." Just as we're watching the news coverage we see LIVE footage of the second plane coming into the building. (I got chills just now as I typed that.)
So, we tried to start our workday, but then we heard about the plane into the Pentagon and the plane crashing outside PA. So, considering we are about 5 blocks from the United Nations, we evacuated the building.

After trying and trying many times over the phone to reach my friends and family I finally got thru and was able to get in touch with EVERYONE that I knew who worked nearby me in the city. Me, my sis, my mom, my cousin, and another cousin all met in front of my building and we made our journey home.....WALKING!!!

I live just about 12 miles from my job. We left Manhattan at 11 am. I got home at 3:30 PM!

But, it wasnt' just us, there was a mass EXodus out of the city. People everywhere were walking, some people had dust on them from when the buildings collapsed.

When my friend told me the towers collapsed, (I found out as we were walking) I didn't believe it. The severity of it didn't hit me until I saw it with my own eyes on tv.

For the next week, I was glued to the tv since I couldn't go back to work.

What a day in history.

 

[whiteflag]

10 months later and it is still so hard for me to talk about it. It just seems that whatever I can think to say about it seems so inadequate.

I was asleep. My sister came into my room and told me that something had happened and both WTC towers had collapsed. As long as I live, I know I'll never get a more awful wake up call than that. I remember thinking that it couldn't possibly be true. My sis had to have it wrong somehow as usual. As I got up to straighten things out, I remember being momentarily really angry at her for not waiting until later to tell me. Especially if somehow it was actually true. (My sis and Mom always get over emotional about dramatic news stories. They make lousy reporters and tend to exagerate and misunderstand things. Don't ask me why.)

I really can't say what I thought when I started watching the coverage. How can anyone convey emotions like that, anyway? Some events really do go beyond words. But one thing I will say is that I remember at first being convinced that I saw good portions of the towers still standing through all that smoke and dust. I kept telling myself that damage estimates are always really high at first in disasters, and if good portions were still standing that meant that there was that much more hope for the people who might have been trapped inside.

Does anyone else remember casualty estimates in the tens of thousands? How I still wish that damage to the towers could have been similarly downgraded with time. Then maybe we wouldnt have lost as many as we did.

That day in Dallas was exceptionally beautiful. The temp perfect. The blue sky full of fluffy white clouds. The sun was gentle. It was the nicest day I have ever seen in Dallas and I've been here 12 years. Anyone who lives here could tell you how rare a perfect day is here.

For me that day in Dallas was proof that God's Grace is real. Just as the day in New York finally slammed home the REALITY and horrifying depth of human evil and depravity. That day began an overall climb into a new plateau of my faith. It convinced me of the nature of sin as taught by the Christian church. It convinced me that Good is actually in an all out war with Evil. It convinced me that the Devil really exists in some shape or form. But at the same time it also convinced me that Good is too powerful to be overcome by evil because God stands behind it. I saw the face of God that day in the faces of the rescuers and later in the voices of a gospel choir singing God's praises on a street corner in New York, and still later in the story of the church that became a hospital and refuge for the people working at Ground Zero.

Did anyone ever see pictures of the insides of that church? Every inch of the inside was covered in colorful cards and drawings etc. It literally looked like a day care center. It shut down for months and months to minister to those people, to help them heal and keep them from falling apart. I think that never has any church so completely fulfilled its first mission to heal in the way of Jesus. The job was so huge and that church so readily and gladly gave excessive and abundant comfort, not caring how dirty the place got, not caring about maintaining some kind of sanctity or dignity for their sanctuary. All the great themes of our faith were on full display. They reached out and sacrificed the body of their church gladly, without limit, so that healing, comforting and befriending could happen. That's exactly what should be expected of a religion which follows a Being who was first and foremost a healer.

Just think, would 9/11 have ever happened if most people put healing first the way Jesus taught instead of putting first the struggle to make their religion #1?

 

[bullet the blue sky]

I actually remember this all pretty well. Being in England, it was about 2pm here and I was actually in the shower getting ready for work. Anyway I come downstairs and am just popping my head around the door to say goodbye to my dad when he says "look at this, your brother has just phoned to say put the news channels on the television". He knows what has happened... so they show a replay and the plane hits the tower. And I'm like "well... I don't think that was supposed to happen". Then they cut live... and here comes a rescue plane... but then it flies straight into the other tower and me and my dad are going "um... this is not good". So I have to go to work... on the way to work (25 minutes) it's all over the radio and I distinctly remember a woman newscaster almost like shrieking down the radio as the first tower hits the ground, at which point I am starting to feel a bit unwell. As a few might know, I am a journalist so I arrive at the office and not one person of about 150 people is working. Instead they are all gathered around the television. Anyway, you all know the rest of what happened, but the slightly surreal thing for me was that I work on the sports department, which churned out its stuff as usual... so while the rest of the world spent the duration contemplating the end of the world, I was a bit more bothered in the meantime in whether or not they were going to cancel sport for the day because if they did I'd have had nothing to put in the newspaper.

As a footnote, I had to let one person go home from work that day because he "couldn't concentrate after what he'd seen on television". As a journalist, this was probably the biggest story in his lifetime... how could he walk off like that?!

 

[Zooman91]

I was at a friend's house when we turned on the news and saw that there had been an "accident" as the WTC. As we were sitting at his computer, I glanced at the TV just in time the watch the second plane crash live. Sickening it was.

 

[flyingdutchman]

I was at school...

But a friend of me was in Washington when it was happening, she toke the flight after the flight of the airplane that crashes into the Pentagon!!!!

scary isnt it?