story94.xml
Title
story94.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-02-28
911DA Story: Story
One of my coworkers saw the news on a website before the sites got clogged.
After that I couldn't get any information via the web. I was in my basement
office, so I couldn't get any radio. However, my brother,
who lives in another city, could get web access, and had a radio. So, he e-mailed
me updates every few minutes. At one point he wrote that the towers had collapsed.
We'd also found out that my father, who works in the Pentagon, was in fact
not in his office that day.
Here's the exchange of e-mail from all that:
Brother: "also just heard one of the world trade towers completely collapsed."
Me: ""Collapsed?" What does that mean. Christ I've got to get a radio. Now Mom
says maybe he wasn't at Pentagon today. Our neighbor Tracy's father works on the
upper floors of the WTC."
[note: In fact Tracy's father was just visiting for a meeting for the day. He was on
one of the first floows hit.
Brother: "Yeah, collapsed, completely."
Me: "From the CNN website it looks like both WTC towers are gone."
Brother: "I just heard that. can't get in though. heck, i'm even trying
freerepublic.com"
Brother again: "hey, are you on the phone with lee? i'm trying to figure out if anyone has
talked to her in the last 30-45 mins."
[note: Lee is my wife]
Me: "Yeah. She's been in touch with mom. Turns out our neighbor's dad is/was on
the top floor of one of the two wtc bldgs. Office-mate's husband, half the
spouses of her mom's club, etc. Just about everyone in princeton who works
in nyc either is in the wtc or knows/is related to someone."
Brother [now talking about his in-laws]: "No, they're a block from the capitol. where the Voice of America is.
the building they work in has a bomb shelter. not sure if they're down there
or not."
Me: Wow. Didn't even know they were there. Glad they're OK. Not hearing anything
about the OEOB or WH on fire. Just Pentagon and WTCs (which seem to have
completely collapsed. funny skyline.) Can't get any online radio. even far
away stations like ITN (british news).
Anyway, I think this very parsed e-mail exchange pretty neatly captures the confusion
of that morning.
After that I couldn't get any information via the web. I was in my basement
office, so I couldn't get any radio. However, my brother,
who lives in another city, could get web access, and had a radio. So, he e-mailed
me updates every few minutes. At one point he wrote that the towers had collapsed.
We'd also found out that my father, who works in the Pentagon, was in fact
not in his office that day.
Here's the exchange of e-mail from all that:
Brother: "also just heard one of the world trade towers completely collapsed."
Me: ""Collapsed?" What does that mean. Christ I've got to get a radio. Now Mom
says maybe he wasn't at Pentagon today. Our neighbor Tracy's father works on the
upper floors of the WTC."
[note: In fact Tracy's father was just visiting for a meeting for the day. He was on
one of the first floows hit.
Brother: "Yeah, collapsed, completely."
Me: "From the CNN website it looks like both WTC towers are gone."
Brother: "I just heard that. can't get in though. heck, i'm even trying
freerepublic.com"
Brother again: "hey, are you on the phone with lee? i'm trying to figure out if anyone has
talked to her in the last 30-45 mins."
[note: Lee is my wife]
Me: "Yeah. She's been in touch with mom. Turns out our neighbor's dad is/was on
the top floor of one of the two wtc bldgs. Office-mate's husband, half the
spouses of her mom's club, etc. Just about everyone in princeton who works
in nyc either is in the wtc or knows/is related to someone."
Brother [now talking about his in-laws]: "No, they're a block from the capitol. where the Voice of America is.
the building they work in has a bomb shelter. not sure if they're down there
or not."
Me: Wow. Didn't even know they were there. Glad they're OK. Not hearing anything
about the OEOB or WH on fire. Just Pentagon and WTCs (which seem to have
completely collapsed. funny skyline.) Can't get any online radio. even far
away stations like ITN (british news).
Anyway, I think this very parsed e-mail exchange pretty neatly captures the confusion
of that morning.
Collection
Citation
“story94.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 17, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/8887.