First and foremost, I am a historian. So logic follows that I am compelled to ask:

Where were you when you first heard about the attacks on September 11th? What did you do?

I was driving on my way to work, and I was flipping through the channels on the radio and heard some DJ talking about how sometimes when you miss a flight or a flight gets cancelled that it is not necessarily a bad thing and that maybe God didn't want you to get on that flight, and that we shouldn't get mad about the inconveniences and delays in life, because maybe it is all part of Gods plan. I immediately turned it off thinking it was just some religious station preaching about God and such. And as I was going through scanning the stations I heard briefly before it turned to the next station ". . .plane hit World Trade Center. . . ". Well, I turned back to that station as fast as I could and listened in shock as the events of the day unfolded in my car on the way to work. That was the longest day of work I have ever had, I wanted nothing more than to go home and watch. I thought it was more horrifying not seeing what was happening and just having my imagination fill in the blanks, but once I did make it home and saw on the news the happenings of that day I realized it was much worse than my imagination dared me to conceive. . .

-Kisov

I was at work opening the Bank with another Teller. had the radio on. heard that a plane hit one of the twin towers. we looked at each other and said how can someone do that? then minutes later the second one hit the other tower. I said to Lisa OMG. this is not an accident. had the radio on the rest of the day but everyone not just employees were thinking after hitting the towers and pentagon and the plane crashing in Penn. that somehow it wasn't going to stop. of course we were glued to the Tv and radios the rest of the day. Never in my life could I think that something had happened that tragic in America. But America has never been stronger because of this and I pray to God it will never happen again.

That morning, Marc had gone out to go to work fairly early and found out that he had inadvertantly parked in an illegal spot and his car had been towed overnight. I was up and getting ready for work when Marc ran inside telling me to turn on the TV - something "was happening in New York" - and then he ran outside again to catch his ride to the towing place to get his car out. I sat on the couch in horror watching the whole thing unfold. This was fairly early for us on the West Coast so I don't think a lot of us out here actually saw it live on TV - the planes hitting and everything. I called my mom and we couldn't believe it. I called my friend who had good friends in New York to make sure she was up and knowing what was going on. I talked to Marc on the phone because he was sitting in a diner waiting for the towing place to be open. I remember I just wanted Marc to be home because there were reports coming out that LA was a potential target, as well as other high profile buildings/monuments on the West Coast. They closed the freeways and most office buildings. That day we went to Marcs parents house and I remember driving around everyone had a blank look on thier face...like we were living in a dream and how could this possibly be happening here?

Ironically, I had just gotten up for school when I saw my brother watching the tv and he told me that a plane had hit the first tower, then moments the phone rang and my sister Jaime called to see if we saw what was going on and if everything was ok by us. Thank God it was. Then after I hung up with her I drove to school but later returned home because as on my way to class I heard about the two towers crashing down along with the other 2 plane crashes. That is when I decided I should go home. I never in my life have ever seen such a horrific sight. I couldn't even for one minute this how these people must of felt. I think that day I talked to everyone in my family including friends just to make sure they were ok. It was as thought our world was crashing down on us. I just hope that we can put a stop to all this War on Terrorisim.

I was sitting in my cubicle. Then a coworker came and told me if I heard about the WTC being bombed. A group of people were setting up the TV in our conference room. All morning, the conference room was packed with people watching the developments. I also tried to hit the major news websites, but couldn't get through to any. Eventually found some stuff on some blogs, in particular, Dave Winers.

I was actually on my way to one of my college classes. I didn't know that anything had been hit. I turned on my radio and the first thing that I heard was that the Pentagon had been hit. I was stunned. It got worse when I finally heard that the Twin Towers had been hit. As soon as I got to school, I found a television and was glued to it until my class started. I watched both towers fall. I couldn't help but cry. When class started, we turned on the TV in that room and watched also.
I just never dreamed that any of this could happen, now I know that it can.

I was at work as the tail man on Engine Company #4 for an Illinois Fire Dept. I was begining my daily check of the truck when the Capt. called us all back into the TV room to watch the news. We witnessed the 2nd plane hit. Shortly there after we heard of the attack on the Pentegon. At first we were all outraged. To be blunt we were MFing the cowards who attacked us. We were all ready to drop our hose and and pick up a rifle --- Then the 1st tower collapsed. I felt sick. I could only guess how many people were killed in that instant. Not too long there after the second tower dropped. I called home to talk to my wife. I couldn't help but wonder if Chicago was next. We would be sending a major response to assist if they were hit. A lot of different things go through your mind. I would say the most predominant at the time for me was anger. I'm still angry and amazed at what people can do to other people with no concience at all. God Bless all of the victims and may our Great Country grow stronger !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was 9:00am our principal was calling a "red alert" in our school. All students were restricted to their rooms. Then next thing I figure out mass parents started to turn out and take their children home. I wept for like 1 hour. From that day on i became a patriotist and am now showing everyone how much I love OUR nation. God bless america, you, afghanistan. P.s. I thought we might find ourselves in WW3 because u thought iraq would of started a agressio pact against america and america would be compelled to do it.

i was at school, and i heard about it as soon as it happend. classes stopped for the rest of the day and TVs were turned on. it was sort of funny much everyone was paying attention to the reporters, they didnt notice(both times) when the towers fell till like 10 seconds after it happened and neither did the students. it was falling in the backround and i was the only one to notice, i tried asking if anyone else saw it((again, both times)) and everyone turned around and told me to shut up and not to speak over the reporter ... 10-15 seconds later, "OMG DID YOU SEE THAT, THEY FELL!!!"

I woke up to the news.

My alarm clock turns on the radio instead of the ever-annoying BEEP BEEP BEEP.

When it first went off, I heard the morning DJ say:

"its hard to believe the World Trade Center no longer exists"

Needless to say, I was wide awake from that moment on.

--cheers

My brother called me at 3:30am when it happend. I was in bed sleeping in Hawaii.... September 11th was a crazy day ill say... I was stationed at Kaneohe Marine Corpe Base. It was totally locked down. No way in, no way out. Marines with M-16s everywhere.

I know i'm replying WAAAAAAAAY after this thread was abandoned, but i think i would like to respond anyway

I was at high school, it was 5 minutes before i got out of my first class of the day of my Junior year. Figured the day would be as boring as any other day at school. Suddenly, the assistant principal came onto the PA system & said that one of the world trade center towers has been hit. he said nothing else.

I figured it was an accident, remembering hearing about the B-25 hitting the Empire State Building in foggy weather decades ago on TV.

Then, at the end of my 2nd class of that day, he came back on the PA system & said both towers collapsed. It hit me hard, thinking all those people possibly dead.

