9/11 memory's

[cåblelady]

Damn, Guff. Hugs to you, and we'll see you soon.

Ditto.

[taterhill]

I heard about it while listening to Howard Stern. Baba-booey I think came into the studio and mentioned the first plane hitting the tower. There was a lot of talk of how it was likely an accident, when I finally got to a TV and turned it on I saw the second plane hit and I was sick to my stomach.

They were talking about Pam Anderson...I can remember it like it was yesterday

[KD in CA]

My office was on Park Place, two blocks north and a half block over from the WTC. I was in the office early preparing for a board meeting and heard the first plane overhead before it hit the building. The sound of the impact/explosion was terrible and unmistakable. We ran over to the window which faced the north side of WTC 1, allowing us to clearly see the gaping hole, smoke and fire. I knew instantly it was a terrorist act, but at the moment didn't think about the possibility of additional attacks. It also didn't dawn on me that the building would fall. It was obviously ruined and I was imagining what the day would be like as they put out the fires and what it would be like as they were tearing it down in the months to come and how there would only be one tower still standing.

 

We were still reeling from the initial shock when we heard the second plane approaching. That was worse...realizing it was about to happen again. That's went people really started to freak. The building PA came on a few minutes later giving an evacuation request/order. We went through the office and told everyone to go home. Several people stayed or went back in and where still there when the buildings came down, but thankfully I decided to make a beeline for the subway before they starting shutting down transportation. The cell phone lines were already completely jammed, so getting calls through was very difficult. Got up to GCT and on the usually empty but now packed 10:07 back to CT, right about the time the first building fell in front of the whole world on TV. Managed to get a call through to my sister just before so they knew I was out of the area. My colleagues that were still downtown later described it like a massive earthquake...people were in serious fear for their lives. A couple guys from the office where caught in the dust cloud outside, as was our entire building. My office was on the 15th floor and faced away from the WTC, but since I had left the window open, my entire office was covered in dust when I returned.

 

Turns out I caught one of the last trains out of NY before they shut the city down. The train ride was bizarre, everyone was in a stunned state, hearing bits and pieces of news from the few cell calls that were able to get through. Got home and a buddy came over, we spent the next 7 hours at an outside table at a local bar drinking and smoking cigs, avoiding the TV.

 

Next morning started the process of connecting with the rest of the management team at work and starting a phone tree to track everyone down. It took us 3 days to get a hold of everyone and confirm their safety. The rest of that week all the terrible stories about the number of fatalities and the local people impacted poured out. The most stark story of that I recall was how local cops tagged all the cars left overnight at the train parking lots as part of identifying the missing.

 

The following Monday, six of us went downtown, which was completely sealed off west of Broadway and south of Canal. Needing to get to the office to retrieve our servers and other stuff to keep the business afloat, we managed to talk our way past a bored Army solider at a checkpoint. Walking up Broadway in the middle of the day, completely empty of people and covered in ash was one of the more surreal things I had ever seen. The only people they were letting stay in the red zone were the building supers; we saw ours and he convinced a couple cops to give us ten minutes in the building. He also told us some horrible stories about what some of the other building managers had found in buildings immediately surrounding WTC. We grabbed everything we needed and pushed it on a cart up the middle of Broadway to Canal street, then off to find temp office space that we would live in for the next 3 months. They didn't open our street until the end of October and we didn't move back until just before Christmas.

[plenzmd1]

Guff..wow what a powerful post.As others have mentioned, maybe the most powerful and moving post I have read on this board

 

KD, moving post as well.

 

Three things stand out for me

 

I was still living in DC and had just moved from the District to in burbs. I worked out of the house, and did not know what was happening right away. It was to be my 2 year old daughters first day at preschool, and I can remember telling my wife"she is going, these pricks want us to be scared and stop our lives, well fug em,I am not scared". Remember not driving very far and the reports of the Pentagon being hit came in on WTOP, and becoming instanly terrified and turning hte car around

 

Remember my sister calling in a panic as her husband worked at the Doubletree directly accross from the Pentagon, and she could not reach him. This right after the reports of the hit, and not knowing hte extent of the damage, we were all praying. Remember the shher joy and relief when he could get thru 45 minutes later.

 

Remember sitting and watching the news of how many planes were still in the air, maybe 5 or so left accounted for, when i hear what sounds like a jet liner passing 100 ft over my house. All the neighbors rushing onto the street as we were sure it was one of the planes, only to realize it was an f-16 ..and that continued for quite a while that day.

[SageAgainstTheMachine]

I was in the 7th grade back then. I remember that it was my lunch period when I first heard about it. All the students and most of the teachers seemed to be operating under the assumption that the whole thing was a tragic accident.

 

Soon enough, it was pretty evident that the country was under attack and a lot of parents came to pick up the kids. I stayed at school for the day because my Mom couldn't get out of work, and I remember my English teacher was just at a loss for words to explain what had happened.

 

When I finally got home, I just sat down and watched CNN with my parents and sister all day. I think I was in shock for the most part, but it all settled in when I went to bed. I remember I ended up crying myself to sleep. It was definitely something of a loss of innocence for me. Just something I'll never forget.

[Wraith]

I was a freshman at UB. On the bus from the Ellicot Complex to the Student Union for my first class of the day, I had heard that a plane had just struck one of the towers. Like everyone else, I pictured a little Cessna and didn't give it much thought. It wasn't until my buddy Mark burst into that English class late and out of breath from running in with the news that we all fully understood the severity. We let out of class very early and I was standing in a crowd in the Student Union with a bunch of class mates when the second plane hit. The TV reporter was talking with the second tower in the distant background and the impact was visible in the background. The reporter didn't seem to realize for a short time and kept talking. It was incredibly surreal.

 

I remember the rest of the day being incredibly lonely. We huddled in the RA's dorm room watching the news together. Most of close group of friends were from Rochester and Buffalo but we had quite a few people in the hallway who from that area who were concerned about friends and family. I went home that weekend for the first time and it was an incredible relief to be with my family then.

 

I was fortunate enough to have no friends or family involved that day. I didn't even know anyone who lived or worked in NYC so there wasn't even much worry. It didn't seem to occur to us to worry about who was on the planes. Still, occuring as it did only two weeks into my college career, that day had a profound impact on my college memories. I loved it at UB and have a ton of great memories but I doubt any of us will be able to separate those memories from the 9/11 ones.

[Just Jack]

I was working at the Onondaga County Office Building in the sub-basement when the Emergency Operations Director came in to our office telling us a plane had hit the WTC. We went across the hallway and as we enter his office, we see the 2nd plane hit. My brain is scrambled, trying to figure out why if I already see smoke do I see a plane coming in. Very quickly after the 2nd plane hit, the EODs phone starts ringing off the hook. Shortly, they opened the Emergency Operations Center and people were coming in from all departments. About 11am they had a news conference down there, with the County Executive and Syracuse Mayor. I remember it was Primary Day because the Mayor was up for his position. I spent all day going between watching the TVs in the EOC and posting on TBD.

 

I lived less than a mile from the airport and Air National Guard base, so the next several days were filled with the sounds of jets taking off.

 

I bought the last (size 4x6, completely out of 3x5) flag at the local flag store.