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#1570 | Monday, August 19th 2002
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I live in Canada and on the day of the attacks I was rushing to get to work. I had stopped for gas and a young man came rushing in to the station while I was paying and said a plane had crashed in New York. I went to my car and turned on the radio. As I dropped my daughter at work I heard that there had been two other planes involved . When I arrived at work they were setting up a television to see the news reports. We were all in awe and terror. My first reaction was to call all my children to tell them I loved them. I had recently lost my fulltime job in Ontario and had to move back to Alberta where the children were until I could find other employment. On that day I was very thankful that I had been 'forced' to move home and be near my children.
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Dawn | 52 | Canada
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#1413 | Saturday, June 22nd 2002
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Like many others I was at work at the time. I remember hearing a breaking news flash on the radio about a plane hitting the World Trade Center and I, along with other employees, ran downstairs to a lounge to watch the news on TV. I will never forget how difficult it was to finish working that day. All of my thoughts were on what was happening as I continued to listen to the events unfold. I have never felt so helpless and confused at the same time before. It all seemed like a bad dream and the following days went by in a blur. The question that went through my mind over and over again was how could anyone do this to innocent people. To this day, I pray that those responsible will be brought to justice and that those still missing will be accounted for so that their families may find closure. My prayers also go out to the families, relatives and friends of those lost on 9/11. May God Almighty give you peace and strength.
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Joe | 52 | Ohio
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#931 | Monday, March 11th 2002
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On Tuesday September 11th, I got up at 5:15 PT for a run. My wife had spent the previous night in Portland in order to be at the Portland Airport for a 6 AM flight to Oklahoma to visit her mom. I usually listen to a tape on my Walkman, but for some reason turned on my radio and was listening to National Public Radio. About 15 minutes into the run the radio announcer said that a "small plane" had struck one of the Towers of the World Trade Center. Growing up a New Yorker my first thought was to picture the Towers dominating the skyline of Lower Manhattan and thinking that was very strange. I tried to picture which Tower it might be and I wondered if perhaps something had happened to the pilot of what I assumed was a small engine, perhaps private plane. The radio broadcast cut away to another story and I coninued my run, saying a small prayer for the people affected by the crash.
As I approached my house I heard the word that a second plane had hit the other Tower. I immediately felt a chill and thought that this was no coincidence. I rushed into the house and turned on the TV in time to see a video of the second plane hitting the South Tower. I tried reaching my sister at her office in Midtown, but all the lines were dead. I worried about my wife Barb who at that moment was in the air with no way of knowing what had happened. I called Barb's mom but she hadn't heard anything about the attacks. We promised we'd keep each other informed. I sat mesmerized for a bit then, with the TV on in the bedroom I turned the radio back on in the bathroom as I started the shower. At that moment, I heard a reporter talking live from the Pentagon who was waiting for an official statement. In an instant the correspondent interrupted himself to say that there had been an explosion at the other side of the building. After some confusion he gathered himself enough to say that the Pentagon had been hit. It was clear now that we were under attack. I called into the elementary school where I work as a counselor and told the secretary that I would probbably not be in until much later, after I had word about my wife and family. Then I sat and waited.
I eventually heard from my sister who was evacuated from her building because of its proximity to Rockefeller Center and the fear that another attack might target the City's communications center. She was meeting up with her son who works in a nearby office and they eventually walked home to Brooklyn. My wife called a couple of hours later to explain that her flight was grounded in Salt Lake and the airport closed. Passengers where advised to make arrangements for staying in Salt Lake until the airport reopened, presumably the next day. She eventually decided to rent a car and drive back to Oregon a few days later.
For days afterward I was in a fog, feeling helpless that I couldn't be there, knowing that there were personal friends who worked in One World Financial Center, as well as schoolmates and close friends of other family members who were lost in the devastation.
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Dominic | 52 | Oregon
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#896 | Monday, March 11th 2002
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I was in my car with my daughter going to work. I live in Los Angeles. At 6:05 am (9:05, NY time) I heard a news report that a plane flew into the WTC. I said to my daughter, how big, how many people, what happened to the building - a lot of questions and no answers. At work I heard later that both buildings had been hit and that both then collapsed. At that point I started trying to get the news on the internet and could not access any news site since they were so busy. Someone dug up a radio and we spent the day listening with a bit of work thrown in.
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Nancy | 52 | California
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#556 | Thursday, December 20th 2001
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I work for the DOD in procurement and September 11th was a stand down day for aquisition excellence. Many of us were in a closed door meeting. Nothing was said to us. At 10:00 we had a break and I heard a rumor about WTC and just brushed it off as just that a crazy rumor. At 11:15 our morning meeting was over, but we were told the afternoon session was cancelled and that we were to proceed to our vehicles and drive home. The the entire compound was now closed!
I passed a conference room and someone was watching TV, at first glance I thought it was a movie. Then the person watching told me what had happened.
At first I was in shock! I went to my car, got in line to exit the compound with the radio on a news station I found myself pounding on the steering wheel and shouting "Bastards". I pulled off the road and cried. Then went to several of our defense contractors to see how they were handling the news. Then I went home and sat in front of the TV in disbelief. After a sleepless night. I remember going to pick up the newspaper at the end of the driveway. As I picked it up I said "please God let what happened yesterday be a nightmare". But the headlines brought me back to reality.
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Carmen | 52 | Pennsylvania
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