UBB.Developers Forums General Discussion Chit Chat A look back at 9-11

Feel free to share your story of the events of a year ago.

9-11: I was at my office working, when a co-worker said that a plane hit the trade center. At first I thought it was a small plane and was an accident. I turned on the radio and searched some of the newswires where I found out that it was indeed not a small plane. I remember posting on here shortly after hearing the news.

When the second plane hit, people in the office were shocked. Someone had moved a television set into the lunch room where a large portion of the staff watched in bewilderment as the towers burned, then fell. From the south side of the building you could see the smoke billowing in the sky. Sirens were screaming not stop. We were all in shock.

After listening to the news broadcasts for a while, we decided to leave the city. Police had locked down the mass transit system, so the only way to leave the island was to try to walk across one of the bridges. Not knowing whether or not we would even be able to, my wife and I began what would be about a 7 miles walk across the Queensboro Bridge into Queens. I remember walking across the bridge, with thousands of other people. People were hanging off of the backs/sides of trucks in order to try to hitch a ride. People stopping at the railing to look back, take pictures, or catch their breath.

The mob moved slowly, as you could only walk as fast as the people in front of you. We stopped a couple times for water, gatorade, granola bars. We tried to find a pay phone, but none were working and still had lines of people hoping to get through. I had a small portable radio, and my wife and I shared listening to the events, updates and news.

We had no idea how to get home, but figured out best bet was to see if we could find a train running out of Queens. We finally were able to use a phone at a car dealership and get in touch with family, who told us they would try to come pick us up, not knowing which roads were open. After waiting another 3 hours, we were picked up by my brother-in law, who worked across the street from the WTC. He was on the subway heading downtown, when the planes hit, and had to evacuate the train. He walked across a bridge into Brooklyn where he was able to get a train to Queens, then home.

We were fortunate to not have been directly affected. Although it took us 7 hours to get home, we did get home that day...not everyone did.

God Bless America

9-11: I was at home, and Webnet (IRC Server) sent a newsflash about the crash, so I opened up the TV and called my friends and we were all shocked...

I was at school at the time, it was the lunch break... I heard about the attack on the WTC, but didn't believe it, because it came from a person I didn't trust, so I didn't take much notice. Then halfway through periods 5 and 6, news of the attack on the Pentagon reached us on the hockey courts via a prefect, then we realised it was all true... I got home later that night, only to see the towers falling.

Possibly the most disturbing day of my life.

I was in the midst of remolding my apartment by myself and the night prior (9/10) I was up to about 4AM finishing the floor tile grouting in the new kitchen.

I was completely exhausted and I didn't want to be disturbed. I turned off my pager and cell phone and took the phone off the hook.

The next morning (9/11) I didn't get out of bed until around 11AM (Eastern). Once awake I started working in the kitchen again, now installing the cabinets and counter-tops. While working I was listening to MP3s, I never turned on the radio or TV, and I forgot to place the phone back in the receiver.

I didn't find out about the attacks until around 2PM. At that time my mother came over in hysterics and screaming about how she couldn't get a hold of me, wanting to know what the draft age is, and am I going to be drafted? I then made the mistake of telling her if there was ever a draft I would gladly go (without even knowing what happened) and she had to argue with me about that for about 20 minutes. It wasn't until that was over I finally got out of her what happened.

She told me, "planes hit both of the World Trade Towers, they both collapsed, everyone in lower NYC is dead!" I just couldn't believe it. She went on, "Planes also hit the pentagon, more planes are missing, and they don't know where they're going to hit next. Bush is in AirForce One flying all over the country because they don't want anyone to know where he is."

In complete denial I went to the TV to turn it on. Luckily one of my TiVos was already on Fox News Channel so I could review the last half hour of coverage. Even seeing it, I still couldn't believe it.

To me it looked too much like movie special effects. Having been in both of them I wondered, how is it was possible for just two planes to bring down the entire twin towers in such a short time. Still in denial I started switching channels to make sure it wasn't some type of hoax like War of the Worlds.

The more I changed the channels, and the more I saw of it, the denial wore off and shock started to set in.

As I was watching the coverage all mom could say is, "See...see...it happened." I just thought to myself at least "everyone in lower NYC" wasn't dead as mom originally said. Mothers :rolleyes:

I was down here in Abilene at school. I'd just gotten out of the shower, getting ready for class. My best friend came down the hall and asked if I'd been watching TV, told me a plane had crashed into the towers. I figured it was just a small plane or something, at first, some freak accident. I turned it on and just stood in shock, watching the towers burning. After a few minutes, it cut from reporters and recorded footage of the plane flying into the second tower, to the live camera as the first tower collapsed.

It is a very eerie feeling to walk down the hall of your dorm, seeing and hearing every TV tuned to the same channel, watching something as horrible as that. On my way to class I passed through the Campus Center and there was a crowd of a couple hundred students all crowded around the TV just staring blankly up at it. The dorm is one thing, but when every TV on campus is still on that same channel, its just even more creepy.

---Jamin

I was getting ready for work when my brother called me when the first plane hit. I turned on the tv just in time for the second plane... I was in a daze like most people all day and into the rest of the week.

I just went to bed before the first news flash about 11:30 my time came on. I really wish I had saw the first one.

Next day I woke up to a new world, a terror attack. All I could do is sit and watch the events. I even went late to school because of it and even at school we were allowed to watch it.

I was so scared that day, it was like none of us were ever safe anymore. I looked to my friends to comfort each other.

Today, we had a minute silence to reflect. But now it's all over TV, and there is no way to escape it. It's almost like we HAVE to watch all these programs. I'm afraid that Sept 11 might not be just a day of rememberence, but a great day for Media to annoy the crap out of you over and over again.

You ever heard of turning off your TV if it bothers you. I guess becuase you live in Australia you might view it differently. But please keep your stupid comments to yourself.

We can't ask him to do that because he wouldn't be able to make any more posts at all. :rolleyes:

I can recall being glued to the television for days. I was constantly flipping back and forth between CNN, CNBC, MSNBC and some of the network channels. Most of us will recall that all of the networks were running exclusive coverage of the events, all other programming was cancelled.

A few weeks later, we were overseas, where the only English speaking channel was CNN. We happened to be abroad when the US retalliated, so we were concerned about how we would be able to get back home, as well as response to the US attacks.

Not a day has gone by that I haven't read an article, searched some of the news sites, caught the news to see what new was happening.

Not a day has gone by that I haven't thought about what happened, the lives lost and the damage caused.

Powerful tribute site:

http://cantcryhardenough.com/

I didn't mean to offend anyone, I'm sorry.

no problem... everyone reacts to stressful events differently.

i found at while waiting outside with some friends waiting for school to start. a friend came up and told us all a plane crashed into the WTC. like all of you, i also thought it was an accident with some small plane, but when i went to first perios, we turned on the news, and to our amazement, we found out the truth. we watched the news the rest of the day in school. it was a really weird day for me.

How do you concertrate on work when these things happened? I couldn't work at all.

I heard of the attacks about 12 hours after it happened. I just went to bed right after the attacks, then I woke up late, and my parents were glued to the TV (we have, everyday, 30 minutes of ABC, which the Japanese channel left on for the rest of the day or so) I had to do school, so after an hour of watching TV, went and did school, then when I got done, went right back to the TV.

I wasn't effected directly, but a close friend of my parent's friend was I think like less than 80 feet from were the plane hit the Pentagon. She got out of the Pentagon while helping an elderly lady.

~Jon