Sept 11, 2001 Where were you?

[GoldyCat]

I was outside doing yard work with no TV or radio on. My dad was supposed to be coming over to help me, and he was two or three hours later than I had expected. I was a little irritated because some of the tree-trimming really needed two people. However, I wasn't too concerned because my dad was walking the mile or so from his house and he liked to stop and chat with people along the way.

When he finally showed up he said, "Terrorists have attacked New York City and the World Trade Center towers are gone." I thought he must have gotten it wrong. How could the towers be gone? I remember going to the top of one tower--don't know which one--in the mid 70's. It must have been shortly after they were built. It was nighttime and I was more impressed with the view than with the towers themselves.

I have a number of friends in NYC, many of them from a photographers' forum. I spent the rest of the day watching TV and staying connected to that forum, waiting for news about my friends. We heard from one guy fairly quickly. His brother was a fireman on one of the "first response" teams. He was one of the 343 firefighters who died that day. Two other friends were out of contact until the next day. They were both nurses and had been kept at the hospital beyond their regular shifts to help with the expected flood of victims. Sadly, none of those victims ever made it to the hospital.

I was able to go to NYC at the end of October, 2001, to spend time with those friends. Very bittersweet as we learned of more and more relatives and friends-of-friends who had not survived the attacks.

 

[hissy]

If you do a search for attack of the towers here in the forums, you will find the original thread for this dreadful day. Many of us were glued to the television and found support in posting to each other.

As a former mod/admin I would just ask anyone searching to respect the place in history and keep the thread where it is on the day of the tragedy out of respect. If you post to it now, it will bump it out of place and bring it to today. That's why I am not linking to it

 

[ldg]

Two or three days before the attacks, they showed on the news the Northern Alliance (led by Ahmed Shah Massoud) shelling the Taliban in Kabul. During these attacks, Ahmed Shah Massoud was assassinated. Gary said, "They're planning something big." (Meaning al-Qaeda). We found out the next day that Massoud was assassinated, and Gary said, "They're planning something very big."

Gary and I work on "Wall Street" (physically our offices were in Midtown), and we were heading into the city 2 - 3 days a week back then (it was becoming easy to telecommute).

We were supposed to head in that morning, but Gary wasn't feeling too hot and just "had a feeling" we shouldn't drive in. We turned on CNBC before the morning meeting. We were watching when they first reported the first tower was on fire. The first thing Gary said was, "Holy sh**, it's a planned attack." They replayed the footage, and there was clearly a plane that flew into the tower. It wasn't too long after that they caught the next plane flying into the other tower.

The towers were burning and he said, "they're going to come down." It was horrible knowing rescue crews were heading to and into the buildings to help, because Gary is always right about these things.

None of our friends at Morgan Stanley (thankfully) worked at that address, they were midtown. But we had many good friends at the Alger Funds, and had had dinner with one (who lost her life in the attack) just the week before.

We worked for Gruntal in 1999 and part of 2000, and had offices at One Liberty. Thankfully, our friends there all survived. I'm a C.F.A. and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts, and the NYSSA had its offices there. Thankfully they were on a lower floor and everyone made it out.

As soon as the plane flew into the second tower, we put in VHS tape. We taped for days. Neither one of us wanted to watch them again, however. We gave them to a friend that is an avid collector of 9/11 stuff. Too gruesome, too sad, for us.

Laurie

 

[ldg]

BTW, I worked at the very bottom building in Manhattan (One New York Plaza) when the World Trade Center parking lot was bombed in 1993. I lived in Astoria, Queens. It was such a mess that day I had to walk home. Fortunately only 6 people lost their lives in that attack.

Laurie

 

[krazy kat2]

I was watching the news, having coffee. When I couldn't stand it any more, I got on the computer, and found TCS. Hissy's post about it was the first thing I read.

 

[addiebee]

Yes, I remember. I was home - getting ready to go to work, running in and out of the family room where the TV, watching the Today Show. I never made it to work. I was hysterical. I felt sick. When I was finally able to get through to family in NY, I was relieved to find everyone was ok. But my brother and sister-in-law lost their next-door neighbor, who left behind a wife and a little boy. So sad.

