Where were you? (WTC related)

[ouizy]

For the past couple of months I have been travellig to many cities in the US for numerous reasons, but mostly for weddings. The thought occured to me as I was walking down Worth Avenue in Palm Beach Florida (one of the wealthiest locations in the US)

Where were you on 9/11 when the first plane hit, and what did you immediately think?

I know this has been discussed ad nauseum, but I keep thinking about it.

For the record ouizy was on his way to work (1.5 blocks from the site) and then very concerned about getting family members and friends out of the site area, and then getting myself to safety for the remeinder of the day/week/month...

I really am curious about those who were NOT in NYC and what the first reaction was upon hearing/seeing the tragedy...

 

[kobayashi]

me: sitting in my economics of media course on the first day the class.

didn't know anything had happened 'till noon. couldn't figure out why my cell phone had been jammed all morning. was shocked when my dad called me(he was one of the thousands flying into america to be grounded in the maritimes) to make sure i wasn't in downtown ottawa.

i didn't believe anything anyone told me until i saw the video myself. i had been there 2 months previous...

 

[FallingStar]

Okay, I was at home standing at our fax machine and waiting for a fax to come out. I took the fax and read it and my friend had faxed me to turn on the radio or the TV or both because there is no WTC anymore. And I thought 'WTF? No WTC? Is she mad?!' I turned on the radio and listened to a report and just couldn't believe it. I thought that maybe it is April Fool's Day or whatever.....Some minutes later my mom came home, rushed to the TV and we watched those reports until late in the night. I went to bed and prayed a long time.......and listened to SBS until 3 am..... I couldn't believe what I had seen, because I knew that mankind was ill, but not that much!

 

[joyfulgirl]

I was getting out of the shower when the phone rang. It was my best friend telling me to turn on the TV. Both of us former New Yorkers, we watched together (on the phone) and wept. I went to work for about a half hour and then they closed the office because everyone was too upset to work. I then went over to Steve's and spent the day together absorbing it and trying to reach friends in NYC. We reached one friend in the East Village and were on the phone with him when the 2nd tower went down, which he could see from his high-rise window.

 

[BAW]

I was going to watch the morning news for the weather report because I was supposed to go to Disneyland for my birthday. I turned on the TV and all I heard was that a plane had hit the first tower and I ran to tell my husband. By the time we both sat down, the second plane had hit.

We both thought it was a small plane at first and didn't realize the scope of the tragedy but after 10 minutes or so, we heard about the Pentagon and knew we weren't going to Disneyland or anywhere else for that matter. I don't think we left our couch for 8 hours. We were just in shock, not knowing where the next strike might be. I didn't want to send my kids to school but I also didn't want them to sit and watch as obsessivly as I was.

My step-son lives 40 miles away from us in LA and called me totally in shock thinking that the world was coming to an end.

We had a good friend in Brooklyn and at the time didn't know how much of New York would be hit so we were really worried about him but couldn't get through but he was okay and moved back to California right away.

I'm glad you were okay Ouizy... I just can't even begin to imagine being that close.

 

[RavenStar]

I was at school. When the first plane hit everyone thought it was an accident. Then the second plane hit. The the Third plane hit. If they had of gotten the whitehouse they would of wiped out the country. The twin towers were the financial aspect of the U.S, the pentagon is the militaaspect of the U.S, and the white house is the government aspect of the U.S. Take away Financial, Military, and Government and what do you have left?

 

[sulawesigirl4]

If they had of gotten the whitehouse they would of wiped out the country.

ummm...I beg to differ. It would not have "wiped out the country". It's quite unlikely that the President would have been in the building anyways, not to mention that there are backup plans in case of that scenario.

Anyways, in answer to the original question. I was in Switzerland, in a tiny village in the Alps. I had finished my afternoon study-time and was walking up to the chalet for supper. One of the guys I ran into asked me if I'd heard about the attack and that the WTC was gone. I thought he was referring to the small plane that had crashed into them a few years back and told him to stop joking. He told me that he wasn't kidding and to come upstairs to watch CNN. The rest of the evening I sat there with about 20 other Americans, Canadians, and Europeans who were also staying at the community and we watched the footage in shock and horror. Those of us who were from N. America weren't sure if it was the beginning of a more concentrated attack and if all hell was going to break loose and we would be stuck overseas.

 

[JessicaAnn]

Because my car was in teh shop, my mom was dropping me off for work that morning. I distinctly remember what a beautiful day it was in Milwaukee ... blue sky, white fluffy clouds. Anyway, I was about to step out of the car to go into the buinding when the DJ on the radio said that one of the WTC towers had been hit (they were watching CNN in the studio). Then the second one ...

