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#1807 | Monday, September 9th 2002
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I remember walking down to the cafeteria at work to get a bagel and as I passed the television in the lobby that is always tuned to CNN they were showing a maternity fashion show. Then on my way back from the cafeteria CNN was showing the North Tower ablaze. In the time it took me to get a bagel 3,000 people were doomed to a horrific death.
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Jim | 39 | New Jersey
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#1590 | Saturday, August 24th 2002
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I was at work on Sept. 11th. 2001. I work as a security guard. The facility where I worked was in Dearborn, Michigan. When the attacks started happening, there was total chaos in the building. People were running everywhere, all the time talking on their cellphones. Employees who had just arrived for work were now leaving. The manager requested that a T.V set be put in the cateteria so the events taking place could be viewed. Later my supervisor told me and my African- American co-worker that the City of Dearborn was more than 95% Arabic, that us black and white people were the minority there. He also said that if the population of Dearborn were to side with the terrorists, we were in serious danger. It was then that I got truly afraid. I called my husband and told him to take out two youngest children out of High School and that I loved all of them. I had no idea of what was going to happen at that moment. I ended up working 12 hours that day, instead of 8. I was never so happy to be at home when I left work. I sometimes shudder when I think of others that did not get to go home to their families that fateful day.
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Melanie | 39 | Michigan
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#1566 | Monday, August 19th 2002
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I was sitting at my desk in the Chase Plaza building, two blocks away from the World Trade Center, when I felt and heard the first explosion. I remember thinking that it was too sunny out for it to have been thunder (we had a bad storm last night). A few minutes later, several people came over to my desk and said that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, and they tried to
look out my window. All we could see out of the window was smoke and loads of papers flying all over. We went to our break room/pantry, and were standing around watching the news coverage of the first crash when the second plane hit. We felt the second explosion as we watched the second plane hit the other tower. That's when we realized this was no accident.
We were told by our managers to leave the building. Once down in our office lobby, it looked like everyone else in the building had the same idea. Someone from the building's Fire Safety staff was announcing that our building was not being evacuated, that it was secure, and that they were encouraging people to return to their floors. The manager who had instructed us to leave our office said that was the dumbest announcement he ever heard. Three of us watched the smoke pouring out of the hole in the South Tower, and the full reality of it had yet to sink in. We stayed that way for a few more minutes, trying our cell phones in the hopes of calling family members to let them know we were okay, but cell phones were useless. So, I and one of our visitors from our Virginia office went down into the lower level of our building to find a pay phone, and to catch a subway train uptown. I was amazed by how orderly people were at the phone bank in our lower lobby. I was able to get my younger sister on the phone, and let her know that I was alright and on my way home. Fortunately, we were able to get a train fairly easily, and I had no problems catching a Queens-bound train at Times Square, so I was well on my way home and out of the area when the Towers collapsed.
I was on the #7 Flushing-bound train near the Courthouse Square station when I learned that the first tower had collapsed. I didn't learn that the second tower had collapsed until after reaching the Woodside Station, when they discontinued all subway service in all directions. I somehow managed to get my local car service to come pick me up to take me the rest of the way home, and to get through to my mother on my cell phone. She wanted me to come to her house instead of going back to my apartment, and it was on the television in her livingroom where I first saw the news footage of the Towers collapsing. As I watched them collapsing, I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach.
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Carol | 39 | New York
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#1083 | Wednesday, March 20th 2002
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The morning for me was normal as I, as a mother, was helping Louis and Kyrsten get ready for school. We always have the television on for news updates, school late starts or closings and ect. As we were buzzing around, hurrying, in order not to be late for school, we heard a terrible news flash: The one of the Twin Towers were on fire. As reported, the media didn't know what caused the fire. It appeared to us as we sat watching in shock and horror, it was an explosion of a high intensity. We watched and listened, turned the television volume louder, not to miss the information. In a few seconds, the media were talking to people on the phones that were near the site. They reported that a plane had crashed into the Tower! At that moment, we knew it wasn't an accident. We were in such a state of shock, saying to each other, how are all those people going to get out! We anxiously waited for more news but the information was the same on every channel, no one really knew what was going on. We prayed and prayed for the people in the Tower. We were all shaking. It was getting late for the kids to be to school on time. I drove them to school,not really remembering the drive, with my mind on the people in the Tower. Arriving back home, I surfed around the channels to hear anymore new news. Then I saw the second plane crash into the second Tower! I immediately started to weep. The media was saying people were jumping to their death! I, then, not really thinking clearly, tried to put myself in the situation of the people who thought the need to jump. I couldn't. What a horrible, horrible feeling. I couldn't even begin to feel the fears, thoughts or horror going through the victims minds. All I could do was pray and weep. As I was watching, the Tower collasped into millions of pieces! I watched in disbelief. Then the thought of my husband, who is a truck driver, jumped into my thoughts. He sometimes travels in New York. I was even in more tears, trying to call him on his cell phone with no response. I called continuously with no response. Watching in horror as the second Tower collasped, hearing of the plane going down in Pennsyvania and the a plane crashing into the Pentegon, thinking what is going on here! The thought of terrorists entered my already fearful mind. I kept saying to myself, we are going to war! War! What a horrible thought after this tradgedy, losing even more lives! I remember thinking what kind of a sick twisted group of people would do such a horrible thing to the USA, hating us so much! I still couldn't get in touch with my husband. I was dialing frantically and contiusously with only being able to leave a message on the voice mail. The worst thought went through my mind as where he is was that he was in New York. I prayed and prayed that he would be ok. Finally, as I was still at the edge of my seat, listening, weeping and praying, the phone rang, startling me as I think I was still in shock over the tradgedy. Answering the phone, I was relieved, my husband was on the phone letting me know he was ok! I thanked God again and again! I live in Wisconsin, far away from the tradgedy. I could not bare what all the people went through in New York, Pennsylvania and by and in the Pentegon. I give a lot of credit to all the people who withstood the tradgedy. I think that all the people involved with the terrorist acts should be punished as the people see fit that had been hurt and lost loved ones. I pray that all the injured people will be healed and that the ones who comitted the horrible act will be prosecuted to the fullest. Here in Wisconsin, we are all still feeling the pain and saddness of the terrorists horrendous acts. God Bless the USA!!!!!!!
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Lori | 39 | Wisconsin
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#1042 | Friday, March 15th 2002
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I was sitting at my desk on the morning of September 11th when a co-worker had told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Centre. At first I thought this was a tragic accident until I heard of the second plane. At that point I think I went numb. We tuned our radios into an all news broadcast to hear what was happening. Then the plane hit the Pentagon and another plane into a field in Penn. PA. This was a terrorist attack on the United States.
I still, 6 months later am grieving for the friends and families of the victims and the sense of security we once felt.
May we never forget and God Bless America.
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Kelly | 39 | Canada
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