Re: Where we you....

On the LIRR platform at Jamaica waiting for the train to get to school. Wondering why all trains had been stopped going eastbound and westbound. I asked the first person I saw and they said a plane just hit one of the twin towers. That's when I panicked because FH went to school right across the street. I called and got nothing but a busy signal. As I hung up in tears I went to call his brother, who was calling me and told me that he was OK. He had gotten called into his job to pick up a laptop before going to school... He wasn't even in the vicinity. I cried more and thought, "God works in misterious ways."

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I was a flight attendant for Southwest and was on an overnight in Seattle. I was still sleeping because I didn't get into Seattle until almost midnight the night before. By the time a good friend who was also overnighting at the same hotel banged on my door- both towers had already collapsed.

I opened my hotel room door and my friend Joe was standing there in his uniform, breathless. He pushed his way into my room and handed me my cellphone that had been on the nightstand and said, ":Amy, call your family." He kept saying something about airplanes crashing into the twin towers in NYC and something about the Pentagon. I couldn't wrap my brain around it and kept saying, "what do you mean, which towers? The Pentagon in DC?" It was unfathomable to me.

Finally, he just turned on the TV and faced me to it while he scrolled through my phone looking for my family's phone number (we all had ICE numbers programmed into our phones).

I just remember feeling like the whole room was vibrating while I sat in silence watching the footage over and over again. Then the realization that my father works in downtown Manhatten, and that my brother and his now wife both worked near the Pentagon washed over me.

I had 67 messages on my cell phone- and was unable to get in touch with anyone for at least an hour. Ironically the message I kept getting when I tried dialing with my cell was, "All circuits busy due to a tornado...." I suppose at that point in time, a torando was probably the biggest disaster the phone companies could think of that would jam services like that.

We were stuck in Seattle for 3 days- I was the only NYer. I felt very alone even though there were flight attendants and pilots constantly at my hotel room wanting to offer comfort. I couldn't be further away from my family and knowing I would not only have to FLY home, but WORK the flight home was unbearable.

That Friday, I flew from Seattle to Nashville and then on to Baltimore. You could have heard a pin drop the whole flight home. No one talked. Only crying and whispers.

That Saturday I was finally able to fly home to LI to be with my family. There were only 4 people on that flight. All flight attendants, all from in NY. Thats when I found out a former colleague at my old airline was killed. None of us sat together on the plane. We all just sat scattered around the cabin, staring out the window. As we came up on the NY skyline, the smoke trail preceded it for miles. As we passed it, the pilot dipped the wing on our left side toward the city, in a tribute I suppose.

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in grad school.... hysterical waiting by my cell phone waiting to find out if 2 friends were ok.

I waited the entire day... one call came at around 6pm, and the second came only at 11pm. both were covered with ash and disoriented.....

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I was living at home with my parents. My next door neighbors were in Florida. I was feeding their dog. The son was living in L.A. and was sitting on the plane on the runway when it happened. They didn't say anything just made them all get off the plane and told them they needed to call their families asap.

Anway I was in My PJ's (still remember what ones) walking across the lawn to feed the dog when the neighbor next to them came flying out of his house screaming to get in the house they flew planes into buildings. He was screaming they were after us.... He is a narc detective for the city so I thought someone was coming after him. We got in the house and he put the TV on (he didn't have cable so he didn't have anything but snow on his tv) I couldn't believe it. I called my dad to tell him to put the TV on. He had no idea. He said when I told him I said "they said two planes flew into the WTC" Even though I was watching it for myself it's like I didn't believe it really happened.

I went to work and we watched it on the tv my Boyfriend (now husband) called me. My best friend called me. She called me again in hysterics when the tower fell. She was going in to the city that day to go to BH photo. She ment to hit snooze on her alarm and instead turned it off

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I had just left two days earlier for work training in Chicago. I was sitting in class and a man ran in screaming "We've just been attacked! New York has been attacked!" I didn't understand what he meant - bombs? Nuclear attack? Me and a few other people from NY ran to the nearest tv (it was an international training class with people from all over the world), and though none of us knew each other, we were hugging and crying together. I watched the towers collapse thinking that my boyfriend and best friend were in there dying. I felt so helpless, I couldn't reach anyone. I finally got my mom on the phone, and later got a voicemail from my bf (at the time, we're no longer together but still friends) that he was trying to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. I got in touch with my friend's father and broke down crying when I heard she was thankfully out of the office that day.

