9-11 What did you do in the moments of the attack?

[SayethWhaaaa 245]

I was leaving my sister's place after finishing a shift at a pub I was working at at the time when the initial report was shown on TV (just an update they normally have around 8:30pm so nothing more than "a plane has hit a WTC tower). So I'm driving home and I call a friend of mine and tell her about how some apparently some idiot has flown his Cessna into one of the trade towers and we have a bit of a chuckle about it because, you know, what moron misses seeing the two GIANT towers in NY on a crystal clear sunny day, right? By the time I got home, there was blanket coverage on all channels and I think I walked in a few minutes before the second plane hit. Once that happened, there was no doubt that this wasn't a mistake by some amateurish pilot. I think my folks and I sat there watching the horror unfold until around 2am. It wasn't until I got to work the next day that the stuff I thought was debris falling off the buildings were in fact people... that sick realisation stuck with me for a few days. I got that again years later when I heard the Kevin Cosgrove 911 call.

Edited September 10, 2011 by ZmelliFahrdz

[+Dave 2,322]

I had never heard Kevin Cosgrove's 911 call, now I wish I hadn't. RIP

[Lt. James Cater 62]

I was asleep!

 

I worked the swingshift at a rent-a-car place near Mccarran airport and so was sawing logs when it all went down. When i went out to catch the bus to work i cut through a casino that was in front of my apartment complex and i quickly noticed something was wrong. EVERYONE not behind a table game was watching the TVs and so i found out somethig was wrong in NYC. My first reaction was "what again?" remembering the earlier attack a few years prior

 

There was a lot of talk on the bus but it didn't really hit me until i got to work. We faced an onslaught of customers. Air activity over the US being shut down, people needed to get home one way or another. Especially from a place like Las Vegas, which is basically out in the middle of nowhere geographically speaking. Every car for hire in the whole valley was gone within 24 hours.

[MigBuster 2,884]

I was ill that day and wasnt getting up - but my dad came in and switched the TV on and said the trade towers had been hit.

 

It was strange at first watching the smoke rise up from these towers - almost surreal - news were saying it was a small aircraft - and they were showing people at the top looking out of the windows. I thought they would probably put the fire out - which didnt look that big and then rescue the people at the top.

I then remember watching people start jumping - but it was really when everyone saw the other airliner go into the other tower that really put everything into perspective.

 

I never ever thought the towers would fall - the photo in the paper the next day of a fireman running up the stairs inside the towers is something that sticks in my mind......

[crl848 9]

I was temporarily living in New York City at the time, having just finished two years at business school in the US. On September 11th 2001 I was sitting in an office block in mid-town Manhattan owned by the bank I was working for, in the middle of a boring lecture during an orientation programme. I remember someone getting a phone call about the first plane, and trying to check the internet but it was very slow. Also the cell phone networks were overloaded and no one could get a call through. Finally we heard the full story some time after the collapse of the towers and were directed to leave the building and go home. There was a lot of confusion and no-one knew what was going on. I walked home through Central Park to the upper east side, and we could see the smoke rising from lower Manhattan. My wife was at home and had watched the second plane hitting the tower live. I joined her and finally saw the whole story. I suppose we watched live TV the rest of the day. That night we had dinner with some friends who were journalists at the NY Times, trying to make sense of what had happened. The overwhelming desire was to connect with friends.

 

My memories from the days afterwards are: the flyers of missing persons all over the subway and public places, the truckloads of debris griding past day after day, the odd feeling of unreality as offices shut for days and middle class people lounged about in the park and ate dinner in nice restaurants. There was no way for ordinary people to help such as giving blood, as it became clear very soon that there was no need for blood.

 

My company did offer counselling and some people seemed to need it. I always thought this odd as outside lower Manhattan we did not experience any of the vivid events of the attacks. I have, thankfully, no particular trauma. The main feeling was how weird it was that the city sustained a major attack a couple of miles away, yet life goes on practically unaffected for the vast majority. Perhaps my lack of deep visceral reaction is because I'm not an American, perhaps in London we have experienced a lot of terrorism over the years and it becomes part of life. Or maybe I'm not very empathetic.

 

I claim no special status for having "been there". It goes without saying that I have deep sympathy for all victims of this and other terrorist attacks and nothing but condemnation for the perpetrators. Reading all the "I was there" stories in this weekend's papers, I thought that perhaps my own experience of the banality of "being there" might be interesting.

Edited September 12, 2011 by crl848