Where Were You Sept. 11th?

      Where were you September 11th?  It’s a question you’ll hear asked multiple times today.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  Ironically I needed to wire money to a bank located at the World Trade Center in New York City.  My local bank in Ohio opened at 9 am and I wanted to be the first in line.  While listening to music on my car radio, the DJ broke in with breaking news reporting one of the World Trade Towers had been struck by a plane.  I perused through other stations searching for the latest update.  I pulled up at the bank at about 8:58 am.  There were reports that a small commuter plane may have hit it.  I sat in my car a few more minutes listening to the commentators.

     9 am, the bank was open so I went inside.  I was only a few feet away from the door, but it was in that short amount of time between my shutting off the car and walking inside the bank that the 2nd tower was hit.  First in line, unaware of what had just happened, I informed the teller I wanted to wire money to a bank at the World Trade Center.  She said, “The World Trade Center?  Do you know the 2nd tower was just hit?”  I was quick to say, “No, no only one tower has been hit by a plane.  I just heard it on the radio.”  The teller didn’t respond and completed my wire transfer.  My wire transfer to the World Trade Center that would soon crumble to the ground.

     When I got inside my car and turned it on, frantic, breathless, shaky voices came over the radio, “The second tower of the World Trade Center has been struck!  It’s been struck by a plane!”  Talk of a terrorist attack set in.  I tried to call the TV station I worked for (WKYC) on my cell phone, but all I got was a beeping signal.  All circuits were busy.

     Without hesitation I drove to work (WKYC’s bureau in Akron, OH).  The newsroom was sheer commotion.  Every single TV monitor had images of the twin towers billowing with smoke.  It was my first time seeing it on TV.  Immediately I was sent out with a photographer and headed to the nearest school.  It was an elementary school.  All Summit County Schools had locked their doors.  No one knew what would happen next.  We had heard Flight 93 crashed in a Pennsylvania field.  We had also head there may be a bomb at the Cleveland Airport (only 40 minutes away).  Parents were frantically taking their children out of school.  As I tried to interview parents rushing to their vehicles with their children, the principal yelled at my photographer and me to get off school property.  We weren’t on school property, we were on the sidewalk across the street, completely legal.  I remember the confused looks on parents faces.  As I stood there observing my surroundings it was a though there was no sound…just people moving quickly.  It was like something out of a movie, but yet so very real.  Some parents ran past me and wouldn’t respond….others stopped to tell me they were taking their children out of school because they were scared.  We were all scared.

     The day 9-11 was never ending.  The stories were endless.  When I got back to the station and had a moment, just a moment to take a deep breath, I found out my aunt who lives in Manhattan was missing.  Two days went by until we heard from her.  We found out she was at ground zero helping victims.  My friend Wanda worked in the second tower.  She ran down the stairwell and barely escaped.  She told us how she had to jump over trampled bodies and saw arms and legs on the ground.  It was sheer chaos.  My cousin Maria had a job interview at WTC at 9 am, but she was running late.  Thank God she wasn’t on time.  My brother-in-law Jo works in Manhattan, he watched the towers get hit by the planes from his office window.  My grandmother was on a bus in Manhattan heading to a 9 am doctors appointment near WTC.  Her bus was diverted.

     9-11 a day we hate to remember.