 

[duchess15]

I was in my college chemistry class when I heard about it. I couldn't believe it. Driving home was a nightmare. I live 5 mins from the largest military base in the free world - Fort Hood! Not only could I not get home due to the base shutting down completely and backing up ALL traffic on ALL highways and exits, but I had to drive down two exits and loop all the way around just to get home. I had never seen anything like it in my life.

I just started a job as a waitress that night. I was the only one that showed up. The lines for gas were backed up at every visible gas station. It was a mess!

I kept watching the playbacks and I couldn't believe it. I cringed when I saw people jumping out of the windows. They were a lot braver than I would have been.

It is a tragic loss and a reminder that after these 8 years we are still not any safer.

 

[faith's_mom]

I was on my way to work with my mom; we had been talking, when all of a sudden the radio personelle started talking about a plane having hit one of the Twin Towers. They were confused and trying to figure out how a pilot could have possibly run into the building on such a clear day...

When we got to work, we told our boss to turn the tv on; sure enough it was already being broadcasted on several channels, even our local ones. I stood in front of the tv for a long while, trying to comprehend...then went to work. Shortly after I stepped away from the tv the second plane hit...I remember the news castor saying "oh my god...a second plane has hit the towers...I can't believe it!!" Neither could we...or anyone else I'm sure.

9-11 was kind of a turning point in my life too, as I had been trying to decide on where to go to college. I had visited a Christian College about 2 weeks earlier, and when 9-11 happened I knew that Oak Hills was where I needed to go; it breaks my heart when I think about the losses suffered on that September day, but it breaks my heart more when I think about the people who were lost before that day, with no one to help them find who they were. I decided I wanted to not only learn and develop who I was, but I wanted to learn how to help others as well, and nothing against secular colleges, but for me, I just wasn't going to find it there.

 

[laureen227]

i was at school, teaching, of course. someone [probably one of her family] called the secretary & told her [this was before we knew it was intentional] & it made the email rounds among the teachers... we didn't tell the kids because none of us knew where their parents might be - none were involved, tho.
i called my mom & talked to her - my SIL & brother were at the hospital. my niece [their oldest daughter] was born that afternoon.

 

[wesley's mom]

I was in class at college. They announced something about it then had a TV set up in the lobby for people to watch. They closed all classes and we had the rest of the day off because of it. At first I did not understand what happened until I went down and watched the news for a while. A huge group of people were surrounded by a little TV and we all sat there in shock and cried. It didn't seem real. Took a while for it to sink in.

 

[jugen]

I was on vacation from work and sleeping at the time. My husband came in turned on the television and was telling me what was going on and I saw the towers going down. I cried like I hadn't cried in a long time that day.

 

[kittkatt]

Originally Posted by LDG

Two or three days before the attacks, they showed on the news the Northern Alliance (led by Ahmed Shah Massoud) shelling the Taliban in Kabul. During these attacks, Ahmed Shah Massoud was assassinated. Gary said, "They're planning something big." (Meaning al-Qaeda). We found out the next day that Massoud was assassinated, and Gary said, "They're planning something very big."

Gary and I work on "Wall Street" (physically our offices were in Midtown), and we were heading into the city 2 - 3 days a week back then (it was becoming easy to telecommute).

We were supposed to head in that morning, but Gary wasn't feeling too hot and just "had a feeling" we shouldn't drive in. We turned on CNBC before the morning meeting. We were watching when they first reported the first tower was on fire. The first thing Gary said was, "Holy sh**, it's a planned attack." They replayed the footage, and there was clearly a plane that flew into the tower. It wasn't too long after that they caught the next plane flying into the other tower.

The towers were burning and he said, "they're going to come down." It was horrible knowing rescue crews were heading to and into the buildings to help, because Gary is always right about these things.

None of our friends at Morgan Stanley (thankfully) worked at that address, they were midtown. But we had many good friends at the Alger Funds, and had had dinner with one (who lost her life in the attack) just the week before.

We worked for Gruntal in 1999 and part of 2000, and had offices at One Liberty. Thankfully, our friends there all survived. I'm a C.F.A. and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts, and the NYSSA had its offices there. Thankfully they were on a lower floor and everyone made it out.

As soon as the plane flew into the second tower, we put in VHS tape. We taped for days. Neither one of us wanted to watch them again, however. We gave them to a friend that is an avid collector of 9/11 stuff. Too gruesome, too sad, for us.

