Where were you...

hollyxann

hollyxann

New member
when the world stopped turning that September day? (Song title & Lyrics from Alan Jackson)

The majority of people in the United States would not tell you "You know I don't know". Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing at the very moment they heard the news.
I know that I personally can remember some details greater than others. On September 11th, 2001, I was 15 yrs old & in 10th grade. It was 1st period, world history, we were just getting ready to begin when another teacher came into the room. She told our teacher that an airplane had hit the World Trade Center in NY. That's when everything started and ended. Everyone froze, kinda stunned. And then instantly the discussions began. Who, why, how, was it intentional? Our teacher went to find us a TV so we would could watch the news. That's when we saw the 2nd plane hit the second World Trade Center. We continued to watch in shock and disbelief. And then we heard about the Pentagon. And later found out about the Pennsylvania crash.
The school was put on lock down. We were able to leave the classroom to get lunch but had to return to the room to eat. Then we were able to move to another period. But we had to do it in silence & quickly. I remember being in what would have been 6th period French class. I got the note to get my belongings and go to the office. I was being taken out of school by my parents.
We came home and sat infront of the TV and just watched the coverage.
 
The morning of September 11, 2001 started out normal. I woke up, got dressed, grabbed my book and got on the Subway. I know it was primary day because someone handed me a flyer to vote for Michael Bloomberg which I used as a bookmark. When I got to the Trade Center I walked around the mall downstairs the same way I did every morning. Did some window shopping and then walked outside to grab some coffee. I perused the fruit from Mohammed the fruit vendor and then went upstairs to the 25th floor. Around 8:40 in the morning I was deciding whether to go downstairs to the base of tower 2 to get another cup of coffee or go to the bathroom. The bathroom won out. I went into the bathroom and while I was in there I felt the building shake. Thinking they were doing some construction on the 26th floor, I didn’t think much of it. When I left the bathroom I saw papers raining down outside the window and everyone had their faces plastered up against the window looking up.

The evacuation bells started ringing and someone pushed me into a stairwell. I ran down the 25 flights and when we got outside I was shocked to see a gaping hole in tower 1 with fire shooting out. Because I sat on the other side of the building from the bathroom, I didn’t see any of my co-workers. So I walked to the other side of the building to try to find people. I couldn’t find anyone. That’s when I started hearing the thuds. Sickening thuds. I turned to face the tower and every few seconds you would see people jump from the hole and fall to the ground producing another one of those sickening thuds. I turned away.

Someone came up to me and told me to go back upstairs, that it was safest up in the building. I went in and rode up in an elevator with a pregnant lady. I got up to the 25th floor and immediately picked up the phone to call my mother. I burst into tears, I told her a bomb went off of the 1st tower. She told me I was nuts. Just then I look out the window and see the shadow of what I would later know was an airplane go by and then BOOM, the building shook again. Someone ran out of his office yelling “RUN FOR YOUR LIVES”. I told my mother that another bomb went off and that I had to leave and hung up on her. I didn’t talk to her again for 4-5 hours.

I bent down to grab my purse which I didn’t have the first time I evacuated and my backpack and when I looked up two of my very close friends were there (we happened to work for the same company). I was never so happy to see those two guys. We ran down the 25 flights of stairs (me for the second time). When we got down I couldn’t look. I couldn’t bear seeing more bodies falling.

Interestingly that day I did something different. Normally I would wear sneakers in on the subway and change to my dress shoes once I got to the office. For some reason that I will never know, I forgot to switch into my dress shoes, I was still wearing my sneakers.

We milled about and decided the best thing to do was to walk up to Penn station to get a train home (we were in such denial about the magnitude of the situation). We had to walk down around the tip of manhattan. When we got back adjacent to the towers (but on the other side of them) I heard an explosion, or what I thought was an explosion. I looked up and I swear I saw the top half of the tower falling towards me. There was mass pandemonium at that point, people screaming and running. That’s when the big huge cloud engulfed us. We ran as fast as we could be we couldn’t outrun it. Eventually we got north of it and stopped to catch our breaths. We decided that we needed to get off of manhattan island immediately and we were at the base of the Manhattan bridge so we joined the thousands of others and walked across it.

