Here is September 11th as it happened on the DIS...very long

[SplshMtn99]

We were at WDW....in MGM. And had NO IDEA!!!

I think somehow, I would have preferred to have experienced it "live" (realtime) while watching TV like others. Instead of trying to spend hours / days / weeks trying to catch up in feelings AFTER we learned of it.

By the time we learned of it (noontime), the news stations were telling NEW things they were finding out....and not going back to those first few hours.

The VERY first footage I saw when I turned on the tv (around 1pm), was a 30 second film, showing/explaining plane #1 hit, then plane #2 hit, building collapsed, 2nd building collapsed, Pentagon hit, PA plane missing".

We HONESTLY thought it all happened THAT fast. It took a while to realize all those events took all morning.

So being in WDW.....was REALLY like being in another world. Everything was going on SOOOOOOO normally.

 

[eclectics]

We were at WDW....in MGM. And had NO IDEA!!!

I think somehow, I would have preferred to have experienced it "live" (realtime) while watching TV like others. Instead of trying to spend hours / days / weeks trying to catch up in feelings AFTER we learned of it.

By the time we learned of it (noontime), the news stations were telling NEW things they were finding out....and not going back to those first few hours.

The VERY first footage I saw when I turned on the tv (around 1pm), was a 30 second film, showing/explaining plane #1 hit, then plane #2 hit, building collapsed, 2nd building collapsed, Pentagon hit, PA plane missing".

We HONESTLY thought it all happened THAT fast. It took a while to realize all those events took all morning.

So being in WDW.....was REALLY like being in another world. Everything was going on SOOOOOOO normally.

We were at AK that morning. The bus driver asked if we heard the news. I still get chills if someone uses that phrase. It took 5 hours to be able to get a phone call home to NY to ask about family and friends who worked downtown in the area. What a horrible day for this country and the world. I agree, being at WDW that day was surreal to say the least.

 

[Laura]

I wasn't on the boards when this was all unfolding, as I didn't have internet access at work then. We listened to the radio, none of us really in the mood to work. I'll never forget the correspondent in New York saying the first tower fell. Being radio, the anchor at the desk didn't see it and asked, "part of the tower?" The correspondent said, "No, the WHOLE BUILDING". Just that unbelieveable. Then on my break I saw the second tower fall on live TV. After the PA crash, they sent us all home and I watched TV news the rest of the day. I remember no commercials, just news news news. I also remember how beautiful a day it was. I didn't cry, I was so stunned. I first visited NYC in 1993 and landed at LaGuardia on the same day of the WTC bombing. Just a few days later, we were driving through Lower Manhattan and passed the towers. I remember how I looked up at them and thought they'd never fall, they were too strong.

My DH (then boyfriend) was laid off at the time so he didn't have any idea this all happened until I called him. He said that for months afterward he would turn on the news as soon as he woke up to see if there was anything going on.

 

[ead79]

I will never forget this day on the DIS. I was away at college and in class when everything started happening. The guy who sat next to me had a pager and got news updates on it. He told us what happened, but at the time they were saying it was just a small plane. I figured that the pilot and perhaps a few others where the small plane struck would be killed. I went back to my apartment and turned on the news, while calling my mom at work. When my mom answered she was crying, and I asked her why. She asked me if I had the news on (which I did, but up to that point the anchors were just talking and not showing footage). Just as I asked her again why she was so upset, they cut to the footage of the tower collapsing. I just couldn't believe my eyes and finally understood what was really going on and that it was not a small plane.

I hung up with my mom and called my DH (then boyfriend) who had no idea what was going on because he had been sleeping in. I went over to his apartment and was glued to the news and the DIS. I couldn't get on the news websites, and the DIS had very up to date information. I was away from my parents, and I felt like the people here really supported and comforted each other that day and the days that followed. I will always remember the prayers for New Yorkers that were missing, trying to check on JayPD, the DISers from other countries putting images of their countries' flags at half mast to show support, and the overall outpouring of love on this board.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I had never read this before. It gives me chills. Such a sad, horrible day. It really makes me sick to think about the families that lost people they loved and the final moments of those people's lives. I can't even imagine.

 

[mrFDNY]

Hi all,
Yes,never forget!! I had sept 11 off,but as everyone else in the FDNY,NYPD,EMS and other city agencys went in,right away.It was a hard day to say the least. What i do remember i won't type here,but i will type something that really made my guys smile.It was around 2 or 3 am the morning of sept 12,we had been thru alot in the last 17 hours.At this point we had hundreds of our guys missing,we were sent to the piers to get some new supplys and gear as well as water and food.It was a long walk for us and we were beat up,banged up and real tired,but we had to push on.We hit the west side highway and there were well over 500 people at 3 am,they were clapping and cheering for us and screaming thank yous and given us hugs and hand shakes.This really gave us the strenght to move on,you have no idea what this meant to us.Its a hard day for some to remember,so many bad memorys.The FDNY lost 343 guys on this one day alone.I will never forget!!!

