Sept 11th...The Personal Account Remembered.

I've posted my own horrible account of the event twice before (on 9/11 and on last year's anniversary), so I don't really need to give a full commentary on that fateful day. For those of you who don't know, I work a few blocks away from Ground Zero and happened to be outside (which in hindsight was stupid on my part) when the first Tower fell. I was forced to flee for my life in the ensuing chaos.

It's been two years, and I still vividly remember bits and pieces from that fateful day. I can still recall the feelings I had that day, too. The anguish. The panic. The sadness. The worrying. And let me tell you, it sucks. Those are memories, feelings, and images I'd just as soon forget. The effects from that day are still definitely lingering. To this day, I still have nightmares about falling buildings and terrorist attacks (had one last week, in fact). My wife is still terrified to fly (she actually witnessed the first plane hitting the Tower on her way to school). I'm cautious about taking the subway nowadays. I make a quick mental note about exits when in tall buildings. I get a teeny bit nervous on flights. In general, I've become more paranoid (but still not at the level my wife is -- although she's always been neurotic). Like across110thstreet said, I fear the worst every day living in NYC. Hell, it doesn't help when the NY Post keeps declaring that another 9/11 WILL happen any day now . The Great Blackout of 2003 didn't offer much solace, either.

... But, in spite of it all, I'm/we're trying to move on. I've only been to Ground Zero once in 2 years, and I'm thinking of heading there during lunch today to pay my respects. I even wore red, white, and blue in remembrance of the attacks (and I'm not a patriotic person). Sure, I'd like to forget about what happened that day (as I wrote before), but to do so would be a slap in the face to the victims and those who gave their lives defending this country. So... as much as it pains me, I'll actively go on remembering. As we all should.

 

Great post Almu.

May the memories of the lives lost never be forgotten.

I personally was at work. Checked yahoo news at 8:00 AM or so and they had reported that a plane had hit one of the towers. Checked back 45 minutes later and it said we were under attack. Spent the rest of the day like many of my coworkers glued to the televisions that management placed around the office. Spent the night watching everything on TV drinking wine and crying.

 

We were cycling down the Oregon coast – camping at night. Away from TV’s and Radios. We saw the breaking news at a bar as we ate lunch. Heard snippets of news the next few days from people we met. The boy scouts lined the highway with American flags. A surreal scene. Very touching.

 

sorry..but i can't ignore the similarities to the lyrics of a Mayer song:

tonight we're gonna order in
drinking wine and watching CNN
it's dark i know, but then again
it's the brightest thing i got

 

Thanks for the beautiful post, Almu. Very well said.

I watched the Sept. 11 video footage again this morning, and it just pulled tears from my eyes. Such unimaginable pain and suffering.

 

I was still half-asleep when it started to happen. I must have been told once or twice that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, but I shrugged it off as just another dream sequence. A few more minutes pass and I finally got out of bed. Limping down the stairs on my recently repaired knee, I fell upon my couch with a resounding *poof* and proceeded to turn on the TV.

First thing that hits me in the face is the live footage of a burning building. I'm thinking to myself, "What the hell is going on?" And right before I finish that thought, the building begins to collapse. By now, I'm totally freaked out, and I begin trying to contact anyone who knew anyone that had any business in the city. Friends in school, a church member, another friend who had a sibling going to the high school nearby. I truly thank God that the people close to me came out safely from the horrible event that took place.

From that morning on, I spent the entire week watching the news, trying to soak everything in. Cliche, but it felt so much like a movie that even to this day, something in me denies the happenings of that tragic day.

I saw people do whatever was in their power to help each other out, just stepping up, no questions asked.

I also saw people taking advantage of what happened, trying to cheat out an extra buck off the sufferings of a city.

It enraged me to see how lightly some people took all this. Back at school, I remember talking with a few guys about what happened. One kid recalls the day, almost bragging about how nonchalant he and his class was when they heard an annoucement over the PA bringing light to the situation in NYC.