In my third class, we watched the Pentagon get hit.

And like ScreeeminDeemin, we had TV's on all day that day in class. No work was done. During lunch, the school had the TV hooked up to a projecter & projected it on the cafe wall with the volume up & Dan Rather drinking his 100th cup of coffee that day or Brit Hume on Fox News talking to a guy who was near the area.

I tried accessing CNN.com or FoxNews.com but internet traffic had disabled the sites temporarly.

It was a tragic day.

I was in my home office chatting via AOL instant message with my business partner, a lawyer who lives in Manhattan. We always start off our mornings casually -- planning our day and catching up on the latest family events while drinking coffee -- and we both always have our TV's tuned to CNN or FOX at this time also.

We watched as the first tower burned and a plane went into the second tower. As we instant messaged back and forth with whatever information we both could find, the first tower FELL! The terror that went through my partner was so incredible. I could FEEL it through his message -- sheer terror!

Since I don't live in NYC and I was only watching it on TV, the full weight of what was happening didn't dawn on me until I felt his terror. The words popped up on my screen "OMG!!!!!!!!IT'S CRASHING DOWN!!!!!IT'S CRASHING DOWN!!!!!" and for the longest time there was no further response from him. I realized at that moment that real people were in those buildings as I watched people jump from the windows so high in the air. There was no way they could survive.

My partner finally messaged me that he had to go to the school. He couldn't get through on the phones. (His son went to school just three blocks away from the Towers.)

I sat there alone watching the TV worrying about his family and every other family destroyed by that moment in time. I felt useless.................

I was at work - at that time, in an office I shared with about seven other people. Shortly after 9am, someone got an e-mail saying that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. We all went online and among us had ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, and MSNBC running. When the report of a plane crashing into the south tower was posted, we all went in search of a television.

We found one in a conference room where a few people had already gathered, watching CNN. Within minutes about sixty people were crowded into the room, watching in stunned silence. It was reported that President Bush had announced "an apparent terrorist attack" and, what seemed like seconds later, the report of the Pentagon crash came through. The room was filled with low, fearful murmuring - almost everyone had friends or family in New York and some in Washington. A few went out to try to phone loved ones.

We were all watching in horror as the south tower collapsed - and were still in a state of shock when, half an hour later, the north tower collapsed. People began returning to their desks to call family and friends and, not long after, it was announced that we would be shutting down for the day. About three of us stayed behind for a while to make sure that people on our team who were in the field had got the message and were accounted for.

I continued listening to reports on my car radio as I drove home, hearing reports that another four planes were unaccounted for. My sig oth had been up until 5am doing a radio broadcast to Ireland and I had to wake him with the news when I got in. He couldn't believe it until we got the television on. He is from New York City and we both have family there, including his parents. We couldn't get through to them on the phone, so we sat in front of this television, watching the footage over and over.

"This is it," he kept saying. "It's started."

"Do you think this is a terrorist attack?" I asked him.

"I don't know. Do you?"

"Well, when I heard about the second plane? The first thing that occurred to me was black op."

"Yeah," he said. "This is perfect for them. Remember the Reichstag."

We finally got through to his parents, who had seen the towers collapse from the living room window of their apartment in Brooklyn. We later learned that we each lost relatives, firefighters, in the WTC. We were eventually joined by a few close friends and we discussed our doubts and fears throughout the day and well into the night - as we watched the footage over and over and over.

I was letting my company wind down after an all night assault on the mock up town of Regensburg, at Fort Lewis, WA. We were tired, grungy and hungry and were looking forward to a day of light training and going back home the next day.

Our Battalion Commander came over the net with a cryptic 'real world emergency' and summoned all of the Company Commanders to his location. In the meantime, one our enterprising NCO's in the company had brought along a tiny portable TV. He called me over to tell me that some kind of plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. We all thought it was a Cessna or something.
Then we got the word it was passenger jet, then another, then another at the Pentagon, and then another headed for who knows where.
Needless to say we went to a heightened state of alert not knowing what was next. Fortunately, the only immediate effect was a rather extended wait to get on post each morning, for the security checks. I breathed a guilty sigh of relief that nobody my wife or I knew at the Pentagon were among the casualties.

I was in Italy without a television. My Father-in-law called to tell me the news. The base completely shut down, and when my husband arrived home we spent a great deal of time trying to tune in a radio to any American station. It was very 1920s. We sat next to the radio and listened for hours, trying to piece together the almost inaudible news. It became impossible to reach anyone by phone, the lines were so jammed.

The Italian market crashed, gas stations doubled their prices overnight. The neighbors were very kind and supportive. The base didn't open again to anyone accept essential personel for about a week, and then it was a very thorough inspection process. Truly an awful time for Americans, and also people abroad.

It was already about 1 or 2 pm over here. I was drawing and I had the TV on the carrier channel (which shows all the small little screens depicting every channel at once) One image keot recurring, and it looked like a big chimney pouring out smoke. Finally I switched to DR1 (our primary TV channel) and saw the image enlarged. The TV was bust, it had no sound, and so I went down to my neighbour who was baking and she turned on her TV.

It was only then that I heard about the plane crash, and not a minute later we watched the second tower get hit. Over the course of the next few hours we sat and watched the tragedy unfold until finally there was not much let to see. The smoke was drifting out over the harbour and my neighbour and her husband started speculating on what it would mean.

That day was pretty dull up until that point. I had been to the hospital earlier on for a check up. The weather was sunny but slightly wet. It had rained at some point and the grass was wet.

My first thought was for the passagers of the aircraft. I found it horrible to consider their fate. Trapped on their planes and thinking they'd been hi jacked, only to be used as a weapon for no other reason than blind hatred by people they had never met.

I was in Sarasota Florida attending a conference. I had coordinated the conference so I was seated in the back of the room so I could oversee the program. Someone eased in the room, sat down beside me and whispered in my ear...the WTC has been attacked.

I walked out of the conference and up to my room, turned on the tv and cried like I had just lost a loved one. There were so many emotions running through me they were hard to distinguish; fear, grief, and anger.

I had to call the one person I love more than anything and just tell them I loved them.

I appreciate everyone reviving this thread and sharing with us. I know dragging up some of the emotions we experienced that day can be trying.

In rereading this thread, I realize that I have not shared my day with you.

It was a typical workday. I began the morning rituals around 8:45 am. First, I turn on the TV to CNN. Next, I feed the cats. Third, I prepare the coffee.

Mike was either in the shower or working on getting there. As I was preparing the coffee, the anchors interrupted with a "this just in" reporting "something" had hit the World Trade Center, most likely a plane. I watched the speculators continue for a minute and then yelled to Mike that a plane may have hit the World Trade Center. The anchors slipped into presumption mode and seemed to be coming to a conclusion that it was most likely an accident.

I resumed the morning ritual but with an ear tuned to the TV (it was an open kitchen/living room) and Mike went out to have a smoke. I began washing the coffee cups. I heard the anchors become very excited and say something about seeing a second plane. I turned to look at the TV just in time to fully witness the second plane fly into the building.

I became really weak. I knew this wasn't an accident. I called to Mike but I couldn't quite find the words, so I ran to the door to tell him what happened. We both returned to the living room and watched in disbelief for awhile. When we heard there were other hijacked planes, I said to Mike, "We're being attacked." And while the reporters on the TV would not confirm the same thing, Mike did to me, "I know. This was no coincidence, not an accident."

The day was spent in front of various TVs, radios and computers, telephone calls made, the 'I love yous' and 'are you safes' exchanged. And as the day wore on and day gave way to night, the doubt settled in. The questions started coming like a flood. I have never in my life experienced such uncertainty and fear.

It changed everything. It was a motivating factor for getting this forum started. One of the many phoenixes born that day.

I work in a building next to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

I was busy working when my boss comes in and says "Did you hear? Something hit one of the World Trade Centers." We go down to the break room where there is a TV. A pretty large crowd had gathered there already.

As we watched, the second plane hit the WTC. I was so shocked, it is beyond words.

We watched CNN for a bit, eventually, I return to my desk and turn the radio on. Working has always been a stress reliever for me.

My wife calls me several times to give me updates as I am listening to Peter Jennings on ABC radio and I hear that the Pentagon is hit and that another plane remains unaccounted for. That plane was actually flagged to land in Cleveland, but it turned around in mid-air somewhere west of Cleveland and began making its way back towards Washington DC.

At the same time, they are landing all the planes in the air. There is a report that one of the planes grounded had terrorists on board. They park this plane (basically quarantine it) not 100 yards outside of my window. I am watching this plane being encircled by SWAT teams, etc.

Meanwhile, the Trade Centers fall. I remember we speculated at how many dead there would be. We estimated a few hundred on each plane, plus maybe 50,000 inside the buildings. Luckily, the numbers turned out to be much smaller.

The local police call for an evacuation of the buildings surrounding the airport around 11:00 am EST.

The grounded plane turned out to be a hoax, with no bomb on board.

I spent the rest of the day watching the news.

It is a day I will never forget.

It was the third day I had been in residence (my second year in-rez) and I remember Roger banging on my door. He popped his head in and said "hey man, they're attacking the White House." After swearing at him I went back to bed. When I woke up around 11:30 obviously it was all-over the news and even if I were inclined to ignore it I couldn't so I just floated around, drifting between areas on campus with TV's.

I do remember however that I was the only person I saw that wasn't shocked.

The kids were at school and my wife was shopping with her mother. I was washing the breakfast dishes and half-listening to The Howard Stern Show on the radio. My wife and I had seen Sade in concert the previous evening and I was still in the afterglow of a great show.

Someone called Stern's show and said a small plane had hit the World Trade Center. Stern and his crew joked about it for a moment, then the caller said smoke was billowing out from the building. I walked into the living room and clicked on the Today show and Matt Laurer was trying to figure out what had happened. I went back to finish the dishes, but Stern was becoming more concerned as the smoke grew blacker and heavier.

Then the second plane hit.

I sat in stunned silence. Now there was no doubt what was happening.

Suddenly, I felt very alone and very scared. My wife didn't have a cell phone, so I started calling my father, my sisters, my brothers and my friends to ask, "Are you watching this?

By the time the first tower fell and rumors were flying fast and furious about car bombs, missing planes, the whereabouts of the President, and watching bodies falling out of the WTC, an announcement was made that the public schools were allowing parents to pick up their children. I shot out of the house to get my daughter from elementary school and my son from junior high. There were many other parents doing likewise. When I got to my son's school, many of the kids were in the library watching the TV coverage.

When my wife finally came home we all hugged each other. I don't recall if the kids were unusually quiet that day or I just didn't yell at them. I really don't remember what I ate that day or if I did at all. For some crazy reason I wondered if Sade's plane had gotten off the ground or not.

Before my daughter went to sleep that night she asked me, "Daddy, are the terrorists going to kill us too?" I told her no and I thought that was a question no eight-year-old should ever have to ask.

I watched the news until 3:00 in the morning while the Pentagon was still burning and the WTC was a smoldering ruin.

I do remember crying at some point.

For the last several months I had been working at a Powerhouse Gym, the early shift from 5 am to noon. While I normally sit behind the desk and check people in, I had walked to the back to make sure nobody had left any magazines discarded on the treadmills. As I was making the rounds in the aerobic area I noticed people were watching something on the news about the World Trade Center.

My first thought was that it must be the anniversary of the 1993 bombing attack, and the news agencies were running a quick recap. But then I noticed it was the top of the building burning. The 1993 attack had occurred in the parking garage beneath the tower.

Switching another television on, I was just in time to watch a small shadow melt into the second building. Others in the area, watching a separate station, insisted that there had been an explosion from the wreckage.

"No," I told them. "Another plane just hit."

I was surprised how many of them began discussing what a horrible accident it was for two planes to crash into the buildings. I immediately considered them attacks and said as much. How else, I argued, would two large jets crash into the tallest two buildings in New York on such a clear and perfect day?

I left them to their musings on that note, returning to the front desk with coverage coming through CBS. My greatest shock came when it was reported the Pentagon had been struck by a third plane. I couldn't believe that there hadn't been some kind of defense, some kind of warning before hitting the Pentagon. My fascination with GI Joes and other militaristic shows had led me naively to believe the Pentagon to be unassailable.

I made telephone calls to friends and family to make sure they knew what was happening. Some were watching on television, some were listening on the radio and some didn't believe me. As the day progressed, they and the rest of America became aware of the horrors taking place in New York and Washington.

While I was surprised throughout the day, I don't know that I was ever overcome with a sense of shock. I don't know that I was really even hit with the sense of loss until I watched the buildings collapse. More than the death of infrastructure, I was struck by the ghosts running through the streets, covered in ash. I realized that for all the people who had died either in the planes or in the buildings, there were going to be even thousands more affected by the day's events.

Except to attend an English class at the University of Louisville I don't recall leaving the company of a television or radio. And while I waited for that English class to start (an evening class), I sat and marveled at the silence of the skies outside our Humanities building.

You see, the Louisville "International" Airport is only a few miles away and the planes are constantly low over the university, either on approach or departure. That night there was nothing. It was an ominous silence coupled with the silent shuffling of students between buildings. There were no dull roars of a jet engine, no chattering of sorority sisters and little sound from even the traffic driving by.


There have been many responses to this thread detailing where we all were on September 11, 2001. And while we all have our own stories and feelings to share, one comforting thing we all have in common is that we were all in New York and Washington that day.

I was asleep on my couch 'til about 930 or so (don't remember exactly) I turned on the TV as usual, but the news was on, and the first tower had been hit already. I woke up in time to see the second tower hit. I was shocked, but not at the atrocity of it, but that someone had the gonads to finally attack America directly. my immediate thought was "bin-laden"

Shellyfanatic and I have been together two years today! To make a long story short and to not go into details.... we woke up together for the first time (if you know what I mean ) on 9/11/01 and she made me breakfast and coffee and we were watching Good Morning America when all hell broke loose. We sat there the entire day glued to the tv. What a way to start a relationship!

But here we are two years later, still in love!

I was at school, in American History of all classes. My high school used to be a college, so there are several buildings in which the students were situated in. When the first plane hit, someone actually was going from class to class telling them, unfortunately, to turn on their TVs. Why they didn't use the intercom is beyond me. Anyways. I said unfortunately because when we turned on our classroom TV, only the first plane has hit the Trade Center. And we got to see the second plane hit as it happened. And the buildings collapse. I wish I hadn't, as I'm a pretty empathetic person, especially for a teenager... but yeah. That's where this gal was almost exactly two years ago.

It was a really strange coincidence for me and my wife. We used to work very close to one another, so we'd car-pool in, and we'd almost always listen to NPR on the way. That was one of the very few mornings we didn't have the radio on, because we were deep into some other conversation. So I got to work, and there was a printed-out news story taped to the glass door by the elevators. At that time people still thought it was some sort of accident. So I got to my desk, got on some IRC channels to talk to people realtime, and started surfing news sites...all just in time for the second plane. I don't remember the exact details of how my wife found out, but it was something very similar.

I got up that morning, had my cup of coffee and checked out CNN.COM to see what was happening in the world. The front page showed a picture of the first building with smoke coming out of it The story implied that it was a small plane, I guess it was pretty early on.

When I got into work, someone had brought a tv from home and had it up in their cubicle. Our entire department sat around his desk for the better part of the day in awe. I got chills when I saw the towers collapse. I had so many emotions going on inside me I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry.

I'd just given birth to my daughter about 2 weeks prior and was lying on my bed watching the Today show (one of the only shows we get live) while breastfeeding and saw the footage from the very beginning. I remember thinking "how could a plane just crash into a HUGE building like that" (this was when they thought it was a small plane)...then it was creepy when the second plane hit, aside from the obvious, witnessing the actual reactions of the Today show hosts (one said "oh my God", if memory serves correct) was very strange and made the world feel very small.

Oddly enough, one of my first thoughts (after they began talking about it being a "terrorist" attack) was about the safety of Arab Americans...I know they are extremely stereotyped in this country and I just hoped it wouldn't turn into a bash/attack/"retaliation" (for lack of a better word) fest. My secondary thoughts were about what the future would hold in terms of the world...would this be the beginning of WWIII? I tend to think on a very broad/societal scale, so I didn't really start thinking on an individual scale until later when the shock died down. I had some friends who worked VERY close to the WTC and worried when I didn't hear back from one for a week (her apartment's phone/internet lines were down).

My husband was at work (it was almost 3 p.m. here) - he still worked for the SACEUR at this point (he was just about to start his new job during the month), so they had access to all sorts of TV stations in the SACEUR's office and watched the events unfold on various international stations. I called him after the first plane hit (before anything was known) and told him to turn on the TV in the office because a plane had hit the WTC, he was obviously confused and thought I was nuts...

We later found out that his brother got stranded somewhere in TX on his way back from Boston to Phoenix. We were worried about him as one of the downed planes originated in Boston...one of my husband's former co-workers had just been tranferred to the Pentagon a couple weeks prior: she was fine - in shock - but she was not hurt. The worst part for us was that we had literally an entire week of 24 hour news coverage...you couldn't turn on the TV (serisouly...we only had 4 channels at the time, ALL of which were 24-7 coverage of the "aftermath") without seeing the footage. Many here, including myself, thought it best to resume "normalcy" to the best of our ability, but when your TV is overrun by this footage ALL day, on EVERY channel, it's pretty hard.

I was driving to work, my wife was going to drop me off and keep the car. Good thing I was driving, because I usually listen to news-talk radio when I drive (WLS out of Chicago). The wife listens to music.

When the first plane hit, the talk show hosts, like a lot of people thought that maybe it was a bizarre accident. They were tuned to CNN, and giving a description of what they could see, when the second plane hit, as we were pulling into the parking lot at work.

As soon as I got into the office, I turned on the television, and dialed up a few web-sites to keep up with it all day. The hotel was relatively slow at the start of the day, and employees and guests alike stood or sat in the breakfast room (it's a limited service property) and watched the unfolding developments. It got busier though, as the FAA diverted 2 jets to our airport, and we are the closest hotel to them, so we were quite full by mid afternoon.

As a side note, I have a really poignant story about a friendship that has come out of the 9/11 tragedy, between my daughter (13 at the time) and a NY firefighter that was part of the rescue/recovery effort, if anyone wants to read about it. Jaime, if you can tell me the best place to post it, I will be happy to do so, though it may run a little longer than the usual posts here.

I was at work, and a friend of mine called me to tell me what happened. I took the rest of the day off so that I could watch CNN, and I spent most of the day corresponding via e-mail with my friend in Iran so that I could hear the news from that side of the world as well. It was a very stressful experience for both of us, because naturally, she was saddened by the attacks but also concerned about what the U.S. reaction would be. When it was revealed that Al Quaeda was behind the attacks, it became even more stressful, because my friend lives in Mashhad which is near the border of Afghanistan. The vast majority of the refugees harbored by Iran were concentrated in Mashhad and the Iranian people feared (and still do) that they would be the next target because of the relations between the U.S. and Iran.

My reaction was very confused at best. I was horrified by the attacks while simultaneosly being concerned about the innocent people living in the Middle East and the people of Middle Eastern descent living within our own country. Emotions were running high, and peoples' decision making skills are ofte negatively effected by emotion.

I was fortunate enough to be home for the day with my sick children. They were too young to know what was going on and I was relieved I didn't have to focus on all of my students and their concerns at work. A little selfish, I know but I immersed myself with the details and got to take them all in without having any other responsibilities.

I had been sleeping after working the night shift. The radio alarm went off at noon. On the radio Peter Jennings was talking about something going on, and it struck me that I had not heard him on the radio at that time of day before.

I woke up my husband who was sleeping next to me while our daughter was in school. I told him, "Get up--Something big has happened." We went downstairs and turned on the television. And there it was. The magnitude of the billowing smoke, the people running, the obvious confusion and panic were overwhelming.

I kept the pre-op appointment with the gynecologist. Later on that night I went into work. The televisions were covering it all over the store where I worked. I looked down at my feet for some reason. I was wearing the same grungy old leather moccasins I always wore around the house--hadn't noticed.

We all worked that night, mostly silently because there was so much to take in. But it was clear that we were all thinking about the attacks and that they happened in our country.

I suppose I was one of the last people in the United States (at least among those with some access to news) to hear about this horror. I had been asleep since early that morning, woke up in the late afternoon, and spent a normal day at home before I had to go to work. No television or radio on during this time. As I drove to work, I turned on the radio and slowly figured out what had happened. Since I found out about it many hours after it had happened, the news reports were out of the "initial shock" phase and starting to go into the "analysis" phase. Perhaps this had some effect on my emotional response. My primary feelings were not those of shock or of a lust for revenge, but a cold, bitter, cynical sadness. Here we go again, I thought. Humanity will not ever learn to be behave in a sane manner.

I usually sleep lateish and ignore any phone calls, but when both cell and home phone went off together, obviously something spoke of urgency. I bolted out of bed and answered about 8:30am Houston time, I think.
I couldnt really comprehend the message from my friend, a plane hit the WTC, I couldnt even remember what the WTC was. Phone still in hand, remote, Tv on. I think I witnessed the second plane hit live, but I will never be sure, but I remember the second plane going through that building as if it were butter, then exploding.
I remember feeling astounded and confused. The news came about the Pentagon soon after, nothing registered. I made some tea, got a blanket and spent the next 4-5 hours on the TV until I could take no more. Im pretty sure I watched the two towers collapse live and the third off the square explode.

I knew it was no accident and somehow I was not suprised (!) When within 12 hrs reports started coming up with rental cars, Qurans and flight manuals, left baggage and Osama hit the screen, my suspicions began to rise, which lead to the next year and half of diligent news searches, skeptisism, cynicism, and activism against the war in Iraq.

I never thought of it , but I guess Sept 11 affected me in a very profound way, however opposite of the anger and vengence that most felt towards the situation, I became more convinced that we need another universal paradigm.

I was living in Japan, watching the movie Unbreakable with a fellow English teacher.

After the film was finished we flipped to the news and almost immediately was the footage of the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center. It was about 11 in the evening there.

First was the feeling of "is this real" and then we realized it was NEWS, and not some Japanese TV Show. Translating the news coverage we figured out that this had just happened, and then saw the Pentagon crash and the second plane into the trade center.

There was no real feeling of hate or surprise. The World Trade Center was targeted before. Then when we saw the other plane hit in Arlington and the crash in Pennsylvania, the crowds panicking in the streets, DC closing, and fighters patroling the skies, we saw a different America from abroad.

We also saw a different America which accepted hatred of Muslims and those of different races, we saw Immigration crackdowns, an FBI that would not protect Afghani-Americans from hate crimes, we saw a blood thirsty United States that had no regard for International law and morality, only revenge, spurned from fear. These are all natural emotions.

I talked to my family, they were scared, Dad said it wasn't a big deal, he'd seen more die in Vietnam than New York, people were comparing it to Pearl Harbor, families were out of touch with their relatives that worked in Manhattan.

And then on television we saw the constant video looping of the attacks, people jumping for their lives in flames. Just as Satan had stuck the buildings with the fires of hell.

It definately woke up a younger generation, and a older one dismissed it as just terror, when others tried to compare it with WW2. And others took advantage of it. Companies were now including flags in their advertisements, Gas guzzling SUVs flaming down the highway waving their false patriotism with 6 or 8 Kmart Flags on the roof.

Has this changed America? Yes.

For the good or bad? Yet to be seen.

Today is a good day to reflect.

I'm the groggy husband she woke up. I remember watching in disbelief as every possible emergency vehicle converged on the scene. I didn't really grasp the size of what was happening until I started to see something that I had never before seen in my life, firemen running from the scene.

So I only just joined here a few days ago and I am already hooked. Yesterday I was running a search for another topic and this thread came up (an omen?) and I decided to share what my day was like. This is especially good for me as I haven’t put that day into words. So even if this goes unread, I am happy to get it out……

I was on my way to work. I live in New Jersey and worked at the time on 57th Street and 2nd Ave. The first I heard of anything was after I got off the subway and I was walking across 59th Street on the East side. Across the street from Bloomingdales there was a construction site for the new Bloomberg office buildings and I heard some construction workers say something about a plane hitting the WTC. I thought I misunderstood and kept on walking. It was about 8:55 AM. I get to my desk and when I pick up the phone it is dead. Now I’m thinking what the heck??? I get on the internet and the few news sites I could get up didn’t say anything. Then I run upstairs to one of the office’s that has a TV and that is when I found out what was going on. Shock yes. Then I realize, holy cow, my dad has an office in the Trade Center and I start freaking out. I can’t get through to anyone because the phones are dead. Finally I get through to my sister in Indiana and she told me that my Dad was at the pier that day (in New Jersey). Phew!!! Now that I know my Dad is OK, then I start realizing all the friends I have that work either in the Trade Center or in the Wall Street area. I start dialing, redialing, and redialing. I now see a report about all the people at Canter Fitzgerald. There I know I have one friend. So I she becomes my priority call. I tried her cell phone about 100 times before I can get through. Phew, she was just getting off the Path train when the first plane hit. She is fine. Now I continue down the list trying everyone till I get through. Finally I get a hold of one of my closest and oldest friend in the world (I’ll call her Maggie), she didn’t work down town but our other mutual friend (I’ll call her Mary) did and since I couldn’t get through to her I figured this friend would know. So I say hey have you heard from Mary. Is she OK?? There is some silence and she say’s Mary is fine, Steve isn’t. Steve is Maggie’s fiancé. I say what??? He doesn’t even work down town. It turns out Steve was in Window’s of the World for a trade show. I can’t believe this. I immediately left work and walked towards Maggie's apartment. I walked against the droves of people coming from down town. I will never forget that, the amount of people walking, stunned, dialing there cell phones frantically. So I spent the night at Maggie’s, not really sure what to do with myself. We didn’t watch the news. It was like we were in a movie. I remember that we tried to play old drinking games with out the alcohol. Ones we used to play when we were younger. I do remember that sometime before dark we decided to go outside. The streets around her apartment were very empty. No cars, hardly any people. Very strange and disturbing. Maggie and I were still holding on to hope that Steve got out (although I hoped, I really knew he wasn’t). Maggie was most certainly in a daze. I myself couldn’t deal with any emotions I might be feeling because I needed to support my friend. So as we were walking back to her apartment she wanted to sit on the curb for a second, I remember gazing up at the sky line and seeing the smoke and then she just breaks, and I can’t help it although I tried, but I have a held back, controlled break. It was the first time a tear came to eyes. I’m still not thinking of me, or even Steve, but my friend and I can’t do anything for her. So as the night passes I decide to start calling the hospitals. See if we can find Steve. You know that desperation where you want to try and be useful even though you know the truth deep down. That night we barely slept. But I do remember, I think, Maggie must have dosed off, and then all of a sudden she wakes up sobbing, screaming. I didn’t know what do. What could I do? The next morning we called a car to bring us to her mother. As we are driving down the Gowannis (sp??) Expressway I saw for the first time the new NYC skyline and my heart sank. That was when I knew this wasn’t a dream. This was reality. I think when I finally got back to my apartment and talked to my parents I really lost it. My dad, who wants to fix everything, just sat there silent as I sobbed. The thing is I am, like everyone here, a news buff. I have to say, I didn’t watch or read the news for more then 1-2 minutes for about 3 wks. I just couldn’t take it. I found out later that aside from losing Steve (who was my friend too) 2 other friends lost their brothers and another friend lost her mother. Probably though the 2nd worse day after this one was about 1 wk later when we went to Steve’s apartment to empty his fridge and get rid of the Playboys (so his mom wouldn’t be horrified). When we got to his apartment his doorman had dry cleaning waiting for him dated for delivery on 9/11/01.

