story882.xml

story882.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-07-11

Although I live on the outskirts of Shanksville, PA I was at home that morning with my baby boy Dawson who was one at that time. It was a georgeous day and a gentle breeze was blowing outside. My other children were off to school for the morning and I just settled in to watch the TODAY show on television. I can remember watching the interruption of news to tell us about the first plane in the first tower. I called my husband who works at the local state corrections facility and he said that they knew nothing about it there. I then hung up and went back to watching tv when the second plane hit the second towner. That is when I became concerned knowing that something "was not an accident" at that time. I was glued to my tv the whole morning. Suddenly, my house shook. (Around our area it isn't uncommon for a large coal truck to tip over and create the ground to shake hard and that is what I thought it was at first) I then called my husband again and asked him if he thought I should be concerned as I was standing on my front porch speaking to him. I was concerned as we live near the turnpike tunnels on the mountains and wondered if we were entering into some kind of war if I should worry. Then I saw a huge black cloud move very slowly across the air over the distance. I kept thinking that something didn't feel right. "What was this?" Then the tv reported that another plane crashed somewhere near Pittsburgh, PA and I thought it was too coincidental, the black cloud to be anything else but the plane...I just knew. Then a bit later, the report said Shanksville, PA. Still being in my night clothes, I slipped a pair of shorts on, grabbed the baby and a bottle and out the door we went to collect my other children at Shanksville school. My heart was pounding and my mind was over reacting. I was driving irratically on a road that wasn't fit to go over 30 MPH, but these were my kids and this was my town. I was hoping to pull onto main street to see my familiar sites and to see people going about their business as usual. As I pulled onto Main St. life looked okay and as soon as I spotted a neighbor of mine who was picking up a child from daycare, I knew that our school was still intact. When I got to the school, it was a circus. Parents quickly signing out kids for the day till they found out what was happening in our sleep little town. My children were frightened as well, telling me that books fell out of their desk and that a light bulb fell out of a fixture. They knew that a plane crashed but they were very confused as to why so many were scared and pulling children out of school. Teachers did their best to explain the least to children without making them scared. As I went to check on my sister's house along Skyline Road (the road that the plane crashed) with my children, I was surprised not to see emergency workers flooding the area yet. It still seemed quite still except for the debris in her yard. I will never forget that feeling standing there and it became a reality that terror was litterally in our backyards. Then a fireman directed me and the children to evacuate the area...