story6203.xml

story6203.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I was working that day in my office and I had the cleaning lady that day who came in at 8:50 Am on Sept. 11 and told me that there was this big fire in a building in NY and that I need to watch the news. I turned on the TV and saw the tragic sight of the North tower burning and they were saying in the news that a plane hit that tower an apparently it was a mistake by the pilot being so low. As I was watching I saw this other plane going towards the South tower and I thought this was a replay of the incident and that I could not imagine what was going to happen. My mother was with me that day watching the TV and the announcer on the news was confused as well and did not know what to say. The news then started to realize what happened but said that this was another plane that was too low and hit the tower and then they said oh no it seems that this is a terrorist act and that they were not sure and they had the word that the president was going to speak and confirm everything they are saying. President Bush came in and announced that this appeared to be hijacked planes and that they are terrorists act. My mother and I were stunned and were mesmerized in front of that TV. As we were watching the news events, we heard a big sound that made us jump off our feet and I thought it was a thunder sound but I said to my mom how come when it is sunny out we hearing that sound and we did not know until they announced that the Pentagon was hit as well and that was the sound of the explosion that we heard. I live close to the Pentagon in Virginia off of the I395 that is about five miles from my house. We also heard the news of the plane in Pennsylvania and were sadden and scared of what's happenning.

My husband was in Japan that day working for the Navy as a civilian and he was up watching the Japanese news and he did not understand a word. All he saw was the fire coming from the first tower and then also the second one. In his mind, he thought that this was just a new movie that the Japanese were making and that this was not for real but fake. The news started converting their language to English and he was worried and chocked. He tried to call us in the USA and couldn't that day and it was the same here when I tried to contact him. The Navy contacted my husband immediately and told him to stay in the hotel for now and that he could not return home the next day which he was planning to for security reasons. He was traped in that hotel for four days until they were able to get him on a plane back to the USA.

My children were in school and I wanted to go and get them but they said in the news that the safest place for the children is the school and that they don't need to watch all the events because they will be scared and I waited until almost the end of their day and I ran to school to bring them back and keep them in my arms. My 12 years old knew about what happened from school but my 10 years old did not know anything since they did not want to scare those elementary school kids.