story10597.xml

story10597.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2004-05-14

I was working at my lawfirm at the time and was connected to MSNBC on-line. Someone yelled that a plane hit one of the Trade Towers. At first, we thought it was a small private plane, but then someone yelled that the second Tower had been hit. We were then informed that the Pentagon had been hit by a third plane. Meanwhile we were panicked as reports were flying that a plane was headed for the immediate DC area. Then all heck broke loose and in a matter of minutes some 2,300 employees out of our total of 2,325 employees began leaving the building to walk wherever they could get to. Streets were total gridlock. I lived in Virginia at the time and I had no place to go if I left the building. I had an open telephone line, an on-line connection, a restroom, a cafeteria and plenty of water. I tried to get a ride to Virginia with a co-worker but we could not get his car out of the parking garage. Too much gridlock. I decided to remain in our building until the subways were up and running again. At that time I rode the subway to Virginia where my husband picked me up.