nmah5509.xml

nmah5509.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-04-29

I was attending the Mannes College of Music in New York City. I had been living in the city, having moved from Alberta, Canada, a week to the day of 9/11/01. My dorm was just two blocks from the Trade Center, and my 9th floor window looked right out at the Twin Towers, here is my journal entry dated Sept. 11, 2001.

"I was sleeping when the first plane struck the building. I saw paper falling from the sky; I thought it was a ticker tape parade. I looked down at the people below my window and saw them staring up. I saw the the tower was a flame. I was concerned but not alarmed, and went to get my bowl of cereal. I watched out my window while the TV played behind me. I heard an announcer say that a second plane was heading toward the 2nd tower, and I saw the exploseion. People started running frantically away from the buildings. Debris and paper were just raining form the sky, and smoke was literally billowing from both buildings. The ball of fire that from the 2nd exposion engulfed the entire top half of that tower. I began to shake all over. I gathered up violin and travel documents and tried to leave, but the security guard would not let anyone leave the building. I went back to my room and prayed. I couldn't take my eyes off the towers, debris was falling from way up there, and then the people started jumping. I couldn't watch.

I thought everything was over after that 2nd plane crashed. Like, what else was there for the terrorists to do? I was/am pretty frightened. I emailed mom and dad to tellthem I am OK. Then I hared that the Pentagon was also attaacked. I emailed mom and dad again to tell them the news. I went back to the window to watch...school was out of the question. Then the tower that I saw get hit collapsed without warning. I saw it from the window and again people were running in terror. A huge billowing clowd of debris, ash, and smoke rushed toward my window. I was rooted to the spot until my roomate pulled me away from the window. We hid behind an armoir till it had passed. The sky outside was black and soot was coming through the air conditioner. Dust was settling over everything in the room. We got face towels, soaked them in water and held them over our faces all day.

By then I had again collected my violin and travel documents as well and my computer and Bible. I went downstairs to the 2nd floor to see what was going on in our building. They had us sign a paper when I got there just so they would know who's in the building. We went back upstairs like they told us to, but a bunch of us went to a room on the other side of the dorm where the smoke wasn't so bad. i went to my room to make sure the AC was off when the other building collapsed. This time the smoke wasn't so dramatic, there was still too much soot in the air from the first building, but when the cloud hit our building it was pitch black. No light came through. It looked as though a black blanket was covering the window. I grabbed this notebook and started writing when I got back to the other room down the hall.

We got called back downstairs to the mail room, where I still am. here we've learned that ALL the airports in the country are shut down and people are saying another plane crashed into a Pennsylvania airport.

So far both buildings of the WTC are totally destroyed, the Pentagon is in flames, an airport in Pennsylvania has reported a crash, the White House has been evacuated, the NYSE is shut down, all the airports are closed, and Mnahatten is literally "quarenteened".

Right now most students are on the 2nd floor. I'm still the in mail room which is relatively free from smoke and ash. It's about 11:45 a.m. about 3 hours since everything started. Two girls went out to look for their cousin who works at the WTC. They got cought in the ash cloud. They came back in completely gray, except for the where the tears traced lines down their face.

I have no idea what's going to happen. I've heard we might be evacuated to another dorm for the night. I want to pack up and leave and get out of this country. This could start another war and I want out of here. Whatever happens, I've made my peace with God."