All this time we were trying unsuccessfully to get anyone on a cell. My friend craig got his mother once and gave her the numbers of all of our family for her to call and say that we were alive and running.

The Manhattan bridge connects Manhattan to Brooklyn and my father was a teacher in Brooklyn at the time so we thought to get to Brooklyn and call him. A girl our age (I was 24) saw us and offered us to come to her house. While we were walking over the bridge the second tower fell. The Brooklyn bridge just south of the Manhattan bridge disappeared in the smoke from the tower falling. We walked faster.

We got to her house and used the restroom, drank some water and I called my mother and fiancé. She gave me the number to my father’s school and we called him. He was one of the last cars to be allowed to head west and get us.

I found soot in my eyes, ears and belly button for days after. Two days later I reported to a disaster recovery site in New Jersey where we stayed until 1 week before my wedding in November 2002. They rebuilt our building and we went back.

I learned so much that day about New Yorkers. Sure, we’d knock you over to get a subway seat but when push came to shove we looked out for each other big time. I was fortunate. We had a few broken bones in my company but no loss of life. I know that for me it could have been so much worse.

But still, ten years later I can hear the thuds of the bodies hitting the ground. I wonder, how hot it had to be in that hole for jumping 100 stories to your death to be the better option. My heart still hurts wondering about the loved ones those people left behind. I wonder about the Afghani coffee stand where I never even had to place the order, they knew it and made it as they saw me walking. What became of their stand? Or the homeless men who lived in the mall under the trade center. Who accounted for them?

My life has changed so much since that day. I am no longer capable of riding on an airplane without it negatively impacting me for months leading up to the flight. But it has also made me a stronger person and I know that I am strong and capable.
 
On September 11, 2001, I was twelve years old and had just started the 7th grade. The morning began like any other with Mrs. Myers’ all girls art class. A couple of minutes in, someone came into our room and said a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. I was young, didn’t watch the news, and had never been anywhere near New York City. Honestly, at that time, I had no idea what the World Trade Center even was. We assumed it was an accident and continued to work on our projects. Mrs. Myers headed down the hall to the library to watch the news. Within minutes, she returned, telling us, “Girls, I think we are making history. You all need to come to the library.”

Within seconds of walking into the room, we watched on live television as the second airplane crashed into the South Tower. That was the moment that my entire world changed. I went from being an innocent child to a very scared young woman. Suddenly, I realized that there was actual evil in the world and people who would hate me solely for being American. I recognized that the world wasn’t an entirely safe place and that good didn’t always overpower evil. I remember watching television and realizing that I was witnessing hundreds of people dying right before my eyes and their was nothing we could do about it.

My panic and fear only grew when I realized my mother, who taught English, was crying. We soon gathered in a circle and our entire Junior High and High School began to pray and cry together. Later, we watched in horror as the news stations reported even more bad news. The Pentagon was also under attack. The White House was being evacuated. I cried when the North Tower crashed to the ground, realizing that even more people were lost.

All together, 2819 civilians died in the attack that day. Almost three thousand ordinary Americans went to work that morning and never returned home. I have never been to New York City and don’t know anyone who lost a family member, but I will never forget those who died and the feelings of despair I felt on September 11, 2011.
 
emmasmommy said:
i have such a problem with it, i hate to even talk about it. melodramatic as it may be. it's the truth.
Click to expand...

Totally understandable. I have no connection to anyone in NYC and I still view it as one of the worst days of my life. I never want to go through that kind of fear again.
 
wow, Alisa... I'm sitting here in tears. I've never known anyone who witness it for real... I just can't imagine what you went through and continue to...