Where am I going with this? I've really no clue. I never got the chance to share what's been on my mind about all this. So you'll have to excuse any extreme tangents I may have gone off on.

To sum it up, I feel like I've moved on, but things just can't be the same. Not after having the skyline of my hometown changed. Not after going by the World Trade Center for 4 years while attending my high school. No way. I regret not having been able to visit the site post-9/11. I'm going to make an effort the next time.

I know it may not mean much, but to all those who were directly and indirectly affected by the tragedy that occurred 2 years ago, my prayers are, and have always been, with you.

 

Each year, my heart breaks anew for the people that suffered and still suffer from the attack. This year, the pain is greater becaue I now have a child and I better appreciate how difficult it must be for those who lost fathers and mothers.

My tribute to those that died is to not forget and to appreciate those around me and to care for the people around me. Tomorrow is not guaranteed and today is a gift.

 

Sept. 11th happened during my senior year in high school. Being the lazy ass that I am, I'd decided that I was "sick," and had stayed home that day. Woke up around 9:30, wanderered out to the den, turned on the tv. Coverage was on nearly every channel, you couldn't miss it. I sat there in shock as they showed the towers smoking, but it took me a while to get down exactly what had happened. For the first five minutes or so I thought that we had actually been bombed - close, but not quite.

I remember worrying about my Dad, who was on a business trip a the time in Tulsa. Wondering when he would be allowed to fly home and if anything else was going to happen. In retrospect, he was better off in Tulsa. If they would have taken over more planes and targeted Houston, Transco Tower, where my father would have been a likely target.

My optimism had me waiting to find more pockets of people after the first few hours, just as it had had me do during the Bonfire fall and the Oklahoma City bombing. Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be.

I'm glad I wasn't in school that day; the emotion would have been to much for me. One of my friends from school told me how his class was talking about current events and decided to turn on the news to speed up the talks, just in time to see the first plane crash. The irony. I can't imagine hearing the principal coming on over the PA to break the news. What a terrible day.

 

What I guess I don't understand is why their talking about replacing the towers with more towers just as high? The terrorists will just do everything they can to strike and/or knock those down.

Is it that important to replace the towers with more towers? Why don't they just build a memorial and leave it at that? Or at least wait until the war on terror is over...if it ever ends...which is unlikely in any of our lifetimes.

 

I didn't find out until all the actual attacks were over. We woke up at 9:30, lay around in bed, took our time getting up. It was so relaxing, looked like such a beautiful day outside. At 10:00 my husband left for work. I was a grad student, but had been planning to play hooky from the lab that day so I could catch up on class prep and dissertation writing. Then I would go teach night school later.

I logged onto the Internet, checked my mail. A friend had said that her new niece was born that morning. Poured a bowl of cereal and sat back down to read the papers online. I decided on austin360.com. Now, that site always stays the same except for a news update in the top left corner. So you had your usual list of links, except... the tiny little news slot said both towers of the World Trade Center had collapsed.

That's got to be a mistake, I thought. Maybe someone had hacked into the page. I clicked on it; no, there was a real story. Really horrible. I turned on the TV and, sure enough, it was really happening. A nice sunny day in Texas, but the television warning me of something else entirely. Of the most horrible things happening in our own country. Nobody had even mentioned the number of casualties, but of course it had to be huge. We didn't know where the President was, or (most unsettling) who had done this. The part that upset me the most was that they used our own passenger aircraft as their weapons.

I had only my cat to talk to, and she didn't know. She whined at me to feed her, pet her, take her outside. I told myself that I had to get on with my work and forced myself to eat the cereal, but it made me feel sick. My husband was working in a place where I couldn't even call him. I sent email, and he responded eventually with a couple of sentences saying don't worry, we'll get whoever's responsible. (guess he's not one for sharing emotions) I called my office just to make human contact.

