SWR: 9/11 Rememberance

Back on Sept 11, 2001; I came into the office early (as usual) about 6:00am. I fired up the calculation I was working on at the time and then turned to the WineSpectator WineBoard to see what was good and what the latest fight in the sandbox was about. Shortly before 7:00 am (plane crashed into it at 8:46 am, ET), there was a post on that Board to the effect of "Holy $hit, a plane just crashed into the WorldTradeCentre". Wish I had taken a screen shot or remember who it was that posted, but he was just a few miles away, looking out his office window to the South, wasting away his time on the WineBoards (sound familiar??), whilst getting paid big $$'s.
I immediately rushed a few doors down to our conference room, flipped on the TV, and watched it all unfold on TV for the next 6 hrs. As people drifted into work a bit before 8:00am, they all congregated into the conference room, totally spellbound, not saying a word. There was a collective gasp as we watched the SouthTower collapse at 7:59 am. Another gasp when the NorthTower went down about 30 min later.
There were a lot of heroes that day, including many firefighters & police officers. Sorta makes all the whining about wine being delivered in 90 degree weather and the latest corked wine pale in comparison.
I'll hoist a glass of something good tonight in their memory. You should, too.
Tom

[David M. Bueker]

We were in Glacier National Park with one TV in the hotel bar and one pay phone. No cell service. Scary and sad day. We finally went for a hike because there was nothing else to do.

Someone from laundromat couple doors down came in and told me "a plane hit World Trade Center." I'm thinking a Cessna or something. I walked over to look at their TV and about a minute after I arrived the second plane hit and the world changed. By time towers fell, there were people crying. I live/work in a commuter town, and everyone was worried about friends/neighbors. School was closed, people huddled on streets talking. Cell networks were overloaded or destroyed downtown, and people were hard to get a hold of. Lots of my friends work in midtown, and we knew they were ok, but then trains were halted and bridges closed, so folks couldn't return home. In the end no one I knew well was killed or injured, though we didn't know for days. Felt very helpless- my group sent a couple of vans of requested supplies to Red Cross, but still felt helpless.

I was a poster/member on WLDG back then, but fairly new. But remember the outpouring of support for NY (and DC). I was more active at the time on alt.food.wine and it was amazing the international response.

We spent the night of September 10th in the Navy Inn on Staten Island. We only needed to get to Rhode Island to visit friends for dinner and overnight the next day; and it was only a five hour drive. For some reason we got up early, checked out, and started for the Gothels Bridge and NJ Turnpike, intending to go over the GW Bridge and across to the Ct Turnpike. As we approached the bridge off Staten Island Beverly said she saw smoke coming out of one of the towers. We turned on the radio and they were reporting that a small plane must have accidentally hit the tower. As Beverly was watching as we crossed into NJ she saw the second plane hit. All the traffic pulled off the turnpike to watch. Since radio reports reported all bridges and tunnels were closed, we decided to press on. At the end of the pike we went west on Route 80 to the connector to the NY Thruway. At the entrance we heard that the Tappan Zee Bridge was still open. We went over it as we were getting more details over the radio including the speculation that more planes were still flying around. We got across the Cross Bronx expressway, and onto the CT pike. We stopped at the first rest stop to call family and the friends in RI to let them know we were out.

Needless to say it was an experience we will never forget. It seems like yesterday and not 14 years ago

I was working at Fort Bragg, NC, home of Special Forces and 82nd Airborne Division. I heard about the first plane crash into a tower either on television before I left home or on the radio on the way to work. As I was walking from my car into the building on post I said to a soldier, "Did you hear that a plane crashed into one of the Twin Towers?" He brushed it off with a nonchalant attitude. Little did he know that his world was about to change dramatically and that if he had never seen combat before, he most likely would soon. Our closest tv set was in the lobby of the building near our offices and we kept drifting back and forth to see the reports. None of us could concentrate on our work. Finally the announcement came mid-afternoon that we were dismissed for the day. The next day the post was inspecting every vehicle entering post from hood to trunk and the delays were massive at all entrances to Fort Bragg. I spent two hours on Reilly Road (usually a 15-20 minute commute for me) and had to use a bathroom. I abandoned my car briefly and went into the dry cleaners I use and used their bathroom, then got back in my car. Finally turned around and went home and called work. My boss's boss had gone in early and managed to get there. He told me to have lunch and try again in the afternoon by a different route. I tried All-American Freeway and same thing. Sat in traffic for about 90 minutes before giving up. Soldiers, desperate to report to their units, were buying bicycles and bicycling onto post past the long lines of cars and trucks. The next day the gate guards let people in with the proper ID without inspecting every vehicle thoroughly and I got back to work. I knew three Army librarians in the part of the Pentagon that was hit and damaged by the third plane. One suffered burns to her face, neck and hand and a broken toe getting out of the smoke-filled building. She later had plastic surgery and the burns are not visible. She was back to work very quickly in temporary quarters and was interviewed on one of the national morning news shows. Another librarian suffered insomnia and nightmares for days or weeks afterwards. The third one became shaky when she heard helicopters in the air after that day as it brought it all back like PTSD. Speaking to my mother on the phone, she said 9/11 was worse than Pearl Harbor. I guess it did exceed the number of deaths at Pearl Harbor.

[Jenise]

Participants in this thread--don't miss Tom NJ's thoughtful post in Friends & Fun on this same topic. A radio announcer on the east coast, he covered this live on the air....

I watched it unfold sitting on my family room couch with our cat, Hannibal, on my lap. There were some moments that my brain just could not immediately process.

My wife was at a conference in a rural part of Korea at the time. Initially, that seemed about as safe a place as an American could be. Getting back was a pretty unsettling experience for all of us, though.

I was working as a fisheries biologist at Ohio EPA and that morning I was out taking chemical water samples in the Monday creek basin with an intern from Hawaii named Tammy. We were stopped at a small bridge with our rope and bucket and the property owner came up to us. I thought " Oh boy, this guy does not look happy ". He then told us all the news and we listened to the radio the rest of the morning and afternoon. We finished our stream sampling run, went back to our office in Logan, refrigerated our samples and were told to go home. The next week I flew out to Tillamook Oregon on a planned fishing trip and experienced the nightmare of air travel. I caught a cold on the flight and stayed in our lodging watching the TV while my brother-in-law went fishing with our friends. I live in a very rural part of southern Ohio so was never concerned about the safety for me or my wife.