Laurie

Oh Laurie.

I'm so sorry to hear of your friend's loss, but I'm so glad that you weren't one of the victims, too.

Tiff

 

[kittkatt]

Originally Posted by gayef

I was asleep. My husband was working the early shift that day and had forgotten to re-set the alarm clock for me to get up. I was abruptly brought out of my sleep by my best friend beating on the window, screaming, "GAYE-GAYE!!!! Get UP and let me in, we've been ATTACKED. We are UNDER ATTACK!!!!"

My friend came into the house and we both watched the television in horror as they played and then replayed the video of the first plane hitting the building and the explosion that followed. We both screamed when the second plane hit the other building.

We watched as those poor souls jumped from the windows and we prayed for them as they fell, all the while wondering if they could be anyone we knew. (We both had friends/family who worked in the WTC at the time)

Then they broke in with the news of the attack at the Pentagon. A very large number of my friends and family are either military or Gov't employees, and many of them work in the Pentagon at DOD. My best friend's husband worked there at the time, right over top of where the plane went into the side of that building, but due to the contruction going on there at the time on that side, he had not moved back into his office yet so escaped injury.

Then they broke in again with the news that Flight 93 had gone down in rural Shanksville, PA. And yet once again, we prayed for the 40 souls who lost their lives that morning and wondered about how the crash events took place. We still do.

I lost a dear friend who worked on Floor 104 of the North Tower at Cantor Fitzgerald along with the nearly 650 other souls who died there that morning, and have all but lost a friend who worked at Verizon Communications on Floor 11 of the South Tower. She is still being treated for PTSD and is nearly non-functional emotionally.

I had another friend who worked at Morgan Stanley in the South Tower who survived because he stopped at Starbuck's that morning and missed his train. Otherwise, he would have been there and potentially killed with the ten others who lost their lives at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter that day. However, out of what they call "Survivor Guilt", he killed himself on the one year anniversary of the attacks. So, another soul tortured and now I hope, finally at peace.

My phone rang all day and into the night. I had heard from everyone I love at the Pentagon and I had heard from everyone I love in New York except for David and Niomi. Around midnight that night, I got a call from David's parents in Augusta, Georgia (the young man who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald) with the news that David had been at work and was presumed dead. We finally got confirmation of David's death 8 months later and I attended his memorial service - only there was no casket, just a small, simple, wood container with the minute particles that they recovered of his remains. Niomi (the Verizon employee) had called me the next afternoon when she got to her parents house in New Jersey.

OMG. I don't even know what to say. I am so sorry.

 

[calico2222]

I was living in Guam, so when the planes hit we were already in bed. We didn't know anything was going on until someone woke us up by knocking on our window. My boyfriend at the time was a dive instructor and he was teaching a class of submariners who were on island TDY. They were knocking to turn in their dive gear because they were being called out. I stayed in bed while he went to see what was going on.

A few minutes later he woke me up and said we were under attack and to come watch the TV. I remember coming out and seeing the towers falling on TV and I was like "you woke me up in the middle of the night to watch a movie??". He told me it wasn't a movie, it actually happened and the Pentagon was hit too. I watched in shock for a few minutes...I just couldn't believe it! Then, the reporter said they just heard another plane went down in Somerset county PA, and I lost it because that is only 20 minutes from my parents' house. Until then I think I still believed it was a movie but why would ANYONE throw in Somerset county if it wasn't true. I immediately tried to call my parents but there weren't any lines off island available until the next day. We watched until about 5:00am, then all the next day.

The next week was so surreal. I lived 5 minutes from work but it took 30 minutes to get there because I had to drive by the navy base and increased security caused major back up. No planes flew (you heard planes constantly before) except for Air Force planes making their rounds. And the whole island was circled with Navy ships patroling the coast. I could watch them from my window at work. Everything was so...quiet.

My mom was worried about me being in Guam, but I told her that if most Americans don't know where Guam is, I doubt terrorists know. Besides, with a navy and an air force base there we were probably safer than she was.

