9/11 - 10 years on

On 9/8/2011 11:29 PM, Yowie wrote:
Its already 9/11 here.

The exact time the tragic events unfolded 10 years ago will start at just
after 11pm, my time and the horror story that unfolded over the next few
hours will run well into tomorrow morning for me. I know for most of you,
its still at least a few hours away, but I wanted to share my thoughts on
the day.

I'd gone to bed at about 10:30pm as I usually do, and Joel was up late, as
he usually was, watching TV. He woke me up before the 2nd tower was hit with
a 'you have to come and see this!'. I objected- what stupid movie was worth
waking me up for? Again, "you have to come see this, QUICK!"

I dragged myself out of bed to see the frist foortage of the second plane
hitting.

I thought I was watching some sci-fi movie and was passingly impressed by
the CGI but thought nothing more of it. It took a while before the horror of
what was before my eyes actually sunk in.

We watched, in silence, in horror, in shock.

Once the plane had hit the Pentagon, I thought it was the start of WW3, that
this was it, Armageddon had started.

At 12:10am, on the 12th of September, 2001 (my time), I wrote to RPCA:

I'm watching as the terror in your country unfolds.

My heart is in my throat and I'm praying for you all.

My thoughts are especially with our military folk, God bless you.

My love
Yowie

Joel and I stared at the tv until about 3am, All the channels were showing
the same scenes over and over, and we had to watch, over and over and over,
because it was just to utterly surreal and unbeleivable to get it to sink in
that it was actually happening, that it was *real*

The next morning, I went to work late, because I had been watching the
morning news. Nothing much more, info-wise, than the night before, but still
had to watch it to make sure it wasn't jsut a nightmare.

No work was done by anyone that day. Access was granted to international
lines for those with family members overseas. The bosses looked the other
way whilst people frantically tried to e-mail, phone and fax friends and
loved ones. People wandered in and out of the conference room - with the big
tv tuned to the only tv channel it receives - with the same footage still
playing over and over. And the occasional new bit of information or
previously unseen footage was digested with growing sense of horror, outrage
and grief. People openly weeped, long term office feuds forgotten as people
put there arms about each other. No words could adequately express our
thoughts, but no words we needed to know that we all felt the same way.

My mother was somewhere in Europe at the time. We had contact details of the
husband of the friend she was with, but didn't know her hour to hour, day to
day contact details. My mother has always been deathly afraid of flying, and
regularly had a repeating nightmare of a plane exploding at a low altitude.
She said the plane hitting the twin towers was close enough to a premonition
coming true. She had to be severely sedated to fly back home the next week -
we'd offered to somehow find the money to get her a ship home so she didn't
have to get on a plane, but flying back to Australia from England is the
only practical way of doing the trip. She didn't fly for years afterward.

Another friend had left Sydney Australia on the 10th to fly back to Canada.
She was 1 hour away from LAX when it happened. She spent an agonising 4 days
trapped LA, with very little money (because what she did have in cash -
remeber all cash machines and eftpos were down - went on a hotel room) and
no way to contact her husband, or indeed, anyone, to let them know she was
OK. She ate all the timtams and twisties she had in her bag that were gifts
for homesick expats back in Canada.

The cleaner here at work lost her cousin when one of the towers came down,
he was a NY Firefighter. A month or so later, she chose to retire. Her
reason for her resignation was that life was too darn short to work and save
for a rainy day, and she was going to go out and enjoy life whilst she still
could. I think her cousin's sudden and unexpected death because of 9/11
triggered that decision.

And I remember, in the first weekend of October, there used to be a
role-playing conevention in Sydney that Joel& I attended annually. Its
located fairly close to the airport, and therefore the planes fly fairly low
above it - something I am not at all used to in the sky. Up until 9/11, I
always used to find the low flying planes -close enough to the airport to
still see their landing gear out and their flaps down - utterly fascinating.
That year, on seeing a plane that far down after 9/11 struck me with a pang
of fear. A fear that has never quite gone away even after all this time.

Every year on this date, I stop and observe a minute's silence (often in
private, but I do).

Peace, Pax, Shalom, Salaam, Rauha, Freden, Paz etc

Yowie


I was at work and they had a radio station on in the store. I didn't see
any pictures until I got home.

We have been invited to a anniversary event at our local fire station.
They have a memorial garden and in summer received a piece of medal from
one of the towers.

When they were first working on the memorial we were asked to engrave
two large pieces of glass with the names of the 434 fire fighters who
lost their lives in New York.

Ann

--
Ann

in Connecticut

On Sep 9, 7:41*am, Lesley wrote:
snipped
Everyone looked up and at first people were saying "What a terrible
accident!" *we all assumed it was a private plane like a Cessna had
hit I don't think our brains could quite process the idea
snipped
Lesley


Leslie, when I think back this is what is so interesting to me. My
boss
came in and said "A plane hit the WTC"....and I automatically thought,
"What a terrible accident." He came back in later and said "*Another*
plane has crashed into the WTC." And I honestly, honestly thought,
"What a *terrible* coincidence! Is it foggy or something??"
I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was that naive. It occurs to me
now that I have certainly lost that naivety -- now if I hear of any
kind of explosion, I automatically think "terrorists", not "accident."

