story11309.xml

story11309.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2005-02-22

On September 11, 2001, I worked in Toronto, Canada and was on my way to downtown Toronto to begin my day of elevator inspections at the Air Canada Centre. Enroute I was listening to Howard Stern on the radio when I overheard Howard mention something about a plane hitting the World Trade Centre. At first I was somewhat confused and remember thinking that "Howard has really lost it now" as I thought this was one of his crazy jokes that didn't make any sense to me. When I arrived at the building and went to sign out the keys, it became apparent that this was no joke and that it was very real. The manager of building services and I discussed whether or not today would be appropriate for inspections, and I ended up starting the inspection process, with the understanding that I may be asked to leave at some point. While in the elevator hoistway (shaft) of my second elevator inspection, I was contacted by the manager on my cell phone, who requested that I leave the premises immediately as a second plane had hit the WTC and that downtown Toronto was being evacuated, as a cautious safety measure by the Mayor of Toronto. I thought this was somewhat weird as Toronto was not even in the U.S. and did not seem to me as a target for terrorism, but I complied with the manager's request and left the premises immediately. I remember driving back home from Toronto at approx. 9:40 a.m. thinking that it was strange to experience the traffic "rush" leaving the city at such an early hour. When I arrived home I spent the majority of that day watching the news in disbelief. All I could think of for a long time afterwards was how terrible it was that such a cowardly act as 911 could cause such mayhem and fear around the world; enough to make totally unrelated cities evacuate for fear that they might too experience a terrorist attack.