I was in Manhattan on 9/11. I still think it's very surreal. Here is what I postd the other day in case you're curious as to how my day went that horrible day!!
I have to say that the sheer magnitude of the entire day still leaves me in awe. That it affected people all over the USA and the World goes to show what a powerful nation we are. We have survived.
I was living in Manhattan on 9/11/2001. I lived up in the 80s and can still recall the smell that wafted into my apartment that night. It was a fiery ash smell. We had to keep the windows shut so the air didn't come in - but you couldn’t escape it.
I was home when it happened. My then boyfriend (now husband) called to say a plane hit the World Trade. It was an amazing site to see that fire and know just how in trouble those people were. After all, I walked past those buildings for years (I had always worked in the Financial District - mainly at the World Financial Center which is the tall buildings next to the World Trade with the green tops). Coming out of he subway every day I would look up and se the World Trade. It was an amazing site to see as you come out of the subway and they are right above you.
The scariest part of the day was once the buildings fell, there was smoke and soot everywhere. My roommate and BFF was down there. I wondered how she, with her bad asthma, would make it home. He father had been calling me to ask if she was home yet and he had little hope. He was calmly desperate. It wasn't until 1:30 that I heard a key in the lock. We hugged and she just shook. She was with a man who drove her home. Someone from work put her in his car and said take her as far up as you're going. It took hours to go a few miles so he had come in to our apartment to use they bathroom and call his wife. They both looked shell shocked. She called her dad and just cried and cried.
All night and for several days we would hear the jet fighters flying around Manhattan. It was scary to hear them. Everyone just walked around in a daze (or really angry) not really knowing what to do or think. Would they find people buried alive (no, not really)? The firehouse on my block, the one I walked by everyday lost 9 men. 9 MEN. It was horrible to walk by there. They had photos and a shrine and black and purple bunting. Their faces were blank.
I have to say that Rudy Giuliani is the MAN!! He did a great job comforting New Yorkers.
I think that a lot of people are still walking around very affected by 9/11.
God bless America!