Some schools were cancelling their classes; I was hoping mine wouldn't. The only lecture session of the whole week was on Tuesday nights, and I was going to be even more p!ssed at those terrorists if they screwed up my curriculum in addition to everything else they'd done. Fortunately, classes were continuing onward. (which they might as well, being out here in Texas away from the damage) I didn't get very prepared for the lecture, of course, watching TV and feeling sick all day. It was too hard to concentrate.

When I finally got out of the house that afternoon, it was somewhat better... still with that beautiful day outside... and horror lurking behind it. Listened to the same catastrophic news on the radio all the way to Belton. Wondered who would be next. Surely they wouldn't get us here, in flyover country. But who knew? What was this the beginning of? All the rules were rewritten now. All the plans we make, graduate school, all this hard work - what if we were just plunged into a war where no civilian was safe? Like so many others around the world have had to deal with. At Belton, a man was standing on the overpass holding a big American flag. I managed to get through teaching the class, but warned them that "I might be kind of distracted". I asked if they had any family in NYC or in danger, and they all said no. (Later one of them admitted that she had actually had some relatives killed in the disaster.) I dreaded going to sleep that night, because I knew I would wake up and think of this.

The weekend after that was also weird. Nobody could fly anywhere. No football games. Nothing to do. I went to Hornsby Bend to see the birds which gather at the treatment plant. That was refreshing, in a way. The birds didn't know. Everything was still OK with them. But it was strange to see the empty sky; no traffic taking off from the airport. Every time after that, when I did see planes, I would think how blessed we were, that we could fly again, that our peaceful little lives were allowed to continue a while longer. That our prayers were answered that this not be allowed to happen again.

The first anniversary was harder for me. The pictures and videos still bothered me. I'm sure I've numbed myself to it (unintentionally) because it's too hard to deal with. Thinking about what all those people went through. About the ones that had to jump from the building. The firefighters. The people hoping to find their family members who never did.

For some reason, what really hurts is looking in old books or movies and seeing the World Trade Center. It's not that I mind the building being gone - just those who were inside (and on the planes).

Great post, Almu. Those of you who live in New York have a lot more perspective on this than we ever will. I was very impressed by the way your city came together when this happened.

 

Almu, your sig says it all. And the way that punk, or at least his cronies, put out that video yesterday.... well, if he's daring us to find him I pray he gets his wish.

 

Almu-
Thanks for the thread buddy. Like most people I will never forget that day.
I remember being in my office in Columbus, Oh and hearing about the Pentagon and my first reaction was to look outside just to make sure Columbus was safe. I was seriously afraid it was a nationwide attack. The Towers was bad enough but to hear it was more widespread was really frightening.
Later that evening I got home (when the no fly zone was in effect) and I saw 2 fighter jets flying overhead. They must have been from Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton but the pride hit me hard when I saw them. Don't know why just a moment when everything seemed so messed up but there they were keeping us safe.

 

Briefly, because I'm at work:

I sat in shock that day, and for several after. Seeing the images now still doesn't seem like reality. I was and still am angry. I was and still am incredibly sad.

Personally, the only people close to me who were there are the New Yorkers on this site. We were awfully worried about you guys for some time. I'm glad we didn't lose anyone in our BBS Family.

God bless America. God bless our troops.

 

this is what i saw when i got off the subway this evening.

truly breathtaking.

then i went home and watched the 9/11 documentary by the French brothers.

 

Good post, Almu.

It means a lot to know what you felt on that day.

God Bless those who have left us, those who were left, and those fighting for everyone left.

 

I had been sick as a dog the night before and didnt get a bit of sleep. I finally got some shut-eye at about 5am (Phoenix time). The phone rang at about 6am, my wife answered and I could hear that it was her mom calling..."One of the Twin Towers got hit by a jet." My wife, being the genius that she is, hung up the phone and tried to go back to bed. I asked "what did your mom say?" She answered, I turned on NBC and watched all day long.

Like I said, I had been sick the night before...and I stayed sick for days. There isnt a single day that I remember as well as 9-11.

 

In Australia it was about 10:30 pm.

