#1079 | Wednesday, March 20th 2002
As one of Jehovah's witnesses, I was about to meet my friend in order to go out on "field service" - talking to people about a safer and better world to come. As I enterd his house, the TV was on, broadcasting the terrible pictures as they came live from NYC. I saw live, from the other side of the world, history as it happends. I saw the world, as it changes. I saw live the towers collaps. I couldn't help but remember the last time I saw them with my own eyes, When visiting NYC. I wanted to cry. I thought about all those people that are loosing their lives right now, as I sit and watch the TV screen. It was an awful feeling.
Alon | 24 | Israel

#1050 | Sunday, March 17th 2002
I live in Manhattan and was on my way to work. I stopped by the local street vendor selling coffee and he had his radio on. I asked him what was wrong, and he told me two planes were hijacked and flown into the world trade centers.

I thought nothing of it. I grew up with those towers, I thought they were indestructible. My office is in Midtown on the penthouse floor with a clear view downtown. It wasnt until i got to my desk, which has a bullseye view of the towers, did I realize the scale of the attack. The thick black smoke going on forever, the HUGE gaping hole in the first tower, i thought i was dreaming. Everyone in the office was by the windows, just watching in awe. Nobody said a word. We just stood there dumbfounded.

What was in front of our face was something unimaginable. This was around 10:00AM just before the first tower collapsed. It is one thing to watch this from a television, its another thing to watch it live. When the first one collapsed, people started panicking. We did not know what happened, where there bombs inside the buildings? We had no clue. People started calling their friends that worked downtown, but all the lines were either dead or busy. It was the most confusing and eerie day of my life.

Manhattan was closed off, so people that lived outside of the island had to stay at a friends or walk home accross the bridges. My girlfriend and I just wandered the streets like everybody else in the city. YOU NEVER see people walking aimlessly in the streets of new york, but that day, people had nowhere to go.

It was the worst day of my life.

Michael | 24 | New York

#986 | Wednesday, March 13th 2002
Sept 11,2001 at 7:45 am I went to the bus stop to wait for the bus going down town Saint Paul to work. I got to work at 8:15 a.m. There were people standing by the copy machine talking about "some plane hit a building" Okay I was still tired and I wasn't paying attention to them, then more people started talking about how they saw the video of the plane hit the building. I remember commenting to myself as I walked back to my computer that I needed to watch the news more often. I didn't equate what they were saying with America because the word Terroism came up. I am 24 in my life the only thing in America that has been really equated with a terroist is a toddler. Terroism and America don't fit. At least not before 9/11. Okay so I got to my cubicle and turned on the country station and hear OH MY GOD OH MY GOD....some lady is screaming. Then the reports started flooding in one right after another. 2 planes hit the WTC, "this just in the pentagon has been bombed" and there are 4 planes still unaccounted for, wait a plane went down in a field in PA. May be unrelated. I was thinking Yeah Unrelated my ass. I was scared. I was almost crying, my phone rang and it was my mother. I am a sensitive person and she wanted to see if I was okay. I can't pin point the moment but sometime right after I heard the initial reports and before 9 am. central time I ran up to the security desk on the 3rd floor, they have a tv that is tuned to CNN, I didn't get to see much because there were so many people. I went back to my desk and sent the loan documents to the lender by 9:10 am. I hear as I am sending them that the sears tower and the Mall of America is being evacuated. I am really nervous now. My phone rings it is the lady that works in the next cubicle's son, I say anne is in training can I take a message, he tells me to get ahold of her asap because his sister from NY called, I gave him the trainer's direct number and Transferred him up there. Then I hear "Everyone can I have your attention, Turn off your Computer and GO Home now. Leave the downtown area. I was going why is a building in downtown Saint Paul MN being evacuated.(not like I wanted to stay at work) Then I realize the Mn trade center is only blocks away and the State capital bldg is less than a mile from us. I shut off my computer and went to the bus stop. I was so terrified of being downtown I took the first #8 I saw. As long as it got me out of downtown. I had a 10 Minute wait for the transferring bus and went directly to my childrens day care across the street from my apartment. I hugged my 1.5 year old and my other son was at his first day of school. I left him at daycare because he didn't need to be around the tension. As I came to the door my husband did. We turned on the TV and that was when for the first time we saw the plane hit the building. Then the tower collapsed and we saw people running. Then the dust covered streets. I said God David it looks like the opening sequence of Terminator 2 Judgement day. We sat and watched the news all day. I cried all day. Especially at night when they started showing the posters of the missing. I didn't sleep well that night. The next morning I went to work. All I could think of is gee I can throw the computer threw the window to get out. I was planning escape routes and scenarios in my head. I avoided the elevators and the skyway. Panic attacks led me to quit my job 9/18. I had a major Panic attack that Friday and got home in time to watch the Memorial service. I remember that on the bus ride home that day We passed by a red cross there was already a line to donate blood at 9:30 in the morning 10:30 NY time. I never did like George W. but that night I watched the statement he made and I liked him that night. God bless America. I will never forget.
Heather | 24 | Minnesota

#929 | Monday, March 11th 2002
I was at my desk eating a bowl of Cheerios for breakfast. I usually read the paper online while eating so I brought up USATODAY and saw the headlines that the World Trade Center Towers had been hit. I thought it was a private jet that crashed into them by accident. We were able to see the Towers from our building, so we all ran to the window on the 4th floor to go see the smoke. While we were coming downstairs to the 3rd floor, the second plane hit. That's when everybody knew it was a terrorist attack.
Yagnesh | 24 | New Jersey

#900 | Monday, March 11th 2002
we (my husband and i) were up while he got ready for work.living in califorina it was 530am.i watched the news every morning while he gets ready.like always they had breaking news,so i watched to see what it was that had happened. thinking it would be a stupid car chase, it wasn't,it was just a mintue after the first plane had hit.i started to cry not knowing what happened but knew it was terrible.my husband stood in the bedroom door,then sat down to watch and to see if it was real.mintues later while they showed it live we saw the second plane come in off from the side.then more fire and smoke.he left for work,i sat with his sister in front of the tv.all day we sat and watched everything,i cried more. how could i not cry,1000's of people were hurt or hurting.six months later today...i watched the CBS show seeing it though the eyes of firefighters and the camra men in the building.i was in shock how could anyone escape that?i still cry at anything that reminds me of that day. songs,pictures,everything!how could someone be so cruel and what to kill innosent people?i guess we may never really know.i wish there was more i could do...all i guess i can do is pray. pray for the family and friends of those who lost,and pray that this disgusting act never happens again.god bless each and every New Yorker,god bless each and every American.god is watching and he will make these men pay.
J.L.Martinez | 24 | California

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