story7782.xml

story7782.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-17

I was traveling on business and was in Tampa FL. I live in Northern Virginia. When the first plane hit and we heard about it we went to a TV, saw the images, and thought it had to be an accident. We went back to work. When we heard about the second plane, we knew it could not be an accident. Someone found a radio and we put that in our room and tried to work while listening to every news flash. Needless to say we did not get a lot of actual work done. When the Pentagon was hit I immediately called my Father-in-Law to check on my Mother-in-Law since she works there frequently. Luckily she was OK. Several others in my group had relatives in Virginia and DC and we were all very lucky that no lost anyone.

After several days of waiting for the airpoirts to open, I finally drove home with a co-worker. The hotel we stopped in was overwhelmed since they usually have very slow weekly traffic. The hotel was soon full and meal service was very slow since they only had 2 servers and 1 cook on duty. The talk in the hotel and dining room was all about 9-11. Several people were trying to get back to FL and were in New York when it happened.

Oddly enough the mood of the travelers was very upbeat. I guess releif at being alive.