I work in television, and was at work for an early shift that morning. Just before 9am, one of our directors said over the intercom that he heard that a plane hit the WTC. I went and checked our video acquisition area, which had a feed of a camera shooting in the direction of Lower Manhattan and I saw the North Tower with a flaming crater in the side of it. Not having any sense of scale at that point, I thought that it may have been some rando plane op in a prop plane who lost control of his plane and hit the tower, as there were many small aircraft that would fly up/down the Hudson in that area. A short time later, live on the air, I saw the second plane hit, and our lives as we know it completely changed.
My brother worked a block away from the WTC, and I got him on the phone right after that. He told me that the building was being evacuated, and he didn't know why. I told him that we were under attack, and he needed to get out of there ASAFP, and get the hell out of Lower Manhattan. I told him to call me when he was safe. I didn't hear back from him for four hours, but he got out alive, thankfully.
When the buildings collapsed, it was a huge gut punch. Watching the replay of it over and over and over again were repeated body blows. I was in a windowless room during this, and when I left work later that afternoon, I was to a degree in denial that such an atrocity could ever happen. But, from the parking lot, we had a view of Lower Manhattan, and I saw the plume of smoke and the gap in the skyline, and it was yet another gut punch.
For the next seven days, we did not run a single commercial break on air. It was wall to wall coverage, and it was difficult to watch nor comprehend. But, in the midst of this horrendous terrorist act, people in the NY area were kinder and more considerate to each other. People truly were looking out for their neighbors. The support for the losses and the broken families left in their wake was touching and necessary. The courage displayed by the members of the NYPD and FDNY is unmeasured, and what many people should continue to focus on.
And my anger at the attacks has not subsided over 25 years.
I lost five friends in the attacks. I have a cousin, who worked in the WTC and was not due to work until later, go through a bout of PTSD and has not been able to go to the site in all of the years since. My parents neighbor, who was really good to me growing up, worked there and got out of the building in time. Many of his colleagues did not. The man, a genuinely good person, literally drank himself to death over survivor's remorse. Another cousin of mine was a crane operator in NYC, and worked in the financial district for 2-3 months removing debris. He said the smell from that area was beyond horrific, and he has had health issues since that time. There are plenty of stories like that to go around for everyone.
I'm not going to get into the political aspects of this, but the relations that we continue to have with Saudi Arabia to this day is a source of anger for me. It truly shows that everything has a price.
Prayers to all that lost loved ones that day, and the last shred of innocence for this nation to be gone as well. It's up to all of us to make sure that those lives were ultimately not lost in vain.
