story11692.xml

story11692.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2005-08-06

It was a typically day for me. I got on the subway and headed to Pace University, but when I got out of the subway something was different. Everyone was looking up. I glanced up and I saw that there was a large hole in one of the World Trade centers and that it was smoking. It was my freshman year and I was new to the city and I didn't really know anyone. So I called my boyfriend to see if he knew what was going on. His mother said," a small plane crashed into it by accident." I thought it was nothing, but she insisted that I should go back to my dorm. I thought she was being silly, so I continued on to school,looking back every chance I got to watch the smoking building. When I got inside Pace I asked a guard if there was still school and I know he didn't know any better at the time but I'll never forget those words, he said to me while shaking his head, "anyhting to get out of school." I went up to my classroom and unfortunalty or fortunatly there are no windows in the classroom at Pace. So the professor began to talk when all of the sudden the door flew open. There was a male student standing there with this horrid look on his face. He said we had to leave now, but why? We were all under the impression that a small plane accidently crashed into the World trade center. I just figured that the fire probably just got worse and they were playing it safe. I exited the builiding and began walking down the sidewalk when I saw a buisness man across the street. He ducked down holding his brief case over his head and he screamed, "It's gonna fall!" I thought, "what's going to fall?" All of the sudden I could hear this loud creaking sound. Everyone screamed run! I turned around to see a gigantic cloud of smoke chasing after me. I had no idea what it was. My first thought was some kind of gas. As I ran I saw these two woman, one was in her early sixties I would say and one was in her early 30's. The older woman was screaming and crying, "why." There was so much going through my head, I had no idea what i was running from, but I knew I had to keep going and then that one word came, Terriosts. Everyone was screaming terriosts. My heart sank, too much was happening at once. There were so many different noises, screams, crying and the jets. All you could here was large jets flying back and forth over us and I just thought this is it I'm going to die. I thought the jets were terriosts coming back to do more damage. I was still running at this point, where I had no idea because I was new to the city. When I got far enough away I tried calling my mom on my cell phone, but it wouldnt work. There were pay phones with long lines, so I kept running until finally I found a pay phone that wasn't that busy. I called my mom and her voice, her voice was so shakey, I knew she was trying to sound brave for me, she said, "Sarah where are you." I told her I didn't know, but I was okay and she began to cry. She told me I had to get out of there. I felt so helpless and I knew she did too. She told me the planes crashing werent an accident. I looked around me and I saw hundreds of people running toward something. I told my mom and she told me to follow them. When I got closer I saw that it was a bridge. I found out later it was the Manhattan bridge. Thousands of people were running where cars usually would be. There was a constant flow of firetrucks that were pushing through the crowd and I just remember their faces. All of the firefighters had a solemn look on their face as they passed. I was tired and shaking and out of breath, but I kept running over the bridge to where I didn't care as long as I was as far away as possible. I began to think what if they blow up this bridge, what would I do. I tried calling my mom again on my cell phone. It actually went through, I told my mom where I was and she told me to just keep running. Seconds later I heard that same erie creaking noise. People began to scream again and I turned around to see the second building collapse. It just caved in and fell so quickly into a huge cloud of black smoke that filled the sky. My connection with my mother was lost for good now. As I got closer to the end of the bridge I had no idea where i was. I ran up to a young girl and a man and asked them how to get to brooklyn heights because thats where my dorm was. They told me they were headed that way and I could come with them. We walked for a very long time, until we reached a hotel. We stopped in to get some water and to see if anyone knew more of what was going on. It was then that it hit me, how serious everything was. There were large tvs everywhere and everything was just black, covered in dust, so empty, so dark. For weeks, a large black cloud filled the skyline of manhattan. For months a small constant cloud crept out of the gapping hole that onced held the world trade centers. I'll never forget the smell. It was such a strange, strange smell. The smell lingered in lower manhattan for months after. It's been almost four years and every once in awhile when the wind blows a certain way you can still get a wiff that makes you cringe. For a long time I was terrified of planes. When I first got home, I would run and hide everytime I heard a plane. Things are gradually getting better and I'm just thankful I'm here to write this story. Unfortunatly many innocent people are not and they should be.