I was on a 2 week business trip to Beech Island, SC... just across the border from August, GA. We were in the beginning of training the mill on a new asset management system... since I was one of the experienced trainers on my team, I was there for support, sitting outside of the training room making sure everyone had security access to the computer system and the go between the training group and the subject matter experts back in Neenah, WI. I notice one of the mill assistance going into our training room... and then she came back 5 min later... interrupting class. After she did this for the third time, I asked her if I could help her... she told me that a plane flew into one of the world trade centers. I was able to get out onto the internet and was reading about it... when she came back and said there was a missing plane. We broke for a break and most of the class went to watch the tvs in the conference rooms.

My team was freaked out because the planes weren't flying and they wanted to get home to their families and assumed that they would fly back on Sunday. One of the ladies on my team found out her husband suffered a heart attack and I gave her the keys to my rent car and she left to drive back to Wisconsin... a number of other people drove back, too. I stayed with one or two of my team... I was use to be on the road 6 weeks at a time, and figured I would be okay where I was... my mom knew where I was... and I didn't think I would be able to fly back so quickly after what happened. Of course all the planes were grounded. Once we had the clear to fly... oh, that was a day... flying out of Atlanta - which is already one of the busiest airports in the world... we stood in security for 4 hours. That was the longest flight I've ever been on... I just wanted to get home... and I was nervous of everyone around me...

I was so scared to fly that the stress of the thought of it... I got really sick and was out of work for about 2 weeks. I shortly changed jobs so that I wasn't traveling as much.

Oddly, one of my next trips was a year later, I had to go to Philadelphia... and spent the anniversary of 9/11 watching the recap on hug screens at the SAP corporation... flights weren't flying on the actual day.
 
On September 11, 2001 I was 14 years old and in the 9th grade. I remember walking into school and everyone was talking about a bomb being set off in the WTC. This was shortly after the first plane hit, and no one had any idea what was going on yet. We went to our first classes(mine was Spanish), and I remember sitting down and my teacher turning on the news, as usual. Every morning we watched the last ten minutes of the news and then had to write a paragraph in Spanish about what had happened. Today, no one was writing. No one was talking. We were all captivated and devastated by the news. I was watching when the second plane struck. I was watching when the towers fell. All day that day, no one did anything. We ran from class to class, silent, crying, worried. Every class was either watching or listening to the news. I grew up only a few miles from Hill Air Force Base, and many of my classmates had parents in the military and were scared as to what this meant for them. I remember hearing the windows rattle all day with the jets flying by.

This day forever changed my friends and I. For the first time, history wasn't something we read about in textbooks. We were witnessing and living history. While we weren't in an area directly impacted by the events of that day, many things changed for us after that, being in a military town.
 
Alisa, thank you for sharing your story. It was amazing.

I was working in an academic library at the time. I was actually in the car on my way to work when the first plane hit. I rushed into work and saw some friends on the way in and told them what was happening. We went inside and got about 10 TVs and set them up around the library and students started coming in. We had hundreds of students parked in front of those TVs for most of the day. We all gasped and cried together most of the morning. When the first tower fell...it was so shocking. I kept thinking of the triage they had set up right at the base of the tower. I remember I kept saying "All those people being triaged" over and over. Of course, they were only part of the horrible devastation that followed. I feel like Laura a bit, because sometimes I feel like I wasn't there, so I'm being melodramatic, but 9/11 affected me more than anything in my whole life. The world was never the same after that. But I do remember how the country came together after 9/11...and for a brief time, we were one. I do miss that, but wish it hadn't happened because of such a horrific situation.
 
WOW Alisa your story brought me to tears. I've never known anyone who had a first hand account of it. Yea you read the stories of others but you are one of "us" part of our community so it impacts me harder. I can't imagine what you went through.
 
Alisa - your story is just amazing! I can't even imagine living through that and how it would impact you long-term. Big HUGS to you!