I remember flying up to my office ... flipping on the radio and trying to log onto CNN.com.

My co-workers who were already there hadn't heard anything about it, so I was trying to explain what I heard on the radio.

We puled a TV into the lunchroomand watched teh coverage on TV like so many other Americans ... some cried ... most of us were watching in disbelief, worrying about family friends and business associates in NYC and DC.

They closed our office early that day ...

I remember being glued to the coverage over the next week few weeks. I would cry myself to sleep ... I guess I was sad because of what happened, but more so it was hearing the stories about peopel who dies and families that were torn apart. I remember heing comforted by the stories of kindness and heroism and patriotism.

 

[oliveu2cm]

Like JessicaAnn, I remember Distinctly what a beautiful, beautiful day it was in Mass.

I was at work and heard people in the cube next to me saying something about it. I was confused thought it was ..i didn't know. Then when I heard it was true about the plane, I figured it was a freak accident like the pilot had gotten sick. I never, ever ever thought it was intentional or that the building would collapse.

Then I heard that the pentagon was hit and i started to panic a little. We watched the 2nd plane crash..

God it was awful. I still am shaking remembering this. I work in sort of high profile place so I was nervous as the afternoon went on. I walked to the windows after both buildings fell and just looked outside at the brilliantly gorgeous day, almost as if God was saying he would give those people every chance to get out (imagine if it was raining?)

i had a long commute then and there was barely anyone on the highway, no one was going above 55 (usually no one goes below 55) a few days later I was driving home again past a barber shop and this guy wearing fatigues was going in and suddenly ISHFWILF came on the radio and I just cried horribly.

I can't believe it was 10 months ago, it seems like last week.

 

[diamond]

Was home.
Woke up.
Turn on interference.com and found out about it.
DB9

 

[Basstrap]

I was in school all day and I heard nothing about it until I got home. I got online and somebody icq'd me:

WTC BOTH DOWN! PENTEGON ATTACKED!!!

Or something to that affect...

I was in shock...it was quite unnerving

 

[speedracer]

Woke up.
Checked email.
Read that Tower 1 had been hit.
Turned on TV.
Saw Tower 2 had also been hit.
Shortly thereafter, saw Tower 1 turn into a giant shaft of dust.
Thought to myself, "did that tower just collapse?"
Saw the same thing happen to Tower 2.

 

[speedracer]

Take away Financial, Military, and Government and what do you have left?

The people.

 

[Danospano]

Where was I when the planes hit, the building collapsed, etc? I was still asleep in my bed. I didn't have a class until 10:30am and didn't wake up until around 10:00am. I remember riding my bike to class really fast, because I didn't want to be late. I must have pasted by a couple dozen people while on my way, never knowing what they knew.

When I found out, I was sitting outside my classroom, waiting for the earlier class to leave. I was sitting alone, reading my book when I heard a women in an office across the hall describe what had happened. I thought she was describe a movie see saw over the weekend. She kept on talking about it in detail. About how the phone lines, internet site, etc were all jammed, and I finally got up, walked over, and asked her to clarify the situation.

That day will never be forgotten. I remember almost EVERYTHING that happened during the day. What I ate for lunch, who I spoke to...even if for just a couple of seconds.

 

[Lilly]

must be time to talk about this again.

actually, we were talking about this in chat last night *hugs*


i was in my teacher's office. it was first hour and my teacher came running in. "did you hear about the terrorists?" he said. "oh, in ireland?" (the week previous attacks were taking place in ireland against little catholic school girls) "no," he said reaching for the radio, "a plane just hit the world trade center." so we turned the radio on. and as we did it...the second one hit and...the bell rang and i went to 2nd hour. i told people about what was happening still unsure of its truth. two hours later i had free time so i went and peeked into a classroom. and then i saw it. over and over and over and over again. school basically stopped, we just sat there, in front of televisions crying.

 

[adamswildhoney]

I was waking up because my alarm clock wouldnt shut off and then all of sudden Rick Dees said that the WTC was hit by a plane. At first I thought it was some kind of cruel joke that he was playing then, He that this is not a joke. Remember then going out to where my parents were eating breakfast and i told them they didnt believe me and so my mom turned on the TV and there it was. I will always have that in my head.

 

[Zooropa]

I was in NYC up by Mt. sinai hospital visiting my father. My mom, sister and I went to the hospitals cafeteria and heard some guy taking about the Twin Towers being On fire. We thought he was crazy, well obviously he wasn't and we got up to my fathers room a few minutes before the second plane hit. Scary stuff...

 

[ouizy]

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...

