where were YOU 11 years ago today?

[mbweimar]

I was in 8th grade english class. I won't ever forget that morning as long as I live.

[charlie tuna]

I was installing a security door access system in a law firm on the 36th floor of an office building in downtown Miami. The woman office manager, for who we were working for, called us into the confrence room to show us on their TV, that a plane had "accidently" hit THEIR New York branch office building. She picked up the phone and called their New York office manager, to find out she did not know about the plane crashing into her building. Their office was above the effected area. As she continued to talk to the women in New York, the TV showed the second plane hitting their building --- the line went dead, and the woman broke down and fell on the floor, and pucked before she could get to the bathroom. These two office managers were very close friends. We picked up our "stuff" and left!!! There were only three people who survived from their New York branch office.

[FUTCHCAIRO]

CARL BROWN AND I WERE FISHING IN THE GULF. DID NOT FIND OUT TILL WE GOT BACK TO TALLY, ABOUT 3 P.M. WHEN WE WERE DETOURED AROUND THE CAPITAL.
PA
SEMPER FI

[MudDucker]

I was on the way to the office. My wife called very afraid. While we were talking, the second plane hit. I was to give a talk to a group just north of here for lunch. I called to cancel and it was the first that the man I called had heard of it.

[SS-342]

I was in the hay field putting up hay. My daughter-in-law came and got me crying about something she didn't understand that was on the news.

[dombern34]

i was in my 7th grade math class, principal came across the intercom and told all teachers to turn the tv on and take a moment. didn't really understand what was going on at the time until my dad explained it to me later on that night. he's a marine and could tell by the look on his face it wasn't good when he got home. he retired in 2004 and i grew up and now work for the gov supporting our Marines. just glad to be able to help give something back that our troops give to us that will never be matched.

[DeanMac]

I was teaching at the same middle school I am at now, Principal announced for all teachers to turn on the TV. Just about as soon as I got the TV on the second plane hit. I knew then this was not an accident. We watched as the towers burned and collasped.

[GaryDroze]

I was teaching a high school English class (Writer's Workshop). We had the TV on to watch an interview with a local author, and switched channels. Mostly I recall that the relentless replays of the plane hits made the scene even more surreal than it was: an endless loop of collapse..and Apocalypse.

I ditched the planned writing assignment, and simply had the kids express themselves on paper. It was a tough morning for them.

[reelbad]

At work in the Pepper Bldg. with Jeff Trent aka TroutTrent listining to the events as they unfolded on the radio. Soon after we were told to go home. Very sad day for all.

[mjsigns]

I was working on some meaning-less contract under a tight timeline, when one of my buddies in the Data Unit called me and told me that at 9:30am small plane had struck the WTC. We thought little of it until we heard that a second plane had struck tower #2. That is when we pulled the old TV out of storage and put the rabbit ears up and were totally shocked by the live video from the news. Everyone in the office (28) gathered around the TV and watched the horrific collapse of each tower as it happened. Later that day, my kids ages 6 and 7 watched the event on the news and I had to explain the best I could what and why it happened. Time magazine produced a one-time issue that centered only on photos of the 911 event. I still have it tucked away in one of my dresser drawers.

The other event that was amazing was the feds grounding all air planes for a few days. It was very strange not hearing any air traffic over the city and county. It was like an eerie silence that had fallen over the skies.

Those days are forever, and always shall be, etched in my mind.

[guthooked]

I was working in information technology at Char-broil. I remember it like it was yesterday. We all gathered around the television and watched it all unfold. We had one Pakistani and one Indian working for us and I will never forget the look on their faces. They were both terrified. About six months later the Pakistani quit and moved back home. The Indian fellow, who was a really great guy, would tell me about all the comments people would make behind their backs and even to his young daughter at school.

[reelhandy]

I was working in a 8 story office building under construction in Tyson's Corner Va. When I was told about the first plane it barely got my attention. When word about the second plane went around the jobsite we all knew the worst had happened. It seemed like just after that the news of the attack on the Pentagon went around the site along with rumors of an attack on the Capital and other rumors about imminent attacks all around the DC area. Then I received a call from our office telling me to shut the job down and send everyone home. By the time I got on the road all of the roads in the area were clogged with traffic. It took me 5 hours to get home.