I honestly can't bring myself to write out my experience of that day again. I did a pretty thorough recounting of it on a layout last year, so if you're interested in reading my personal experience, you can look here: https://www.sweetshoppecommunity.co...4&ppuser=1241&sortby=d&sorttime=9999&way=desc

It's hard to believe it's already been 10 years. In so many ways, it seems like just yesterday.
 
wow. Amazing stories gals. I lived on the west coast and had just finished up my morning prayers when one of my girlfriends grabbed me outside to tell me the news. I went to work (we all did) in a daze. At that time, I worked in a small bookstore. All day people came in to the shop just for comfort and company. They just needed to know someone was there.
 
I always feel better after telling my story. Like it seems to help ease the memories a bit.

What's amazing to me is that ten years later and I can get back to the same place I was that day. The memories are so vivid that I can be transformed back to the moment it all happened.

I often say that my mother had a pretty bad day that day. See, I KNEW I was alive. Even at the most horrific moments I knew I was still fighting and running and OK. All my mother heard was me gasp and then yell and hang up. She had no idea where I was. She was at work and when someone told her that the towers fell she flipped out because she couldn't imagine anyone surviving that. Thank God the towers imploded instead of falling to the side. (Though I still maintain that the top of the tower fell towards me).
 
Wow, Alisa. I'm so sorry you witnessed everything first-hand. Your story is an amazing one.

I was in my 2nd year of teaching. I dropped the kids off at the gym for their PE class. It was about 10. Then I went to the office to get my mail and it was an eery quiet in there. I asked what was going on and they just pointed to the TV monitor that they had on, but with the volume down. This was the first I had heard anything about it. I stood there in shock. I had no words. I taught 2nd grade so we all had to carry on with the rest of our day like we would any other day. That was so hard. We'd turn our TVs on any time we had a chance- recess, lunch, then after school. I remember after school we had a meeting about how we'd address it with our kids. We primary teachers were really at a loss. We wanted to acknowledge the kids who had questions. To comfort them. But at the same time we had kids who had no idea about what happened b/c their parents didn't talk to them the night before.

It's crazy. We talked about it yesterday in class (still 2nd grade) and it's weird to me that some of them had never heard about 9-11 at all. They weren't even born yet! But it's still hard to know how much to share with them. It was such a scary time for us all.
 
I was 31 years old and standing duty in the laboratory in Sigoneall Sicily. See Italy is 6 hours ahead of the East Coast so when the news broke, we everyone was getting ready to go home for the day {except for the people that were on duty in the hospital and would be there until the next morning, like me}...I stood at the front desk and watched the news in HORROR on the TV in the patient waiting area. It was so surreal...like you were watching a horrible movie....the locked the base down and it was almost 8 pm before people could even get off the base....I'll never forget trying to leave after my duty the next day and they almost didn't let me off the base because my name was not on some "list"...I said look, here is my ID I am leaving and going home to my family! for I don't know how long, our kids had armed security guards on their school buses and it was just the scariest thing for them....and who would have known that 7 years later this horrible act would impact my life and send me to Kuwait away from my family for 8 months.
 
As someone who lives on the west coast, I'm sure my account is similar to many others so far away from the tragedy.

Little did I know, but at the time of the airplanes hitting the towers, I was waking up and getting ready for work. The three hour time difference put the first plane hitting at 5:46am Pacific Time. I wasn't watching the news and was unaware. My son Jacob was in elementary school and I drove to drop him off and then head to work. In the car, I heard the news about the crash at the Pentagon and of a "small plane" hitting the towers in New York. There was a lot of confusion and misreporting and I didn't have the scope of the incident. I went into work and it was just 2 of us in the office. I worked for a surgeon and he was at the hospital in surgery that day. Several patients called in asking if their surgery was still happening later that day, I had no idea why they'd ask. Around 11am Pacific (hours after the crashes and collapse of the towers), a coworker who worked afternoons only called in and told me the news. What I had initially heard was a small plane crash ended up being the biggest horror anyone could imagine. We closed up the office and went home around 1pm Pacific. I glued myself to the news. My husband left work and went to donate blood because that was the only thing we could think of to help all the people that would be needing it in New York. An email went out saying our church would have a prayer night that night. Hundreds attended and we mourned and prayed for America. I live on the flight path of the airport and seeing the sky empty for days was so strange. We are use to seeing tons of planes fly over our house and my work, but the only things flying were the Air National Guard jets. I watched the news continuously and although I was so far away from the tragedy, my heart was with my fellow Americans across the nation.


