Remembering...

9/11 at World Trade Center

Everyone I talk to remembers where they were and what they were doing when it happened. Almost everyone I knew were glued to the television waiting for more information after the collapse happened.

I was in NYC in the Chelsea area when it happened. I somehow knew something huge was going on. While I was strolling to my place of work, there were fire trucks rushing one after another along with multiple cop cars all sirens were on alert. You could tell it was high priority.

When I got to work, the receptionist told me that the WTC was on fire. From then on, we went to watch what was happening on the news...till, the first building collapsed. We were stunned. Now, I could hear more fire truck sirens outside. A lot of people too are walking on their way home. I could barely see any cars nor cabs on the road. I noticed that the office phone lines were dead and so are the cell phones. You can't get any signals at all. My employer offered us to stay in the city since they heard that the Port Authority, where I catch my bus home, was closed including all bridges and tunnels going in NYC.

Still, I opted to go home to New Jersey.



Determined to head home, I got unto the subway that only makes certain stops. I got into the bus terminal but was told that there are no bus leaving the city. They told  us our best bet was to go to 125th street, there is a possibility that they might open Washington Bridge.

I waited about 2 hours siting on the sidewalk with other people waiting to walk over the bridge. Once they opened up the bridge, they only allowed certain trucks and emergency vehicles to go through. It didn't occur to me that those trucks they were allowing to go through were refrigerated trucks. There were also van after van of people wearing scrubs heading over to help.

Finally, they opened the bridge to pedestrians. I remember being exhausted by the time I got on the other side of the bridge. I am finally in New Jersey but still an hour away from home. I hopped on the first bus going to the nearest mall. My cell phone finally rang and it was my husband (boyfriend at that time) who was looking for me. I could tell he was relieved to hear from me and offered to pick me up. About an hour or two later I am on my way home. I didn't go back to work after a couple of days.

The WTC is close to my heart. I used to go there everyday to catch the train, to get lunch, to shop to meet my friends and everything else. I was devastated when the tragedy happened. I could only wish it didn't happened at all.

Where were you when it happened?

Comments

Kristine said…
I was in the subway on the way to school when the first plane hit. I remember it was really slow, but they didn't explain the service disruptions. On my way to my first class of the day, I saw everyone rushing out of the classrooms, then someone told me to head up to the top floor of the building (17th). I still had no idea what was going on, but I headed upstairs. From there, there was a clear view of lower Manhattan. We all stood there watching the second tower on fire, then a few minutes later, it fell. Everyone freaked out and rushed out of the building. I found a friend and we stayed at his grandma's place in Chelsea watching the news until we heard that limited subway service was back. Then we made our way back to Queens together. I remember it so vividly, like it was just a few months ago. I still can't believe it's been 9 years.