nmah177.xml

nmah177.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

My husband and I had stopped for the night at a hotel in Minneapolis MN on our way home from a golf vacation with his sister and brother in law.

I had stayed behind to watch the weather report while the others went down for breakfast.

I had just turned on the news when a report of a plane hitting the WTC was announced. Then, as I watched the second plane fly as I thought by the building as the news reporter had just said that it was not an area where planes generally fly over, I yelled at the tv that there was another plane!! I panicked as I work for an affiliate of Morgan Stanley (Van Kampen Investments). In fact I was on their "Contingency Planning Committee" and I had left town knowing that two of my bosses were supposed to leave for New York that morning for meetings with Morgan Stanley. I immediately tried to call Van Kampen in Kansas City, only to find out that they didn't know what was happening, as one of the administrative assistants said "oh it's just a little plane and nothing major". I told her that I was watching on the tv at that very moment and that it was something VERY major! I tried to page my bosses but the nation wide pager did not go thru for about 12 hours. I finally located another associate who told me that my bosses did not leave that day for NY.

Our plans were to stop at the Mall of America, but before we headed out of town, we heard that it was closed. We immediately headed south towards Kansas City watching the skies as we passed the airports.

We were still in Iowa when we got a cell call from my mother in law to tell us to buy gas before we got into Missouri because they were hiking gas up to $5 a gallon. We stopped at the very next exit and purchased gas at a fairly reasonable rate. The lines were just starting when we left. The next few exits showed that everyone had the same idea. The lines were out onto the expressway.

We made it home with a very sinking feeling. I returned to work the next day hoping for good news about the Morgan Stanley people that were in the WTC. I called our office in NJ and left a message on phone mail of the administrative assistant that I knew well, telling her that I hoped she was safe and that my prayers were with all of them. Later I learned that the NJ office watched the planes hit from their conference room meeting.

Unfortunately 6 people from MS were lost. Thank God for Chuck Monroe just one of many of the contingency planning committtee who prepared over and over for Y2K.

Life will never be the same.... I still remember being in 2nd grade when it was announced that JFK was killed, we put our heads down on our desks and prayed. Now I have a second horrible experience to remember where I was.

That we as Americans have taken our security for granted. We need to be prepared, not frightened, but prepared.

Yes I did. In fact I burned two candles in my front yard for weeks, in memory of the twin towers. The candles are still there, maybe not burned daily like before, but still in my front yard reminding me of why I burned them.