I read an interesting news article about the one American that wasn't on the planet when 9/11 happened. News link
 
On September 11, 2001, I was living in Wyoming with my hubby and children. It was one of those rare occasions that I got to sleep in. I had spent the night before organizing a Daisy girl scout activity with my co-leader and got to bed late, so the hubs was letting me sleep in. So, I was in bed asleep when the first attack happened. My husband was up and getting the kids ready for school. My oldest was in 3rd grade, my middle girl was in 2nd grade and my baby was in afternoon kindergarten.

Just as I was waking up, the phone rang. It was Steve's boss calling to tell him that America was under attack and that all federal offices would be closed until further notice. (the hubs works for the Dept. of Interior in the BLM). He came into the bedroom and turned on the TV and sat horrified at what was happening. Then he shook my leg and told me to get up.

I can't describe the horror I felt down in my soul as I watched the news all that day. I was immediately scared for a friend of mine who was a cop in Manhattan. He and I chatted many times about New York it was a place I had always wanted to visit. His mother worked in the south tower. (she didn't survive)

I can still remember that helpless feeling and the burning of my tears as I sat there and watched the towers fall. I couldn't help but grieve for all those people who were in the planes that hit them, and then as they fell. I thought of the desperateness of those poor people as they jumped to their deaths.

I took all three of my babies in my arms and held them. We had a family prayer and prayed for the people who died and their families and we prayed for the people who were trapped under the rubble and the rescue people who would be helping to locate them. But, we also prayed for an understanding of how this terrible thing could happen to all those innocent people.

It's been 10 years since that attack and I can remember that day vividly. I will never forget that day and all the emotions that came as a result. I know it's weird, but that day taught me that each day with my children and loved ones is a blessing. Since that day, not a single one of my loved ones has left my house without me hugging them and telling them I love them.
 
Alisa, I have no words. I really appreciate reading your account. It truly adds a personal touch to the events of that day.
 
I was 13 years old and in my 2nd period class - which was English. We had a sub that day and were doing our work when over the intercom the teachers were told to stop teaching & to put on the news that we should watch 'history in the making'.

At first we thought it was an accident. Then we watched the 2nd plane hit the 2nd tower. That's when it sank in it was real. I will forever remember the toughest kid in our grade just break down & sob while watching it.

After that things got crazy because the school could not handle all of the parents coming to pick up their kids. There were parents walking from class to class and getting mad because the teachers wouldn't not release the kids. The police ended up being called to help at the middle school & high school.

The elementary school kids (my sister) was put into there gym with all of the doors locked. Parents had to call the school & give their child's name and the school had them by the curb waiting for their parents to pick them up. Parents had to show a valid ID to pick up any child and the child had to ID the parent as well.
 