I was stuck in Chicago for two weeks (they didn't give us much of an option to go home), and cried when my bus (no one wanted to get on a plane) was in view of NY because the skyline had completely changed, and it was my first time dealing with it at "home." I'm thankful that I wasn't in the city that day, but every year I get rushed with that same helpless feeling of being away from everyone I know and love and having to deal with it with strangers for two weeks.

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I was on my way to school. my sis and I drove in together. We saw the second plane hit on the news before we left but nobody knew it was because of terrorism at that time. We drove into Queens and the parkway was dead- only emergency vehicle flying by. We heard on the radio on our way in that a plane hit the pentagon and then we knew we were under attack- it was so scary. We got to school (St. John's) and it was chaos. I remember a girl screaming "SCHOOL'S CANCELED" in a panic. Everyone was running around trying to get in a safe place as soon as possible. Nobody knew what could happen next.

I lost a cousin-in-law who had a 1 year old daughter

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At the time, I worked on 5th Avenue and 26th street. I had gotten in at 7:30, and at around 8:50, one of our colleagues called us from the ferry letting us know about the first plane.

So, we turned on the TV and saw the shots of the hole in the first tower. We didn't think terrorist attack at first - we thought it was an accident.

I had 5 family members in Tower 2, so I started to make calls. Then, Tower 2 got hit, and we knew it was an attack.

It took about an hour, but eventually, we heard that everyone from our family made it out. They had been involved in the 1993 attacks, and knew as soon as the first plane hit, to get out.

Christine and I got in touch and made plans to meet to go home...I was going to walk to her job on 60th and Columbus Circle.

Oddly enough, my parents were on their way to AC, and saw the towers smoking from the highway - they pulled over and put WINS on and heard what was going on and turned around and went home. If they had made it over the Veranzanno, they would have been stuck there.

So, I got a hold of them, told them I was OK, and that I was heading home.

At that point, I remembered that my good friend worked down near there, so I started to call him, and as I did, he showed up at my office.

So, we walked to Christine's together, picked her up, and then walked over the 59th street bridge onto Queens blvd - and then took a local train into Queens where his apt was - and he drove us home

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I was away at school and a friend call us and told us to turn on the tv one of the twin towers were on fire and had been hit by a plane. We scrambled, my mom works 2 blocks from WTC and I immediately contacted her, but we couldn't get through.

My mom saw both planes hit the towers, and both towers collapse.
We didn't know where she was until 6pm that night, and it took my dad 3 hours to get into queens to get her from my uncle's sanitation station.

Whenever we cross over the throgs neck bridge to CT, i always loved looking at the NY skyline and took it such for granted, i cried for a good two years everytime we went back to NY to visit and saw the gaping hole in the sky.


God bless us all and god bless america

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I had just come out of the Wall Street subway station, down a narrow side street from TWC, when the second plane hit. I remember papers falling everywhere, and people running toward me away from the tower. I went to the office, because it was in the other direction, and met people there. I walked up to 14th street, saw the towers burning, people jumping. On the walk we heard about the Pentagon, and someone said the White House, I didn't find out that wasn't true until later. I met up with my then BF and went up on the roof of a friend's building. By then the tower's had collapsed, but we could still see the smoke.

I remember all the flyers, and the mobile morgue by my friend's apartment on the east side.

I remember the first time I got back into my office, two weeks later, and seeing the empty view from my window, where the WTC had been.

I remember working downtown where everything was covered in ashes, where it smelled all the time, where there were soldiers with guns on my lunch line.

I walked back from 14th street to Prospect Park with my BF. I remember we could see the smoke from Brooklyn.

I remember panicking, since my best friend living next to Trinity Church, turned out she had gone to my apartment in Brooklyn and was safe, thank god.

I'll never forget any of it.

Message edited 9/11/2008 1:47:29 PM.

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I was a student at the time, on 9/11 I was working at my internship.

