story630.xml

story630.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-05-17

The weather was perfect, blue skies and sunny. A
beautiful September day in New York. I walked to my local
high school to vote in the democratic mayoral primary and
then continued to my job in lower Manhattan.
Everything was quite normal until my bus got out
of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. Over the radio came an
announcement that a small plane had hit the North Tower
of the World Trade Center. The traffic was now backed up
so I decided to get off the first stop, which is Battery
Park (about six blocks from the WTC). The top of the North
Tower was burning. I immediately called my sister at work,
who had a TV in her office. I stayed on the phone with her
as we both watched the North Tower burn. I could see the
flames getting bigger. All of a sudden I see a plane coming
from my left, over the Hudson River. "What was this plane
doing?" "Where does this plane think its going." "He's
flying too low". I watched in horror as it banked to the
left, picked up speed and slammed into the South Tower. I
stood frozen, then everyone around me began to scream and
cry and run for their lives. I never felt so scared in my
life. My hands were shaking so badly. A young guy came
up to me and asked if I was alright and walked with me for
a few minutes. I thought that we were going to be attacked
by more planes. I even though that maybe bombs were coming.
Everyone headed toward the Staten Island Ferry, hoping to
get on a ferry and off this island. That ferry never came.
Things quieted down and no more planes came so and I decided
to go to my office. The streets were littered with burnt
paper, shoes and pieces of concrete. My building is two
blocks away from the WTC. I got inside my building just
minutes before the South Tower collapsed.
I was on the 4th floor when the North Tower collapsed.
Someone screamed, "Get away from the windows, take cover,
get under a desk!!" "The North Tower just collapsed". I
don't remember thinking that I could die, but I do remember
my body shaking. Thank goodness our building was not
damaged, just extremely dirty inside and out from the dust.
The air cleared enough and I left my office around 3:30.
Downtown was deserted. Everything was covered with gray
dust. On the ferry home to Staten Island you could see all
the smoke where the WTC once stood. That was a very
upsetting thing to see.
I was lucky. I did not see the real horrors of what
was happening at the WTC and I did not lose any loved ones.
It's now eight months since the attack and I still get
a sick feeling every time I hear a low flying plane.