[Gumbo]

My buddy's first-hand account:



I had just gotten out of the subway and the 1st plane hit. I was 1 short block away on the corner watching it all happen in front of me. Broadway and Dey, Canyon of Heroes they say.



Oh so much more so now.



Sleep didn't come too easy last night. And as most of you know, I sleep.

My eyes were wide open, tears streaming at 8:46AM.



I remember running the 2 blocks to my office at the time, got upstairs, half the folks didn't even know it happened. I went back down with a buddy, just in time to watch the 2nd plane hit. People were running around like the proverbial chicken whose head was just cut off. We stood outside watching the buildings burn. We watched people hold hands and jump, rather than burn. Someone’s Day Planner landed in front of me. Whether it was from someone on one of the planes, or from an office in the Towers, I don't know. You can't imagine how much "stuff" was flying around before the Towers even fell. And some of that stuff was body parts. We stood out there, I know there were tons of people standing around me, but for some reason I can't see any of their faces.



Then the 1st Tower came down.



A humongous cloud just started emanating from it. What’s the term for it when it's from a volcano? Pyroclastic flow or whatever, I'm too damn lazy to look it up, that's exactly what it looked like. Soon as I saw that cloud coming down the block, I ran back up to the office. Grabbed my suit jacket, went into the kitchenette opened up a pile of paper towels and wet them and handed them out to everyone, it was time to get the hell out of there. We ran the 22 flights down the stairs, no one wanted to take the elevator for the obvious reasons.



We finally made it down and Tower 2 came down seconds later. By this time it was chaos in the streets. And here came that 2nd cloud of debris flying down the street at us. We literally ran away from it. Made it as far east as we could, the East River is there, no mo’ go. Went into South Street Seaport, trying to get away from the debris. Tons of people in there doing the same. It was about 10:30AM and we were all covered in this fine light brown dust. It was everywhere. We were brushing each other off and everyone was trying to contact loved ones and, obviously, cells were way overloaded. Land lines had lines of people behind them, dozens and dozens, after a while they didn't work either. People were crying, walking around like zombies.





There's a bar on the top floor of the Seaport, we ended up in there (surprise!) and they started to serve us at 10:30AM, TV's blasting on different channels, all of them saying something different. The debris still made it down there, too. We stood on the terrace there, drinking Coronas, strangely enough, and it was floating around. It seemed like the whole city was covered in it.



We stood there drinking, watching all of downtown NYC start to walk home. For those of you that don't know, that's the financial district and a few hundred thousand folks work down there. Who knows maybe more? People from all over the Tri-state area, Jersey, Conn, Pa, Long Island, the outer boroughs. No mass transit, everyone had to walk. Tunnels were closed, no bus, no train inside of Manhattan. It took me over 4 hrs to get home. 5 Coronas helped.



Walking home, it was amazing how everyone was trying to help. Bodegas were handing out bottles of water and towels to wipe off, people were offering rides to old folks, not that it helped, traffic was at a standstill. I walked thru Chinatown and grabbed a seat in a minivan that was trying to get uptown, we got 2 blocks before it was dead stop. Walked the rest of the way. On Lexington Ave and 27th St there is an armory. On that corner, when I finally made it there, was a fucking TANK. A FUCKING TANK! Soldiers all around, M-16's all over. The city was in lockdown.



People had to walk 2 and 3 times longer than I did. All Nancy and I wanted was to get the hell outta Dodge. I walked over to the Midtown Tunnel, we live a few blocks away, to see if it was open yet, this was about 7PM or so. The cops there told me that they were going to open the 59th St bridge at 9. I asked why not the tunnel, and what he told me scared the shit out of me. They were waiting for the bomb squad. Seems a suspicious pkg was found in the Lincoln tunnel and they wouldn't open any of the tunnels until they were checked.