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I was on the Throgs Neck Bridge going to a business meeting in CT. I heard that a plane had crashed into the WTC on the radio, looked to the left and saw the tower with smoke pouring out. I will never forget.

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I lived and worked at Fordham UNiversity in the Bronx. I was in charge of a residence hall and we all had to deal with the frantic students, not being able to let students in or out of the campus, etc. etc. It was a harrowing experience. I had to help everyone else but didn't know where my father was (he was at the WTC the first time in '93) and many many friends and family that were FDNY and NYPD, etc. beacuse you could'nt reach anyone. I couldn't leave campus for several days until they opened the bridges. We smelt the fumes all the way up in the Bronx for weeks.

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i was getting ready to go to class at nassau community college.... watched the TV as the second plane hit... hearing about the first plane from Z100.... then drove to school listening to Z100 broadcasting everything on the air

classes were cancelled that day & for the next day

i remember that for the next few days, driving around LI was almost zombie like. no one honked at each other & no one seemed to get mad at stupid drivers.

Message edited 9/11/2008 2:32:29 PM.

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Central Islip Family Court....Custody hearing regarding the twins and their dad.

Knew a lot of people that were suppose to be in the building at the time but:

One overslept that morning...

One had forgotten their presentation file and was running late...

The other decided to forget his diet that day and indulge in a really big breakfast and wasnt in yet....

Some of the others never made it home...

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I was in school, in the basement, on 40th and Madison. A girl next to me stated that she had gotten a txt on her phone saying that we got bombed. It was confusion for a bit, as to what hapepned and WHERE, but somehow we got the message that the EMPIRE State Building was hit. And DH (BF at the time) was in class across the street from it.

I remember running to his building to try and find him n realizing that the ESB didnt get hit. I walked up stairs to try and find him, and I couldnt. I remember frantically trying to use my phone to call ANYONE-it didnt work.

I decided to go to my fathers building-which was only a few blocks away from me. As I ran toward his building, the second tower fell. I passed my school and a teacher had said my boyfriend had just passed, he was going to my fathers building. So when I got to his building, there was so many ppl outside -and i couldnt find anyone. i went inside and they had turnd the elevators off-i went back outside and found them-and when i saw them, i collapsed on the floor, crying

we then walked to my fathers coworkers friends house(near the UN) where i ate aroz con gandules and my father said-hey, take a swig of vodka, lol

after the 59th st bridge opened again, we walked all the way home to queens.

i remember watching tv that nite and being so sad-and crying at pres. bush's msg-and thinking wow-a president cried.

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I was in my 1Oth grade HS forensics class

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I was in grad school in PA. I remember rolling over in bed and turning on the news. Both towers had been hit. I was scared out of my mind. Every family member in NY was busy. I had no idea what was happening. I went to school to have the teacher cancel class and then I went back to my apartment to wait.
I remember driving and looking out over to the mountains towards NY. I was so helpless. My dad worked in the area and I had no idea what to do.

Then I finally got through to my aunt, also in PA. She knew nothing either. I called and called. Busy busy busy..

then finally a ring, " your call can not be connected due to the tornado or earthquake in the area". That was when I lost it. really. I just wanted to get into a car and drive home.. but I knew I wouldn't get home.

SO I waited and finally I got my mom at work. Everyone was okay and she was getting her stuff together to go volunteer at NYC hospitals to help survivors. SHe is a nurse. But, there was no one to be helped. She was turned away at the place where they were all supposed to meet to get assignments.

I couldn't get into NY to see my family for over a week. Then they finally allowed people over the bridges. I got home as soon as I could. I believe it was the second weekend after 9/11.

I will never forget how good it was to hold my family. Never. And because of that day I will never live far away from my family again.

