I was working at an airplane engine manufacturer. Listening to Howard Stern. Man, they provided some great coverage that. It was crazy. No one could think about, talk about anything else. Our company president had a brother that worked in the WTC...he called but couldn't get ahold of him. He left the building for the day and told anyone that had loved ones near the tragedy to do what they had to do.
Shock and numbness mostly. I didn't have a personal connection to the tragedy, thankfully, but I couldn't get past seeing the faces of people who knew that they would never see their loved ones again. Just awful.
I was in the car on my way to class when an announcement came in on the radio. The commentators were mostly silent because they were watching TV at the time. Instead of going to class, I went to my friend's apartment to look at the television; she was already at school so I was there alone. I was just in shock and speechless and cried. An unbelievable sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when the buildings collapsed. It took me at least an hour of pacing around the apartment and listening to it before I could get back in my car and go home. They cancelled classes the rest of the week. Won't ever forget listening to those commentators on the radio...one was crying, and you could just tell that they were in shock. A horrifying day.
Unfortunately I was working downtown when we saw over the tape that a commuter plane had hit the trade center. I grabbed a buddy from work and headed over to the towers a few blocks away to check it out. We got a block away from tower 2 and the street was already taped off and we noticed there was a lot of debris in the street. We went under the tape and I looked down and immediately saw a few body parts amongst the debris which made me stop right in my tracks and right than the second plane came directly over our heads towards tower 2. I'll never forget the engines of the plane revving up as they went into the building, I cant even explain how loud it was, I've never been more scared in all my life. We ran to the first door we saw and my buddy literally threw us in just as the plane hit it. We wound up in the kitchen of a restaurant and made our way though the building and came out the other side and when we got out we saw the towers on fire.
I remember looking up and it looked like it was snowing with all the paper coming out. After a few minutes my buddy said look they're throwing furniture out the windows and I looked up and my stomach just sank. I said furniture doesn't move their arms and legs thats people jumping. It was pretty sickening watching that, they just kept jumping one after another. A fire truck stopped right up by us and I'll never forget the look on the faces of the firefighters, they were just scared shitless, you felt so bad for them. I remember one guy saying what the fuck are we supposed to do with that. Anyway it started getting a little crazy on the street, we saw a pretty badly burned woman that just shook everyone up and everywhere around us people were crying and screaming so we started to move back a little but we were still glued to the towers, you wanted to look away but you just couldn't.
About 15 minutes before the first tower came down I somehow was able to get a text from a buddy of mine with the FAA and he told me another plane was headed towards NYC and they thought the stock exchange was the target so we headed back towards our office. We were there when both towers fell. The black cloud that rolled down broadway was terrifying, our office wound up taking a lot of smoke, we tried to leave after the first one but you couldnt go outside because you couldn't breathe if you did. It wasn't much better inside so I wound up leaving around 1 and walking through battery park I lucked out finding a tugboat that was taking people back to Jersey City. I remember it seemed like forever before the boat left as we were waiting for more people but they just never came. Anyway when we got back I just walked back to hoboken where I lived and headed straight to a bar.
your story just made my heart hert and my stomic sink,thanks for sharing it with us.
was at work dealing with a client who worked in washington dc. got an email with a link to the cnn footage from this client asking did i see what happened. this was just after the 1st tower was hit. watching the coverage as it unfolded, 2nd tower, plane down in pennsylvania, the pentagon. wondering oh god what is next. confusion and fear for the 1st time. nothing mattered but family and friends at that point. went home and watched the rest of the day, ending up having family come over so we could be together.
best friend worked in manhattan at the time. even though a few miles away from the WTCs I still was worried about him. his wife was home with the kids but phone was busy as i'm sure everyone was calling her. didn't get in touch with her until early afternoon to find out he was ok. luckily his company owned an apartment in the city and he got to go there and hang out for the rest of the day/night and not have to worry about scurrying through the city. found out later his secretary's husband worked in the WTC. they weren't sure for an hour or two if he made it out but luckily he did.