Sherry

Cheryl wrote:

I was about ready to start a new job, and planned to get together with
an old friend first - but put that off because my uncle died and I
needed to attend his funeral. So she came to pick me up early on the
morning of Sept. 11, and urged me to get in the car quick; a plane had
hit a building in New York. We listened to the radio while she drove
home, and I thought it must have been an accident. Then came the news of
the second plane, and we knew my friend was right; it was no accident.
We watched the rest of the story unfold on her TV.

We didn't know then that thousands of people from all over the world
were landing in our own province. Most of them hadn't learned about the
tragedy until after they landed in a strange part of a strange country
with nothing. Of course, it wasn't even possible at first for them to
get through to their friends and families with the news that they were
safe. My city was big enough to take in the extra people easily, but
another airport that took in a lot of the US-bound planes, the one in
Gander, is in a much more rural area. Local people from small communties
in the entire area did everything they could to provide everyone with
food, a place to sleep and, as soon as possible, communication with the
outside world.

I remember reading about that - about US-bound planes diverted to cities
and towns in Canada. The story I read was told by someone who had been on
one of those planes and landed somewhere in rural Newfoundland. All they
had been told was that "the US is under attack", so they couldn't land
there. The people in the town showed up with food and hot beverages,
welcomed the passengers and, since they were stuck there for nobody knew
how long, they invited people to stay in their homes for the duration.
The person who wrote the article was so moved by the generosity and openness
of these people, who probably didn't see unfamiliar faces very often, but
who allowed complete strangers to stay with them because they were stranded.

It's like the Kennedy assassination, for those who were alive then.
People remember where they were and what they were doing.

I remember that, too.

Joyce

--
"Sentimentality" -- that's what we call the sentiment we don't share.
-- Graham Greene

wrote in message
...
Cheryl wrote:

I was about ready to start a new job, and planned to get together with
an old friend first - but put that off because my uncle died and I
needed to attend his funeral. So she came to pick me up early on the
morning of Sept. 11, and urged me to get in the car quick; a plane had
hit a building in New York. We listened to the radio while she drove
home, and I thought it must have been an accident. Then came the news of
the second plane, and we knew my friend was right; it was no accident.
We watched the rest of the story unfold on her TV.

We didn't know then that thousands of people from all over the world
were landing in our own province. Most of them hadn't learned about the
tragedy until after they landed in a strange part of a strange country
with nothing. Of course, it wasn't even possible at first for them to
get through to their friends and families with the news that they were
safe. My city was big enough to take in the extra people easily, but
another airport that took in a lot of the US-bound planes, the one in
Gander, is in a much more rural area. Local people from small communties
in the entire area did everything they could to provide everyone with
food, a place to sleep and, as soon as possible, communication with the
outside world.

I remember reading about that - about US-bound planes diverted to cities
and towns in Canada. The story I read was told by someone who had been on
one of those planes and landed somewhere in rural Newfoundland. All they
had been told was that "the US is under attack", so they couldn't land
there. The people in the town showed up with food and hot beverages,
welcomed the passengers and, since they were stuck there for nobody knew
how long, they invited people to stay in their homes for the duration.
The person who wrote the article was so moved by the generosity and
openness
of these people, who probably didn't see unfamiliar faces very often, but
who allowed complete strangers to stay with them because they were
stranded.

It's like the Kennedy assassination, for those who were alive then.
People remember where they were and what they were doing.

I remember that, too.

Joyce

So do I. Vividly.

Joy

but I wanted to
share my thoughts on the day.


Someone in my office heard about the first plane on the radio as I remember
and we all started listening to one thing or another. When the second
plane hit we knew what was going on. A few of the guys went up to our 14
story building and could see the towers burning. Meanwhile I adjusted my
Internet bandwidth thing to put all of our 1.5 megabits (no kidding) toward
our campus email and AOL IM as well as our web page. I did not let
anything else have any of the BW or, at least, very little. I posted on
the web site that everyone on campus was fine and for parents and our 1100
residential students to PLEASE use IM or email to call each other and to
not use our phones and amazingly enough everything held up. As the day
went on I just watched out network but never went up the tall building and
I am not upset that the others saw the towers fall but I did not. By the
end of the day I waited for hours for the big bridge to open so I could go
home and it finally opened. Today they had people watching the trucks as
the crossed the bridge but other than that I try to stay away from the
remembering events.

Andy

On 9/9/2011 2:33 PM, Sherry wrote:
On Sep 9, 7:41 am, wrote:
snipped
Everyone looked up and at first people were saying "What a terrible
accident!" we all assumed it was a private plane like a Cessna had
hit I don't think our brains could quite process the idea
snipped
Lesley


Leslie, when I think back this is what is so interesting to me. My
boss
came in and said "A plane hit the WTC"....and I automatically thought,
"What a terrible accident." He came back in later and said "*Another*
plane has crashed into the WTC." And I honestly, honestly thought,
"What a *terrible* coincidence! Is it foggy or something??"
I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was that naive. It occurs to me
now that I have certainly lost that naivety -- now if I hear of any
kind of explosion, I automatically think "terrorists", not "accident."