I was on ICQ making some big trades for my fantasy football team. The TV was on in the Loungeroom and I went in to turn it off.

As I went in Fox new was on and I saw a plane fly into the WTC. I thought it was a benhind the scenes of a movie that was coming out. It looked a bit unrealistic (You know how they blow up a small scale version of a building in moves. It doesnt look real untill it is edited and fixed up.)

Anyway I realised that it was a real, live even. I couldnt believe it.


I went back to my computer to shut it down and my ICQ program had lit up. Rumours of things that were going on....some ended up being true.

I posted a message to the person I was trading with. "I bet they find out Usama Bin Laden was involved in this." (I had seen alot about terrorists in Documentaries and movies about the car bombing of the WTC).

I shut down my computer and woke my sister up to let her know. She got up and had a look and we went to wake my mum up.


As we watched my mum noticed on of the building looked like it was bending.

We were hearing news of the pentagon being hit and the White House being evacuated. You didnt know where it was going to end.....it had to be a nightmare. Nothing could be this horrific.


I remember watching the concrete pouring off of the first tower like water just before it collapsed.


I have never been to New York. I have never stood atop those grand buildings. But I was a mess when they fell. All I could say was "Those bastards have wanted this for so long and now they have done it."

I was so upset as was my family. I didnt sleep for 3 days.


I remember coming on here and reading a post from someone that worked in New York. They said they loved to see those two building, they were like old friends....two old friends that were lose and missed greately.

I could understand what that poster meant.


In the days that passed very little seemed to matter.

In Australia our major football codes were entering the playoffs. You watched great games, but it was very hard to enjoy them. When you met people you knew they were never happy. There was only one talking point.


Anyway thats the perspective of that tragic day from an Australian point of view.

Christopher

 

Almu, excellent post, thank you.

9/11 and my two grandmothers passing away are the worst times of my life. I remember almost being at work riding in my vanpool. My boss called me on my cell and said did you hear about something hitting the towers, when I got into the office the TVs were on. We watched the second plane hit and the towers fall. It was so unbelievable, so tragic, just the worst thing I have ever seen.

A spread of panic went through my office and the rest of downtown houston and we were allowed to go home ASAP. We were all scared of further attacks, nobody knew what was happening. When I got home I watched the News all day and all night, I couldn't sleep.

Man just thinking about all of this just makes me so emotional. And then they had to keep showing the poor children who lost parents and aunts/uncles reading the names, I had to quit watching it this morning. I couldn't handle it. Although it affects me deeply, I never want the images of 9/11 to dissapear. Never Forget.

 

I remember it was about 8:25 AM, PST. My Mom woke me up and told me something like "Another Pearl Harbor has happened"

I was like "WTF are you talking about."

Now, I'm the only one in the family who has a TV that gets any reception. I turned to CBS and saw a picture of one of the Twin Towers in flames and the caption read "TERRORISTS ATTACK AMERICA" To wake up to something like this was surreal. My mom was watching the TV in my room, she had heard already from phone calls what was going on. I saw a local news caption that said "NO VISITORS ALLOWED AT VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, THEY ARE IN CODE DELTA." Thats when I knew something really, really bad was happening, and it's effect would reach across the whole country, maybe even the world. I freaked out for about 1 minute. I remember switching to the other few channels I had, and instead of the same picture on every single channel. I was pretty calm the rest of the day, All I did was sit and watch the TV for hours at a time. I remember seeing the buildings collapse for the first time... the people jumping to their deaths... firefighters trying to rescue people even though they were covered in blood, and dirt, and ashe.

Then little stories came out, a man had miraculously survived, one man was delayed and his whole company and all his employees were gone. Then the finding of the American Flag, Newscasters breaking down. The incredible heroism of Flight 93... The Senate all coming together to show their unity. so many stories of the Spirit of America. It united us. We all came together that day.
It came down to who we are, not what we believe... we were all human beings, and this one horrible thing had effected our lives, everyone of us at the same time.