I was at university. It wasn't announced at all. Anyway, I was told by an idiot acquaintance of mine that someone crashed a plane into some building. The way he described it, I thought a Cessna hit a warehouse. Anyway, I went about my business for a while, and then I was at another computer, and I noticed someone below me was writing a very serious e-mail. I wondered what it was about, and then I went to Yahoo to search for something, and I couldn't believe it for a second... the page layout was different... was it a hoax? I went to some other sites to check. I logged out and wandered aimlessly, seeing people walking around, talking about normal things. Why didn't they tell us? I went to a payphone and called home, since I was still in disbelief. My mother had watching TV, and she confirmed it. I went to my classes, then went home and watched the coverage.
The day after, community centres and private homes opened to receive the thousands of passengers whose flights had been diverted to Halifax International Airport. It was good to see that people cared. Even the usually anti-American Sam (from Yemen) expressed sympathy. A few weeks ago, I saw a documentary on Iran (and the corrupt system of mullahs who plunder the people and rule above the democracy), showing hundreds of Iranian students with candles, crying and showing their support after 9/11. Apparently, even the axis of evil couldn't bear to see the attacks.
I heard the first plane roar overhead, way too low, as my wife and I were going into a building to vote. "Damn they're letting the planes fly low," I said to her.
After voting we knew there had been an "accident", but nothing more. My wife had jury duty and was late, so I decided to go with her, further downtown.
We got down to the courts (below Canal Street) where it was obvious there would be no jury duty that day. "Come back tomorrow" said a policeman standing outside the courthouse with a large automatic weapon.
While walking north (we knew the subways were disrupted) I looked over my left shoulder just as the top twenty floors of WTC2 shifted, tilted and collapsed on to the lower floors. I distinctly saw the stainless steel "caps" on the exterior columns pop off, reflect some sunlight, as the columns behind the caps buckled. All the traffic stopped, and people hugged each other in the street, crying in disbelief.
We then hurried home and spent the day looking for our close friend who had worked in WTC2. Fortunately for us she had been late for work that day (her boss had even yelled at her for being late, which is why we were so scared for her), but a number of her co-workers were killed.
After that we were living in the controlled zone, having to show ID to get home. It was very odd to see no traffic besides military vehicles on our streets.
I find it interesting that it says "Taliban issues statement to tell U.S. 'Afghanistan feels your pain'"
-Mike</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yes, that is from that press conference, that morning on 9|11...I remember incredible anger towards them on the screen...wishing I could reach in and twist their necks..."feels our pain"...right...
I was walking down the street and had a phone call from a colleague to say something had happened, but I went ahead and dropped by to see a client for half an hour.
While there, the news was spreading round the office, so I went to the department store across the street and stood with about 50 people in front of all the TVs in the electronics section, open-mouthed as the towers fell.
That sort of put the kybosh on work, so I went home to find a big stack of emails from a friend in NY who saw the whole thing from her balcony and had bulk-mailed everyone about it.
Much, much later I got a mail from a friend who worked near the towers, saying he was okay...
Unlike some of you, I actually saw the whole thing on TV.
Since I'm on the west coast I had just woken up and was preparing for school. I was eating breakfast and watching the local news when they had a special news break. We saw the first tower all on fire. Then we saw the second tower get hit and heard about the Pentagon as well. We kept watching and saw the first tower fall down. I was like "uh mom. I think the tower fell down." Nobody believed me until the dust started clearing. It was the worst thing I have ever seen.
Then I drove to school and started watching on the TV at school. Right when I arrived, the second tower fell. It was terrible...
<hr></blockquote>
I did the same thing. I saw everything from 7:10 to 7:50, both plane crashes, both collapses. It was terrible, and surround sound did not help. Then I ran up to my room and hopped on the net. I had windows to to videos, major news sites, and AppleInsider. We didn't have school that day, so my friends and I talked on day long on AIM. I will never forget that terrible hour when some 3,000 people died.
Yes Rod, our "perfect isolation" has been one of the wonderful things out country had unknowingly enjoyed for such a long, long time. We never had V-2's rain down upon us as did London and its surrounds.