another good friend of mine's brother-in-law is a New York City fireman. a guy i met and had had drinks with at least 10 times up to that point so new him fairly well. remembering calling my friend in the afternoon to hear if she heard anything about this guy. she had talked to her sister who lived in new york and was told he had responded to the towers and her sister was shaking and crying on the phone not knowing what was going on with him. found out later that night he was ok but was on the scene helping out. about a week later my friend called me to ask me to come over to hang out as her sister and her brother-in-law were in the philly area 'to get away from the horror' and just wanted a few people around to hang out and be somewhat normal. will never ever forgot the look on his face when i saw him that night - i saw a man who had seen the evidence of real evil and death. i get chills just thinking about seeing that look on his face. this guy ended up having to go to over 30 funerals in the aftermath of 9/11.
i don't really need tv shows or memorials at football games to remember that day. those things above will be with me until the day i die.
In Seattle, my sister called me from NJ and woke me up. I looked at my TV, and since I didn't have cable I could only hear the news a little. I was furious with all of the commercials that started coming in towards early Evening, and I was puzzled that Boeing laid off so many workers . . . so quickly.
When I walked out the door of my apartment I saw the man who I considered my good luck charm. Every time something bad happened he happened to be there, and his presence was really calming. I saw him, and we just stopped in the street and talked about i.
In mid-afternoon, someone blasted Don McLean's American Pie from the third floor of my building.
There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
I was repairing a fire escape door in one of the main engine rooms of the USS O'Bannon in Mayport FL. I went upstairs to get a set of allen wrenches from our shop and when I walked in, 5 or 6 guys were standing there looking at the TV. This didn't really surprise me so I went into the back, got the wrenches and when I finally came back to the front of the shop and saw the TV, one the Trade towers was on fire. The guys were saying a small plane hit it. Looking at the damage, I thought it was odd a small plane could do such significant damage. Stood there for about 7 minutes when the second plane hit. Took me a minute to realize what I just saw. We were all speechless and in shock. Soon after out ship went to General Quarters and all of topside guns were manned. All the ships in the JFK battle group got underway for NY. We were the only ship to stay behind. The entire base was locked down. No in or out for anyone. It wasn't until the afternoon of the 12th that I was allowed to leave and go home. Very tragic day for all Americans regardless of where you were. Can't imagine what family members of victims must have felt and still feel.
I was on working on the 18th or so floor on 44th and Madison - right above Grand Central Station. Someone mentioned there was smoke coming from downtown. We could see straight down Madison to the Towers. Then, someone heard it over the radio. Even from our distance (that's about 2 miles) we knew it was something more than a commuter plane. The smoke even from that distance was unbelievable. When the 2nd hit, it got even worse. We were all just watching. When it was finally figured out it was even more than what we initially thought, the next thing was - holy crap! We're right above Grand Central Station. A little bit selfishly.
Then, I remember us looking and going - what was that? It looked like one of the buildings just "disappeared." Then it was confirmed the collapse. At that point, we started planning getting out of Manhattan. Long story short, I remember walking up to the 59th Street Bridge and walking across with 10's of thousands of people. It was a surreal moment. It kind of reminded me of a scene out of The Stand (Steven King). I also have to admit to being EXTREMELY jumpy. I saw a little boat go under the bridge and thought - oh, damn - what's that on board? When we got across, you could look back and just see the smoke.
People were just CRAMMING onto busses on the Queens side of the bridge. I couldn't imagine being in ANYTHING at that point. We walked past one of the hospitals that would later serve as one of the main "secondary" facilities (there were closer hospitals across the rivers. This one was the overflow for less severe - which in this case was still above the norm). By this time, 1 ambulance had returned and it was covered in soot pretty bad. I'm not even sure how it got there. It may not have even been exactly at the scene yet, but still had a pretty good cover.