Sherry

I was certainly convinced it was an accident when I heard about the
first plane - and the first reports I heard didn't identify it as a
passenger plane. I think if I had, I would have guessed immediately
because of all those earlier hijackings.

I don't know if anyone else remembers, but months later there were one
or two genuine accidents in which small planes hit buildings - and my
first thought was that 'It's happening again!'

--
Cheryl

Lesley wrote in rec.pets.cats.anecdotes:

On Sep 9, 11:34*am, Cheryl wrote:
I was at work and doing a late shift, which meant about 2pm I had gone
down to the canteen for lunch and I just sat down, opened my sandwich
and my paper when someone ran in shouting "Put the telly on!"

I was on duty on a ship overseas, Radio central. CNN was on in the
back room and my guys started yelling to call the Command Duty Officer.
I took one look as the second plane hit and called, didnt get him and
had them make an announcement over the 1MC for him (after hours). Dug
up the CO/XO personal numbers and was waiting at the door as he came
steaming in all mad at an call from Radio over the 1MC waking everyone
up after hours. I just took him back to watch then ran off to start
catching message traffic.

Many of you may not know the US Military went on full alert within
minutes, meaning 'be aware and watch' because we didnt know what else
was about to happen. We locked down every base and ship, pulling most
ships out to sea so they were not concentrated in any one harbor.

We grieved like all did. The pentagon hit took people I had worked
with or had been students of mine.

When i finally got home, several weeks later, my Japanese apartment
owner I rented from came over in person in full ceremonial dress with
his son to translate. I was so honored but all I could do was cry and
bow back. He seemed to understand as we stood there dripping tears at
one another.

2.5 years later, Sasebo started letting cabs back on base.

On Sep 9, 10:03*am, Sherry wrote:


Leslie, when I think back this is what is so interesting to me. My
boss
came in and said "A plane hit the WTC"....and I automatically thought,
"What a terrible accident." He came back in later and said "*Another*
plane has crashed into the WTC." And I honestly, honestly thought,
"What a *terrible* coincidence! Is it foggy or something??"


Hours later in London there were still people wondering if it was an
accident or not.. I don't think it was really clear for everyone over
here until the next morning that it wasn't an accident. It took a
while to get heads round the idea that a group of people could hijack
some planes and do what they did

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

"Cheryl" wrote in message
...
On 9/9/2011 2:33 PM, Sherry wrote:
On Sep 9, 7:41 am, wrote:
snipped
Everyone looked up and at first people were saying "What a terrible
accident!" we all assumed it was a private plane like a Cessna had
hit I don't think our brains could quite process the idea
snipped
Lesley


Leslie, when I think back this is what is so interesting to me. My
boss
came in and said "A plane hit the WTC"....and I automatically thought,
"What a terrible accident." He came back in later and said "*Another*
plane has crashed into the WTC." And I honestly, honestly thought,
"What a *terrible* coincidence! Is it foggy or something??"
I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was that naive. It occurs to me
now that I have certainly lost that naivety -- now if I hear of any
kind of explosion, I automatically think "terrorists", not "accident."

Sherry

I was certainly convinced it was an accident when I heard about the first
plane - and the first reports I heard didn't identify it as a passenger
plane. I think if I had, I would have guessed immediately because of all
those earlier hijackings.

I don't know if anyone else remembers, but months later there were one or
two genuine accidents in which small planes hit buildings - and my first
thought was that 'It's happening again!'

--
Cheryl

Yes, I remember, and I had the same thought.

Joy

"Lesley" wrote in message
...
On Sep 9, 10:03 am, Sherry wrote:


Leslie, when I think back this is what is so interesting to me. My
boss
came in and said "A plane hit the WTC"....and I automatically thought,
"What a terrible accident." He came back in later and said "*Another*
plane has crashed into the WTC." And I honestly, honestly thought,
"What a *terrible* coincidence! Is it foggy or something??"


Hours later in London there were still people wondering if it was an
accident or not.. I don't think it was really clear for everyone over
here until the next morning that it wasn't an accident. It took a
while to get heads round the idea that a group of people could hijack
some planes and do what they did

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

***

I think that one good thing that came out of the whole thing is that, thanks
to the courageous passengers and crew on the Pennsylvania plane, no American
airplane can be hijacked again. Planes were hijacked occasionally in the
past, usually by felons who wanted to leave the country. Most people
cooperated because they didn't want to be killed. However, we had seen, and
those on the Pennsylvania plane had heard by cell phone, that cooperating
didn't save the lives of those on board the two planes that hit the twin
towers. There have been several instances since 9-11 that have demonstrated
that passengers and crews will stop anyone on board who tries anything.

Joy