I ran home, we packed up clothes and stuff for a week, called the garage to get our car down ASAP, and we drove out to the beach house Nanc's brother had at the time.



I could sit here and remember more, there's tons more. A lot of it good. People helping people, didn't matter who, what, color, clothes, everyone was just a New Yawka. I know 9/11 affected me more than I would ever admit to, and still does to this day.

8:46AM.

Never forget.



OK, here's some more.



After finally making it back downstairs after the 1st Tower fell and watching the 2nd come down, there were about 25 of us running east on John St. At almost each building we passed there were maintenance workers standing in doorways, some pulling people into the hallways to get out of the debris cloud, others giving out dust masks, others handing out wet towels. There were soo many folks trying to get away and just covered in that brown dust, breathing it in, they probably helped and saved more folks than they could know. As we ALL know now, that dust was toxic. They say as corrosive as drain cleaner, and there were thousands of us breathing it in. Just about any store along the few blocks to the East river was handing out something to the folks trying to get away, water, towels, food, or just a chair. I watched as 3 guys carried an older woman who obviously had fallen trying to get away at least 4 blocks to the Seaport. They didn't know who she was. She just fell and they picked her up and kept on going. There were some that were just standing in the middle of the street, in shock, not moving. You would see someone come up, put an arm around them and just start walking away from the Towers.



When we did make it to the Seaport it was mayhem. There had to be quite a few hundred people that went there, maybe more. All of us stood there, taking off what clothes we could, to try and get the dust off. Each of us brushing off others that a lot of us had no idea who they were. A lot of comforting going on, you can only imagine how many of us were just standing there and crying. Everywhere you looked people were trying to use their cell's to contact loved ones. No one could get through and the hysteria just increased. There are pay phones there and they did work for about 1/2 an hour, the lines behind them were dozens long, and then they quit working, too.



It was too early for any of the restaurants to be open yet, but the bar/restaurant on the top floor was sorta open. A bunch of us made it up there and found the place packed already, 5 TV's going, not one of them knowing what really happened. People sitting at the bar sobbing. Small groups of folks, probably co workers, huddled together, holding each other, crying, wiping brown dust tears from each other's faces. There was a LOT of that going round. The place has a small terrace and some found that they got a cell signal on it, so the next thing you know there were 30 or so trying to make calls. Didn't last. And the dust was still coming down on us, even there.



Standing in this bar, and it was not a good time bar that day, for sure. The bartender said hell with it and started serving drinks. I was with 4 folks from my office. We ordered up some Coronas and sat trying to figure out what to do. 2 of them live in Jersey, 1 in Conn and 1 on Long Island. No mass transit, no bridges, no tunnels. All closed. We stood up on the top floor of the Seaport and watched as thousands of people were walking north on the FDR Drive, which is the east side h'way that goes up the length of Manhattan. No cars, just people. Quite a sight. The only time that happens is for the 4th of July when they close it for the fireworks.



It really reminded me of scenes I've seen in war movies, they kinda looked like prisoners of war walking to .........We stayed for a couple of hours, drinking, helping to calm people. I think I must have spoken to at least 20 that I didn't know, everyone just trying to

help someone in despair. The guys from Jersey had only one way to get themselves home. The ferries were running, but as you can imagine, the lines were huge. We walked down to the loading dock, had to be 300 folks waiting. Left them there to wait. Turns out when they finally got to the other side of the river, they had to stand there and get hosed down by the fire dept. Precautions, they said. Those poor folks had to then find a way to get home soaked.



I was told there were buses to help. The guy from Conn and the guy from LI and I started walking north, under the FDR Drive. We lost each other somewhere in Chinatown. The guy from LI, walked up to the 59th St bridge and across and was able to get a bus in Queens to get him closer to home. Took him 7 hours to make it. The guy from Conn ended up meeting an old friend while walking and ended up staying at her apt in the Bronx. They walked the whole way, think it was about 20 miles. I've heard of others that walked 3 times as much. I walked north thru Chinatown with thousands of others.



