story1191.xml

story1191.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

I had just stepped out of the shower when the first plane hit. I woke my Wife who works for a foreign news agency to tell her a plane had crashed into the WTC.

When the second plane hit, my Wife threw on clothes and hit the road, and I knew I wouldn't see her for days.

I watched the news reports until it was time to wake my son. I put on cartoons for him so he wouldn't be watching whatever might happen next on the tv screen.

My Wife called to tell me that they had hit the Pentagon and that there were preliminary reports that Camp David had been hit (which turned out to be the plane that crashed in PA).

For the first time, my hair stood up on end as I realized we were under a full fledged attack. I turned on the TV in the bedroom just as the first on the towers fell.

I told my son that "some very bad people had attacked the country" and I told him he was safe as I tried to convince myself.

The children at school were so upset. The younger ones were talking animatedly about the explosions caused by planes hitting the buildings and the older ones were trying to deal with the enormity of what was happening. The adults were equally as shocked and afraid as we tried to be there for the children.

I turned on Howard Stern. The radio station was still playing the live feed from New York. It was comforting that in the midst of the attacks that Howard was still on the air giving reports as to what was happening and it was as close to New York as I could get.

I didn't break down until I was almost at work, thinking about all those people who must have died when the towers fell. At that time the estimates were that tens of thousands might be dead and I kept thinking that was like a small city being wiped out.