I sure hope I don’t upset anyone reading this. This for me was great therapy, so I thank you.

When I first heard the news, I was sitting in art class (I was in middle school at the time). We heard it over the radio, and initially everyone thought it was a joke. Our art teacher became more concerned and she finally turned on the TV and we realized that it wasn't a joke. My initial reaction was sort of "that's bad, but it's nothing to get worked-up over", due in part to the distance between New York and Tennessee, and the TV does add that cushion of distance. Then the second plane hit, and I just became shocked when I saw it. The school pulled the coverage and made us try to carry on as if nothing had happened, but no amount of shielding could change the fact that it had. That point was driven home when we went outside for a half hour and didn't see a single airplane (it was normal to see about twenty). My mom picked me up and we listened to the radio until we got home. My dad was out of town at the time, but she assured me that he was fine. I sat in front of the TV for the rest of the night. When I lay down to go to sleep, I finally thought about all the people who had died and all that distance was suddenly lost and I cried until I finally fell asleep.

Edited for clarity

I was at school and a gril called Becky told me that a Plane had hit the World Trade centre. I didnt really believe what she was saying, I just presumed it was a mistake or something.

However when I got home I found my mum in tears, and I saw the towers burning, falling and the planes impact over and over again on repeat. My mum thought the world was going to end, she said this is it, the World is going to destroy itself. She was right to assume there was likely to be a American reaction, but being the pessimisist she is, thought it would take form of a mushroom cloud.

I think the people of the West had a day in the lives of the many people suffering around the world. We now know what it is like to have our country attacked, and for national pride to be shattered then rebuilt with greater conviction than before. This however is not new and is likely to not be permanent. Support for Iraq is declining- we saw the similar consensus after WW2 but that subsided and eventually paved way for the new left. We wil witness a similar turn of events over the next 20 years, but lets just hope my Mum wasnt right.

I had a quiz that afternoon - the first for the semester in a particularly hard course - so I'd spent a near all-nighter and was trying to "sleep in". One of my roommates at the time was a news photographer and I remember the phones kept ringing, and I would bury my head and ignore it. Then, after what had to be the fifth or sixth call in the space of half an hour I woke up. I remember I showerd normally, and was getting ready for the day, and for some strange reason I turned on the TV a few minutes b/f I was going to leave for my first class. I think it was prob 11 by then. I was expecting some silly jerry springer type show to be on, so when I was in my kitchen and heard Katie Couric say something like "We are looking at the site where the twin towers of the World trade center stood only this morning" I thought it was some crazy movie. But then I go into change the channel and it slowly dawned on me what happened. I was immediately worried about several friends, but the worst for me came when they mentioned almost as a side note that the Pentagon had been hit.

So, I skipped my first class and tried desperately for the next two hours to get in touch with my father who has an office in the Pentagon. I felt so horrible - b/c he travels all over and I never really paid attention b/f 9/11 where my father was on any particular day. And when he wasn't answering his phone at the local office, and his cell phone kept ringing until the voicemail picked up, I was terrified he might have been at the Pentagon. Of course, then I realized one of the planes was an AA plane from DC bound to LA - a flight my father frequently took and I remember running to check the phone messages - really afraid my father would be one of the people who called trying to talk to me! I kept hearing the stories about final answering machine messages, etc... and I also kept thinking about when the Pan Am flight went down over Lockerbie and how I said goodbye to some classmates and friends for the holidays and never saw them again! I couldn't imagine not seeing my father again... and the TV news was so horrific.

I had the quiz to get to that afternoon - and after not being able to reach a single family member by phone - I walked to school to take the quiz. I knew I didn't have to be their for the quiz, b/c I could miss one w/o any penalty, but I just could not take waiting for the phone to ring any longer. Our teacher said something at the before the quiz about the attacks, but I don't remember anything about it - I just remember being the first to finish in about fifteen minutes - then I rushed outside to start phoning people again. Finally my father picked up - and I couldn't even answer him, I just started crying in the middle of the life science building courtyard. My dad realized it was me and assured me he was alive. Since don't live to far down the road, and I didn't have classes on wednesday or thursday, I packed up and went home immediately.
It wasn't until later that night when everyone had gathered at the dinner table that I realized how close my dad came. The wing of the pentagon that was hit was a newly renovated area, so a lot of offices had not moved back in yet... which ultimately made the death toll much lower in DC. But my dad's office had moved back in. He was supposed to have gone to a conference that morning, but at the last minute, decided to do it via videoconference instead b/c of the terrible DC traffic. Everyone in the DC office who showed up to work that morning either died in the attack or died a few days later from injuries. That night was the first time I saw my father cry.

I couldn't imagine these old family friends who had traveled the same military route as our family - they were now facing such a terrible loss!

