FEMA: A Nation Remembers, A Nation Recovers

Your Comments One Year Later

As I came off the morning transit train to a sea of people staring into the sky, I never would’ve guessed in a million years, how the next few hours would change my life, forever! I work in Hoboken, New Jersey and the Twin Towers were across the Hudson River and had always stood tall in the New York skyline. As I proceeded further into the crowd to see what everyone was looking at, I was stunned to see one of the towers on fire! I asked the people around me” what happened, electrical fire or something?” “No” the man in front of me said, “A plane crashed into the tower”. “A plane crashed into the tower” I said out loud … “Isn’t there a flight restriction over Manhattan”?? “When did this happen”, I asked the gentleman standing to my left, “about 5 minutes ago” he said with a shaky voice. I stood for about another 5 minutes and decided to walk to work and put on the radio to find out more. The building I work at is only a block and a half away and I got there a couple of minutes later. Also, I started to get worried because my (at the time) ex-girlfriend Sam's, who works for Sun Microsystems, office was in one of the towers and I wasn’t sure which one.

As I got into my office, I threw my briefcase onto my desk and ran to one of the windows to try Sam and to continue to watch the horror unfold. I left a message on her work and cell phone to call me and let me know she’s all right. Our office is on the top floor and windows surround the entire floor. I stood in the conference room and was joined by a couple of employees as we just stood there watching the flames come out of the side of the tower. I work for a housing development company and our head architect was one of the people standing in the room. “I give it a few hours before it collapses” he said. He understood the structure of the building and new by the looks of the flames, it was just a matter of a few hours before the steel weakens and gave way to the weight of the upper floors. Now I started to get really upset!!

I called Sam on the office phone and left a message; I called her on her cell phone and left a message. Now I was just waiting, watching and praying that she wasn’t in the building or was in the one that wasn’t on fire. “Is air traffic control on the fritz” one of the guys asked? “Do you think it was some dumb guy flying his girlfriend around and lost his way and crashed into the building?” None of us new what was going on and the image in front of us was astonishing! “What’s this guy doing?” someone shouted out. As I turned to my left to see what he was talking about. Another plane passed in front of us along the Hudson River and went out, circled and flew right into the other tower. OH MY GOD!! “It’s obvious that this is a terrorist attack “I said. I reached for my cell and again tried Sam on all the phones (even her home phone), still nothing. Now my worrying turned into panicking and I was starting to pace the room, still though, I couldn’t take my eyes off this horrific scene in front of me. Then one of the lady’s we work with came running in and said that they are calling it a terrorist attack on the news. I just stood there looking out of the window and all I could think was… Sam.

Now people started to stand on the roof tops and the streets started to get crowded. Sirens started to go off and the police and firemen started to go to the path station. *The path station connects New Jersey to Manhattan and had direct lines to the world trade center*. My eyes were welling up with tears as I watched the twin towers, which represents NY as much as the statue of Liberty, burn. Once again I tried Sam on all phones and again, nothing! Now the room started to fill up with more employees as they started to come in for work. We were all dumbfounded and the room now was silent. I left the conference room to walk to the west side of the building, to get more of a “frontal” view of the towers. I went into my boss’s office and joined a bunch of people there to continue to watch this horrific and devastating scene. One of the ladies in the room used to work in one of the towers and was there during the first bomb attempt in the early 90’s. She was crying hysterically and being that she was 8 and half months pregnant, we were worried about her. Now some one screamed out that “there was an attack on the Pentagon building”! Now our feelings of horror tripled knowing that we were under some sort of an attack. I remember the lump in my throat and the butterflies in my stomach. I remember someone saying that this was the start of something really bad. Everyone knew, there would be some sort of retaliation in the days to come, right or wrong, it was coming. Still though, my thoughts were with Sam. I didn’t know her parents' number by heart and had it written down at my house. I hated my self for that!! How easy would it have been to put it into my palm…? I would have it right now.

All of a sudden someone let out a “shrill”! I looked out of the window and the south tower was collapsing! OH GOD!!! Again, I tried her and again, nothing. Interesting enough that my cell phone was working being the cell base was on top of the towers. Now I was getting to the point where I felt claustrophobic, like my hands were tied, but I needed to do something. I was running around the building, office to office, frantic trying to figure out what to do. Once again, I ended up by a window staring out and watching this horrible scene. The second tower fell and that was it, I ran out of the building and into the crowded streets to make my way to the path station. Now, military personnel were there and I needed answers (to what I don’t know). As I got to the path station, I started to run up to random people asking what’s going on. It was mayhem!! They were scrambling to set up medical facilities and get rations together. They were closing off the surrounding streets and starting to put crowd control into affect. All I wanted to do was get home and get her parents phone number or go to NY and look for her. Tears were running down my face as I ran to different police men to ask how to get a train either home or to Manhattan. He said that all in-bound trains to the city were suspended but they were allowing trains back to NJ. “Can I get a train to my stop?” I said. He told me to go inside and find someone from the transit authority.

As I walked into the train station I bumped into a fellow colleague who herself was looking for the exact same line as me. Right at that moment they announced that the last train running is leaving now. We ran to the train and boarded. We could hear everyone talking about the events. The train was filled with people that were on the path to the World Trade Center and was turned back. The train actually didn’t leave for about 30 minutes and people kept coming onto the train. A few people even had some “soot” on them. One guy even looked a little cut up. Now I couldn’t make any calls anymore, my cell kept getting a busy signal or nothing at all. Then my phone rang, my heart was pounding as I answered it. It was my brother checking up on me and asking me about Sam. It was odd; I could get calls but not make them. He called me a few times to let me know what was going on and the train finally took off. Everyone seemed to have some sort of a story to tell, but I didn’t care… I need to find out about Sam, I needed to know how she was.

The train ride seemed to take forever; it seemed to just creep along the route in an almost taunting way. “I’m sure she’s OK” said my coleagues, “I’m sure you’ll hear from her when things settle down a little”. That was sweet but it didn’t help me at all. Finally I got to my stop, and I ran off the train and ran most of the 3 and half blocks to my house. I got home and called her parents. Her Mom answered and I said frantically “Have you heard anything from Sam?”, “Is she OK”. Her Mom was crying and hearing this reaction made my heart stop. My GOD, I thought to myself, and with her feeble voice she said, “Sam is OK”. “She’s OK?” I asked… “Yes, we spoke with her about 20 minutes ago”. Thank God I said, Thank God.

After that day, we got back together, because we realized that our petty little differences were so “small” in the scheme of things. We loved each other and we were happy to be alive and to have each other. If there was anything positive to get out 9/11, that was it. A renewed sense of values and priorities; a new love for life and the freedoms we have in this world. That life is precious and time is borrowed, to live everyday because you never know when the last day is. I’m proud to be an American and more so a member of the Human race. I’m proud of what I have and what I will accomplish in life. I wish everyone in the world that freedom.

Jason
September 12, 2002

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