story383.xml
Title
story383.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-04-11
911DA Story: Story
I picked-up information about the 911 digital archive when I went to see the people's 911 exhibit that toured the Women in the Military Musuem in Washington, D.C. The below e-mail message was sent by my son, David Greenfield Snetman, on September 12, 2001 to friends and family across the United States. David is a senior at New York University and gave me permission to forward this message to your archives.
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 21:45:22 -0700
To: [blanked out]
From: David Snetman <dgs212@nyu.edu>
Dear All,
First and foremost, let me appologize for not contacting all of you sooner. Phones are mess, and I haven't been home in 36 hours, so the email has been piling up. Also, let me appologize if you are a friend of Ali or Kabir whom I don't know and I copied your email addresses from their respective emails. I don't have the email addresses of everyone I know so I thought I could cover all the bases via cut and paste.
Second, thank you all for your concern. I myself am fine. Everyone I know personally is safe and accounted for. As many of you know, my building is about a mile away to the north, so we were out of harm's way.
Tuesday morning I was woken up at 10:15 am by my friend Nancy who lives upstairs. She was very upset and was talking about planes and the world trade center, but it was hard to understand what she was saying. I then rolled over to look out my window and I was simply astonished. By this time, building 2 had been replaced by a tower of smoke and building 1 was ablaze. We went to the roof and watched as people streamed up the street, away from downtown. A few minutes later, building 1 collapsed. I'm sure you've all seen the video numerous times, so you know what it looked like, but watching an entire building collapse a mere mile away, a building we see everyday from our apartment and look to as both a landmark when we are lost and a symbol of our fortunate existence at this time and in this place, was the most terrible and terrifying thing I have ever seen. Immediately afterwords, there was a profound feeling of loss and "what next?"
By 11:00 am, we were evacuated. We walked around lower Manhattan, looking for friends, catching up on the news, etc. By 9:00 pm, we were in brooklyn at a friend's house. We watched the news all night long and all today as well. I was finally allowed to return to my building at 9:00 pm tonight, which is were I am now, saddened deeply. Due to police baricades along houston street (a bit north of me), only residents with proper ID can come down here. The streets are literally empty, and there's no point in going out as everything is closed.
As has been said many times, this is a tragedy of great magnitude. We are all holding on as best we can, trying to understand what is going on and to resume our lives as normal. Unfortunately, this may take some time. If any of you know anyone who has been personally affected, you have my most sincere condolences. Otherwise, stay strong and we'll all pull through. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email me. I'll try to reply as promptly as is possible. You can also try to call my cell phone, but you most likely will not get through. I love you all, even those of you I don't know.
Sincerely,
David
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 21:45:22 -0700
To: [blanked out]
From: David Snetman <dgs212@nyu.edu>
Dear All,
First and foremost, let me appologize for not contacting all of you sooner. Phones are mess, and I haven't been home in 36 hours, so the email has been piling up. Also, let me appologize if you are a friend of Ali or Kabir whom I don't know and I copied your email addresses from their respective emails. I don't have the email addresses of everyone I know so I thought I could cover all the bases via cut and paste.
Second, thank you all for your concern. I myself am fine. Everyone I know personally is safe and accounted for. As many of you know, my building is about a mile away to the north, so we were out of harm's way.
Tuesday morning I was woken up at 10:15 am by my friend Nancy who lives upstairs. She was very upset and was talking about planes and the world trade center, but it was hard to understand what she was saying. I then rolled over to look out my window and I was simply astonished. By this time, building 2 had been replaced by a tower of smoke and building 1 was ablaze. We went to the roof and watched as people streamed up the street, away from downtown. A few minutes later, building 1 collapsed. I'm sure you've all seen the video numerous times, so you know what it looked like, but watching an entire building collapse a mere mile away, a building we see everyday from our apartment and look to as both a landmark when we are lost and a symbol of our fortunate existence at this time and in this place, was the most terrible and terrifying thing I have ever seen. Immediately afterwords, there was a profound feeling of loss and "what next?"
By 11:00 am, we were evacuated. We walked around lower Manhattan, looking for friends, catching up on the news, etc. By 9:00 pm, we were in brooklyn at a friend's house. We watched the news all night long and all today as well. I was finally allowed to return to my building at 9:00 pm tonight, which is were I am now, saddened deeply. Due to police baricades along houston street (a bit north of me), only residents with proper ID can come down here. The streets are literally empty, and there's no point in going out as everything is closed.
As has been said many times, this is a tragedy of great magnitude. We are all holding on as best we can, trying to understand what is going on and to resume our lives as normal. Unfortunately, this may take some time. If any of you know anyone who has been personally affected, you have my most sincere condolences. Otherwise, stay strong and we'll all pull through. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email me. I'll try to reply as promptly as is possible. You can also try to call my cell phone, but you most likely will not get through. I love you all, even those of you I don't know.
Sincerely,
David
Collection
Citation
“story383.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 13, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/4414.