I know my mother had a very surreal experience. My father had been on the phone with her from the conference room, which is why he never received any of my initial calls. She works in a middle school w/o TV access - so my dad was narrating what he saw on the TV and my mom was in the teacher workroom relaying the information to all the teachers there. She teaches in a small community (there is only one middle school and one high school in the area) so when a bunch of parents phoned the principle, he basically put a lock down on the school - ordered the teachers they could not tell the kids ANYTHING, and that the only kids who they would allow to be picked up would be sick kids, or kids w/prior arrangements - and once anyone left, they were not allowed back on the premises. So my mother, after hearing this terrible news in the morning, had to act for the next four hours like nothing had happened. Finally, the principle made an announcement at the end of the day that all after school activities were cancelled and the children should go home to their families, because there was an attack on america. I could not imagine having to act completely normal after hearing about what had happened!

But for once, I was thankful for the horrible beltway traffic and that I went to college so close to home I could see my parents. My mom and dad wanted to keep the news on all day - but my sister and I couldn't stand it - so we rented a bunch of stupid 1940s comedies and watched those from thursday to friday...

9-11 was such a tragic day, and I went to too many funerals in Arlington in the following weeks... And it was months that I was hearing the stories from my friends and family. Some close family friends lost their niece - she was a doctor living in NYC who like to jog in the mornings near the towers so she apparently stopped to help triage and died in the collapse. My best friend's uncle was in the trade center, chose to go down the stairs and leave after the first plane hit - and he apparently just followed the crowd to Jersey and caught a train home to Rhode Island... but he lost the family van that was parked underneath the buildings. One of my cousins lived close enough to where the plane went down in Penn, he could hear the crash.

A lot of families bought American flags, but I was proud that my parents already had a flag they'd been putting out for years. And as I watched the flags go up, I wondered how long it would be until the came down again...

I was a junior in HS in Symphonic band when an announcement came over the intercom. We were playing, so no one in band heard the announcement. In fact, no one in band found out until arriving in the next class; mine was precalculus. Just like everyone else, I crowded around the television; then the towers collapsed (I think; they may have collapsed a while earlier; I don't remember the times too well).

I was at SugarLoaf Mountain Resort in northern Michigan near Traverse City ,with a Committee planning an Air Force ReUnion for men once stationed in that area at an Air Defense Warning Site.

Standing in the parking lot, talking with another member who was from Georgia, a guy called from the entrance door to come into the Lobby, we walked in and everyone was looking at the TV monitors all over the lobby. It was the WTC attack.

I can remember Rage, fear, and hate coming over me all at once, and then my family who I left behind 250 miles away, I went to a pay phone to call my wife, she was in tears and scared because she could not find me. She wanted to know what she should do, I told her if anything happened to take shelter much the same as for a tornado warning, thats all I could think of.

We adjourned the meeting that afternoon, and we headed home to all parts of the country the next morning, many drove their cars to site see the fall colors of the north country, the next morning gas stations had upped the price of gas to 2.50 per gallon. I drove home to lower Michigan wondering what the hell was going on in the world and who was to blame for this attack.

I spent the rest of the week like most everyone else , watching the news and reruns of the attack, angry because I was to old to Re-enlist.

At the time I was a satellite uplink truck engineer and my business partner at the time called me at 6 am from Jamaica. He was down there shooting some vacation stuff for the Jamaican Tourism bureau and he woke me up, told me to turn on the TV and wait for a call from ABC News. ABC called about 15 minutes later and told me to hit the road and head for LAX. I met up at LAX with the ABC people, we had 3 producers, 5 camera/sound crews and 2 national correspondents (Brian Rooney and David Wright) and we headed into LAX together which was complete chaos. Stranded passengers running all over the place asking us what happened, police officers, FBI agents all over and so many microwave and satellite trucks all beaming into the sky that the pigeons were dropping to the ground fully cooked.

And, nobody knew what was going on. Worst place in the world to be informed is on the ground covering a news story. In between live shots and tape feeds, I was on the phone with my girlfriend who was telling me what was happening. When she told me the towers had gone down, I couldn't believe it. I pulled down a second channel off the bird that was the ABC network feed and pumped it out to a monitor outside my truck so others could watch and that drew quite a crowd.

Lots of poor passengers from all over the world were kind of walking around in a daze wondering what they were going to do, the airport was sealed off, their flights all canceled, no idea of what they were going to do. CNN came to the rescue temporarily. Somehow they managed to get a courier into the airport with a whole bunch of sandwiches and started passing them out to everyone, police officers, other crews, stranded passengers. Good guys those CNN guys.

We spent all day at LAX, finally wrapped around 1am LA Time after we finished Nightline, then back at 5 am the next morning for a west coast update on GMA and it pretty much continued that way for the entire week. By the time we finished a live shot at a kids soccer game in a park in Sherman Oaks, we were pretty well all burned out.

My partner was really bummed by the whole thing. He's spend 25 years doing national news production and here comes the biggest news story in his life and he gets stuck in Jamaica. I had been doing the news stuff for around 6 months and here I was, smack in the middle of it.

I went to work early that day, as usual. I'm a firefighter, and I work in an impoverished urban area. The weather was nice, and I knew we'd be busy with medical calls that day, with the residents shooting and stabbing each other, and smoking "tha dippas" (PCP). We were returning from the third run of the morning, and I mentioned to the other guy on the back step with me, "it's gonna be one of those days." A major understatement.

We returned to the day room, and joined the others at the firehouse, watching the news. It seemed that there was one heck of a fire on the upper floors of one of the World Trade Center towers, certainly an interesting even for those in my profession. Then we watched live, as the second plane hit. "We're next" I said. Shortly after that the other company in my house got sent to standby at the US Captiol for reports of a plane inbound.

Half an hour later, we were responding on the first alarm from Washington DC to Arlington, VA for an explosion at the Pentagon. Needless to say, it was quite a sight riding down the freeway towards that column of smoke. My company was one of the first into the pentagon. We had to stretch hoses from the parking lot, into the courtyard, and back out through the rings. There was a threat of collapse from the exterior preventing operations from that side.

Surreal.

I remember, each time we'd come out, after depleting our air tanks, some Major would take your air-pak off you, a LtCol would give you a towel, and a Col would give you a soda bottle with water in it. The DoD guys broke into all the vending machines and refilled the soda bottles with water to give to the firefighters. Tasting water with a little pepsi in it brings back images of the day.

Rumor control. We didn't have television or news radio with us, but every 10 minutes or so, a new rumor would make its circuit: the Sears tower, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Boston, Pennsylvania, L.A., the WTC collapse. I did not know for sure what had happened, or that the towers fell, until 9 pm that night.

All in all, it was a heartbreaking, frustrating, and enraging day.

