I was and am in finance, that day hit very very close to home for me. My company, at the time, was the largest employer of the WTC. I had friends who worked in the towers and clients as well. I had been in them many times and I had just moved back from New York City about 5 months before it happened. On that fateful morning, I watched it all live on CNBC until my building was evacuated. We all thought it was a small plane from Laguardia that had hit the tower. I immediately called a good friend of mine who worked right next to the world trade center to find out what was going on. He ran out of his office with his phone in his hand to try and figure out just what was happening and how bad it was. I asked him what all the stuff was floating in the air and he told me it was papers and they were burnt. It was all very baffling to us at the time. We talked for a bit about friends and other folks we knew who worked in the towers. Specifically, we had one of our roommates who worked on the 103rd floor. We were worried about him. But still not too concerned. I heard the second plane hit thru my friends phone as he was looking up. The screams that ensued from the streets below the towers via my friends phone, the people on TV, and everyone in my office........is something i will carry with me for ever. If you were not alive or old enough in 2001, then I cannot express to you the level of shock and fear that emanated the instant that second plane hit. Our world of safety and innocence vanished in that instant. I walked home from work and everywhere people were freaking out, crying, running, hugging, and many other manifestations of panic. It was unreal and the world we knew had just been turned upside down.
The follow up on my day is that out of the 4000+ employees we had in the towers.....only 8 died. It was the 8 security guards. Our security guards forced everyone out of the building regardless of what the loud speakers in the building were saying which was to go back to your office. They then went back up to our floors to be sure everybody was out....then the towers fell. I was a part of their memorial services and they were incredibly heart breaking. Those security guards were Heroes. They died so others could live.
Luckily my friends were okay. But I have many friends who went to 10, 20, 30, 40, and even 50+ funerals!!!!!! I know and work with a firm that had 171 employees and lost 66 of them! Another group I know well....had 296 and lost 112. And other much smaller firms that were almost wiped out and lost so many people they had to close. Just crazy to think back about it all. It's a hard day to have to sit and think about. But we need to remember that day and those victims, we owe it to them.
I apologize for writing so much and rambling on. This is just what I went thru that morning. This was a day like no other and it still gets me emotional when I really think through that day. Let us pray for all the families of the victims and let us pray that we never have to experience anything like that again.
3000 people died and all they did is get up and go to work on a beautiful Tuesday morning.