 

[ABEL]

I was still in bed, half asleep, hitting the snooze alarm every few minutes, not wanting to get up. The phone rang. I didn't run to anser it cuz I was still half asleep so I let the answering machine get it. My answering machine is in my living room, so I couldn't hear all of the message as it recorded, but I heard my mom's voice saying something about my brother and sister-in-law were ok. At that point I had no idea what had happened.

My brother and sister-in-law live in New York City just 2 miles north of the WTC. My brother takes the subway down to the WTC area every morning and takes the ferry across to Jersey City where he is working on a building project (he is an architect).

I knew something had happened, by the tone of my mom's voice, but I wasn't sure what. At first I thought something with the subway. I got up out of bed, because I knew it was unusual for my mom to call me in the morning during the week. She knows I like to sleep late, so she doesnt call me before 9am. Before I even listened to the answering machine message my mom had left, I instinctively turned on CNN to see if there were any reports.

I remember them saying something about the WTC. All I saw was smoke and couldn't see the buildings. I was still trying to figure out what had happened. I immediately called my mom and dad. I remember asking my mom what had happened, what I was going on (they were watching CNN too) and I remember my mom saying the WTC was gone and how at first I couldn't believe it.

My mom said that she was able to get a call through to my brother. Luckily my brother hadn't even gone to work yet that day. He had a meeting at work at noon so he didnt have to be there until then so he wasn't anywhere near the area. When the first plane hit, my sister-in-law had just left their apartment and was at the corner deli getting a cup of coffee on her way to work. She heard about it on the news at the deli and ran home to tell my brother about it. My brother said that he went up on the rooftop of their apartment building and could see the smoke rising from the towers.

I have visited my brother many times in NYC. We had stayed at the Marriott Financial Center, which was the next block over from the WTC at Thanksgiving the year before. A year before that we had even stayed at the Marriott at the WTC.

My parents went to NYC to visit my brother just about 2 weeks ago. It was amazing to see the pictures they brought back.

 

[ouizy]

I too am an architect, where does your brother work???

 

[ABEL]

I too am an architect, where does your brother work???

HLW

 

[anitram]

I was sleeping, since I didn't have any classes on tuesdays last year. Somebody woke me up once the second plane hit, and then I think I watched the news for the remainder of the day, in a sort of trance.

 

[daisybean]

I had just woken up and turned on the TV after the first plane hit. I was watching Good Morning America and they were saying that they believe a plane flew into the WTC. My initial thought was "Damn, someone sure got lost." As I was watching the second plane hit, I realized that they were not lost after all.

I immediately got on the phone to family members to make sure no one was in the area, thankfully they weren't.

I just sat there, numb watching the towers burn on TV, thinking to myself how are they gotta put this fire out being so high up.

Then news came in about some type of fire or bomb in Washington. I made another round of calls to make sure no family/friends were in the Washington area.


I had the day off from work, and I sat and watched the television coverage all day dumbstuck.

I remember it was a nice warm day, yet I still curled up in my blanket, freezing.

 

[missmacphisto]

Fascinating thread.
I was asleep on a chair in my old abandoned house with my doggie next to me. Since there was no power I couldnt watch TV, and we had to get up shorty after dawn and get the hell outta there before anyone saw us.
So, we left, and after we got aways away, I turned on my walkman and the morning talk shows were on. I heard Mark & Brian tell everyone to stay calm, and that hopefully this is it, its over, there isnt going to be any more.
These guys are goofballs, and are always on with the gags. So I assumed thats what it was, a joke of some sort.
They just kept talking and I had no idea what the hell was going on, but as time wore on, I began to realize that this wasnt a joke, something serious had happened.
It was a very long time before they recapped, so i stayed confused for a while, but when they finally did mention what had just taken place, my only reaction was just sheer shock, confusion, disbelief, and horror.
I just talked to everyone I could about what had gone on.
Just so very surreal. It still is.

 

[BostonAnne]

I was on my way to Target when I heard about the first plane on the news. Then I heard about the 2nd plane as it happened and realized that what was going on was deliberate. I started bawling, but continued on my errand. It was strange to be in the store and while I thought it was so unimportant to get whatever it was that I went there for, I didn't know what else to do. Most of the people in the store were at the electonics department watching the tv's.

I got home and turned on the tv, but I didn't call anyone. I wasn't worried about anyone in particular and didn't feel like talking about it. I look back and think it strange that I didn't want to reach out to people (especially my husband) at the time.

 

[Discoteque]

Had just got to work about 8:30. A coworker was on tehphone w/her sister, when she jumped up and said, "You guys! A plane hit one of the Trade Center towers!" We were all like, woah....but we all assumed it was a small Cessna-type plane. Then a few minutes later, she jumps up again and yells, "OMG! Another plane hit the OTHER tower!"

By this time, people were in "scurry" mode - everyone is running around getting to their PCs trying to get some info, calling people, trying to locate radios....I was in back to back cubes with someone, and we both had radios. We must have had 20 people crammed into our cubes listening to the news. I finally got to CNN, and WOW. Was amazed, saddened and shaken....when I finally got the video clip to play, we all sat there with our mouths open, we could not believe what we were watching.

Our VP called an impromptu meeting, and sent us all home. I drove home in a complete fog, looking at the very FEW other people on the roads, also driving around in their own fogs....

I stayed absolutely glued to the TV the entire rest of the day. One of the eeriest things was when the local news showed vids of downtown Dallas - usually crammed with cars, buses, people.....and they were absolutely EMPTY.

I remember feeling very emotional, and I cried, but I could not tear myself from the television....really a weird sensation....absolutely surreal....

 

[pax]

New York is a difficult place to live. --my popular culture professor on 9/11, before anyone knew about the WTC

I was walking from one building to another on my school's campus after my 9:30 a.m. class, on my way to my 11:00 a.m. class. I had pretty much rolled out of bed and into class that morning, and I didn't own a TV at the time, so it was almost 11 a.m. and I still had no idea.

My 11 a.m. class was metaphysics, and it was a small class and everyone got along well. Usually before class, everyone would be talking and drawing on the board and stuff. But when I walked in, the radio was blaring and everyone was silent. And I heard about the towers, and the Pentagon, and everything. And I honestly thought it was the end of the world.

I go to a Catholic school, so the president of my college held a Mass at noon. After Mass, he found out that the campus had received bomb threats, so all the buildings were evacuated--even the res halls, which meant I couldn't go into what was for all intents and purposes my home all afternoon.

The chapel was cleared right away, and there's an auditorium built onto our campus ministry center, so a lot of people were in there watching CNN together. We had Taize prayer that evening, and I watched a lot of news.

 

[hiphop]

I was at work, surfing the internet, in another forum. There was a thread "Plane hits WTC", sth. like five minutes after the first attack. Inside, it was just written "This is no joke. Turn on the TV." I tried to reach the website of the White House, the C.I.A., the N.S.A.

No chance. All U.S. URL?s were not reachable from here for some time, possibly because a switch in NYC collapsed due to the attack (official version). Also the forum was down. No news in Europe yet. I went to one of our managers, said "I think there is happening a big tragedy."

Then, some internet sites started to function. Pictures of the second plane that had just hit the tower. I called my ex-girlfriend at home to tell her to turn on the T.V. She was shocked. I was relatively calm... there were rumours about a plane heading to Europe, rumours about the plane to Camp David, rumours about a mysterious fifth plane somewhere in U.S.

I didn?t get hysterical, but I had fear. I thought "If the third world war ever breaks out that?s it". I expected that news about missiles would soon come in. But they didn?t. I stayed at work, looking at the tragedy online.

Then, I got home... watching the T.V. with the same pictures always repeating, in disbelief. I wondered that they spoke of 5,000 deaths, thought "This is not possible. I?ve been there, I?ve seen the building... and if it collapsed...". I was surprised that the responsible person for this attack was found so fast, was surprised that the N.S.A. with all their techno couldn?t locate him. Lots of discussions with friends and family.

I felt like in a bad dream for some days... one of the things that kind of "woke me up", was the great concert. Wyclef Jean playing "Redemption Song" gave me hope. U2, Billy,... Jack was not joining the chorus in the last song. I thought to the movie "Wag the Dog". I was hoping U.S. citizens would engage more in civil society from then on to influence their country?s policy.

 

[JessicaAnn]

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...

There is no time limit on the process of healing ... I think that there are many of us, whether we live in NYC of some small town in Montanna, we're looking at airplanes a lot diffeently than we did 10 months ago.

 

[Truly]

I was out shopping with my Mum - it was about 3 PM here. I remember I was flicking through the channels on the car radio on the way back, and I caught about two seconds of someone saying something about a plane crash, but I didn't catch where it was or anyhting. I think I must have turned the radio off after that.

When I got back home I came to interference, and there was this thread with lots of replies called "turn on your TV now!" or something. I distinctly remember thinking as I clicked on it that it was a bit stupid of whoever posted it not to say what channel or country. I read the first few replies and I couldn't work out what was going on, so I ran to turn on the TV. This was after both towers had fallen. I just couldn't believe it when I saw what had happened. That was the only time in my life I seriously thought I was dreaming.