I was awakened that morning by the electronic WINK sound of my Sony television turning itself on around 8:30am EST. I didn't have to be anywhere that day, and I'm a slow-waker, so The Today show with Katie Couric and Matt Lauer was playing at a medium volume in the background as I slowly awakened. They talked and talked and time passed.
Katie sounded different.....excited maybe? I heard them talking about a plane hitting a building. I was awake enough to sit forward and slide to the foot of the bed to lean in and peer at the television screen....just as I watched an airplane slam into a building.
"Oh, they're doing a segment on special effects," I thought. But as I stood up to get my glasses I was listening to what they were saying and I sat back down on the end of the bed.
My mouth was open and I wasn't breathing.
I was at Home with my folks, so I asked them if they'd been watching...I don't think that they had. I went and turned on televisions downstairs and for the rest of the day I prowled the house from television to radio to internet, angered and agitated and totally emotionally vanquished. I watched television for 18 straight hours.
The next day I went into Atlanta for some business. It was eerie....especially so because I still had a clear mental image from a week before when I'd flown back into town and our flight had tracked right over downtown Atlanta, something I'd never experienced before. I still remember my delight at spotting all the landmarks well ahead of passing over downtown proper. It had been fun on that day. Now, a week later, it was a reminder of the horror that must have been with the passengers on those FOUR airplanes on that day.
I later found out that a client of one of my friends was related to the family that had people on BOTH planes that crashed into the towers.
For so long I had hoped that we would always remain above the fray of the chaos that manifests itself in so many places on this planet...but that protective wall around us simply cannot last.
It sounds melodramatic, but I'm reminded of a quote in a comic book wherein the hero, in reference to enemies he never thought he'd have to face again says (quietly and to himself):
"Hello Again. Beware Forever."
That sums up my reaction as countryman, fellow man and denizen of the planet Earth.
In reading all of these accounts, I've seen a common theme of disbelief. A lot of people thought this was a joke when they first heard it, and many didn't believe it until they actually saw the videos with their own eyes--or the actual towers in person.
I had woken up early that morning. So I saw everything on TV. For the first time in my life, I was speechless.
A few days later I had watch at the Norfolk Naval Base, since I'm active duty Navy. It took me almost 4 hours to get on base that day. Security was a wee bit tight.
My 9AM 3D animation studio at the Museum of Fine Arts. Someone came in late and said a plane hit a building in New York. we all figured it was just some freak accident. Then someone came by and said all studios were cancelled for the day, and by the time I got upstairs to the atrium, there was a crowd of people watching it unfold on TV.
so I left, went back to my brand new apartment that didn't have cable and barely got antenna reception whilst trying to get a hold of a contact at CNN to figure out what the hell was happening. watched the news for about seven days straight after that
I was on an express bus from Staten Island going over the Verrazano bridge when a man a few seats up said "oh my god" and pointed over at the first tower which was engulfed in flames.
A few miles further we were all watching as a second plane, silver and flying low, slammed into the second tower. I remember wondering what kind of idiot pilot would be flying so close to the burning tower? Didn't he see it was on fire? No sooner had the thought crossed my mind when I realized he was going so fast and so low he....BAM!
Fireball.
A lady stood up and demanded to be let off the bus.
Everyone was already on their cellphones.
The bus driver didn't let anyone off. He turned the bus around and drove us back to Staten Island.
As soon as I got off the bus I literally ran home. Not sure why. It seemed like a safe place I guess. Ran in the house yelling at my girlfriend to wake up. That terrorists were flying planes into the city and that I'd heard that Washington D.C. was on fire.
We stood there watching TV.
I realized I was crying.
Couldn't call out, so I emailed a friend of mine in K.C. and told him to call my mom and let her know I was o.k. He was happy to help.
I still don't go over the bridge without glancing over to see...I don't know what. I just can't go over it without looking over there and thinking about it.
My girlfriend told me I would talk about killing muslims in my sleep for a couple of weeks after that. Weird how the subconcious works.
Disbelief. Joke. Not me. I was in my room fast asleep. My mom (yes, I lived at home) burst in and shouted something in a panic. Then she did the same with my brother's room. I dozed back to sleep (I was not really awake yet) and it took a good minute or two to realize what she said. I burst out of bed and planted myself in front of a TV for the rest of the day.
