Community Chat

[Carolina925]

@twinsister , I just can't imagine. Even though I've watched it hundreds of times, the horrors of witnessing it in person are beyond my imagination. Thanks for sharing your story.

[timeless]

  My heart goes out to the families of the children who were in the daycare there. 

They would be young adults today.

[Oznell]

Thank you to everyone for sharing any and all experiences and impressions of that day.  As so many have said, important for the nation to remember.

[DSD2]

What lovely tributes.

22 years ago and yet all seems all too vivid.

I join all in prayer for all that were lost, their families and all those brave heroes who died and those who  suffered then and for years afterward.

My brother who was a chef at the time knew Mike Lomanaco, the Executive Chef at Windows on the World. Mike was saved that day only as he had stopped in the lobby to get a pair of eyeglasses repaired. There were far more tragic stories including a young bus boy who so loved his job there he returned a day early from vacation only to perish.

We will never forget and we will continue to pray. 

[Kalli]

Such a devastating day. Here in the northeast, so many people knew someone who left for work that morning and never returned home. 

My parents went to NYC a few weeks after 9-11 to serve as Red Cross Disaster Relief workers.  They stayed for 3 weeks and with many other volunteers, helped folks who came to register for financial aid during that challenging time. 

[Cakers3]

🙏 4 ☮️

Then be the messenger for what you pray.🕊️

[Oznell]

Thanks, @DSD2 ,  and all who contribute these remarkable stories.

I was just reading about Rick Rescorla, a security chief who warned his employers after the 1993 WTC attack, that the basements of the buildings were vulnerable to attack.

Later, on 9/11, after the first plane, he was told by superiors not to evacuate the 2700 employees of Morgan Stanley in his charge in building two-- that it wasn't necessary.   He ignored that advice, and ordered everyone out.  He guided them down a bottlenecked stairway, cheering them on with the Cornish and Welsh songs of his youth.  He kept on, telling his wife if he didn't get out, that he loved her and was happy.  

Thankfully, he disobeyed orders, and saved hundreds of people, but perished himself in the effort.  A wonderful life to look up today, among countless others.  

[IMW]

I had ashes and soot blowing in my windows, smoke from the site for months and months-----I live in Brooklyn. My dh, dd were in Manhattan walking across Bklyn  bridge, masses running to the river-and the firefighters, the heros.

My son in the Navy in the gulf, desperate to see if we were ok- calling from the ship's radio.

'Felt like Armageddon.

[Bookplate]

A friend of my husband's who worked in the Towers didn't die because he stopped for a coffee and was served by the world's slowest barrista.  He doesn't even remember how he got home, but said he didn't recognize himself in the mirror when he finally got there.  Weeks later he brought the barrista a dozen roses.

I will always remember how the air smelled for weeks, even months, afterwards.  And passing by the thousands of photos of missing loved ones pasted up on every available surface. A constant heartbreak.

[Hazelfaye]

Sept.11,2001 my Memories

My older son was a police officer
in the precinct where the towers stood,he would be a first responder,
my husband was working in the city just several blocks from the towers.
Upon first hearing about the planes hitting the towers,and going down,
looking toward Manhattan, one could see the smoke billowing. We heard the Pentagon was also hit,
and the endless, unfounded rumers, that numerous planes were missing,
It was like being in a grade B movie, and I wondered how it was going to end.
People mulled about in the street, everyone worried about loved ones,
most of the time the phones weren`t working,
the phone system had become sooo overcrowded, the anxiety level was at a fever pitch.
First, worried about my son, he would be amoung the first rescue workers to go in,
oh the long wait till the call came "he was alright", hubby`s call came in next
and he was fine too.
Then came thoughts of friends who worked in and about the towers,
the evening was filled with phone calls, everyone was calling everyone else, to make sure
friends and family were alright.
Staten Island had sent Rescue Squad #5, the entire Squad, all but 1, was lost that day.
Weeks that followed were filled with watching funeral processions go by,
and crosses on street corners strewn with flowers, lit candles and pictures of
loved ones who had been lost. Days were filled with everyone trying to help
folks who had lost loved ones, and the men worked after work at the site, trying to find anyone
who might have survived, and then finally just to find anyone period.