Sept 11.
At the time I was working the graveyard shift, so I had just got home and went to bed when the phone started ringing. I took it off the hook so that I could go to sleep. When my lady got up at 10am she put the phone back on the hook and it was ringing immediately. It was her best friend calling to make sure we were ok. She told her to turn on the TV because someone has bombed the WTC. I thought they were playing old footage of 93 and tried to remain asleep. When I found out it was for real I had the people at my site give me a line into NYC, to check on the family in NYC, at the request of the rest of my family. I was shocked because we had stayed at the Hilton across the street from the WTC the prior month.
Sept 12
When I got to work that night I was told to be prepared to leave at a moments notice. I then was asked to take a small portable generator down to replace one on a COW (Cell tower On Wheels) that had been clogged with soot. When I got there I had to report to a police station to get access to places south of Canal St. They gave me 150 questions and finally decided to let me in with a police escort and ride along guard. (I don't know if he was a FBI agent or a NYPD Detective.) Since I was the first to clear security on the network side of the company, I was asked to survey the damage in the tunnel underneath the WTC, the Verizon CO on West St., and the site in the old Western Union Building. The tunnel was caved in and the fiber was completely destroyed. At the Verizon CO the wall facing the WTC was missing and whatever was left was being drowned by water from the fire hoses. The AC at the site was clogged with soot and was barely operating. I relayed the information and went home. I think the best part of the night was when the agent escorting me asked me if the tunnel was safe. I responded "Someone has to go first." Maybe it was the crazy Texan in me or maybe I figured that any survivors would be close to the bottom because of the evacuation, I was hoping that we would find someone.
Sept 15
I finally received the call to go down to NYC again. We arrived at the hotel near times square at 11pm. We had a meeting discussing what needs to be done. Bush had made a speech saying that Wall Street would open that Mon., but they had no telephones. I was placed in charge of making sure it happened.
Sept 16
We finally received clearance to get past Canal to the site. It took me 24 hours straight to get Wall street phone service, which is probably a months worth of work to put in a T3. (a T3 is 672 voice circuits) I also helped with getting the FBI service with the help of WindStar, by making a microwave shot across lower Manhattan. If you understand microwave you'll understand this miracle. Here are some of the other problems we face:
- There where no food places open so we had to leave and come back through security.
- the Verizon Co on West St. knocked out or local phone service so we were unable to receive phone calls.
- Con Ed kept knocking out our power so we needed to rely on our own generators. Due to the noise the generators make they haven't been tested in years, so we weren't surprised when they died. When the portable generator died we were surprised. There were portable generators around the entire block, each the size of an 18 wheeler trailer. We barely squeaked by though battery power and cutting of all redundancy.
- the AC died and when it was fixed we had to keep it off to conserve battery power. it got up to an ambient temperature of 110 in someplaces 137 on the surface of the main switches, and when you add it to the dust it was a horrible environment.

The next day they decided to leave Wall street closed for the day and the rest of the people in the FBI building came flocking to us when they discovered the FBI had service. The rest of the week I dealed with getting small customers and residential service back up and handling environmentals like the generator and AC problems.
I don't know if anyone has actually been to ground zero, but seeing it on TV does it no justice. The massive amount of rubble their was overwhelming at times, it was about 6 stories tall and took an hour to walk around. The bar at the hotel was filled every night and was completely silent. Some night the people who couldn't sleep just stayed in the lobby all night. They wouldn't let anyone take any pictures of it less then the barricade four block away, unless they had property like our fiber optic cables. I'll post a few pictures I still have when Mike opens up the album, if it isn't considered "pimping the dead."
The only recognition I received from my experience is a letter from the VP of the company and a mention of "site tech" in our newsletter. The only bad experience I had was dealing with all the security. I wish I could remember how many times I had to say "Jesus Christ! I'm Hindu!" This was offset though from all the kindness we received. Restaurants would let us eat for free, and people would hand us sandwiches and drinks down at Canal. Our VP came down to show his support one day and he even picked up the bar tab. Well there is one thing I must say. I will probably never forget.

I was sitting in my dynamics class (Memorial Hall, University of Delaware) learning about how lateral wind forces against sky scrapers impact the way we build buildings. We were discussing the maximum lateral force that most sky scrapers were expected to endure, somewhere in the vacinity of level 5 hurricanes. The force from the planes impacting was somewhere like 10 times that amount. In the subsequent days we looked at exactly what happened and why the buildings collapsed, how cheap extra layers of fire retardant on the structural steel to buy a few more precious minutes could have made the difference between a lot of deaths that day. We did the math with guestimated numbers and figured out how the top parts of the buildings falling the relatively short distances of only 12 feet or so would be a gigantic dynamic downward force that obviously resulted in the "pancake" effect that we all saw on television. It was facinating stuff, but frustrating because the building codes never could have predicted such unexpected events. Even still, it's too cost ineffective to build each building as if it would need to withstand such lateral forces, or such high temperatures on the steel.

I had just gotten home from work and a friend called to tell me to turn on the tv and that a plane had hit the tower. One of my friends is an airline pilot for America West and I was thinking what kind of dumbass couldn't miss a building that damn big. Thats when the second plane hit and I cannot describe my pure detachment from reality. It was too unreal. Seeing that huge plane fly into and disapear into the tower. Then I realized what was happening and I flashed back to when I was going through Oklahoma on my way west to deliver a truckload and I heard about Oklahoma City. I had just been thru there and hour before.
My friend freaked because her husband is a pilot and they started talking hijacked planes. She hung up and tried to reach her husband. I just sat there and watched.
For me the image permanently burned into my mind is that of a woman flung from the tower because of the heat of the fire. Someone had her on camera as she fell to her death. She looked so much like some child had dropped her doll over the side of the building. She almost floated down to the eye, but you could see her struggle all the way down, deperatly trying to defy gravity and somehow fly. The she was gone. If you have never been to the towers or actually seen them they are, were huge. Its the only word for them. When they began to fall the enormity of what was happening became surreal. Something that big falling to earth, and then again. All those people. All those below. Whne they spoke of survivors I knew there would be none. Imagine a mountain falling to the ground.
I didn't leave my TV for days. My friend was grounded in Texas and drove home.
My wife used to be a flight attendant and her and her friends sought after everyone they knew. They were absolutely horrified and had no idea how they would have handled it. The fact they tortured the flight attendants hit them hard.
I remember being so very angry that they had managed to get all those planes.
I remember saying that every politician and top level beauracrat involved in the secret services should be shot. Furious that they were paying so very little attention to any of this and so VERY busy chasing down Jimmy and his dimebag of weed they had allowed so many to be killed. I was furious at Bush when he went into hiding. IMO this is when a President should put it all on the line and try to lift up and reassure a nation. Maybe thats just me but I would have done it that way. The chance of my own demise would be secondary to that. The leader of this nation shouldn't show such fear but spit in the face of our attackers.
In the end though I was heartened by how well we all came together. No prefixes to American. Just Americans.