Remembering 9-11

[Guest EXPAT]

Inside look at Ground Zero 12 years later with @WillieGeist. Video: http://on.today.com/1eh3PdG

And the new building that takes its place:

[RA1]

Everyone remembers where they were during the attack. I was getting my front passenger window replaced where a lawn mower had shattered it. I had gone in very early and was just leaving when the news of the first attack became known to me. I rushed to my office at the airport and watched the second attack on TV in the lobby. No more work was accomplished that day. We watched all the new news and all the old news all day long.

Pretty soon, our ramp was full of airliners which had been told to land at the nearest airport. The MEM airport was running out of room to put them at the terminal and elsewhere so they put them on the General Aviation ramps. It didn't matter. No one was going to fly (except the military) for a while anyway.

Pretty soon they let airlines resume flying but it took several more days for General Aviation. As soon as they let us go I flew on the airlines to Newark. While landing there, I could see the NYC skyline and the empty space where the twin towers had been. There was still smoke rising. A very sad sight.

I rented a one way car and drove up to Poughkeepsie where I picked up a plane and flew back to MEM.

I remember it all just like it was yesterday. I was both scared and angry and still am.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest CharliePS]

I was in my home office reading my students' papers and my partner was sitting in the living room waiting for the shuttle to take him to JFK for a flight to Johannesburg, where he was to start a two week tour of Africa. The phone rang, and an obviously flustered young woman told him the shuttle wouldn't be picking him up; confused, he said, "You mean, I have to get to the airport on my own?!" "No," she said, "all the airports are closed," and hung up. We looked at each other, and I said, "We'd better turn on the TV." We turned on CNN just in time to see the second tower fall. We did little else but watch the coverage, stunned, all day. The hardest part was the news about Windows on the World, where the son of good friends worked. It wasn't until several days later that I learned an old acquaintance was a passenger on one of the planes.

My classes didn't meet for a few days, and the tour company postponed his tour until two weeks later. By then the shuttle to JFK was running again, but the passengers still had to stand outside the terminal in the rain while they were admitted one at a time. Of the original 120 persons who had signed up for the four tour groups that had been postponed, only 17 went ahead with the trip.

[Guest lurkerspeaks]

I too can remember the morning well. Here in AZ, we were 3 hours different due to time zones. I remember waking up, and first thing I did was log onto the website www.webseth.com, as I used to do back then. Seth had his camera watching his tv, showing the burning first tower. At first, I thought it was some movie, then realized it was a live shot. I quickly turned on my tv and saw the action, and shortly there after, the second tower was struck. I quickly knocked on my roommate's door and yelled that he had to get up--the US was being attacked.. Then spend the rest of the day in front of the TV, watching in disbelief as the day progressed and the nation came to a tear-filled standstill. The terror of not knowing what was happening---are we safe? are we at war? Will things ever be the same again?

[TotallyOz]

I have told my morning memory of this morning in the past. But, I was living on 49th Street and 8th Avenue. I have never felt so alone in the city. My apartment was full of boys (I ran a service back then) and the sadness and uncertainty of the future was overflowing.

I had to take my phones off the hook that day as they would not stop ringing. We didn't do business for several days afterwards as the boys were all in shock and none of us knew what was going to happen.

When I did decide to listen to messages, I had over 200 messages. Many expressed their desire to see a guy and the basic theme was they were not sure what would happen tomorrow and they wanted someone to stay with them all night. Everyone I knew was speculating as to what would come next. We all wanted to leave the city for a few days but none of us did. It is not easy to run New Yorker's out of anything.

The one thing I remember from that week was we never heard one car horn blow. It was the silence that frightened us and for those that live in the city, you get use to the sounds of the masses living, driving, fighting, etc and those sounds are carried inside your home to make your sleep sound. The quite of those days made it hard for us to sleep as it sounded like we were living in the woods with no city sounds, no police sirens, no ambulances, nothing. Just the dead silence that made us even more frightened.

[Guest EXPAT]

I was living and working in London at the time. it was 2 in the afternoon and someone came to my office and said that a small twin engine plane hit the towers. That was what was initially reported on the BBC. We didn't have a connected TV in the office but someone was able to stream the BBC news on their PC and as we were watching the second plane hit and I said that wasn't a small plane. I immediately made an announcement in the building that everyone could go home. I was afraid that maybe London might be attacked next. After I knew everyone had left the building, I walked home and watched CNN Int'l all day after I called all my friends in NYC. At that point you could still get a call into the city but later in the evening that ability stopped. It was very scary being outside the US knowing that the US was being attacked.

[Guest zipperzone]

And all the while there was Georgie boy sitting in Florida reading to a bunch of little children......