I'm not American, I'm English and I live at the other side of the world but I remember every single thing that happened that afternoon (time difference) like it was yesterday. I was a week into a new job and we'd just moved to a new town at the other end of the country. I knew no one other than family and my parents, Aunty and cousin were all on holiday overseas. My brother flew out to America that morning and for 3 days no one knew where he or his plane was. They'd been too far across to be turned around and brought back to England when the planes brought down the towers and they weren't allowed into America so they ended up in Calgary, Canada where they were kept under armed guard as they had no visas etc. to be even in Canada. They flew with Virgin and luckily for them their plane was the first of 80 odd planes to end up at Calgary that day so Virgin were able to get them a hotel but they couldn't leave the hotel. They weren't even told what had happened until they were eventually allowed off the plane and it was the journalists waiting in the airport who told them what had happened. Chris was interviewed for one of the local news channels and I wish I had know because for 3 days he was unable to get news out of Canada and into the UK and even the UK government had no idea where all the planes had ended up that day. All they could tell me was that his plane hadn't come back to England. By then everything was grounded and I knew that the planes involved weren't his but I still didn't know where he was.

I've never been so scared and lonely as I was then. I simply didn't know what to do and by bedtime of that day I had to track down my parents in Italy and explain to them that I didn't know what had happened to him. They'd seen a news clip whilst in a service area on the motorway in Italy but hadn't really grasped what had happened and I had no news but bad news.

I'm always nervy this time of year but with this being the tenth anniversary it's making me worse than I normally am. We were going to spend the day together tomorrow as a family but my brother is a call taker for the Ambulance service and they seem to be bringing in extra staff so I wonder if they have a heightened security risk, I'm not sure.

I'll be thinking of all those who lost their lives tomorrow, all of our lives changed that day.
 
I don't live in America but I still know exactly what happened. I was at work. My day was almost over when we vagely heard something about a plane in the WTC. We thought we didn't hear it correctly and laughed about it. I am so sorry about that. I went home but first I went shopping!

Then, when I finally came home I saw my parents with scare on their faces watching tv. That's what we did the rest of the evening, seeing that plane fly into that building over and over again. I will never forget the image of people jumping down from high floors.

This event changed the whole world.

When I read Alisa's story the tears jump into my eyes.....My husband is a firefighter and I have the utmost respect for rescue workers nowadays.
Thank you for sharing. I can't believe it's been ten years already. Let alone the people who actually been there.
 
I was 20 years old, stationed in Japan at work. I was in intell, you wouldn't believe all the things that were wrongly reported that day, on top of everything that was actually going on. We watched the second tower fall. And they locked us down, gave a curfew, it was scarey. I wonder what it was like in the states.
 
Alisa, thanks so much for sharing. I'm sorry you had to witness and experience it like that.

I woke up that morning and started to get ready for school. I was a sophomore in high school. We turned on the radio in the bathroom, like we did every morning, to listen to music while my sisters and I did our hair and makeup. Instead of music, we heard a very somber voice announce that a plane had crashed into one of the twin towers. I remember thinking how horrible it was, but I thought maybe it was just a horrible accident - I had no clue what else would ensue or that we were being attacked by terrorists.

I went to school and in my first class my teacher looked sad and terrified at the same time. She turned on the news and everyone sat silently watching as the clip of the second plane crashing into the other tower played over and over. This was clearly not an accident anymore. Then I heard about the Pentagon and the plane that went down in Pennsylvania. I was terrified. I was shaking. For the first time in my life, terrorism was a real threat. I didn't feel safe.

I remember crying as they showed footage of a body falling from one of the holes in the first tower.

We watched the news almost all day in school. We were all kind of in a daze and no one really talked much. We were all scared.

Some reporters speculated about the possibility of war.

I was nauseous all day.

Late in the day I had choir. We sang the national anthem. We were all crying.

I don't remember what I did after school that day. But I know that I've never felt so terrified and I said a lot of prayers as I was seeking some comfort.
 