I remember passing houses of worship, whether they were Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, whatever, I couldn't tell you. But at each and every one of them there were chairs out front just waiting for all us weary walkers. They were giving out water, letting folks use the facilities, or just sit a spell. They also had people with cars and vans, filling them up with older folks, or the injured, or those too shell shocked to move, trying to get them home. At one of them I was sitting drinking some water, must have been walking an hour or so by then, and a woman came out and walked up and said my Dad is making his way down here with his van, who needs a ride north? I helped her gather 7 older people that seemed to be on their last legs, no more walking for them. Somehow someway, her Dad did make it down there, can't figure out how he did it, traffic was literally gridlocked all over the city. I only stayed in the van for 2 blocks, it was stuck in the same spot for at least half an hour, so I got up, asked someone walking on the street if they wanted to ride instead and kept on walking myself.



It still amazes me how many store owners were outside their stores giving away their wares. Water, fruit, cookies, sandwiches, all just being handed out to the walking wounded. And not just downtown, all the way to midtown where I live. Sad to say, but the worst brings out the best in some. I won't go into the horrifying things we found walking out of downtown, y'all can just imagine. Pieces of everything that blew away that day covered most of downtown NYC. Everything.



As I said previously, we made it out of the city that night. We were lucky. There were tons that couldn't. We stayed out at the beach house, 75 miles away from it all, and you could still see the plume of smoke from out there the next day. That site burned for weeks, don't believe otherwise.



Stayed out there for a week, unfortunately, had to go back to work. Now comes the part that pisses me off to no end. Remember, the EPA said the air down there was fine. No problem, Christie said. (She was head of EPA at the time, ex NJ Gov) Well, took the train downtown, as soon as the train passed Union Sq/14th St, the smell was unbelievable. The closer we got to WTC the worse the smell got. Got off at my usual stop, though the exit that I usually used, which was 1 block from the site, was closed and we had to walk under the tunnels for a few blocks. The smell was atrocious. Now I've never been in a morgue, never smelled death before, but let me tell you, once you do, it is unmistakable. The smell of death was all over. People got off the train and started retching immediately. I dry heaved a few times myself. Unfortunately, you don't get used to it. No doubt there are loved ones that have never been found, not one little piece even, and won't ever be. Incinerated. I will never ever forget that smell.



I know I will probably get sick because of what was floating around NYC that day, and the EPA told us, nope, all is well. Now, 5 yrs later, those that worked in the actual site are getting sick, some have died already. Then you have the thousands and thousands of others that worked downtown, and continued to work downtown, breathing in all that

crap. Because our government said it was safe. I continued to work downtown for the next 3 months, breathing in that caustic air.



My job, along with thousands of others was lost after that. I was working for a nice size insurance brokerage, selling a Workers Compensation program policy to non profits. Many of you may not know this, but the largest amount of monies paid out in insurance claims because of 9/11 was and still is and will continue to be, from Workers Compensation. Many insurance companies went under because of it. And I lost my job because of it. The insurance company that we ran the Workers Comp program through closed it.

Funny thing, well not too funny. My immediate boss and some others from the office - I don't know if I was to be involved or not - were supposed to have a breakfast meeting at Windows on the World restaurant that day, way up top on the Towers. The mgr of the rest called my boss and asked if they could make it lunch instead, they had to schedule something else in the AM. He and everyone else up there died that day. Could have been us.



I keep remembering things as I continue to write this.



First week back at work after, a buddy of mine and I took a walk, getting as close to the site as we could. All the office buildings have some kind of landscaping down there, trying to get a bit o the green into the concrete jungle. Walking around we found so many things tangled up in bushes and trees.

Bits of clothing.

Bits of airplanes.

Papers, personal and business.

Toiletries.

Parts of luggage.

Twisted pieces of metal.

Huge hunks of concrete.

Pieces of fire trucks, and parts of fire equipment.

Partially burned pictures.



Thinking back, I should have picked up and saved some of them.

And yes, we did find body parts, when we did we would look for the nearest

cop or National Guard so they could get whomever needed over there.



I still have the ribbon a co-workers Mom made for all of us once we got back

to work. I look at it everyday.

9-11-01

Never forget.