September 11th - 10th Anniversary - Where were you?

[Brandon]

Given that it has been ten years since September 11, 2011, I might as well ask, where were you when it happened?

I happened to be working for a survey firm while finishing up my degree and first heard about it on the radio.  Landecker (who was on 104.3FM here in Chicago) mentioned something about a plane hitting the WTC and everyone thought it was a Cessna or some little plane.  We had no idea about the weather in NYC until a few minutes later.  Then I heard that a second plane had hit, and everyone seemed to know it was not an accident.  It's more of a blur after that.  Wound up leaving from work early, and got home about 10:30am CDT.  A bunch of us were standing around outside talking about it and wondering if Chicago were next (thank goodness we're 40 miles away).  Some lady from down the block was complaining about the people on the corner, accusing them of being Arabs (she used a racist term for them), and I shut her down and brought her back to reality by reminding here that they were Latino and had a statue of Mary in their front yard.  Some folks are just ignorant.  My neighbor got home from the Loop and explained that they had evacuated his building and sent everyone home.  Later that afternoon, I watched as 7 WTC fell on live TV.  I do remember how eerily clear the sky was without any planes.  We're on the flight path to Midway so planes can be seen daily.

[huskeroadgeek]

I heard about it later than most people. I wasn't working that day and was sleeping upstairs in my parents' house. I didn't wake up until sometime after 10:00(CDT), and when I came downstairs, I saw the TV was on and my dad was watching and said to me "It's been an interesting morning". He then explained what had gone on and I had to process all of the information at once-planes had hit the World Trade Center and they had both collapsed, a plane had hit the Pentagon, and there was another plane they thought was headed for Washington but may have crashed in Pennsylvania. It took me a little while to really comprehend all of that.

[akotchi]

I was working in my office in Princeton, NJ.  Someone had the internet up and commented that a plane had hit the WTC, but wasn't sure how real the story was.  Like most, I thought that a wayward small plane had hit the tower -- reminded me a bit of the Payne Stewart plan crash in 1999, when the loss of cabin pressure knocked out those aboard.  When the TV was put on later, we all saw the extent of the attacks.  I recall also the conversations about the Port Authority employees, some of which we had dealt with in the past, who were lost that day.

I had assigned folks to do traffic counts up in Little Ferry, NJ, not far from Manhattan, that morning, so they were able to see what was happening.  We could not reach them, and it took until 11:00 or so for them to get back to the office.  I left the office right after they got back.

My kids (oldest was almost 10) were dismissed from school early that day.  It was tough to explain to them what was going on, then why TV coverage was 24/7 for the better part of the rest of the week.

My mother worked in DC at the time (downtown), and (if I recall) the city was under lockdown right after the plane hit the Pentagon.  I could not reach her until late morning because of the cell phone traffic.  Took her awhile to get back to the train station in New Carrollton to drive home to Annapolis.

I also had folks working on a project in Utah doing a videotaped existing signing inventory along I-215 that morning.  They could not get back home until the end of that week.

At the time, I had listened to a lot of news radio and sports radio out of New York, so I was hearing first-hand accounts of what was going on.  It was quite a scary day and an unnerving time in the days thereafter.

[Tom]

I was working my job at a supermarket when I heard a customer make mention of what was happening.  I drove home on my lunch hour, and saw that my wife or 1 of the workmen putting new windows on our house had placed a medium sized U.S. Flag on a hand held poll into a large pot that had potting soil in it.  I'm sure we were all stunned like everybody else.  Here's a website about 9-11 a man named Jerry bookmarked on the bottom of the front page of his own website:

http://www.trafficsignalmuseum.com/  

[Michael in Philly]

I will always remember thinking, as I crossed Rittenhouse Square on the way to work at about 8:40 that morning, what a beautiful day it was and how much I liked this time of year:  cities are coming alive after the summer slowdown but the weather's still warm and days are still longish....

