What were you doing Sept 11th at the time of the attacks? (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

I don't have a home phone, only a cell phone.

I woke up in blissfull ignorance at 11AM, received a phone call on my cell @ 11:30AM when I stepped out the shower. My friend told me he had been trying to contact me all morning long without success: Cell phones were dead for most of the day. He told me, of course I thought it was a sick joke, until I turned on the TV, and it was dead. That was when I realised something was really going on.

Only CBS was available at first (I don't have cable), very grainy, lots of noise, fuzzy shots of some smoky stuff. But I will never forget the white letters scrolling from left to right on a blue background: "AMERICA UNDER ATTACK. PLANES HIT WORLD TRADE CENTER. BOTH TOWERS COLLAPSED". Then I heard about the Pentagon. The feeling of dread and impending doom cannot be described.

Later, ABC was feed through ch 25 (normally the city channel) with much better pictures and coverage.

When I went downstairs (I live in the bronx) there were a lot of people in the streets, parents picking their kids up from the school across the street. I called my parents back home to tell them I was OK, and needless to say they were sick worried.

To this day I don't know if I should be happy or upset because I slept through most of that fateful morning. Given how I feel now just recalling this, I think I will settle for happy.

--

Holadem

 

[Don Black]

I was asleep and woke up at 11:00AM too. Groggily, I decided to browse the headlines before I jumped in the shower. I went to CNN.com and saw the lack of graphics and the headlines. I thought to myself, "Gee, another big hack. That sucks." Then the headlines started to sink in and I went ape sh*t. I checked NYTimes.com WashingtonPost.com flipped on CNN on the TV and started calling everyone I knew in NY and DC (couldn't reach anyone of course).

What a day...

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

I just got out of the shower (around 5:45am) and was getting dressed as I was watching the news. I then went over to the computer around 5:55am to check my e-mail, surf the HTF, etc. before I went off to school. I noticed the news showed a clip from CNN's live broadcast saying a plane has hit the one of the twin towers. I was shocked (as I have family in New York), I told my mom (who was also shocked) and IMed fellow HTF member Steven K (who was online at the time), and I quickly turned to CNN.

A few minutes later I was even in more of a shock as I witnessed the second plane hit the other tower live. Steven and I then came up with the idea that this was terroism. Since I had to go to school, I left the house.

During Algebra II (2nd period, around 8am) I found out that a plane hit the Pentagon and a plane crashed somewhere in Pennsylvania.

During Computer Science II Honors (3rd period, around 9am) a group of us were surfing the internet (even if we were spose to do work) to find out more info on what happened earlier in the morning (this is where I found out that both towers collapsed). We also tried turning on the television (as our school gets CNN), but finding to our dismay that the principal and deans had shut off the cable television in all classrooms as they wanted the kids to not care about the events and go back to doing their normal school work.

During 5th period (English II Honors), instead of doing work, we all had a conversation on what was going on. The conversation was a sad one which even made a few of the students and the teacher begin to cry about what was going on around us.

When I got home, I quickly turned on the television and started watching the news for the next few days straight.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I was sleeping. I didn't know a thing about it until it was all over late that afternoon.

 

[Thomas_Berg]

i had class at 9:30AM CST and was up around 8:30 to shower. i IM'd my brother who told me to turn on the TV. i went to class just after the first tower fell, and when i returned, i sat in front of the TV for about 8 straight hours. classes were cancelled after my first one that morning.

 

[Sean Conklin]

I was sleeping when my wife threw me out of bed and walked me to the TV! Talk about a RUDE awakening. We just sat in disbelief as we watched the events unfold.

 

[Michael Warner]

I had just dropped my son off at pre-school and then went to the Post Office where everyone seemed to be in an uproar about something. Once I heard what happened I went to the K-Mart next door to watch their TVs just before the second plane hit. I went home and stared at the TV is disbelief and saw the towers collapse just as I had to go pick up my son. Got to the school and just stood there dumb-founded with the other parents while we all tried to compose ourselves before our three-year-olds came out of their classroom. I had planned to spend that day working on the HT but instead I took my son to the park where we spent the entire day playing.

 

[Dennis Reno]

I was at work and just before 9:00am receive a phone call from my Mom (a fellow news junkie.) She asked if I had my radio on and had heard the breaking news about a plane hitting the WTC. I simply responded "No" and then turned my radio on. After hearing it for myself, I walked into the next office and informed a co-worker. He hadn't heard about it. We then discussed how difficult it would be to hit a building even in New York and assumed it must have been a tour plane or some kook trying to show off and lost control.

