September 11, 2001 - where were you?

[dartworth]

Where were you when the attacks on 9/11 started?

It?s hard to believe five years has nearly passed already. At the time I was working in Boston (Everett) at a powerhouse on the Mystic River. The plant is very close to Boston?s Logan International Airport. As planes took off, they flew right over the plant and I offer wonder if I saw flights 11 or 175 as they left Logan for the last time.

The plant was all located next to Distrigas which is a storage facility for a large percentage of New England?s liquid natural gas. A large tanker was being unloaded at the time and the coast guard had swarmed down on the area and tried to get the tanker back out to sea. Low tide was causing all kinds of issues. A couple of square miles around Distrigas was evacuated. It was a pretty intense. It looked like a warzone. I can remember all the rumors about the Sears Tower falling and the National Mall in Washington DC being on fire. I was unable to reach my wife back in Cleveland on my cell phone for hours.

A few weeks later I drove down to NYC from Boston to stay with some friends living on the Upper East Side. They took me down to Ground Zero. I can remember all the people at the site. It was very eerie. People were just wondering around and it was so quiet. The area was still smoldering and the smells were intense. Such a sad and difficult time for NYC and the US.

I?ve been back to Ground Zero a few times since then. It always brings back memories from the day. Someday I will share these stories with my son. I just wish I could find comfort in knowing that he will not have some 9/11 story to tell to his children.

 

[Bulk Beef]

5 mi. due south of the Pentagon, watching it smoke.

 

[j00fek]

went out after i got up to get a coffee. drove around for a bit like i always did before i had to go to school in 01. got home turned on the tv to cnbc to see how the markets were going to be for the day and 3-5min after they hit and i was glued to cnn for the next 3 days. now i cant bear to watch anything on the WTC or and documentary on 9/11, just makes me sick.

 

[m2kewl]

i work on John Street.

i was watching the 2 towers come down! :Q

 

[Kalvin00]

i was asleep. and then i woke up and went to school..

 

[TheSlamma]

Driving to the Denver WTC buildings to talk with lawyers who were in town from the NY WTC buildings to participate as a witness for a class action lawsuit.

It's too bad they were here, they ended up selling out their clients and later got sued atleast.

 

[sniperruff]

in school in stony brook NY. saw the whole thing on TV and everyone's stunned.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

onboard USS Inchon, starting the day... Seen the news on TV, and I thought it was some new movie, and I couldn't figure out why they were watching a movie in forward IC when they should have been working... The day went on from there like everyone else remembers. For us it was setting security watches and all that fun stuff.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I was in a Statistics II class that morning working on my undergraduate degree.....

 

[SagaLore]

I was in one of my remote offices in Wellsboro PA, doing my typical sys admin stuff, when all of the sudden people were gathering around a TV. We kept hearing reports of different airplanes getting hijacked - in the end it was exagerated to a high number, but seeing the towers on fire, then coming down, it added realism to the count.

A few of our employees were in tears...

 

[kevman]

I was on the NJ turnpike around exit 16W when the first plane hit. I could see the one building smoking. At that moment if felt like a horrible accident had happend, traffic copter or something. Couldn't believe it. when I got to my office (8 miles accross the river in Rutherford) the second plane had hit. It really turned my inner being into knots. It was NOT an accident. Everyone in the office was in the cafeteria glued to the TV and windows. We all saw the buildings collapse one by one from our office. I'll never forget that, I remember the lightning rod cracking and falling that was on top of the one building as it collapsed. It was sad, and frightening. I had this really overwhelming feeling of doom like anything could happen and everyone was going to die that day. I think I was quite depressed after that for a long time.

 

[dwell]

Found out about 9/11 on ATOT sad enough even though I was in Manhattan at the time.

 

[xospec1alk]

sleeping. getting pissed off about all the firetrucks whizzing by disturbing my sleep. my two roommates burst into my room and tell me to get up and check out whats happening. we walked down to washington square park after the first tower fell. just in time to see the second tower fall. we later walk down to fulton street to check out the site. it was a freaking war zone down there. it got really tough to breathe so we headed back to our apartment.

even today, whenever i hear sirens, or more than a few firetrucks going by me, i get a little anxious...

 

[Lonyo]

Probably at school.

 

[OREOSpeedwagon]

At school, I didn't even know it was happening until just before the second plane, I remember thinking WTF when the second one hit.

 

[flyboy84]

walking to highschool in the bronx from the 4 train stop at bedford park blvd...I had just left from my apt in Manhattan about 1.5 miles from ground zero

 

[Raduque]

I was asleep, my dad had to wake me up, twice. I thought it was some kind of disaster movie before I actually woke up.




You know, eventually, you just have to let go. I already have.

 

[SVT Cobra]

I got back from my morning run and saw it on CNN and remembered wishing like never before that I had joined the military instead of going to college.

 

[2Xtreme21]

I was in a TV studio working on filming a movie (it was a school field trip) about 5 miles from Pittsburgh International Airport. We were sitting in this room discussing how power point works, I was in the back of the room and I could see into the studio via glass windows. Musta been like 9:00 and suddenly all the TVs in there turned to pretty much the same thing. That baffled me because I couldn't make out what it was or what people were saying. I whispered to my friends to look and even to my teacher who said "It's nothing. We'll hear about it on the 6:00 news. Now just pay attention!" Around 10:00 or so we were all evacuated since we were in such a close proximity to the airport.

I actually went back and visited my teacher last year and she said she'd never forget me and how ignorant she was.

 

[DaveJ]

I was at work in our morning meeting with my boss and a few of the techs. Just as we got out of the meeting someone mentioned that a plane had hit one of the towers... we all walked into the machine room just in time to see a replay on TV. Needless to say no one got any work done that day, I spent most of my time surfing a few forums and news sites, and emailing updates to my parents as neither of them had access to live news on TV and the news sites were getting slammed.

Dave

 

[sunase]

I was walking to class (at Stevens Institute of Technology, which is just across the river from Manhattan) and hadn't bothered to put my glasses on yet. It was really annoying all the people standing around watching the tower smoke. The window in my classroom actually had a view of the towers, but we all thought it was just a fire (no one in class had seen the planes hit or checked the news) and had class like normal. Got out of class the rest of the day, though. The smell was terrible for like a week after, though. You'd go outside and could smell burning insulation.

 

[kt]

I was at work at top floor of a building right next to LAX. Only stayed for about 30 minutes before our boss send us all home due to all the high alerts around LAX. As I drive home, I literally went through at least 10 police checkpoints because we were so close to the airport.

 

[ElFenix]

at home, asleep. when i woke up, checked my messages. had an icq saying something about prayers and terrorist attacks. i thought it was spam. loaded up netscape, headline was world trade center collapse. i started yelling 'holy ****** holy motherfvcking ******' and running to the living room to turn on the tv. my roommate woke up from all the yelling. we spent the next 3 days in front of the tv.

 

[TXHokie]

Was on my way driving in to work. First report on the radio was that a plane had hit the WTC but they said it was like a Cessna or something (nobody even thought of a full blown passenger aircraft on purpose)

 

[mugs]

At college in Indiana. Woke up, watched it on TV for a while. Went to breakfast, watched it on TV there. Went to the weightroom, watched one of the towers collapse on TV. Went to class. Went to the gas station at lunch time - not to fill up my tank in a panic like everyone else in Indiana because of the rumors of $5 a gallon gas, but for the same reason I went to the gas station every Tuesday - dollar breadstick day. Noble Roman's breadsticks were pretty darn good before they went and changed the sauce on me. And for a college student you can't beat $2 for a meal cooked by anyone other than the school cafeteria.