I got to work and tried to put on then-classical WGMS in Washington to stream, but it wasn't working.  They'd been having a lot of trouble streaming lately, though, so that wasn't unusual.  Tried also-classical-(after-9-a.m.) WETA instead and couldn't get them either, which was more unusual.  Checked a news site, saw a headline about a plane hitting the World Trade Center... it must have been a bit before 9... thought of that incident from the '40s with the Empire State Building.  Checked websites of a couple of New York TV stations but couldn't get in.  So I gave up on goofing off on line, got to work and forgot about it.

About 9:30, the husband of one of my immediate superiors called in and asked to speak to her.  But she had a meeting out of the office that morning and wasn't expected yet; I told him so and he hung up.  A couple of minutes later, she herself called in to speak to our boss, who picked up the call herself.  After a few seconds, our boss shouted - very uncharacteristially - "holy shit!" and called out to my co-worker and me, "Guys, go on line and see if you can get any news."  Meanwhile, my co-worker's mother, who worked for the federal government, had called her.  My co-worker said to us (while still on the phone - she was presumably passing on what her mother was telling her) "A plane hit the World Trade Center!"  I started to say, yeah, I saw something about that, when she added "Two planes!"  Then "And another one just hit the Pentagon."

(to be continued - I'm at the point where my browser doesn't like hard returns....)

Post Merge: December 31, 1969, 06:59:59 PM
So at this point, obviously, we knew something was up.  I got an NPR station in Washington streaming - I remember them reporting a rumor that a bomb had gone off outside the State Department - while some people (my boss among them) went to the Marketing department, which had a TV.  At some point, obviously after the first tower collapsed, I got a picture of the World Trade Center, with only one tower standing.  It still hadn't sunk in for me what was happening (I hadn't seen any TV yet), and I remarked, idiotically perhaps, "one of them's missing!"

Our HR director came around telling us an emergency staff meeting was called for 10:45 and we should "be prepared to go home from there."  My boss, who was a floor warden in the event of emergency, came back from Marketing and started working on clearing the floor (she had me check the men's room).  We went to the all-staff meeting, had a moment of silence, some idiot in one of our suburban offices informed us that the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine was claiming responsibility.  I worked, and still work, at a Jewish organization, so that's a very charged thing to say.

We were sent home.
(to be continued)

Post Merge: December 31, 1969, 06:59:59 PM
So I'm outside now by 11 a.m., and said to myself, it's a nice day, maybe I'll go to the park and read:  I still hadn't grasped the magnitude of this.  I thought we were sent home not because of a general threat but because we were a Jewish organization.  The city was quiet...as I was passing through the shopping complex at the base of the Liberty Place towers, and noticing all the stores were closed, it struck me these were (at the time) the tallest buildings in the city, maybe it's not a good place to be....but I was just passing through anyway.  I was still heading for the park when I was passing a Xando/Cosi (whatever it was called at that point) coffee house where they always had TVs on.  Saw a crowd watching TV and went inside.

This is when I finally got what was going on (it was CNN).  And after maybe a half hour watching TV I noticed traffing outside building to rush-hour levels, figured I'd better call my parents and let them know I was all right...I didn't have a cell in those days and headed home.  I remember a woman behind me as I walked telling someone on her cell "she was supposed to be on that flight."  Got inside, couldn't get through to my parents in North Jersey by phone, but e-mailed my mother at work and got an "I'm glad you're home" from her.  (She was apparently still at work at my home town's public library.  My Dad had driven up into the hills to see the smoke.)  I was then glued to TV and the Internet until I dragged myself out about 11 p.m. to buy milk (which was the main personal task that had been on my agenda that day.)  I walked around the block to see that everything was shut down, except one small supermarket, where I got milk.

(again with the hard-return problem....)
Post Merge: September 10, 2011, 07:59:53 PM
The next day, we were expected to work.  That upset me, and I called in and said so, but later I was glad we'd had to work - it gave us something to focus the mind - I remember we had something scheduled on the 13th and our speaker was stuck in Cleveland, so we had to deal with that; I don't remember what the resolution was - perhaps we canceled.  I made sure to say I was glad we'd opened after all.