I've never seen my mom so paniced before. (We have family in NY)
Comments
The day after, community centres and private homes opened to receive the thousands of passengers whose flights had been diverted to Halifax International Airport. It was good to see that people cared. Even the usually anti-American Sam (from Yemen) expressed sympathy. A few weeks ago, I saw a documentary on Iran (and the corrupt system of mullahs who plunder the people and rule above the democracy), showing hundreds of Iranian students with candles, crying and showing their support after 9/11. Apparently, even the axis of evil couldn't bear to see the attacks.
I heard the first plane roar overhead, way too low, as my wife and I were going into a building to vote. "Damn they're letting the planes fly low," I said to her.
After voting we knew there had been an "accident", but nothing more. My wife had jury duty and was late, so I decided to go with her, further downtown.
We got down to the courts (below Canal Street) where it was obvious there would be no jury duty that day. "Come back tomorrow" said a policeman standing outside the courthouse with a large automatic weapon.
While walking north (we knew the subways were disrupted) I looked over my left shoulder just as the top twenty floors of WTC2 shifted, tilted and collapsed on to the lower floors. I distinctly saw the stainless steel "caps" on the exterior columns pop off, reflect some sunlight, as the columns behind the caps buckled. All the traffic stopped, and people hugged each other in the street, crying in disbelief.
We then hurried home and spent the day looking for our close friend who had worked in WTC2. Fortunately for us she had been late for work that day (her boss had even yelled at her for being late, which is why we were so scared for her), but a number of her co-workers were killed.
After that we were living in the controlled zone, having to show ID to get home. It was very odd to see no traffic besides military vehicles on our streets.
[ 09-03-2002: Message edited by: Timo ]</p>
<strong>With <a href="http://www.waybackmachine.org"; target="_blank">WayBack Mchine</a>, you can see the CNN.com main page as it was on 9/11. <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20010911193957/http://www.cnn.com/"; target="_blank">Check it out</a> here.
I find it interesting that it says "Taliban issues statement to tell U.S. 'Afghanistan feels your pain'"
-Mike</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yes, that is from that press conference, that morning on 9|11...I remember incredible anger towards them on the screen...wishing I could reach in and twist their necks..."feels our pain"...right...
i honestly thought he was taking the piss till i got home and watched the news
it was surreal and uncomprehendable...i just watched clueless for hours
While there, the news was spreading round the office, so I went to the department store across the street and stood with about 50 people in front of all the TVs in the electronics section, open-mouthed as the towers fell.
That sort of put the kybosh on work, so I went home to find a big stack of emails from a friend in NY who saw the whole thing from her balcony and had bulk-mailed everyone about it.
Much, much later I got a mail from a friend who worked near the towers, saying he was okay...
I'm not writing that all over again...don't really want to think that hard about it.
Unlike some of you, I actually saw the whole thing on TV.
Since I'm on the west coast I had just woken up and was preparing for school. I was eating breakfast and watching the local news when they had a special news break. We saw the first tower all on fire. Then we saw the second tower get hit and heard about the Pentagon as well. We kept watching and saw the first tower fall down. I was like "uh mom. I think the tower fell down." Nobody believed me until the dust started clearing. It was the worst thing I have ever seen.
Then I drove to school and started watching on the TV at school. Right when I arrived, the second tower fell. It was terrible...
<hr></blockquote>
I did the same thing. I saw everything from 7:10 to 7:50, both plane crashes, both collapses. It was terrible, and surround sound did not help. Then I ran up to my room and hopped on the net. I had windows to to videos, major news sites, and AppleInsider. We didn't have school that day, so my friends and I talked on day long on AIM. I will never forget that terrible hour when some 3,000 people died.
I was awakened that morning by the electronic WINK sound of my Sony television turning itself on around 8:30am EST. I didn't have to be anywhere that day, and I'm a slow-waker, so The Today show with Katie Couric and Matt Lauer was playing at a medium volume in the background as I slowly awakened. They talked and talked and time passed.
Katie sounded different.....excited maybe? I heard them talking about a plane hitting a building. I was awake enough to sit forward and slide to the foot of the bed to lean in and peer at the television screen....just as I watched an airplane slam into a building.