 

[spudsmom]

I was getting ready to go to my second job at a Kitchen store in an outlet mall. We lived way out in the boonies in a valley, and didn't get very good tv reception. I wasn't really sure what I thought I was seeing, but the commentators confirmed it. I got to work and every one was freaked out, we were listening on the radio and the news we were hearing was just getting worse. Finally we got the phone call to close the store, all the stores in the mall were closing. No store had a customer at all, everyone was home watching tv apparently.
It was so heartbreaking.
I do remember being absolutely terrified when I heard a plane one night while laying in bed. This was while there was no air travel. I woke my husband up and he assured me it was probably military since we live so close to the coast.
God rest the souls of all the innocent and brave people that were lost that day.

 

[starryeyedtiger]

I was in my world history class at school. I remember walking to school that morning and thinking to myself "Wow, what a gorgeous day today" ....it was stunning outside that morning - just perfect weather and was beautiful...I had no idea what would happen once I got to my class though

I remember one of the other teachers just busting into our class room yelling turn on the news turn on the news, someone's attacked the world trade center.

They rolled the tv into the room (it was a portable building detached from some of the rest of the school so we all had our own tv's) We turned the tv on in time to see the second plane hit the other tower. It was aweful.

Our head master came over the intercom and made an announcement to the entire school about what had happened. I remember a lot of my friends freaking out because they had parents in NY for business that week and also because some of them had parents in the military- they were affraid they'd be targeted.

My friend Ashley's dad was supposed to have a meeting in the world trade center that morning. She thought that he had been killed

It was so aweful to see her like that -we later found out though that by the grace of God his meeting had been rescheduled for later that day- so he never even went to the towers that morning- he missed it.

Every class I went to that day - all of the teachers but one turned on the tv- and that's all we did all day long was watch the news as it all unfolded

When my mom picked me up from school that day we went to the store and got some yellow ribbons. The next morning me and some of my friends passed them out around school - everyone had one- we all wore them for months after that.

 

[kittyl0ve4]

I was in 3rd period French class, when my French teacher was called out of the room & came back in crying. She told us all what had happened, & then an announcement came over the loud speaker. At the time, it didnt bother me bc i didnt know what the World Trade Center was. Thru the next few days, i watched the news & realized what a big deal it was, with so many people dying. Now i get chills everytime i think about it. And last night we were watching this thing on tv, with the original footage of the News after the first plane hit, & while the second plane made its impact. It truely is sad & i grieve for the families of those who were lost or injured in this terrible tragedy

 

[tara g]

I was in my 4th period Global Awareness class my freshmen year of high school. The principal came over the loudspeaker sounding serious as usual, so we all groaned. Until he gave us the news about the twin towers. We all got extremely quiet and were shocked when he mentioned that planes hit BOTH of them.

Since I lived in northern New Jersey, ~40 miles outside of NYC, A LOT of kids' parents worked in the city. There were grief counselors and chaperons for kids to call their parents and make sure they were okay. My uncle was working on the river at the time and saw both planes hit.

I will never forget that day, for sure. Life changed drastically from September 10, 2001 to September 11, 2001. Sometimes it's strange to think back to what life was like on 9/10/01 ... before this horrible tragedy.

 

[fuzzles]

On September 11th, it was my junior year in high school. I was in band and actually left marching practice early to go inside the school for precal tutoring/help with homework something like that I cannot exactly remember. It was very strange because all of the sudden another teacher busted into the classroom that I, a few other students, and my teacher were in and yelled out that planes were crashing into the World Trade Center. It was just really shocking to hear it, I think for a few seconds no one really thought that it was true, but sure enough my teacher turned on the tv in the classroom and it was on the news.

The rest of the day and a few days after that, I don't think we ever really had class in any of my classes. Everyone was so glued to the tv's in the classrooms. Amazingly, this was the year that they actually installed tv's into the classrooms. The previous year we didn't have any. The Aggie Bonfire collapse happened the previous year, my sophomore year, and we had to listen to that on the radio and it was pretty much the same way, being a tragedy and all, with not having class, except everyone listened to the radio all day instead of watching it on tv. September 11th was a very sad day for the whole country. It's like the country just stood still in shock for a few days after what happened. I don't think I'll ever forget where I was when that happened.

 

[EnzoLeya]

I was in 7th grade in computer class.....I still remember it like yesterday. Our school put us on lock down for about an hour, so they could call our parents, and then we were all sent home.