On Thursday the 13th, I had the worst sore throat in my life (stress reaction?  I don't think the wind was blowing towards us from New York) and stayed home.  At some point that afternoon, I remember having an urge - which I didn't carry out - to go to Washington and make sure the Capitol was still there. 

Then started several months of quiet freaking out and paranoia..., thanks to the anthrax scare, and the Washington Post or New York Times publishing scenarios like the one that memorably started out something like "What if the President, at the White House, the Vice President, at the Naval Observatory, most of the Cabinet, at their offices and most of Congress, at the Capitol, all died in a nuclear attack on Washington?"  I couldn't bring myself to set foot in Washington - one of my favorite cities - on a weekday until early 2004.

(Cue Agentsteel saying "good grief!" like he did to me after the East Coast earthquake....)

Quite a time....  Didn't expect to put all that down, although I told all (or most) of this to someone at work yesterday who asked what it had been like here.

[pianocello]

I'm told I was at the grocery store with my mom, where she heard about it. I was only five years old at the time, and all I remember was seeing the explosion as the plane hit the second tower on TV repeatedly. I guess I didn't really think much of it until a few years later.

However, my mom found archives of the morning talk shows (Today, GMA, etc.) from that day, so I watched them a few days ago. Here's a link for anyone interested: http://www.archive.org/details/911/day

Unfortunately, the segments are <1 minute long, so it might take awhile to sift through the footage.

[US71]

I was working the 2-10 shift at Holiday Inn in Bentonville, AR. I heard something on  CNN Radio when I woke up, but it wasn't clear what happened. I turned on the TV and all I could see was this big smoke cloud and the "talking heads" saying what a tragedy it was.

It wasn't until I headed for work that I heard on NPR what had actually happened. It was later in the day that the TV networks replayed the 2nd airliner hitting the WTC and the subsequent collapse. We had the TV on in the lobby and all we could do was stare in disbelief. My manager allowed me to call my parents and my GF just to let them know I was thinking about them.

We received lots of phone calls from guests cancelling their reservations due to all the flights being grounded.  Holiday Inn faxed us late in the day that they were forgiving all No-Shows for the next 10 days. We also had guests who were stranded due to the flights being grounded and the local rental car companies refusing to rent any cars. We had one guest who finally rented the last U-Haul truck in town so he could get home and check on his family.

[PAHighways]

I mentioned a little about how the day started for me on my Shanksville and Flight 93 page. 

Tuesday was my early day at the California University of Pennsylvania Weather Center, where I had the morning forecast shift where I taught Freshmen and Sophomores how to use models, charts, etc. to forecast.  Normally I wouldn't have been awake before 9 AM, but I had to get tickets for a show at the Pittsburgh Funny Bone.  I can still remember the night of September 10, one of my friends was nagging me to call and so I said, "FINE!  I will call tomorrow!"  I recall stumbling out of my bedroom, still half asleep, seeing the sun shining outside, and it just being very quiet outside.  I began making my phone call and turned the TV on right as Flight 175 crashed into 2 World Trade Center.  I hung up the phone and just stared at the screen.

Once at the Weather Center, the TV was not on The Weather Channel which was a very rare occurrence.  Since it was the only place on our building's floor with a TV connected to cable, students and professors were coming in to see what was going on.  Rumors of a fourth plane began circulating and then it was confirmed it was heading in our direction.  People were a little on edge, wondering where it was heading or if it might crash...then word came across it had somewhere near us!

In the weeks and months following 9/11, I would receive e-mails from people asking how to get there.  I would just tell them that the town is still reeling from the event and the site itself is an active crime scene, as I felt it wasn't my place to unleash a torrent of traffic upon this small town.

[Michael in Philly]

I mentioned a little about how the day started for me on my Shanksville and Flight 93 page. 
...

Nice page, although perhaps "nice" isn't the appropriate adjective.