"Oh, they're doing a segment on special effects," I thought. But as I stood up to get my glasses I was listening to what they were saying and I sat back down on the end of the bed.
My mouth was open and I wasn't breathing.
I was at Home with my folks, so I asked them if they'd been watching...I don't think that they had. I went and turned on televisions downstairs and for the rest of the day I prowled the house from television to radio to internet, angered and agitated and totally emotionally vanquished. I watched television for 18 straight hours.
The next day I went into Atlanta for some business. It was eerie....especially so because I still had a clear mental image from a week before when I'd flown back into town and our flight had tracked right over downtown Atlanta, something I'd never experienced before. I still remember my delight at spotting all the landmarks well ahead of passing over downtown proper. It had been fun on that day. Now, a week later, it was a reminder of the horror that must have been with the passengers on those FOUR airplanes on that day.
I later found out that a client of one of my friends was related to the family that had people on BOTH planes that crashed into the towers.
For so long I had hoped that we would always remain above the fray of the chaos that manifests itself in so many places on this planet...but that protective wall around us simply cannot last.
It sounds melodramatic, but I'm reminded of a quote in a comic book wherein the hero, in reference to enemies he never thought he'd have to face again says (quietly and to himself):
"Hello Again. Beware Forever."
That sums up my reaction as countryman, fellow man and denizen of the planet Earth.
[quote]
Many people have wrote to me and asked me if I was ok, and I thought I
would put this email together to describe what I went through yesterday.
If I haven't said it yet, thanks for your concern.
My day began roughly as it normally does...
My wife, Kim, dropped me off at the train station and then departed to
take our 10-month old daughter Rachel to day care. As usual, we had a
small argument about how this detour to drop me off is really out of the
way for her.
I got on my 7:34 train and I caught a short nap on the train and finally
arrived in Hoboken at 8:39. I then trasferred to a PATH train and
arrived in the World Trade Center around 8:46.
After leaving the PATH trains, I headed towards a long bank of
escalators to go to work...
"Move, move! Get out of the way!"
I turned around to see six or seven police officers running through the
crowd and sprinting up the escalator. What could cause such commotion
among NYPD's finest? In the past, when I've seen officers sprinting so
quickly, it was to chase a suspect. I looked around and it didn't appear
that they were chasing anyone.
Immediately, my mind started racing to try to determine what might be
going on. Possiblity number one was that there was a gunman at the top of
the escalators. If that was the case, I should stay down below and wait
for them to secure the scene. Possibility number two was that there was
something wrong with the train system and we should leave immediately.
"Get of the building!" I don't know who yelled this, but it was enough to
cause the crowd to start moving. People who probably have always stood on
the escalator now started running up it. Nobody had any idea of what the
problem was, and there was a general panic to get out quickly.
As we approached the top, we saw the police officers that had raced past
us and they were yelling, "Keep calm. Leave the building in an orderly
manner. There's no need to push." Those officers did an amazing job at
keeping people calm and ensuring that nobody was pushed down or hurt.
I looked around and I could see no damage in the building. What was going
on? The only thing I could think of was that there was some poison gas
attack in the train system. Everybody was going toward the east side of
the building, but my work was over on the west side, in the World
Financial Center.
I walked over to the bridge that connects the World Trade Center to the
World Financial Center and immediately saw why the officers were trying to
move people away from where I was. The courtyard area in the World Trade
Center had scattered debris in it and, looking up, I could see papers
falling as if there was a ticker-tape parade going on.
I immediately called my wife on her cell-phone.
"I'm ok.", I said.
"Huh? What do you mean?", she asked.
I tried to give her the basic information. "You are going to see
something in the news, I don't know what happenned, but I'm ok. Maybe
there was an explosion at the World Trade Center, but I'm ok." Even
though I had no idea of what had occurred, I felt very nervous and I was
trying to hold back tears as I spoke to her.
We said a few more brief words, and I told her that I had to leave the
building. I walked out of the World Trade Center and saw the police
officers moving everybody away from the building. I walked across Church
street to join the crowd of people looking up at 1 WTC.
What I saw was horrific. The top 10-15 stories of the building were
engulfed in flames. Black smoke from the intense heat was pouring out. I
watched for a few minutes and decided that I should head to work and
started planning my route. Obviously, I couldn't go on streets near the
WTC, and I would have to go a few blocks north and make a big loop to get
to my office.
