Among Friends

[We rescue cats]

My husband and I were preparing to fly to Atlanta that evening for a meeting. I was the chairman of the Red Cross Chapter and the phone rang to advise me that a plane was being tracked over our county so our air disaster team was being activated. When they arrived at the site there was no sign on the downed aircraft, just 3 trees beside the field that were on fire, the aircraft had come down in the field of reclaimed land and buried itself in the soft ground. Within an hour the FBI was onsite, arriving at about the same time our office director and I arrived. That was the last normal day we had for the next 3 months. I almost lost my business during that time (I owned a travel agency), and I still have nightmares about the events and families. We are only 30 miles from Shanksville, PA where the United flight came down. 

Within 24 hours we had a temporary headquarters established complete with full kitchen to feed the recovery team and the FBI, found housing for them all and started working with family members to get them here. 

There was a very simple memorial set up at the entrance to the crash site, just a flowers, notes and thoughts brought from the locals. And 40 beautiful leis sent to the site from the family of one of the flight attendants. They sent 44 one for each victim but we chose to only hang 40 since the other 4 were actually the perpetrators.

[goldensrbest]

It was so unbelievable, just did not seem possible at  first,then reality   set   in , such  a terrible loss of so many,i will never forget.

[RescueLover]

Thank you and your husband for ALL you do and have done !! @We rescue cats ❤️

[PA Mom-mom]

@We rescue cats  Your account of this tragedy is amazing! It's hard to believe how many people were directly affected by 9/11. Of course, we were all changed by this act of pure evil. Thank you for your contribution!

[Carmie]

I was vacationing in China when the World Trade Center was hit.  We had just gotten back from dinner and turned on CNN....the only English speaking channel we could get when I saw the tower attack live.

It was quite a shock.  It was awful be over there when my family was in the USA.  We were worried about each other.

I was afraid I'd be stuck in China with many other Americans who were stranded because the US airways were closed.

It was a mess...people ran out of their RX meds and were trying to borrow from other Americans.  They would go to the airport every day and see if there was room on standby once the planes were allowed to land.  Some people did this for 4 or 5 days in a row.

We were lucky, when we were scheduled to return, we had no problem getting our flight.  We were just diverted  to San Francisco instead of LA.

When we got on US soil, I was amazed how Americans stuck together as one people.  I wish that part would have lasted.  A tragedy brought us together.

I hope we never have to go through that again.