[74/171FAN]

I heard about it when my dad had picked me up from school early for a dentist appointment.  I was 10 at the time and on our way home before heading to the dentist told me and I had no idea what was going on  They would not tell us about it at school(even though I personally still wished they would have but I understand why they did not).  It was probably the only time that I remember where almost every channel was news coverage.  The only other thing that I remember outside of sports being cancelled for the rest of the week was how the Braves(my favorite baseball team) got to see Ground Zero right before a series with the Mets soon afterward.  I think I'm more astonished that it has already been 10 years since this happened.

[corco]

When the first plane struck, my Mom was about to give me a ride to school. I didn't know anything at the time, and only because my Dad was away in Karachi, Pakistan (!) on business. Normally when he was in town he would watch the news before going to work.

I got to my 8th grade classroom at about 7:00 AM Mountain time, which was before the second tower was hit. I had gotten to school fairly early and was one of the only students there. My teacher told me that a plane had struck the WTC. I didn't know what that really meant- I pictured no flames and an airplane just sort of hanging from the side of a building, crew waving at people in cubicles.

A couple minutes later, another teacher who had the radio on informed us that the other tower had been hit. I was at a private school at the time, and the teachers immediately decided the best course of action was to get the television going, so they did that. At that point I saw what I could not visualize and started to grasp the severity of the situation.

We watched TV all day until it was time to go home (for which I am entirely grateful- it may have been overexposure to a 13 year old,  but 10 years later I'm damn glad I had that overexposure- just typing this brings tears to my eyes).

At some point after the towers fell, my Mom drove in just to give me a hug.

It took my Dad a couple weeks to get out of Pakistan. He was supposed to leave that night. After nearly a decade of travels there, he never went back.

[Bryant5493]

I was in the 10th grade, in my Health class.


Be well,

Bryant

[vdeane]

5th grade in homeroom (that's right; my elemetary school didn't start until 9:10).  We had the TV on that morning but I don't remember anything after that so at some point we must have resumed business as usual.  This was the first time I had ever heard of the world trade center or the twin towers, so much of the symbolic value of the attacks was lost on me until a few years later.

[rickmastfan67]

10 years ago, I was home sick and was still in bed when the first plane hit.  My mom came back to my bedroom and woke me up telling me a plane had hit the WTC.  So, I come into the living room and was watching the TV right when the 2nd plane hit.  I was completely shocked. Later, I went to the restroom and Flight 93 went right over (at least I'm pretty sure it was, it was loud) our house here in the North Hills of Pittsburgh.  When that happened, I literately started to freakout.  I even saw the twin towers fall live on TV.

I also had some cousins who were going into town in NYC on one of the ferry's.  They saw the 1st and/or 2nd plane hit, can't remember.  Either way, after the ferry docked in NYC, they just stayed on it when it un-docked, so luckily they were not in downtown NYC when the towers fell thankfully.

But, it was a crazy/sad day for sure.

[jdb1234]

I was in my 8th Grade 7th period English class (we had a strange Tuesday schedule) when it was announced.  In typical Shelby County School Board fashion we were not allowed to see any coverage of the attacks so most of us did not have any idea what exactly was going on.  I did not know the magnitude of the events till I arrived home that afternoon.  I was glued to TV news coverage after I got home.

[Duke87]

At school. Didn't find out about it until after the towers had already collapsed. My history class was interrupted by another teacher bursting in and telling us about it.

[Dr Frankenstein]

I was in elementary school, and didn't make a big deal out of it... as an average canuck child, I didn't even know these towers existed. Then when I came back I realized how big of a deal it was, when Pokémon was canceled on TV.

[NWI_Irish96]

My story is not interesting--I was at my office and got a call from friends telling me what had happened.  Had a radio on for a while and then ended up in the boss' office with his TV.