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Posted by MrsMessina

I was in the Trade Center that morning for about 45 minutes, taking some 'me' time to just sit and read (my dad had dropped me off really early at the subway that morning b/c we were living in Queens at the time, near where my dad works, and my (then BF now) DH was working on Long Island that day so he couldn't drop me off for my 'normal time'.
I got into the WTC early, and went to Borders to sit and read. I bought a book and left. Then I started up the escalator, then went back down to get some breakfast, but then changed my mind and went back up to head to my office in the World Financial Center. To this day I'm sure it was my grandma who died when I was 7 pushing me out- I remember it so well.
I walked across the bridge and into my building- and when I got in the elevator and started up to my floor the whole building shook. I got out and a coworker who I knew, but not well, was running at us crying and pushing us all back in the elevator, which was still going up, not down to the lobby. I remember her panic as she told me she watched a plane hit the WTC and that we all had to get out now. I remember a banker coming by and telling us we had meetings to go to and to get to work, and I remember telling him that my dad had made me promise when I took this job that if anything ever didn't feel 'right' to just get out of the building and that if it meant being fired this was something I had to do. I remember getting out of the elevator and waiting for one that was going down (I was 29 floors up and wasn't thinking about needing to take the stairs).
When I finally got outside I remember seeing hundreds of people just staring up at the building and I remember pieces of paper coming down like confetti. I remember looking up and seeing people jumping out of the building, and I remember just falling back onto the seat b/c it was all too much for my brain to absorb at once.
By that point I put my bag down and I actually had my camera with me, but I didn't know if it was appropriate to take photos. I finally started to take a couple of pictures b/c I couldn't believe what was happening and then I heard it... that awful and terrifying noise of the 2nd plane, a sound I will never forget. Then I saw it hit and at that point just grabbed my bag and started running for my life.
About 12 (or more- who knows how many) blocks away I bumped into 2 women who worked in my building but I wasn't in their group. I had covered for someone in their group the week before and helped the one out with a lot of work... which thrilled her. She took me home with her, and allowed me to call my family so my dad could come pick me up. We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge and I remember stopping to take more pictures.... I still have them, but can't bring myself to look at them often.
My cell phone didn't work and I couldn't get through to anyone- so once we got into Brooklyn aways I found a payphone with less than 10 people on it, so I told them I HAD to stop and call my mom. They waited for me and I still can't talk about the moment on the phone with my mom without breaking into hysterics. I remember her just screaming and crying, and that nothing I could say could calm her. She thought I might've been dead and said people were calling her all morning and everyone was panicking.
I finally made it to this woman's house and she gave me mangos, which I had never had before, and will probably never have again. I remember her letting me use her phone and calling my (now) FIL to tell him I was ok and that my dad was coming to get me. I remember him crying on the phone also. I wasn't able to get through to my DH until much later in the day b/c he's freelance and his cell phone wasn't working either. Once I got back to Queens I was able to see him and my DB and SIL. We all just fell on the floor holding eachother and crying. We drove out to where I live now that night to see my mom and DH and I stayed with my parents for days. This day always makes everything feel like it happened yesterday.
God Bless America today and always. May all of those who lost their lives rest in peace and never be forgotten. For all of those who are fighting for our country as well as those who do their part to keep our country safe, God Bless You All.

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I was at work on Long Island.
At first a teacher came in and said the WTC got bombed. Then we heard it was a plane (thought it was a small plane)..I worked in day care. We had no TVs just radio.
Turned the radio on and then the classroom phone started ringing off the hook.
Honeslty, I don't even know how we functioned taking care of the children (I had infants), but, we did.
We were on lockdown until the afternoon.
We didn't know if several of our friends and family members were alive.
Thank Goodness everyone was OK.
Scary and Very Sad Day.

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I was 10 days into my my freshman year of college in CT. I had just gone to Psych, I got an orange juice for breakfast in the cafeteria (my parents had brought me bagels from NY that past weekend), and some guy told me on the elevator back to my dorm that a plane hit the Twin Towers, and then another one hit it. He was kind of weird, so I didn't believe it at first, until I got to my room and turned on the TV.....

The only one I could get in touch with was my best friend, who had also just started college. When I got in touch with my mom, the first words out of my mouth were, "I want to come home."

I never felt so far away from my family in my life.

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Posted by BellaRock

I was still living at home with my parents. I was asleep when the first plane hit. My mom came and woke me up. I got to the tv just as the second plane hit.

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I was a sophomore in college. My government professor mentioned something had happened at my 9:30 class, but didn't really go into it much, and I just kind of brushed it off.

I found when I met my friends for lunch and just walked around in a daze for the rest of the day until I could get in touch with my family (my brother was already stationed in the middle east at that time).