Ten Year Anniversary of September 11, 2001

Everyone will remember where they were on Tuesday September 11, 2001 around 8:45 am.   Me? I took a summer real estate class at the local community college and was going into NYC to sit for my Realtor exam which was downtown near the trade center.  When I got out of the subway, I heard people running into the Fulton Street subway station yelling "FUEGO". I knew my elementary Spanish well enough to know that meant "FIRE".  I didn't see a fire - so I kept going, I exited and looked around.  There were a lot of people, but then again it was almost rush hour.  I located my building and was surprised to see there was no line - the instructor told us to get there early since the tests fill up quickly.  Not only was there no line, but no one was in the lobby.  Determined to take the test, I proceeded up to the 5th floor and took a seat in the virtually empty room.  One or two people arrived after I did...again I realized it was strange, where was everyone?  There were about 4 other people in there with me when someone came in and announced that the building was evacuated and that we had to leave...and that there would be no testing that day.  Disappointed, I left the building and headed back to the subway.  On my way, I noticed a lot of people standing around looking up, so I look up also.  I see one of the trade centers was on fire...Oh, that must have been what the guy in the subway was talking about.  I stood there and watched about 5 floors glow red/orange as the smoke was coming out of the building.  I remembered to a time I worked on the 93rd floor doing temp work just 3 years before.  I thought "that will be a tough fire to extinguish...I wonder how they will do that when fire truck ladders don't go up that high".  Then I see something I will never forget - a person jumping from a window.   Knowing they are jumping to their death, I had to consider what is worse - jumping out of a window or being inside suffocating from the smoke and maybe catching on fire.  My heart ached for that person, knowing that they knew they were going to die either way.  I tried to call cop#1 who was a recent NYC policeman to tell him he was going to have a pretty shitty & long day.  The phone lines were crazy busy so it took a while before I was able to leave him that message.  I couldn't keep watching, so I go down the subway and get on the next train to my college.  On the subway ride, people are talking - there was an engineer who helped build the twin towers that was telling us that the building was going to collapse, that it wasn't built to withstand that kind of internal stress.  I didn't realize it at the time, but they ended up closing the subways right after I got on one.



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I went to school and sat through my first class of the day.  Right before the class was dismissed the PA system informed us of terrorist activity and that the school would be closing and everyone needed to leave.  I didn't know what to do...the trains stopped running, I was stuck in Manhattan.  My sister worked in Herald Square so I walked 25 blocks and 3 avenues to get to her job.  The streets were eerie...there were no cars and people were walking the streets.  I still had no idea what was going on, but knew something terrible happened.  On my walk downtown, I passed through Times Square where the big TVs were filled with the morning news...planes crashed into the Twin Towers, the pentagon and in Pennsylvania. I couldn't believe it. 



When I arrived at my sister's job everyone was scared. Some of their offices had views of the trade center and a few saw it collapse. You were still able to see the dust rising.  It was the most unreal feeling I have ever felt.  The phone lines continued to be next to impossible to get through with all people calling everyone else to see if they were OK.  We stayed at the office for a few hours waiting for the trains to resume, no one getting any work done, everyone talking about what was happening, people wondering if that building would be evacuated since they were close to the Empire State Building and if other attacks would happen.  The trains would resume and then be suspended again for bomb threats.  We finally left and was able to get on a train out of Manhattan - the trains were packed, as to be expected with more people getting on at  125th street that there wasn't enough room for everyone.  Of course we heard stories of all the people that walked home and we would have too just to get off of Manhattan.



When I made it home, I was stuck to the television.  I needed to know more. I was there and I felt like I didn't know anything because before all this technology - when you are right there you really had no clue unless you saw it happen.  I was traumatized and in a trace for a few days. 

There are so many stories like mine and of course there are all the other worse stories out there.  I can't imagine how hard that day was for all the families that were directly involved and all our public servants that worked their asses off during the rescue, recovery and cleanup.

My heart goes out to all the families and friends of those whose lives were lost that day and my gratitude for all those who helped (worked or volunteered) during that long and agonizing process.