|
|
|
#1332 | Tuesday, May 28th, 2002
|
|
I was in my office on 5th avenue when a co-worker, who was running late, called us to say that a 747 had hit the World Trade Center. At first, we thought she must have been mistaken. It was probably a small commuter plane that hit, and as all information goes from one person to another, a bit of distortion and exaggeration finds its way into the actual account. It wasn’t until ten minutes later that I decided to check the CNN website for news and information. I guess the ten-minute delay is something built into the emotional system that all New Yorker’s have when something happens. I couldn’t believe the image on my screen. Although not as disturbing as the live footage on TV, the websites only carried the image of the gaping hole the first plane left in the tower hit. My God, I thought, those poor people on the floors of impact! The websites must have been jammed with users because that image was the only image available for a considerable amount of time. I thought to myself, that building is amazing. It is still standing even after the plane hit. I thought the worst was over.
Thereafter, our only source of news was the radio. We did not have a TV in our office so the entire ordeal played out over radio waves. I could not believe my ears. When I heard that the towers had collapsed I was dumbfounded. A deep pit formed in my stomach as I held down the urge to be sick. It was something that all of us, as Americans, have finally come to realize that we are not immune to the horror that occurs on a daily basis in the Middle East. We had, once again, been drawn into war.
It was amazingly calm outside of our building as New Yorkers were finding a way out of the city. New York City was being shut down. What, New York was being shut down? My wife was about to give birth to our now 8 month-old daughter and was horribly worried that I would not be home for her when she went into labor. She went into labor on the 15th, and on the 16th I had a beautiful baby girl. The entire time I was in the hospital, I was haunted by the reality of the world in which I was bringing a child into. I spent some time home after my daughter was born, but I had been terrified to go back to NYC. I wanted to be with my new family. My family became the world to me, and each day I had to think that I was risking my life for something unnecessary. There was never anything unnecessary about rebuilding my courage. I think all New Yorkers went through something that showed the world that we have the will and desire to overcome and survive as an entire city.
|
Richard | 31 | New York
|
#1333 | Tuesday, May 28th, 2002
|
|
I was running late for work that morning and was waiting on the Long Island Rail Road platform in Valley Stream. Shortly before 9:00 a friend from Daytona Beach called my cell phone. She asked me if I was aware that something had struck the WTC. As we spoke and speculated she screamed into the phone that the other building had now been hit. A fellow passenger on his cell phone turned to me and said it was being called a terrorist attack. A young woman nearby fell to her knees crying into her phone that someone dear worked at the WTC and there was no answer at his desk.
The train pulled in and foolishly we all boarded. Thinking back I suspect none of us could believe we were heading toward a city under attack.
Other passengers were listening to news reports on walkmen, people were franctically trying to call loved ones. By now the cells were jammed. I tried to reach my childrens schools and my former wife. As we came closer to NYC we could see the burning towers from Long Island City, Queens. Remarkably our train was permitted to continue on to Penn Station.
By the time we arrived, Penn Station was being closed down. All rail and subway lines were being closed. The streets were jammed with people on cell phones, staring south down 7th Avenue. I walked north toward my office, looking back often at the smoke rising and spreading above lower Manhattan. When I reached Times Square thousands were watching the news on the jumbo tv screen. I continued east toward Park Avenue and heard screaming from behind me. Those still watching in Times Square were reacting to the collapse of the south tower.
At work we monitored the days events as they unfolded. We shared information on routes home. Many started out to walk over the 59th Street bridge into Queens. I finally reached my former wife who assured me the kids schools were locked down and they were safe. My brother and his wife work within blocks of the Trade Center. I reached their cell mid afternoon. They were in their car well north of the city, intending to cross the Tappanzee Bridge and then south into New Jersey. I heard the LIRR was running sporadically. I left the office around 4:30. It was horrifying to see the streets of my great city abandoned, still and oh so quiet. A train to Valley Stream was boarding as I arrived and left shortly thereafter. Remarkably I was home fairly quickly. I spoke with my children, my mother, a friend in Minneapolis called.
Typing this today, almost 9 months later, I feel chest tightening sadness.
|
Joe | 45 | New York
|
#1334 | Tuesday, May 28th, 2002
|
|
during this time when the attack happen from the terrorism I was asleep when the plane crash came along and hit us.
the momment I woke up, I heard my mom was watching television and I heard people screaming and building falling down from the air. At first I thought that it was a movie, until my mom said that the united states was being attacked from terrorism. I think that the united states should ready at all time.
|
mark | 15 | Hawaii
|
#1335 | Tuesday, May 28th, 2002
|
|
during this time when the attack happen from the terrorism I was asleep when the plane crash came along and hit us.
the momment I woke up, I heard my mom was watching television and I heard people screaming and building falling down from the air. At first I thought that it was a movie, until my mom said that the united states was being attacked from terrorism. I think that the united states should be ready at all time.
|
mark | 15 | Hawaii
|
#1336 | Tuesday, May 28th, 2002
|
|
I was just about to drop my two-year-old son at daycare when I heard on the radio news that there had been reports of a plane hitting the WTC. It seemed remote to me, and I assumed it was a small plane. The radio anchors had video footage they were narrating, and I heard one of them gasp when she saw the second plane hit. I dropped my son off, mentioning to my day care provider that there was something confusing going on in NY, and got back in my car to head to work. As the news kept unfolding I felt sicker and sicker, and it got harder to drive. I finally got to my office and my coworkers looked shell-shocked. Our computer support staff helped us to find news sites that weren't jammed, and a few of us had radios on, too, tuned to different stations.
My husband called an hour later to say he was coming home from his consulting job. I asked why (I wasn't sure he'd heard the news), and he replied "Because the world is ending." I started to cry then, and I sobbed to him that I was so glad our son was too little to have to explain this to him.
I spent the day passing news (some of it exaggerated--there were so many rumours) back and forth to colleagues, reading some panicked and some reassuring emails and messages from message board friends in NY and DC, and calling home to find out what was on TV. My oddest thought all day was that I remembered that the local civil defense sirens were due to be tested that afternoon and I hoped they wouldn't go through with it, because I figured everyone would panic. As it happened, they didn't test them.
It was a surreal, awful day. It was hard to wrap my kind around what was happening. All I knew was that life would never be the same.
|
Karen | 34 | Michigan
|
<< |
< |
showing 1332-1336 of 2527
| >
| >>
|
|
|
|
|
