The morning of Sept 11, 2001 I was late for work because I had been looking at a condo I wanted to buy. It was a BEAUTIFUL September day. I was on the bus and headed to Manhattan when the first plane hit. I called my boss to tell him that I was going to be late for work, because a "small aircraft" hit the twin towers. He told me not to worry about being late and thanked me for calling him to let him know.
I called my cousin John and asked him if his dad was still working at the Trade Center. He told me no, he had retired a while ago. He turned on the TV and and said "Holy Shit."
We were headed on the BQE. I could see the smoke coming from the tower when the second plane hit. The girl next to me started hysterical crying. I tried to calm her, but she was getting to me. Someone yelled, "It is a terrorist attack." My phone didn't work anymore. The bus started moving. People were shouting at the bus driver to stop...not to take us to the city. He bus driver yelled to stop telling him what to do. The girl next to me was still hysterical. Her boyfriend worked on the 13th floor.
Finally, the bus got off the BQE. The driver said anyone who wanted to go into the city could grab the subway. I got off. I couldn't take the girl next to me anymore. My old boss Ginny was on the bus too. She said to me, "Barbara, don't go to the city." I told her I wasn't. It was the truth. I wasn't going anywhere. I just wanted to get off that bus. I wanted to control where I was going and how I was going to get there. I didn't want to be on that bus.
I walked down to the water to where the warehouses are in Brooklyn. I think around 59th street. I could see the towers burning. People were on the streets watching. One man said, "Those people are not going to be rescued up there..." I remember him laughing, not like he thought it was funny, but like he knew something everyone else didn't know and how stupid everyone around him was. I stood there for a while, and then went to find a way to get back home.
I went back to where the bus left me, and got onto another express bus headed to Staten Island. My friend from the neighborhood Derek was there. We talked about how crazy the day was and how we couldn't believe everything that had happened.
The bus driver was getting reports from his wife on his phone. He was waiting to hear word back from his daughter. Someone else had a radio and gave it to the bus driver to put on the microphone for everyone to hear. That's how we learned about the Pentagon and the plane in Philadelphia.
The bus driver was older, this apparently was his second career. He explained to us that he was a steelworker and worked on the towers. Then we heard the report that the first tower fell. The driver said he couldn't believe that the towers came down as he knew how they were built. He was concerned about all of us and did as much as he could to reassure us. Then the second tower came down. It was unreal.
The bridges were all closed and so we couldn't get back into Staten Island. The driver pulled into Bay Ridge into the parking lot of the Nathans. Derek and I waited in Nathans until they told us to go back to the bus.
We drove through the side streets of Brooklyn. From the bus, I saw a woman in her car with a rosary bead in her hands. It took us hours to get out of Brooklyn and get over the bridge. I think it was about 3:00. I saw a black man in a full suit carrying a business case covered with dust walking on the side of the Staten Island Expressway as we came over the bridge. My guess is he walked all the way from Wall Street to Staten Island.
Derek and I got home around 5:00. It was the longest day of my life. And I we didn't know if there was more coming.
Then at home we got a call from my Aunt. She had been in Manhattan with my Aunt Aida. They got evacuated to Jersey. They were at my cousin's in Union City. She didn't have her medication. My dad and I went to go get her. The tank was on "E" and we were stuck in traffic. We finally got off the Turnpike on on a side street somewhere for gas. We got to my cousin's house (usually a 45 minute drive) at around 10 pm. We learned that bridges were closed back into NYC (which included Staten Island).
That night I slept on an air mattress on the floor of my cousin's house. We ended up staying until around 1pm the next day.
In the days that passed we were on constant alert for other attacks. There were reports of vans being stopped, or bomb threats and everything else were on the nightly news. I wasn't leaving my house until I felt it was safe. I sat on my parent's couch and watched the news non-stop that entire week.
There were reports of all the stories of the people who were in the building that day. Some survived because they were late for work, others died because they were there that day for a random meeting. There were stories about the local businesses who gave out water to people who were running out of the area, and others that were charging ridiculous prices to take advantage of the situation. There were reports of people cheering that the towers went down and those of people who were beat up for being Arab or anything that even looked Middle Eastern.
I remember the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald crying...he lost most of his company employees in the attack. The Fire Department lost over 300 of their men. The death toll numbers changed daily.
Many of the people who died were from Staten Island. Many were from the Fire Department as well as people who worked in the towers. I didn't know many of them personally, but one was my classmate from OLQP, Shuan Bowman he was 28, had a small son and his wife was pregnant with his second child. He worked at Cantor. The other one was Sal Lopes, a travel agent that I used to call at AAA Travel. Sal had just left AAA offices in Long Island, to work for his new job. I remember him telling me he was leaving and he was very excited about his new job in the city. I don't think he was working there more than a few months.
I remember stories of volunteers coming out to being turned away because they wanted to control the rescue and recovery efforts. There were questions about the dust and if it was safe. The EPA said it was. There were family members waiting outside the rescue area with pictures of their loved ones. Waiting for ANY word if they may have survived. The stories went on for weeks...good and bad. Bad and good.
Ten years ago feels like just yesterday. I will never forget that day. I pray for the families of those who lost someone. I pray for those who were part of the rescue/recovery who are now suffering from the dust that was not safe. I pray that those with troubling memories of this day (many much worse than mine) find peace in their minds.
I pray that we never experience a day like that again.
God Bless America.
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