story7986.xml
Title
story7986.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-09-19
911DA Story: Story
Where was I on that brilliant Tuesday morning? At work, in the basement of the Arkansas State Capitol, wishing I had a skylight to enjoy the spotless sky. I was discussing some fine point of computer trivia with my co-worker when another colleague dashed breathlessly into our cubbyhole. "Where's the TV?" she asked. "Someone just told me that somebody flew an airplane into the Twin Towers in New York!" Oh, no, I thought- not them! Maybe it was an accident- some clown trying to 'split the uprights' like you could in Microsoft Flight Simulator...
A scramble to locate the TV ensued, and as word spread, our network bogged down from everyone trying to watch streaming video. We had to send an email to everyone to tell them to knock it off, because no one could do anything.
That didn't matter, because in a few minutes, no one was doing anything. We'd found the TV and hooked it up, and slowly our back office filled up with silent people watching the horrible events unfolding on the screen. It was very clear that what had hit Tower One was no straying Cessina. We turned it on moments before the second plane hit, and there was a collective gasp from the group gathered around the TV.
We stood there and watched the towers fall, and there were few dry eyes in the room. All those people. And at the Pentagon...what was going on?
I tore myself away from the TV to call round and find out what everyone else was doing. Tales and rumours were already starting. They were evacuating the TCBY tower (they weren't). They were closing the airports. They were closing the Federal buildings (they did). People were inspecting the bridges for bombs. Opportunistic vultures were jacking up the gas prices. (The State Attorney General later nailed these people.) The Governor's staff wheeled a large-screen TV into the main conference room. Another silent group of people watched the scenes there. A strange silence engulfed the usually vibrant Capitol.
My friend called me from her office on the 21st floor of the 40-story TCBY Tower, and told me about the line of inbound airplanes landing at our airport. She counted 25. She told me that she was keeping a careful eye for any 'strays'. I joked with her that we were a poor state, and probably didn't rate a big airplane ramming into our building- but maybe someone with a large kite, or maybe a hang glider. It was the last laugh we shared for a while.
Meanwhile, the Lieutenant Governor had seen enough, and sent us all home. (The Gov. was out of state.) We went reluctantly- many of us were flashing email back and forth with friends on the East Coast: "Are you OK?" "Is DC still standing?" "Didn't such-and-so work in the WTC?" I had an online acquaintence who did work there, and the members of our little messageboard were frantic over her. She finally checked in- she'd overslept and missed her usual train out to work. All her colleagues managed to escape unhurt.
My colleagues and I stayed later than the rest of the staff, because we had to clean out a conference room for it to be remodeled. But soon, the Governor's staff and our Capitol police politely, but firmly tossed us out, and we wandered home.
It was strange to see a crystal clear sky devoid of the usual contrails. We're in 'flyover' country, and on clear days, one can see dozens of contrails and passing aircraft. Not that afternoon. There was a hush that day- even the traffic was subdued. I finally wandered home, contemplating the magnitude of what I'd seen. They were gone- those two cheeky towers which had stuck out like giant thumbs over the Manhattan skyline. I'd only seen them a couple of times- once from mid town Manhattan, and once poking out from a cloud bank as my flight descended into Newark.
Even with a year between me and that awful day, the clarity of the whole thing still startles me, as does the depth of my grief for the loss of the Twin Towers and all those people. As a geeky teen, I'd avidly followed their construction. And with the rest of the country, I watched them fall. It left a 16-acre hole in my soul...
A scramble to locate the TV ensued, and as word spread, our network bogged down from everyone trying to watch streaming video. We had to send an email to everyone to tell them to knock it off, because no one could do anything.
That didn't matter, because in a few minutes, no one was doing anything. We'd found the TV and hooked it up, and slowly our back office filled up with silent people watching the horrible events unfolding on the screen. It was very clear that what had hit Tower One was no straying Cessina. We turned it on moments before the second plane hit, and there was a collective gasp from the group gathered around the TV.
We stood there and watched the towers fall, and there were few dry eyes in the room. All those people. And at the Pentagon...what was going on?
I tore myself away from the TV to call round and find out what everyone else was doing. Tales and rumours were already starting. They were evacuating the TCBY tower (they weren't). They were closing the airports. They were closing the Federal buildings (they did). People were inspecting the bridges for bombs. Opportunistic vultures were jacking up the gas prices. (The State Attorney General later nailed these people.) The Governor's staff wheeled a large-screen TV into the main conference room. Another silent group of people watched the scenes there. A strange silence engulfed the usually vibrant Capitol.
My friend called me from her office on the 21st floor of the 40-story TCBY Tower, and told me about the line of inbound airplanes landing at our airport. She counted 25. She told me that she was keeping a careful eye for any 'strays'. I joked with her that we were a poor state, and probably didn't rate a big airplane ramming into our building- but maybe someone with a large kite, or maybe a hang glider. It was the last laugh we shared for a while.
Meanwhile, the Lieutenant Governor had seen enough, and sent us all home. (The Gov. was out of state.) We went reluctantly- many of us were flashing email back and forth with friends on the East Coast: "Are you OK?" "Is DC still standing?" "Didn't such-and-so work in the WTC?" I had an online acquaintence who did work there, and the members of our little messageboard were frantic over her. She finally checked in- she'd overslept and missed her usual train out to work. All her colleagues managed to escape unhurt.
My colleagues and I stayed later than the rest of the staff, because we had to clean out a conference room for it to be remodeled. But soon, the Governor's staff and our Capitol police politely, but firmly tossed us out, and we wandered home.
It was strange to see a crystal clear sky devoid of the usual contrails. We're in 'flyover' country, and on clear days, one can see dozens of contrails and passing aircraft. Not that afternoon. There was a hush that day- even the traffic was subdued. I finally wandered home, contemplating the magnitude of what I'd seen. They were gone- those two cheeky towers which had stuck out like giant thumbs over the Manhattan skyline. I'd only seen them a couple of times- once from mid town Manhattan, and once poking out from a cloud bank as my flight descended into Newark.
Even with a year between me and that awful day, the clarity of the whole thing still startles me, as does the depth of my grief for the loss of the Twin Towers and all those people. As a geeky teen, I'd avidly followed their construction. And with the rest of the country, I watched them fall. It left a 16-acre hole in my soul...
Collection
Citation
“story7986.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed January 25, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/5081.