Community Chat

[conlt]

My father died suddenly on 8/31/2001 and I was quite traumatized by this. My brother was on in the Navy, on a ship in the Persion Gulf and it took him 5 days to get home. We had the funeral the Saturday before 9/11, my sister was supposed to go back to Boston on 9/11. On that morning I was watching QVC and getting ready to go to the dentist. I got dressed and headed to my mothers house to say goodbye to my sister. When I walked in my mothers house my sister was sitting in front of the TV and I saw the 2 towers standing with a hole and smoke coming out of one of them and I thought that it was a movie. I did not think it was real. Every year I feel traumatized by this anniversary, it is difficult for me. I don't want to be reminded. 

[athenian]

I was at work at a small college.  A co-worker's husband's call gave us the news.  We gathered around a big t.v. In the lounge, such a quiet group.  I noticed one student trembling, and asked if he were okay.  "I'm scared", he said, a big admission for an 18 year old.  I told him I was scared, too, and tried to reassure him that our rural midwestern location was an unlikely target for terrorism.  An hour earlier I would have said anywhere in America was an unlikely target.

We tried to keep to routines (keep calm and carry on) as an example, but we were going through the motions.  The clock barely seemed to move.

I didn't cry until that evening in church, when a group of firemen came in.  

[MacDUFF]

I was living in CA...woke up to the telephone ringing...my friend from MI said, "Quick turn on the radio [I didn't own a TV].  I think we're under attack."  

She had the same thought that @Sooner had, "I'll bet they came back to finish their evil deed."  

I worked at a hospital...by the time I got there, there was no doubt my friend had been correct and I knew instinctively that the world was never going to be the same.  

Images are seared into my mind that, frankly, I wish I had not seen.  

[Pandalady]

I was teaching first grade and eating lunch when a fellow teacher came in and told us what she had seen on TV.   In less than an hour, the army mother of one of my students suddenly came running in the classroom to check her daughter out.  She had just been deployed and was leaving that night.  That is when it hit home for me how things were going to change in America!

Prayers for victims, survivors, family, friends and all of Ameria!  God bless us all!

[Puzzle Piece]

Sleeping.  I was finishing my last chemo treatment. 

[libbyannE]

I was getting ready for work but running late. I had the today show on tv and was watching when they cut into the show with live shots of a smoking World Trade Center building.  I spent a lot if work time in Manhattan and we always had staff in and out of the city, so my first thought was about whether any staff were there. (Yes, and they were marooned on the cut-off island for days.) Then I wondered about my niece's husband, who was an attorney on Wall Street. Where was he? (Walking back home to Brooklyn over the Brooklyn Bridge, we learned after a few hours of not knowing his whereabouts.) A high school acquaintance was married to the head of an agency headquartered at the WTC, I knew: Was he ok? (No.) I sat down and did not stop watching for a couple of hours. My husband was home that morning, supervising some work going on outside, and periodically he said he could hear my intermittent, "Oh, my god!" exclamations out in the woods. Things got worse and worse. We all know the feelings of worry for the people in those buildings, the anguish at seeing them waving out the windows, the disbelief of seeing one building fall and then another, and the fear of being under attack ourselves. When and where might the next attack occur? Immediately after that dreadful day, what I also recall was the eerie peace because all planes were grounded. We had friends stuck in Europe, and some stuck on a military base in Newfoundland where some incoming flights from Europe had to land and remain until that ground stop was lifted. To quote a John Lennon lyric, those were "strange days, indeed...." Finally, I remember fear being replaced with angry defiance. I was in New York not long after, and I remember thinking as I boarded my flight to LaGuardia, "Ha! The terrorists only win if we stop living our lives. New York, here I come." As we landed, I could clearly see the smoldering ground zero site out the plane window, and one could not escape the odd, acrid smell in the city.

[valgators]

I was at work.......a social worker in the public schools at the time.    We were having a meeting when a parent walked in and said a plane had just hit one of the Twin Towers.   We all thought the plane must have gotten off course.    We happened to have a TV in the room so we turned it on and then a short while later we recognized something seemed "off" about the report so we turned the volume up to hear the announcers.   We then learned of the second plane.     We all sat and watched the Towers come down and people running in every direction.     We were too stunned to talk or leave.    We just sat and watched.      To this day, it doesn't seem real!

[KKlim]

I was in NYC working in downtown Chelsea . I had taken the ferry across the Hudson as that was my normal commute to work. It was a beautiful, sunny morning. By the time I got to work, all hell started to break loose. I remember being able to see straight downtown a fireball. I will never forget it took me 12 hours to get out of the city that day. I had to board a cruise ship in the Hudson in order to get back across since all bridges, tunnels, and highways were shut down. Horrific, unforgettable day forever imprinted in my Mind. God bless all who worked downtown.

[JustJazzmom]

It was a beautiful summer day, clear blue sky with no humidity. Two children had already left for the HS & middle school respectively. I was watching from our door our last child getting ready to board the bus to the elementary school. I had on the local Cable News 12 on and the anchors were remarking about the size of the plane that just hit the 1st tower. I could tell from the size it was no small plane. My DH worked across the street at the World Financial Center and had left for work before I even arose. I tried reaching him, but no cell service. It was about 5 to 9 and I switched to NBC in time to see the 2nd plane hit the 2nd tower. He was exiting the subway and saw that plane hit the 2nd tower. I called his office and someone said, he was not there yet, but they were doing a head count before they were to evacuate the building.

For 45 minutes, I didn't know where DH was due to cell phone disruption of service. When he finally got a hold of me, he told me to call his Mom!

I didn't hear from him again until around 1PM. He managed to get back to the LIRR area at Penn Station and all of the commuters were waiting for the RR to give the all clear on the numerous tunnels entering and leaving NYC.

I ran over to the HS and Middle School to let our kids know what was going on. Our eldest already knew what was going on -- it was the era of the Walkman and radios. I went to the Middle School and went to the Main Office. The staff was only telling children on a need to know basis and were allowing parents to take their kids home, no questions asked.

Middle son got called out of his English class and I told him, 2 planes had hit the WTC and they were no more, but Dad was OK as he wasn't hurt by anything! My son told me years later that he left the office quickly to go back to class because if he stayed any longer, he would have cried.

We still have photos from a portable camera a co worker he ran into bought at a bodega of the damage that was done.

DH had made it to 14th Street by walking when the 1st tower collapsed. Fortunately for him, the wind was blowing towards Brooklyn. His brother, was an atty. that had a case in Brooklyn that AM had to be evacuated and did get hit with the dust from the collapse.

We will never forget......

[Grandma 4]

I was at home talking on the phone to my daughter who had given birth to my grandaughter the previous afternoon. The hospital was in Newark,NJ,right across the river from the WTC. She had her TV on mute,and suddenly shouted OMG,put on your TV! At first,the hospital told her that she had to take the baby and go home right away,because they would need the beds,but soon  determined that there were not enough survivors for that to be necessary! The saddest thing I've ever heard! The next day we brought her home and spent several days with the new baby,watching TV and trying to check up on everyone we knew who might have been in Manhattan that day.Fortunately,no one we knew was lost or hurt,although there were a few close calls among our friends and family. I am very grateful for that,and that my lovely grandaughter's birthday is Sept.10th and not the 11th.