Where were you on 9/11/2001?

[Zemke Fan]

I was with my client, Iceland's Minister of Fisheries, on our way to the Rayburn House Office Building for a meeting with a Congressman.

At about 9:05 am we were in a taxi making our way towards the Capitol for a 9:30 meeting. We made it as far as Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street. Panicked workers from the Old Executive Office Building were streaming out into the streets. Many women were barefoot, their high-heels in hand.

At that time, Arni's cell phone rang. It was Armann, the Minister's political assistant. He was watching CNN and advised us about the World Trade Center attacks. Washington was already in chaos and near-gridlock. People were everywhere.

We had the taxi take us to the Embassy of Iceland where we watched the rest of the morning's events unfold in the Ambassador's office. It was beyond surreal.

If Flight 93 (the fourth plane) had made it to Washington, I could have been on the fourth floor of the Rayburn HOB in an office overlooking the Capitol Building. Five years later, it still leaves me shivering to think about the what ifs...

 

[Viviene]

I was working at home transcribing medical reports. My daughters (ages 4 and 3 at the time) were playing in my office. My MIL called me to tell me. I live in Pennsylvania not far from the NY and NJ border. All our TV signals come from NY and we lost WABC (their transmitter was on one of the towers). I could not reach my family in upstate NY and I could not reach my grandmother who lives in Frederick, MD quite close to Camp David and in the same town as Fort Detrick.

DH was sent home from work in NJ. I remember filling up our gas tanks, filling up our gas containers, propane tanks and buying lots of staples at the supermarket such as dried milk, beans, etc. DH went and bought ammunition at the local gun shop.

My cousin, Michael, works for Otis Elevator. He had spent the last 3 weeks servicing the elevators in the twin towers. He was 2 blocks away in another building when the planes hit. My Uncle Robert had been scheduled to fly out on the plane that went down in Pennsylvania. He decided to spend another day at home with my aunt and on September 10 rescheduled his flight for September 12.

I was scared for my childrens' future and I remember thinking that this must be the way my parents felt during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

My husband was a volunteer fireman in Guttenberg, NJ before we married. He trained a lot over in NYC and we found out over time that many of the men that he trained with there had perished. It weighs heavy on him and I know that the last couple of days he has been very quiet, reflective and at times tearful.

It's something that has touched us all too closely to ever, ever forget.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I was sitting in my office doing email and eating my breakfast, with the Today Show playing in the background, while my then-husband was upstairs getting ready to leave for work. I was half-listening to Matt Lauer interviewing Richard Hack about his book on Howard Hughes and thinking I might want to get that book when the interruption came saying that a plane had hit one of the towers.

I thought immediately of the plane that hit the Empire State Building in 1945, and couldn't figure out how that kind of a mistake could be made nowadays -- and I yelled upstairs to my husband about what had happened. He came down and we stood in my office watching the first bulletins for a bit, and then he left for work. I then sat back down and watched the unfolding story. As Katie Couric was interviewing an eyewitness via phone, I saw the second plane hit the other tower, and I sent a frantic email to my husband about what was happening. We kept in touch all the rest of the day as the events continued to develop, and I didn't move away from the television for the rest of the day. About 10:30 in the morning, I managed to find some blank tapes, and started recording the coverage -- and I ended up recording continuously for the next seven days.

I had nightmares for weeks after the attacks. I've never looked at the tapes.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

I woke up that morning, checked my e-mail and there was an e-mail from my friend Casey in Hawaii, that basically said "What now?" I didn't have a TV in my room so checked the Drudge Report and could barely believe my eyes. I walked out into the living room where one of my landlord's friends was sleeping on the couch. I just said "Turn on the TV."

We all basically just sat around in a state of shock, chain-smoking.

I live under the flight path of the Van Nuys airport. I'll never forget the silence overhead.

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

I was a layabout student sitting in my house watching terrible daytime TV when all the channels were interrupted by the special news bulletin just after the first plane struck. I sat glued, watching in utter disbelief as the second plane struck, and texted everyone I know. I watched from that moment at about 2pm our time, for the rest of the day...saw the towers collapse, everything. I felt strangely detached, like it wasn't real. It only sunk in the next day I think.

 

[Nathan Flowers]

.

I was in undergraduate school. Had an 8:30 class that got out at 9:45. Walked to my 9:55 class in Southern Politics and began to read the newspaper when my friend came in and said "You may as well stop reading that newspaper."

My professor, who was unaware of what was going on that morning, then came in and started the class. He lectured for the next 75 minutes about the Hayes-Tilden contested election of 1876. At 11:10 am he finally let us go, and I ran to the media center auditorium and found out what all had occurred.

 

[crazylegsmurphy]

I was sleeping...and my ex-girlfriend kept calling me and when I finally got frustrated enough to answer she's like, "Someone smashed a plane into the world trade center!"

And I was like, "What, what are you talking about, the world what now? Why are you calling me so early?"

Then she explained and kept telling me to get up, and so I did....and I know I am going to get flack for this, but all I kept thinking was, "That looks so cooool!"