I ended up walking about 6.5 miles until I got near where one of my brothers worked and had him pick me up. He actually took me back to his office (I told him - you do that and stop and get me a couple of beers). The other thing I remember is driving home on the Northern Parkway (an alternative to the LIE), and it being completely empty. I mean anyone who knows Long Island - it was more empty than a Sunday morning at 5 AM. The only thing going west was an occassional military vehicle. It was very surreal.
Sorry. The world doesn't work the way you tell it to.
Comments
Shock and numbness mostly. I didn't have a personal connection to the tragedy, thankfully, but I couldn't get past seeing the faces of people who knew that they would never see their loved ones again. Just awful.
Godfather.
best friend worked in manhattan at the time. even though a few miles away from the WTCs I still was worried about him. his wife was home with the kids but phone was busy as i'm sure everyone was calling her. didn't get in touch with her until early afternoon to find out he was ok. luckily his company owned an apartment in the city and he got to go there and hang out for the rest of the day/night and not have to worry about scurrying through the city. found out later his secretary's husband worked in the WTC. they weren't sure for an hour or two if he made it out but luckily he did.
another good friend of mine's brother-in-law is a New York City fireman. a guy i met and had had drinks with at least 10 times up to that point so new him fairly well. remembering calling my friend in the afternoon to hear if she heard anything about this guy. she had talked to her sister who lived in new york and was told he had responded to the towers and her sister was shaking and crying on the phone not knowing what was going on with him. found out later that night he was ok but was on the scene helping out. about a week later my friend called me to ask me to come over to hang out as her sister and her brother-in-law were in the philly area 'to get away from the horror' and just wanted a few people around to hang out and be somewhat normal. will never ever forgot the look on his face when i saw him that night - i saw a man who had seen the evidence of real evil and death. i get chills just thinking about seeing that look on his face. this guy ended up having to go to over 30 funerals in the aftermath of 9/11.
i don't really need tv shows or memorials at football games to remember that day. those things above will be with me until the day i die.
When I walked out the door of my apartment I saw the man who I considered my good luck charm. Every time something bad happened he happened to be there, and his presence was really calming. I saw him, and we just stopped in the street and talked about i.
In mid-afternoon, someone blasted Don McLean's American Pie from the third floor of my building.
The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
And 10 years went by fast.
9/29/04 Boston, 6/28/08 Mansfield, 8/23/09 Chicago, 5/15/10 Hartford
5/17/10 Boston, 10/15/13 Worcester, 10/16/13 Worcester, 10/25/13 Hartford
8/5/16 Fenway, 8/7/16 Fenway
EV Solo: 6/16/11 Boston, 6/18/11 Hartford,
Then, I remember us looking and going - what was that? It looked like one of the buildings just "disappeared." Then it was confirmed the collapse. At that point, we started planning getting out of Manhattan. Long story short, I remember walking up to the 59th Street Bridge and walking across with 10's of thousands of people. It was a surreal moment. It kind of reminded me of a scene out of The Stand (Steven King). I also have to admit to being EXTREMELY jumpy. I saw a little boat go under the bridge and thought - oh, damn - what's that on board? When we got across, you could look back and just see the smoke.
People were just CRAMMING onto busses on the Queens side of the bridge. I couldn't imagine being in ANYTHING at that point. We walked past one of the hospitals that would later serve as one of the main "secondary" facilities (there were closer hospitals across the rivers. This one was the overflow for less severe - which in this case was still above the norm). By this time, 1 ambulance had returned and it was covered in soot pretty bad. I'm not even sure how it got there. It may not have even been exactly at the scene yet, but still had a pretty good cover.
I ended up walking about 6.5 miles until I got near where one of my brothers worked and had him pick me up. He actually took me back to his office (I told him - you do that and stop and get me a couple of beers). The other thing I remember is driving home on the Northern Parkway (an alternative to the LIE), and it being completely empty. I mean anyone who knows Long Island - it was more empty than a Sunday morning at 5 AM. The only thing going west was an occassional military vehicle. It was very surreal.