My dad, however, was at a golf course.  According to the pro in the clubhouse, my dad's group was the last one to leave the clubhouse to tee off before the news coverage broke in on ESPN.  Normally, they would have visited the clubhouse after 9 holes to get drinks/snacks and would have heard the news then, but there was a really, really, really slow group in front of them, and when that group visited the clubhouse between nines, my dad's group decided to skip the clubhouse and headed straight for the 10th tee.  So they ended up playing golf for 4 hours and not finding out about anything until after noon that day.  [At the time, noboby in my dad's group had a cell phone.]  To this day, I have not met anybody who was in the dark any later than my dad.

[golden eagle]

I was driving down I-85 in Gwinnett County, on my way to work and listening to Tom Joyner when a breaking news report came on, saying that a plane had hit one of the WTC towers. In my mind, it was a small plane in which the pilot either was so clueless as to where he was or had a suicide wish. However, when I heard that another plane hit the other tower, then I came to the conclusion that this was no accident.

[AZDude]

I was in 10th grade when it happened.  I was in my first hour class when the principal came over the intercom and told the entire school what had happened.  And at the same time someone called in a bomb threat and we all had to go to the gym for a few hours.  Afterwards we all went back to our classes but with a shortened schedule due to the time in the gym.  Classes were essentially cancelled in a way since all of my teachers cancelled all the assignments for the day and each had the tv on with the news.  Many students were picked up by their parents.  Later that night my dad went and filled up all of the cars with gas as he heard a rumor that gas was going to be five bucks a gallon the next day.

[Michael in Philly]

I guess with schools they can't just send everyone home, since many kids don't have an adult at home....

I was talking to my mother the other night, and - by way of explanation to a minor point in my story - the reason I reached her at her work e-mail after noon is that the two people on staff with the authority to close the library were both on vacation, so they had to find a board member to make the call.

[ghYHZ]

I was attending a construction start-up meeting with the contractor and owner. When I walked in the room, all were sitting there watching TV and my first reaction was "OK guys, I've got better things to be doing with my time"  I thought they were watching a movie.....and then they told me.......I couldn't believe it!

Here in the Atlantic Provinces, 9-11 had quite an impact. When the North American airspace was closed, Transatlantic flights approaching the east coast couldn't be turned around and sent back to Europe so had to get on the ground fast. Halifax Airport got 40 wide-bodies and 7,000 passengers that afternoon that had to be sheltered and fed for the next three days or so. Gander Newfoundland received an equal number of aircraft and passengers which nearly doubled the town's population in one afternoon. NBC's Tom Brokaw did a story on the impact at Gander:     

http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/play/1335538/gander_brokaw_piece

Pictures here of the aircraft in Halifax parked on the runway, wingtip to wingtip:

http://www.hiaa.ca/default.asp?id=190&pagesize=1&sfield=content.id&search=231&mn=70.1.77

[signalman]

I was actually shaving and showering when the attacks happened.  I was in college at the time, and didn't hear about it until I got in my car to drive to school around 9:15.  Didn't help that I first heard it on Howard Stern...I thought he was playing some joke on someone at first.  When I changed stations and heard the same news I then realized it was no joke.  When I got to school the parking lot was a lot emptier than normal, as plenty of people were affected here in Northern NJ.  Once inside school every TV was on and no classes were taking place. 

[bassoon1986]

I was in my 8th Grade 7th period English class (we had a strange Tuesday schedule) when it was announced.  In typical Shelby County School Board fashion we were not allowed to see any coverage of the attacks so most of us did not have any idea what exactly was going on.  I did not know the magnitude of the events till I arrived home that afternoon.  I was glued to TV news coverage after I got home.

Yeah same with us.. I was in 10th grade biology when we started to hear about it. We watched on our tv's in the classroom until the Parish superintendent decreed we couldn't.

I do remember later in the school day just after lunch, we heard a plane flying overhead and we freaked a little bc we knew there was a flying ban. But we realized it was President Bush on Air Force 1 flying into Barksdale Air Force Base nearby.

[agentsteel53]

We watched on our tv's in the classroom until the Parish superintendent decreed we couldn't.

what kind of power-tripping clowns do y'all elect down there??