September 11 Digital Archive

story1.xml

Title

story1.xml

Source

born-digital

Media Type

story

Created by Author

yes

Described by Author

no

Date Entered

2002-01-12

911DA Story: Story

Our family had two near misses that day.
1. My wife works for WorldCom in Pentagon City, across from Fashion City. She felt the explosion when the plane hit the Pentagon. (The plane's flight path went just to the north of her building.) She and two of her co-workers rushed outside. When they realized what had happened, her two co-workers, who were ex-EMTs, rushed to the Pentagon.
When she got the OK to go home around 10:00 AM, it took her 7 hours to get home. It took her 5 hours to get out of the area. All the streets were closed. She and her vehicle were "commandeered" by a fireman to take him to a local apartment fire. He had no way to get there nor any equipment as all the fire trucks were at the Pentagon.
2. A relative, who was 8 months pregnant, works in the American Express building in NYC, next to the World Trade Center. When the first building was struck, she headed to her building's garage to get her car and leave. She was told, while enroute to the garage, by building personnel that everything was "under control". She wisely ignored the horrible advice. As she was leaving the building, she saw the second plane hit.
Fortunately, for us and our family, we have only "near-miss" stories. We are very thankful for that. GMU student, Junior, 2001. Paul Franklin Stevenson

Citation

“story1.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 27, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/3704.