I just started taking a few steps when I heard the crowd gasp. Looking
up, I could see that someone had jumped or fell from the building. People
started crying and those who weren't crying were obviously stunned by what
they saw. Obviously, there were many people stuck in the building who
were trapped by the fire.
While I was looking at the flames so high up, I thought, "How are they
going to put this out? You obviously can't shoot a stream of water up
that high." Just about as I was thinking this, I saw a plane that seemed
to come out of nowhere.
"Aha," I thought, "this plane is going to dump water on the building." I
thought that what worked for forest fires would work for this fire. I
watched the plane come, and I couldn't believe how big these planes are
that do this kind of work. As the plane neared the WTC, I thought, "This
plane better pull up or it's not going to clear the building." A split
second later, it finally occurred to me that the plane wasn't intending to
clear the building.
BAM!!! This giant jet smashed into the building almost directly above my
head. I ran across the street for cover. I got about halfway across the
street when I either tripped or someone pushed me down. I felt the basic
fear that almost anyone must feel when they are in a panicked crowd. I
knew that if I didn't get up immediately, I was going to be trampled. I
got up and hid near a parked van.
Looking back, I realize that I didn't get pushed down by anyone because I
was crossing an empty street. I didn't trip either. It was the shock
wave of the explosion that knocked me flat to the ground.
As I crouched next to the van, I saw someone under the front of it and I
couldn't decide whether that was safer or it would be a deathtrap if some
debris fell on it. A few other people huddled near me, and we saw a rain
of glass nearby us. Once it seemed that no more debris was falling,
everybody started running north.
While I was running, I realized that I had just called my wife about ten
minutes earlier and told her that I was fine. After that call, I had
witnessed a plane exploded over my head and I was now actually running
for my life. I had to make sure that I did survive this and I had to let
her know that I was fine now.
We got about two blocks away when the crowd slowed down a bit and we all
realized that we were away from immediate danger. I started feeling
around my body to make sure that something didn't hit me and I was
ignoring it out of shock. My guardian angel was watching over me and
nothing had hit me. Almost in unison, everybody reached for their
cellphones and started trying to call loved ones. It seemed like
everybody had full signal strength but nobody could complete a call. The
lines for pay phones were already 10-20 deep.
I knew that I had to get away from the World Trade Center and I was trying
to find the route to go. To my left were the streets that were above the
subway stations and to my right was City Hall. Both seemed like likely
terrorist targets. I thought that anybody who would launch a coordinated
air attack would follow it up with a ground attack. I felt that it was
important to avoid any areas that had a lot of people near it.
I was frozen in decision about where to go and I stopped near a building
that housed one of the city's recycling centers. It seemed to be made of
concrete and had a basement that looked fairly sturdy. I went down into
the basement to find a payphone. No luck. After standing around for a few
minutes and talking to strangers about what had just happenned, I learned
that the first explosion had also been caused by a plane crash.
I decided that staying near the Financial district and particularly, the
World Trade Center towers, was asking for trouble. So, walking next to
City Hall seemed safer than staying where I was. As I walked north, I
saw a few people asking about what had caused the explosions, and I told
them what I saw. A big (BIG) plane had smashed into one of the buildings
and that others told me that a different plane had crashed into the first
building. Everybody was in disbelief. "Are you sure?" was a common
question.
I started walking past City Hall and I eyed every passing truck as I was
sure that one of them would be filled with bombs. When I finally passed
City Hall, I headed west so that I could be near the river. I figured
that if all else failed, I could jump in the Hudson river for safety. I
got to the West Side Highway and headed north.
I must have walked about ten blocks and I heard some radio reports that
the Pentagon had been hit. Now, I was nervous that my wife hadn't heard
from me and that she may be in trouble as she works in Times Square. I
had to get in contact with her.
Every pay phone had long lines of people waiting for them and nobody could
make a call on their cellphone. I walked past a garage for Verizon and I
thought that if anybody would have a lot of phones, Verizon would. I
turned
the corner to see nothing but a garage. However, the nice man there was
letting anybody use his single phone in the office. I thanked him and
waited in line for the phone.
