story2282.xml

story2282.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

Preface: I grew up 35 miles Northeast of NYC and at the
time of the attack, I worked for a company that
rented medical equipment to hospitals.


I was sitting on Route 3 South in Massachusetts. I had just turned on 1030 WBZ radio to get an update on the traffic. The first thing that I heard when I turned on the news was a live news feed from NYC talking about how a plane had crashed into the WTC. As I sat there listening to the radio, I began to glance around to see if anyone was listening. Much to my surprise, it looked as if no one around me had heard.

I immediately got off at the next exit and took many back roads to get to my office. As I pulled up, I saw all of my co-workers huddled around the TV we had in the office. As I stepped up to the TV, I was told that a second plane had hit the second tower. At this point, my heart dropped. All I could think about were all of my friends in NY that I had grown up with. More than likely, most of them now worked in NYC.

For the next several hours, we watched as the events of the day unfolded live in front of us on the TV. One co-worker left early so that she could take her children out of school.

By 2pm, I knew that my co-workers and myself would be called to help out as much as possible. I had all of my
co-workers getting every piece of respiratory equipment prepared and loaded into every vehicle we had. I knew that we would be called to deliver the equipment into NYC.

By 3pm, the corporate office had called and told us to get ready and head to NYC. I turned to my co-workers and told them what had been asked of us. I said that two of us would have to go to NYC. I said that I couldn't ask them to go, so I had volunteered myself and was asking for one other to help out. Another co-worker said he would go. I was hesitant to let him because he and his wife had just adopted a beautiful boy and I didn't want anything to happen. He still wanted to go.

Sometime around 5pm, I was finally able to call my parents on my cell phone. Up until that point, all of the cell phone circuits were busy. On the first ring, my parents picked up the phone. When they heard my voice, they sounded so happy to hear me. I really had not had the time to get hold of them earlier in the day because we were busy getting ready. When my mother heard the background noise and realized that I was on my cell phone, she asked if I was headed to NYC. I told her that we were asked to deliver everything that we had and I volunteered myself to go. The phone went quiet for about 10 seconds then she said she understood. All that she asked is that I call every now and again to tell her that I was safe.

By 5:30pm we were passing trough Connecticut. It seemed eerily calm on the highway; it was pretty much deserted except for our two vehicles and the state police. By the time that we had reached the New York/Connecticut border, the corporate office had called us, re-directing us to Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ. The amount of people coming out of the WTC wasn't was high as expected, so the government was making Giants Stadium into a triage center so that more rescue workers and equipment could get to the WTC.

By 6:30pm, we were once again re-directed, this time to the company's New Jersey office. The need for the equipment at Giants Stadium had gone down because there were no survivors coming out of the wreckage.

Around 8pm, we finally arrived at the New Jersey office. As I was unloading my vehicle, I heard my cell phone ring. I didn't answer it because I was busy. When I finally hopped back into the truck, I saw that I had missed about 20 phone calls, all from the same number, my parents. I called the number back and my dad picked up instantly. He was angry because he couldn't get hold of me. This was the first time in my life that I have ever heard my father afraid. His voice kept breaking as he talked to me.

I heard from my mother the next day that he wasn't home when I called at 5pm, he was still working. When he got home, my mother was staring at the TV mesmerized. My dad had asked what had happened and she told him that I was headed to NYC to help out. He looked at her like she was kidding, but he realized that she wasn't. He couldn't believe how calm she was. She said that she had had over 2 hours to come to grips with it.

I finally got home around 1am on September 12. I wasn't going to call my parents, but I figured that I should. My dad picked up the phone again on the first ring. He sounded so relieved to here my voice.



If anyone knows the NY/NJ border area at Route 17 South in Mahwah, as I was passing from 17 South to Interstate 287 South, I could see the smoke from the WTC there. If you know this area, it is a tremendous distance from the site.


I want to thank all of the people that helped out in any fashion during all of the cleanup and recovery.

My heart goes out to all the wives, husbands, and especially the children left behind from the attack.