I went back into my office, turned the radio up and logged onto CNN.com. The radio was providing the live feed from a NYC station that had a chopper on the scene. The reporter at the station was summarizing the story for those that had just tuned in when the reporter in the chopper exclaimed something along the lines of "Oh my God, oh my God..." He then blurted out that "the tower was just hit by a huge airliner." The reporter at the desk responded that they were aware the WTC had been hit (unaware that it was a SECOND jet into the other tower), but were unsure of what kind of plane, prop or jet, commuter or private, etc. The reporter in the chopper cut him off announcing that he had just witnessed another plane had crashed into the other tower. He wasn't hysterical, but you could hear the incredible emotion in his voice. It sounded like he (for a good reason) was at a loss for words. The reporter asked him what he meant, "was the other tower hit?" The chopper reporter then went into a detailed description of what they had witnessed. He described how the plane had made a final bank into the tower, hitting it nearly square. He also described the huge explosion and cloud of debris that had blown out of the building.

At that point my phone rang. Mom had made it to work and she and her coworkers were watching on TV when the second plane hit. She was almost in tears describing it. Still hoping that it was a terrible case of bad luck, I asked if she thought it was an accident. Her response was simply "No, it went straight into the building, it never appeared to try to avoid it."

Still brings chills up my spine...

 

[KeithH]

I was at work catching up on work-related e-mail when I received a message from my girlfriend telling me that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center. We don't have a TV with cable in the office, so we all gathered around radios to get the news. The experience was surreal. When I first started listening to the radio, news services couldn't confirm that a second plane had hit. Within minutes, the second plane crash was confirmed. Then came news of the plane crashing into the Pentagon, followed shortly by news of the plane crash in Pennsylvania. By then, I was praying for it to end, and then the Twin Towers collapsed. Our office closed at noon, and I watched the news the rest of the day until I went to bed.

 

[Howard Williams]

I was driving to my vanpool pick up spot. When I got in the van, the driver said a plane had crashed into the WTC. I figured it was just a Cessna or some other small plane flown by some suicidal idiot. As I alway do, I feel asleep during the commute to work. Once we got to work I went straight to my desk and starting doing my routine duties. One of my coworkers came by my desk and said a second plane had crashed into the other tower. I thought for sure he was bullshitting me so I went up the cafeteria. It was packed. The President and most managers were all in there. At this point all the now famous videos were not in yet. I knew it looked bad and that many lives were lost but I honestly felt the fire would be controlled sooner or later and the towers would survive. I just went back to my desk. About 30 minutes later that same coworker came by my desk and said that one tower had collapsed. I said "Bullshit!!!". I actually sat there arguing with him for about 10 minutes. We both walked up to the cafeteria which now was even more packed than before. I don't know how they kept production running. Well, seeing is beleiving. I watched the collapse twice and then just returned to my desk. Numb. I'm still numb. I think I will be numb for a long time.

 

[Rob_J]

I woke up to the radio guys babbling and then realized what they were babbling about. They said a plane had struck the WTC and that it was on fire. I initially thought it was a small plane and that it was tragic, but the building would still stand and things would get back to normal eventually--then I walked to the living room and turned on CNN. I saw the footage of the second plane strike the tower and I realized what was going on. It was at that moment I knew life was going to be different for everyone.

On my way to work, I heard that one of the towers had collapsed. I could not believe it. I don't really remember the next hour or two, but the rest of the day was spent either trying to get more information, or trying to put it out of my mind.

I will never forget September 11th.

 

[Scott_G]

I was running a trade show booth at Network Interop in Atlanta. A few co-workers and me were going to get a coffee when I checked my pager and saw the “breaking news”. I thought it must be a small plane. We didn’t think much of it and waited in line for java. When we got back about 10min later, the Sony booth had CNN on and they were showing the towers. We saw the second one hit later.

They waited till after lunch to cancel the show for the day, this was after they had evacuated downtown Atlanta and CNN. We were right next door to CNN.

I was trying to book a rental car at 9:00am, already sold out.

We finished up the show on Thursday and by the grace of GOD we got a rental coming from Raleigh that had to go back. I drove straight thru night to get home early Friday. If you were out of town, you know how bad you wanted to be home.