I called Kim and got her voicemail. I told her that I saw the second
plane hit the building and that we were under terrorist attack. I said
that she should leave Manhattan immediately and use the ferry as the
bridges and tunnels are probably closed. While I was saying this, I could
hear the crowd gasp in amazement.
People started piling in to use the phone and I got different accounts
about what just happenned. One said that a third plane came in and hit
the World Financial Center. Another said that a third plane hit the World
Trade Center and knocked it over and that it fell on the World Financial
Center. Everybody agreed, though, that the World Trade Center was no
more.
I went outside to look for myself. I found it totally credible that the
World Financial Center no longer existed as the entire southern end of
Manhattan was under cloud of dust. I could see one of the World Trade
Center towers but it seemed that a nearby building was blocking me from
seeing the other. I kept inching out into the street to see the other
one. It didn't occur to me that I would never be able to see that other
building.
I ran back in to call my wife again and told her that I saw the third
explosion (that's what I thought at the time) and that I was far away from
that area now. She might not be able to use the ferry, but she should
definitely get away from Times Square. I told her to call her mom to pick
up our daughter from daycare. She should then start walking north and
that we would meet up later tonight.
I left the garage and resumed walking north so that I could get to the
ferry and every now and then I would turn around to see the remaining
tower and watch more people jump from it. I walked a few more steps,
turned around, and then stared in disbelief as the building crumbled. It
looked exactly like what you would see if someone used a controlled
implosion to bring it down. The giant cloud of dust rose again over
southern Manhattan and nobody knew for sure what was still standing.
I kept walking north and decided to get away from the crowds and I passed
a street that a friend of mine lived on. Fortunately, he was home and he
had several of his co-workers over (they work at 7 World Trade Center, a
building that fell down at about 5:20PM).
Once I got there I was finally able to call my mother-in-law, my mother,
and some coworkers and we were able to determine that everybody was safe
and unhurt. I had learned that my wife got my message and heeded my
advice to leave immediately. She was already on her way home.
I stayed at my friend's house for another hour to calm down and I then
headed north to meet my brother-in-law and my father-in-law and together
we went to catch the ferry to go home.
<hr></blockquote>
-Mike
A few days later I had watch at the Norfolk Naval Base, since I'm active duty Navy. It took me almost 4 hours to get on base that day. Security was a wee bit tight.
My 9AM 3D animation studio at the Museum of Fine Arts. Someone came in late and said a plane hit a building in New York. we all figured it was just some freak accident. Then someone came by and said all studios were cancelled for the day, and by the time I got upstairs to the atrium, there was a crowd of people watching it unfold on TV.
so I left, went back to my brand new apartment that didn't have cable and barely got antenna reception whilst trying to get a hold of a contact at CNN to figure out what the hell was happening. watched the news for about seven days straight after that
I was on an express bus from Staten Island going over the Verrazano bridge when a man a few seats up said "oh my god" and pointed over at the first tower which was engulfed in flames.
A few miles further we were all watching as a second plane, silver and flying low, slammed into the second tower. I remember wondering what kind of idiot pilot would be flying so close to the burning tower? Didn't he see it was on fire? No sooner had the thought crossed my mind when I realized he was going so fast and so low he....BAM!
Fireball.
A lady stood up and demanded to be let off the bus.
Everyone was already on their cellphones.
The bus driver didn't let anyone off. He turned the bus around and drove us back to Staten Island.
As soon as I got off the bus I literally ran home. Not sure why. It seemed like a safe place I guess. Ran in the house yelling at my girlfriend to wake up. That terrorists were flying planes into the city and that I'd heard that Washington D.C. was on fire.
We stood there watching TV.
I realized I was crying.
Couldn't call out, so I emailed a friend of mine in K.C. and told him to call my mom and let her know I was o.k. He was happy to help.
I still don't go over the bridge without glancing over to see...I don't know what. I just can't go over it without looking over there and thinking about it.
My girlfriend told me I would talk about killing muslims in my sleep for a couple of weeks after that. Weird how the subconcious works.
Lots of innocent people died for no good reason.
Sad. Really sad.
I've never seen my mom so paniced before. (We have family in NY)
[ 09-04-2002: Message edited by: Ebby ]</p>