I was at work 70 miles outside of DC. Many of my co-workers had family & friends at the Pentagon. My boss came over to my desk & asked me to check up on a story her DH had heard on the radio about a plane crashing into the WTC. I had one of the only internet connections. I found the story but the site was jammed, so I called my DH who was home & he turned on the TV. As we were talking the other plane hit. Then came work about the Pentagon. They brought a tv up and put it on the spare desk by my own so people on the floor could come by on their breaks & watch the news updates. People with family at the pentagon used the spare phone to try & reach loved ones. I spent 6 hours watching the news over and over, fielding questions, taking messages, helping management work out what do with staffing as our main back up center was in NYC so we couldn't shut down because our own people wanted/needed to leave. The NYC site was on Long Island but they'd shut down when the towers fell & sent their stuff to us. I'd been at the NYC site a week earlier, I was supposed to actually be there 9/11 but they'd had to reschedule things so I was sent home over the weekend to come back up the following week. Watching the tv for 6 hours & dealing with the coworkers who were trying to reach family at the Pentagon was overwhelming. I had to watch Star Trek for 2 hours when I came home.
 
You're a pretty amazing person Alisa, for sharing such a personal story that must be so incredibly tough to tell.

I was at work, here in the UK. My boss had just returned from lunch & told me about a plane having flown into one of the Towers. We quietly logged onto the BBC website (using the internet for personal use was a big no-no) to see the news & find out what had happened, and then sat & watched the footage of the second aircraft going into the other Tower..

My husband was in London on business that day, at Canary Wharf, which at that time had the largest/ tallest building in the UK dedicated to banking, security etc - a perfect target, was all I could think. It took a couple of hours for me to contact him, all the while watching the events in NY. It was all so unbelieveble , how it could be happeneing right then and I was just sat watching it all unfold. I've never felt so impotent.

You're right - I don't think any adult will ever forget that day, where they were & what happened.
 
Wow, Alisa...just wow. I can't believe you made it out of the towers twice!

I was 17 and a senior in high school. I got up that morning and since we're in the west coast, it had already happened when I got up. While I was driving to school, I heard the announcers say that the second tower had been hit. We watched the news all day at school. And I still have a very vivid memories of sitting in a (mostly freshman) computer class where I TA'd and they were all just playing on the computer while the world was crashing down around them. i said (being the melodramatic person I was at 17) "Don't you know that your life is ending? That life will never be the same?" Melodramatic, yes..but still true.
 
I was driving to my sister in law's house to help her paint. I heard on the radio that a plane had hit the tower but at that point, they still thought it was an accident. I forgot about it and we were prepping to paint, when her dad called and said turn on the tv now. We sat on the couch and watched all the coverage and cried. I still can see people jumping. Jeff was working at a high school here and they got locked down, as did my mom's school. My dad works in a hospital and they were all downtown. People kept coming to the hospital trying to donate blood.

I will never forget anything about that day.

Alisa, thank you so much for sharing. I cannot imagine. How amazing that you got out of there twice!! Wow. Just wow.
 
I was at home that day (here in New Zealand). It was breakfast time. Hubby was getting ready for work, and my BIL had stayed overnight on his way to somewhere else. I turned on the TV to get the morning news, to see them reporting about the first plane hitting the tower. I told DH and BIL and they didn't believe me. They watched for a bit had to go to work. I stayed glued to the TV for the rest of the day really, my heart breaking for all the families who wouldn't be holding their loved ones anymore. I cried and prayed, and really couldn't believe what was happening. You didn't have to be in America that day to feel the impact of it all.
 
I was just getting ready to leave for work when I heard it was announced on the Today show that a plane had hit one of the towers. At that point, it was speculation as to whether it was a small plane, because things like that have happened in the past.

By the time I got to work (I was teaching kindergarten), co-workers were telling me that it was a jet and that another plane had hit the second tower, and it was obvious that it was a deliberate attack. As parents and children filtered in, I heard bits and pieces of news, but so much of it was rumor at that point.

When my class went to PE, I ran into the library to flip on the news...there was an HPD officer in there (our D.A.R.E. officer) watching, and it was only a few seconds later that we saw one of the towers fall. Utter shock, disbelief, numbness, and fear, because we didn't know if more was coming (and if you recall, there were rumors that more were coming).