 

[Baron Kurtz]

asleep in Lafayette Indiana when "it" happened. I initially thought it was a joke when someone told me about it and i laughed. I stopped laughing quite soon afterwards as i realised it was real. Funny how we respond to these things.

rest of the day in my lab.

bk

 

[raiderrescuer]

Working...

I was at work and had several Inmates tell me about it. At first I thought they were playing a bad practical joke but then management sat up a TV room and allowed all staff to take turns as we were given breaks to go watch the reports on TV.

Quite Shocking.

Got home around 12:00 noon and sat numb watching the re-broadcast.

 

[geo]

I was home having tea, when I heard on the radio that there'd been an accident, a plane had flown into a building. I went downstairs and turned on CNN, saw smoke coming out of the building, only to see minutes later a plane hitting the other building. My first thaught was that it was a replay, but I realized I'd seen it live when smoke started pouring out of both buildings. I kept watching the whole thing, and saw live the buildings going down.

However, the weirdest moment of the day for me was when I went to my grad course, later in the evening. At university, everything was normal, as if nothing had happened. I think that I was the only one in the classroom that had seen what had happened, people weren't even talking about the events.

 

[Barry]

I was at work in Herndon, VA. I went downstairs in our building to get a snack from the cafeteria and the room was packed - everyone was watching the TV montiors.

I drove back to my home in Washignton, DC later that day. Before I crossed the Key Bridge I was stopped by two police officers. As you can imagine, very few people were actually going into the city. One of the officers checked my ID and then he said "Try to have a better day."

Barry

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

I was at home, having coffee. I never watch any of the morning shows, but for some reason I was watching one that took place in NYC. I saw the news of the first attack within seconds of it happening. Tim called me, I told him to skip work and come home. We weren't roommates at the time. I met him at his apartment and we sat on his couch all day watching the news. I also spent a lot of that day trying to get in touch with my sister, who lives in NYC. I finally heard from her at 4 in the afternoon.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I was doing what I am now, sitting in front of my computer at this job. I had taken my kids to the NY Renaissance Faire the weekend before, and was in the process of writing email finalizing an agreement to have one of the clothing vendors I had met make me a hooded cloak in a nonstandard color, medium gray. (I was hopeful that the soon-to-open first Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings films would usher in an atmosphere in which my desire to finally occasionally dress like my inner wizard wouldn't seem totally nuts!) My sister - a dedicated news junkie - called me within minutes of the first tower being hit. Like Lizzie, I thought it was like the 1945 accident, until the second tower was hit... I couldn't get to a TV, most of the Web news sites were useless, and phone service in Westchester was hit and miss...

The office closed at 1:00, and I went home and watched TV for a couple of days like everybody else. In some ways, it was like being 8 years old when JFK died all over again... I was very lucky, after a lifetime of living in the NYC area, of not having anybody I know personally affected (except for my best friend, who lives in the East Village, and it was more a matter of lousy air, the terrible shock, and general inconvenience for him than anything really serious.)

And here it is five years later. Some things are very different, but some aren't - e.g., my kids and I went to the RennFaire yesterday (and yes, I wore my cloak!)

 

[McPeppers]

I was in period 1, Roman Catholicism...in Highschool.

Its odd remembering these events... just not too long ago I was nearly getting exploded headed to the Tube in London

 

[Elaina]

I was in bed cuddling with my 2 year old sick son and listening to the radio and arguing with my ex-husband about going to NYC to see my best friends.

At first I thought it was a publicity stunt for a new movie. So I got up (ex didn't) toted my son into the living room and watched TV and tried to call my friends, one of whom had his very first day in his very first job after graduating college at the WTC.

Then I sat and seriously thought about my life and what I wanted. I filed for divorce the next day.

Elaina

 

[CharlieH.]

I was starting high school at the time. I didn't know about it until a friend came along franctically yelling that a plane had crashed in one of the twin towers. I asked him what sort of plane (thinking it was something small like a Lear jet) and he replied "jumbo jet!!". At first, like Doc and Lizzie I thought of the Empire State crash, until the teacher gave us the hour to watch the news.
My friends and I headed to the cafeteria where there were dozens of people clustered around TV screens watching CNN. We all panicked (this was around the time the second plane hit). People were screaming all over the place and there were probably a few that fainted.
When I returned home, I couldn't get my eyes off the news for the rest of the day.

 

[Lauren]

Getting ready to commute up to LA for my classes. For some reason I was at home with my mom instead of at the flat where i had roomates. Now I'm glad I wasn't downtown LA.

 

[Honey Doll]

I was walking from my office to Court and got stopped on the steps by another attorney from my firm. At first the thought was that it was accidental. The Courthouse got closed down and we went back to the office and turned on the tv. I had only just found out a couple weeks before that I was pregnant with my first baby. My husband-- who is a former military pilot was just devestated and made me come home from work. We spent the rest of the day glued to CNN.

Honey Doll

 

[scotrace]

I had the singular experience of getting the news at my office and then watching it all unfold nearby in a room filled with fire fighters. We all watched in horror, but watching those men endure the sights that meant the deaths of so many of their colleagues was something I won't ever forget.

I remember the terrible anger I felt, and the dawning realization that we were now at war.

 

[MasonM]

I was at a warehouse in NJ right across the river from NYC waiting for my freight to be unloaded.