|
|
|
#365 | Saturday, December 8th 2001
|
I was at school celebrating my birthday when we heard about the WTC on the radio. This deadened the mood in the room. Later, at home, when I saw the replays, I realised how terrible it was.
This I shall never forget
|
Sean | 17 | United Kingdom
|
#326 | Saturday, December 8th 2001
|
I was on a Train from London - Kings Lynn (Norfolk)and was totally oblivious
what was happening untill i reached my destination turning on tv and sky news.
That days paper is now sealed forever to be opened whenever sometime in the future for anyone that cares to read
"Lets not forget"
K M-R
|
Kieron | 49 | United Kingdom
|
#313 | Friday, December 7th 2001
|
I am English and was travelling around the US with my girlfriend at the time, having just left Univeristy aged 21. We were on an Amtrak train from Houston to LA and an announcment came over the train informing us that "because of events on the east coast" the train would have to be stopped and every item of luggage matched to a passenger. The announcer added that he had no reason to beleive that the train was under any threat. My initial thought was that a bomb had gone off on a train on the east coast. We stopped in western Texas and the process began, after identifying our luggage I heard a woman with a walkman relaying information to people further down the carriage. I couldn't hear her properly but I heard the phrases "both the World Trade Center towers are gone", "they say 7,000 could be dead" and "they are asking citizens to give blood." I simply did not belive my ears about the WTC especially because less than 2 weeks earlier me and my girlfriend had visited the WTC observatory and were amazed by the height of it. To think it was not there anymore was impossible. I thought what could kill 7000 people in New York and thought an earthquake initially but then realised that quakes like that do not happen in New York. The eerie silence of the people who could here her worried me. After a few minutes I walked into the carriage behind to see if they knew what had happened. As long as I live I will never forget that scene: every single person had their heads bowed in prayer. As I entered a man looked up at me ( blue baseball cap, middle age) and I asked if anybody knew exactly what had happened. He told me that "both the WTC towers have been bombed and have collapsed." I was so scared at that point. He then said "The Pentagon is on fire and the President is in an underground bunker. And warships have been sent to New York" For a few seconds I honestly beleived the 3rd World War had begun. My heart started beating so fast and my mouth went dry. I stammered out the question "was it terrorists?" and he said yes. A woman who was near me was crying and saying that she had just boarded the plane and had seen the video footage of it and how terrible it was. I was shocked it was on tape. No one mentioned it was planes. I stood there shocked and the man offered to lend me his walkman to listen to the news (typical American friendliness), I said it was ok my girlfriend had one and went back to her. I physically could not tell her for about a minute - it was so strange. I eventually told her and we sat listening to the news through Texas and later New Mexico and Arizona. The whole train was in total silence for the rest of the journey (another 18 hours). It was terrible, all the flags we saw were at half mast. Five days later we went back to New York by plane from San Francisco. We saw a plume of smoke as high as the WTC was and when the wind blew uptown (we stayed on 30th street) could smell the smoke. Horrible.
|
Sam | 22 | United Kingdom
|
#305 | Friday, November 30th 2001
|
At the precise time it happened, it was mid-afternoon, and I think I was in a jeweller’s in my home town of Blairgowrie, Perth and Kinross, Scotland, picking up my watch with its new battery. I walked back to Tesco's car park where my mother was waiting, and she began signalling furiously to me as I approached the car. She told me that there had been a terrible accident, that an aeroplane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre. I was immediately shocked, having visited New York City and been to the top of one of the towers on a final-year school trip, not six months beforehand. As we listened, confused messages came through about another plane having crashed, an idea that seemed ridiculous (since we automatically assumed that it could only have been an accident). We hurried home to put on both the radio and the television, hearing George W. Bush's first statement live, and it soon became apparent that, yes, both towers had been struck, and neither was an accident.
At home we quickly put on the television and the radio, and I watched the scenes unfold. All channels, if my memory serves me correctly, had cancelled their normal programming by then. I sat aghast, and began to succumb to fits of sobbing as the full enormity of what had happened hit me, along with the added incredulity of having been there myself so recently. I watched as news came through of more planes hijacked, of smoke drifting over Washington, of rumours then confirmations of an attack upon the Pentagon, of a plane crash in Pennsylvania, and, finally, of the collapse of first one, then the other great tower.
Finally I was able to bring myself to go into my room and send emails out to the mainly American mailing lists to which I belong, realising that I had friends who were to be in New York at the time, but not finding out until later in the evening that they were okay.
I shall conclude by quoting my diary entry for that evening; the references towards the end are to my best American friend, and then to the degree course in International Relations that I have since started at St. Andrews University, Fife, Scotland.
"I don't know how to begin. This is the worst day in my entire life. Thousands are dead, hundreds of thousands are injured, countless lives are destroyed, the world's economy is in a state of collapse, the US government is in turmoil, one of the largest and most magnificent buildings in the world has been razed to the ground, the Pentagon has partially collapsed. Nobody knows who is responsible, why they did it, or what this means for the world. Thankfully, Jessica is okay and all the other listers seem to be okay, though some have relatives who may yet be dead. And in exactly one week, I'm going off to be trained to do something about it. If only I can. I'm shellshocked. This is too awful for words. Those poor people."
|
David | 18 | United Kingdom
|
#295 | Tuesday, November 27th 2001
|
Sept 11 th , A day that changed the world.I am a resident of UK, Whilst it happened in your country, the shockwaves were felt around the world and no more so than here in England. I had been working the night before and woke, putting the Tv on. The sight that filled my screen will live with me for ever.I dont think i moved from that seat for the next 5 or 6 hours.
My heart goes out to the families of those that lost relatives and loved ones on that day.
My pride at the bravery of those rescue workers who went into the towers to help people knowing that they would most proberly never get out is immense.
Standing side by side with America as we have on so many times in the past, we feel your sorrow and grief.
God bless you all
|
Darryl | 44 | United Kingdom
|
<< | < | showing 171-175 of 188 | >| >>
search again
|
|
|
|
|