That night, mom and I went to a prayer vigil at Second Baptist...we held hands throughout the chapel and prayed for our country. I think our TVs stayed on around-the-clock for days. Even when we went out, the news was everywhere.

One of my most vivid memories was going over to my friend Carolyn's house...another friend, Susan, was staying with her because she had lost her home to Tropical Storm Allison earlier in the year. Susan was the former sister-in-law of Barbara Olson, who was on her way to LA to guest on Bill Maher's tv program when she was killed in the plane that hit the Pentagon. Barbara had called her husband (who was Pres. Bush's Solicitor General) from the plane to tell him what was going on, and she was all over the news as they were reporting what had happened to the Pentagon). Susan was obviously grieving and wanting to go to DC for the funeral, but with the airlines grounded, there was on way for her to get there. It definitely reinforced that feeling of helplessness.

I remember the lines at the blood banks...it was great for the banks, but unfortunately most of that blood wasn't needed for 9/11 victims. The rush for those clip on American flags for car windows. The way in which people were united and you didn't see all of the partisan griping that has taken over our country. It's sad that it takes something so tragic to bring this country to its knees and get us to focus not on ourselves, but on each other.
 
I was 21 years old, working at Carlos O Kelly's (a mexican cafe) as a waitress. I was waiting tables in the bar area and the tv's were on when the news popped up. Everything seemed to stop - nobody cared about their food, and I don't even remember how long it was until we (the staff) got ourselves together and took care of the restaurant. It was just total utter shock. Nobody could even believe it was happening, and I just remember feeling so scared. I had never felt unsecure living here until that day, that is for sure. Now I definitely do not take my safety for granted at any time. It's crazy everyone can remember it so clearly - most of my memories from that far back are much more blurry :(
 
Alisa, thank you for sharing your story! I can't imagine what it was like to be there.

I was 21 and working third shift at a gas station. I had already gone home and fallen asleep, when my brother who lived next door at the time came rushing into my bedroom and turned on my tv. He kept telling me a plane crashed into the WTC, and I'll admit, I had no idea what the WTC even was. He sat down and we watched the news for hours. I was just shocked. I literally couldn't believe it. I kept thinking this stuff doesn't happen here. In our country. In my lifetime. I got that feeling like I needed to get up and do something, anything. I've never felt that helpless before. A few hours later our boss at Duke (we worked together) called and said things up there were getting crazy, so we all went into work. Everyone got called in that day, and we even had friends of employees and former employees working, to keep the lines of cars going smoothly. We were located on a corner, and the cops came to rope off parts of the lot so we could get one enter and exit lane going and get them out faster.
September 11 is the reason my husband and his brother joined the army.
 
Alisa. Wow. words just don't even come ... reading your story brought such tears. Like so many others here I had never heard a first hand personal encounter like that...not once but TWICE. You must know God has a special reason for you to be here!

Myself, I was a work at home mom at the time, I had a 2 year old, 4 year old and 9 year old. I was home with the babies, my husband was sleeping (he worked 2nd shift) and I was cleaning house getting ready for a friend to come visit. I was walking through the bedroom and saw the building on fire on the TV and stopped to watch just in time to see the 2nd plane hit as it was happening. I woke my husband up and we watched the rest of history unfold before us. My friend was driving when it happened so she didnt know until she got to my house and we were supposed to have a lunch date. We went anyway, not knowing the full magnitude of what was going on. I kept looking at the sky, afraid of what I might see. We live 3 miles outside of an air force base and our jets were the first scrambled to NY air space. For all I knew, because it was a fighter jet base we might be a target. I just was so scared. My husband works on base and had to report as normal ... with guys holding machine guns going through every vehicle and patting every one down. The highest alert our base has ever been on. I'll never forget the shiver I felt up my spine as I hung our American Flag outside that day and turned on the porch light... I knew it wasn't enough, but didn't know any other way to express my sorrow for our nation. I remember being glued to the coverage for so long that it became almost a sickness.....
 
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