Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 — I Will Never Forget

Where were you on September 11, 2001? The memory of 9-11 is still etched in my brain.

I was awakened by a phone call from a co-worker telling me to “turn on the tv.” Drowsy, I asked, “what channel?” and she said, “all of them.” I had never been near the Twin Towers, and I’d only seen them from a distance and had no idea how many people were inside, or the impact such a disaster would have on them.  My co-worker, on the other hand was very familiar. She had lunched on the top floor with her businessman husband and grieved for everyone immediately.

As she explained it to me, her cable cut out and I watched in horror as a second airliner approached then hit the second tower. I told her, “This was no accident, another plane hit the other building – it was on purpose.” She screamed and sobbed and I was just paralyzed, staring at the screen, as the desperate victims waving their hands through the broken windows and then horrified as many began to jump to escape the heat and flames.

I recall the conversations I had with my co-worker, Peter, as I gave him blow-by-blow reports of what was happening in New York, then in Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania. The newsroom at the newspaper office did not have televisions and when I first told him that the South Tower had imploded he didn’t believe me.

Then I told him that the North Tower was “gone.” By then the bosses had begun watching the horror on the internet and every editor stopped whatever they were working on to find a local angle from his or her town to include in a 911 edition of the papers.

For me, Tuesday was deadline day, so I didn’t have enough time to find Orange, Bethany, or Woodbridge residents with a personal connection to the tragedy.

Instead, I wrote a column documenting my day from the time I woke up to the conversations with my co-worker and his reaction to what I was telling him; and finally the numbness I felt that day.

Oh, The Kindness

What I remember most from the 911 attacks is just how kind everyone was for nearly an entire week afterward. No one was screaming at others at stop signs, on the road, or in stores.

My children and I answered the call when the donation of heavy work gloves, dust filter masks, bottled water, and socks (to help protect the search and rescue and cadaver dogs’ feet).

In 2001, my kids were 14 and 15 years old. They knew what was going on, they witnessed it on TV at school and, I remember they didn’t need a lot of reassurance. They were upset but didn’t dwell on it.

It’s been 24 years, and although I would like to go and pay my respects, I have not been back to that area of New York since that day.

For everyone who was too young to remember and for all the children who were born after 2001, here is a timeline of what happened that day 19 years ago:

8:46:26 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 11 impacts the north side of the North Tower (1 World Trade Center) of the WTC between the 94th and 98^thfloors. American Airlines Flight 11 was flying at a speed of 490 miles per hour (MPH).

9:02:54 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 175 impacts the south side of the South Tower of the WTC between the 78^th and 84^th floors at a speed of over 500 MPH. Parts of the plane including an engine leave the building from its north side, to be found on the ground up to six blocks away.

The Pentagon in Washington, DC gets hit by American Airlines Flight 77 at 9:37 a.m.

9:59:04 a.m.: The south tower of the World Trade Center suddenly collapses, plummeting into the streets below. A massive cloud of dust and debris quickly fills lower Manhattan. It is later explained (disinformation) that the collapse was not directly caused by the impact, but the intense heat caused by the fire fueled by the jet’s fuel weakening the steel support beams of the concrete floors. The WTC towers were built to withstand a 707 being flown into them. A 767 carries almost the same amount of fuel as a 707.

The Palisades seismic data recorded a 2.1 magnitude earthquake during the 10-second collapse of the South Tower at 9:59:04 and a 2.3 quake during the 9-second collapse of the North Tower at 10:28:31 a.m.

10:06.05 a.m.: According to seismic data, United Airlines Flight 93 crashes near Shanksville, PA, about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

Here is a breakdown of the victims: