story4286.xml

story4286.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I had just gotten off the #7 train on my way to work in
Long Island City. As I was walking up the block I looked
towards my right and saw black smoke. I wasn't sure if they were the towers and I remember thinking " Oh my God there's a big fire in the building". I turned around and
asked the girl behind me if that was the twin towers. She
said yes, a plane had crashed into it. I said "what happened, was it an accident? She did not know.

A car passed by and the girl asked if there was more news
on the radio, on what had happened. We listened for about
one minute. I started walking to work which was about
2 1/2 blocks away. I could not see the towers anymore
because of the buildings. I walked past the work entrance
and headed up the block because I knew that I could see the towers there across the river. I was turning right
but I heard my boss calling me and telling me that making the left was a better view of what was happening. I could not believe what I was seeing. I tried calling my mom on my cell phone, it wasn't working.
We stayed there a while watching but then I received a phone call at work-it was mom- and I walked the 1/2 block to my job. Suddenly I heard that one of the towers fell. I thought "no that can't be true." I ran back outside to confirm to myself that it wasn't true. All I saw was a bigger black cloud along with smoke. I could see the antennae on the other building and I kept repeating to myself "when the smoke clears, the building will still be there" over and over again.
I returned back to my office because you really couldn't
see anything. Then we heard that the 2nd tower had fallen, I ran back out to see, thinking there is no way that this is happening. My heart sank when I looked and I couldn't see that antennae, only black smoke.
It was 10:30 am when I finally sat down at my desk. Work?
I can't remember if I was able to work. There was just a feeling of helplessness, numbness.
At noon my cousin Marcos called me and said that he would pick me up from work to get me home. I thought "Wow, my hero" We went to the 59 St bridge because his girlfriend Vanessa had to walk across the bridge from manhattan because there wasn't any kind of transportation to get home. It normally takes 40 minutes to get home by car. It took us 4 1/2 hours to get home and we were on the other side of the river where this terrible trajedy happened!
Finally at 4:30 pm I was home with my family.

I prayed and will still pray for everyone that was lost on that day and for everyone who lost someone. For all the cops, firemen and heroes. THANKS