We had a large group of people from San Jose. They rented a charter bus and road for 35+ hours home.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I had just closed a session here in the forum, and had a few minuets before I had to leave for work, I walked from my bedroom toward the livingroom to leave, when I happened to quickly glance at my parents t.v., and saw that one of the twin towers was smoldering and on fire a little, this was just after the first plane had hit.
I said to my mom "What's this?", and she told me that a small plane had hit the tower, that's what was being reported at the time, a small plane. And then, as I stood their, and my mom was sitting in her chair watching this live, we saw the other plane fly into frame, and slam into the other one, I yelled out "OH MY GOD!!", and that's when I called my boss and told him that I would not be coming in that day, needless to say, he understood. I wasn't going anywhere, at that point, I knew it was terrorism.
I went into my room and turned on my t.v. and just sat their on the floor watching these aweful things happen, then I heard that the Pentagon had been hit by a plane, and then a plane crashed in a field in PA. I got scared, real scared at that point, I remember thinking that world war III was about to start, it was the most frightened I have ever been, I thought that this was it, who ever is doing this is going to kill us all, irrational now that i've had time to reflect, but at the time, it was pure madness. When will this stop!?
I went back into the living room with my mom and I sat down on the couch, and she turned to me to say something and I yelled out "OH SHIT!!", that's when the first tower went down. We just sat their shaking, with our hands clasped over our mouths, and then shortly after, the second tower went down.
All day that day I felt as if this were a nightmare that I could not wake up from. My god what if they have nukes, I didn't know, I honestly thought that the world was ending.
About five hours after all of this, I was able to get a about an hour of sleep, if you want to call it sleep, I woke just in time to see another of the WTC complex buildings come down. I wanted to escape, but their was nowhere to escape to.
September 11th 2001 was the darkest day that I think I will ever see in my lifetime. I don't want to feel fear like that again.
But my one thought of comfort was this, this is America! Whoever is responsable for doing this to us will be so fucking sorry they did!!

 

[Jon_B]

I had just woke up. Turned on the tv like I usually do. Saw the footage of the 1st plane going into the wtc. I figured it was some sort of freak accident. Then I saw the footage of the second plane crashing into the other tower. This was no accident. Then the news covered Bush's reaction to what happened. Then the news pulled away to go to D.C. A day I will never forget.

Jon

 

[Ben Motley]

I was actually just going to bed, as I work nights. I remember contemplating staying up to watch a little t.v., but was tired, and so went to bed. This was litterally mere minutes before the attacks. My dad called me several hours later, at about 3:30 CST to ask me what I "thought about all of this". I asked him what he meant, and he rambled off some incomprehensible (to my just woken up out of a deep sleep mind) babble about buildings coming down and planes crashing. He knew he wasn't getting through to me and told me to just go turn the t.v. on. After an hour of non-blinking disbelief, I got up and got ready for work. I've always felt a tinge of guilt that I slept through it all. That sure was a bitch of a world to wake up to.

 

[Mike_Ped]

I woke up for my Spanish class at 9 like usual. Drove to school. Happened to meet my friend parking. We walked together and he said "can you believe this sh*t that is going on?" I responded, "what sh*t?" He told me and I thought he was kidding...couldn't even imagine.

I found out when I got to class. We sat and watched the news for the whole class. When class ended at 10, we both went back my house and watched the news until 12:30, when we reluctantly went to our Biology class. My damn biology teacher (I'll never forgive him for this), made us take the test he had planned for that day. He told us that even though this was going on, we needed to continue normally (what a bastard...).

Mike

 

[Danny Knapp]

Was sleeping when my mom woke me up...total shock. Glued to television.

(I work nights! I'm no bum!)

 

[Carl Johnson]

I work second shift so I don't get out of bed till about 1pm but I just happened to wake up way earlier than normal. While trying to go back to sleep I swithced on the news right before the second tower was hit.

 

[RobertR]

I was asleep, in my childhood bedroom (was visiting my mother at the time). She woke me and told me. When I heard that the WTC AND the Pentagon had been hit, it felt very much like we were indeed at war.

It was also the morning of my father's funeral, a Navy Vet. My sister and me were given the American Flag later that day, right after Taps was played, and right after we were told, "on behalf of a grateful nation for your father's years of service, we present you this flag".

 

[stan hiller]

I was repairing a computer, the tv was on in the corner of the room but I was too absorbed in the work to watch, plus the sound was off.

Halfway through the job, I glanced at the tv and saw the twin towers on fire- somehow, at the time, it just did'nt register what was going on - I mean, this was the world trade centre buildings! I assumed it was some film so carried on working.

Five minutes later, I glanced up and realised the same buildings were on the box and still aflame then I saw the replay of the first and second aircraft crashing into the buildings - right then, my stomach did a backflip when I realised something was terribly wrong so I turned up the sound and at that moment, the first tower collapsed - I'v seen the buidings as a tourist some years back and at the time was impressed by their sheer height and mass - the fact that these monoliths were collapsing before my very eyes just did'nt register with me until I started getting phone calls minutes later from people urging me to switch on the tv.