9/11 Where we'e you?

[rafaelmfernandez]

Have any stories to share? Yours or a family members?

[Kermit]

I have no very interesting stories, but I was only 5 years old and I came back from school. My Mother, Dad and Neighbours were wachting the news channel in the living room. I joined and asked what was going on. Suddenly I saw two burning towers on the television screen and moments later, they collapsed... The first thing I did about an hour later, was taking a pencil and a sheet of paper and I made a drawing of it.

[met police999]

I was one when it happened but I've studied it for school and out of interest but the most amazing story I heard was the survivor from the north tower collapse

[Voodoo_Operator]

I was in 10th grade (15 y/o) back then. Rumors had already been spreading around between classes as some teachers had seen the events on TV in the teachers' lounge. The principal went on the PA to announce what had happened. I clearly remember him saying "the World Trade Center in New York has been destroyed"... we were shocked and incredulous at the same time, it sounded more like a scenario out of a Roland Emmerich movie than like something that could happen in real life.

It felt very strange - we knew that the world would never be the same from that point on. Rumors kept pouring during the day, adding to that uneasy feeling. There were rumors that other countries like the UK or France had been attacked; that there were more planes on the way (at some point someone said Toronto was attacked, which made us worry that Montreal might be next); that the attackers were from a japanese cult... you get the picture. Some of us feared that this might have been the starting point of World War 3 and that we would soon experience the dire consequences that this would bring. At the end of the day, when I got home and finally saw the footage and got the facts straight, I realized the true extent of what had happened that day.

[met police999]

I can't imaging coming home from school laughing etc get in and seeing that on tv It would be so depressing

[BritishArmyReserveCadets]

I had just got back from getting some new shoes with my nan and we turned on the TV and at first we thought it was a movie or something, never thought anything like it would ever happen. RIP

[ZackBowden]

I was only 3 when that happened and I don't remember much, but my Mom was at work when someone was checking the news and said "Oh my God, a plane just hit the WTC!" and everyone thought it was an accident. And then when the second plane hit everybody knew something was going on. Then the Pentagon got hit and everybody knew it was terrorists. Then the first tower collapsed. Then the second tower collapsed an hour later. And then Flight 93 crashed into a field in Shanksville,PA with the hero crew that saved the plane from hitting Washington,D.C. Then, after all of the confusion; the recovery efforts started, for a long time.

FDNY 343 Never Forget.

[met police999]

I feel like Wachting a documentery on 9/11 any suggestions?

[rafaelmfernandez]

9/11 firemens story

[met police999]

i had to share this this really does move you just that bit

[njboy13]

I was at school when I started hearing about it. I went to the payphone to call my Mom and ask if she's heard from my Dad, because my Dad was going into NYC for business that day, at the World Trade Center. After the first tower collapsed, and my mom, brothers, and I still heard nothing from my Dad. My brothers and I left school to go home. Finally, hours later around 10pm, my dad finally came home. He was soaked, and just as emotional and scared as the rest of us.

Here's my Dad's story:

He arrived at the World Trade Center PATH train station. He got out with everyone else and there were security guards, police officers, etc, pushing everybody out, telling everyone to leave the building. There was also a smell of smoke and a haze throughout those bottom floors. He assumed nothing of it, just assumed maybe there was a small fire in one of the stores or something. But After he got to straight level, Fire trucks were starting to arrive so he could sort of care less (Like any other New York businessman).

He walked outside, looked back at the building where he saw the smoke and flames coming from the top floors. Again, he assumed very little, assumed it was just a fire. But then he began hearing people talking about a plane crash, when he heard a plane coming. He looked up with everyone else, and my Dad watched the second plane hit the second tower. That's when him and everybody else knew this wasn't an accident. He was either on the block, or within a few blocks as he heard what he describes as the "unforgettable" sound of bodies hitting the pavement; the people that jumped out of the towers. He was uptown a bit, just finding a way out because nobody could get in or out of manhattan; the bridges and train lines were shut down.

From a distance he watched both towers collapse. Towards the end of the day, he finally heard that train were running to Hoboken, NJ. He got on that train, then when he got to Hoboken, there were firefighters, cops, etc splitting everybody off the train up - People within a certain number of blocks of the World Trade Center, and people who weren't near it. Because my Dad was near it, he went to the line for the people near the WTC. At the end of that line was the Hoboken Fire Department, hosing down everybody in that line to get any debris and/or whatever may have come from anything, the dust, the smoke, the generally poor air quality. So they hosed down my Dad, and then my Dad got a taxi back home. Finally arriving home at 10pm; and me, my mom, my neighbors, and my brothers had never been so happy to see him.

Sadly, my next door neighbor wasn't so lucky; He worked in the same place as my Dad and was going to the same meeting as my Dad, except my neighbor didn't make it. My neighbor was killed along with one of my friend's parents.

Thats my 9/11 story.

[met police999]

I'm sorry must have been unbelievable I'm sorry for your neighbours loss and isnt Carlos bakery in Hoboken?

[FDNYpower]

I was there and I'm sorry but I really don't wanna say anything about it:/

[met police999]

That's cool man so that means weve got a 9/11 hero on te forum btw I Wached the firemens story that's a great doc I was almost in tears about orio palmers daughter RIP

[Sawdbuster]

I was in Kindergarden or first grade, and all I remember from that day was apparently we were let out of school early, and what I remember is being in the play room with my brother playing with the Funrise Fire Engines my dad bought us and my mom coming in and saying dad's going to work, and he may not be back for a few weeks. I asked her why it was so long, and she said he was going to NY. He left with the FEMA USAR Team and came back three weeks later. Then He was back for a week and left for another two with the Ironworkers. I don't remember much, but I when I got old enough to really understand it, I didn't wanna be a firefighter anymore.

Now, I look back on it, and as scary, and hellish it may get, I am going to be a firefighter. I'm gonna do whatever it takes, because it is who I wanna be and it's all I know what to do.

Never Forget.

[met police999]

Did he go as a rescue worker then?

[Sawdbuster]

he went with FEMA, which runs a Urban Search And Rescue Team. Then after he came back he left with the iron workers union, They did a lot to remove metal so the FF and bucket brigade could get to the trapped