 

[Poohbear123]

I was at work, my co-worker had called in sick, so I had to do her job checking in Vendors at the back of the store. Had no TV, no Radio, but my "sick" friend called me there at the desk to tell me about the "plane that crashed into one of the twin towers in NY!" She than screamed out OMG there it goes, as they some how had live feed going. I freaked and called my DH and he acted like it was no big deal, he heard it was a "small plane, like a cessna." I was confused and didn't know what to think, but some vendors I was checking in had heard about it, and were telling me about the Pentagon, and the plane crashing in Pa. There was mention that Fl. was next, perhaps one of the Nuclear Power Plants being hit also. I ran to the front of the store, to a TV we had on, in time to see one of the towers fall, thats when it hit home for me. There was about 25 people crowded around the TV up front, no-one was shopping, employees were not working, just watching the TV and some where crying.......it was the most horrible day of my life.

 

[Blueeyes101817]

i was a junior in college and was in my english class. The principal made an announcement and my teacher went right back to lecturing. The class ended a few minutes later and i was walking to my next class (study hall) when i saw my dad in the hallway. I knew it was bad when i saw him-He thought he was going to have to go and help in NY and wanted to see my brother and i...After that, i think he took us home and we just sat and watched the tv

 

[JoyG]

Oh my goodness. I can't get through the first post. I'm sobbing like I was the day it happened.


So sad.

 

[#1hockeymom]

I am rereading this and I am sitting here crying my eyes out. I will never forget that day. It was the day that sticks in my mind as the day I really became a teacher. The terror and helplessness was just overwhelming.

 

[Evil Genius]

I was waiting at a light across the street from the high rise that I was working in at the time when the first plane hit. I couldn't imagine how that could have happened. By the time I got upstairs the second plane had hit and we knew it wasn't an accident. We all spent the rest of the day on line at CNN or anywhere else we could get on to see pictures and get updates. We all cried and hugged. I don't work in that building any longer, but still drive by it from time to time. I go back to that day whenever I do.

 

[Conservative Hippie]

I was on my way to my sophomore World Music class. I heard some of the professors running down the hall saying something about "they say a third was hijacked too and they can't find it!" Then I got in class and some of the other kids were talking about it. We happened to be on the chapter about Middle Eastern music that week. The professor said something about putting the events behind us for an hour and concentrating on music...about five minutes later another prof. came in and told us all classes were cancelled and the music building were under a mandatory evacuation (we were about a block from the FL capitol buildings) because a suspicious car with a picture of Bin Laden taped to the window was parked in front of the gov's mansion (turned out to be someone's idea of a sick joke). I went back to my dorm and but one of my roommates were packing up to go home. I tried to get through to DH (we were dating, he lived off campus), but I couldn't. So I just sat on the couch and watched the news, terrified that someone was going to bomb the capitol buildings.

 

[paigevz]

Thank you. I did not have any info that day until my morning pre-kindergarten class went home at 11 am. The principal came in my classroom and whispered to me what had happened, to be on the alert, that if parents came to send them to the office for clearance, and then we just had to wait until 11.

When we went down front after the kids went home they had moved a television into the teachers' lounge and it was showing the second plane hit again and again and again while the newspeople were stating what they knew and didn't know. It made me feel just sick.

We set up large tables in the front foyer for people coming to get their children to check them out more quickly and easily. They were not allowed to talk with their children unless they took them home..............that's so the kids who weren't going home would be told by their own parents in their own way and not panic. We had so many parents who came to school not just to check on their kids, but because "I want to tell him what happened"........................

 

[PixieDust32]

I was at work when the manager came to my desk and told me about an accident in New York, I turned the TV on and we were all watching thinking that it was a horrible accident the the other plane hit, we all cried and hugged, I didn't even eat anything that day, I called DH and told him, are you watching this? He was speachless.

 

[thewishfire]

Thank you for posting that! I wasn't a DIS member then, and reading that is so surreal.

I'll never be able to forget that day. I was in school like many other people here were. All the teachers got a notice asking them to find out if any student's parents worked in the Trade Center, and to have them report to the office. Many people were pulled out of school early. I wasn't, but when I got out my friend, her mother and I went to a hill nearby and watched the skyline smoking. And even though I don't attend church, I did that night.

I know people who saw the buildings fall from my town, people who worked near the Trade Center, NYC cops who could tell the worst stories you'd ever want to hear, and people who should have been at work that day but never made it. Even though I've seen those buildings many times in my life, it's sad that the only time that I've actually ever been there, I was looking at a crater.

 

[crazee4mickey]

Thanks for putting all of this together..what a lot of work...it is so terribly heartbreaking!

I remember waking up that day and getting our 4 kids and myself ready for school, we didn't have any TV's or radios on so we had absolutely no idea what had happened before we headed happily out to school.
I was sitting in our staff room at school during break when people all around me were talking, I asked quite seriously "What movie are you guys talking about?"
Everyone looked at me like I was from another planet--"you didn't hear about the planes in the US hitting buildings?"
I had no idea....
Everyone started talking at once, I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach, so scared for the world!
I walked in a daze down to the library where TV's were on, I just stood there with tears welling up in my eyes as I watched the horror unfold....
What an incredibly devestating day for the US and for the world....

 

[mushumadness]

I remember where I was I was sat on a bus in leeds city centre bus station (one of our larger citys) when a guy told us what was happening, I can tell you I didnt want to be in the city then

 

[DawnMarie]

My husband and I had dropped the kids off to school together. We saw the the planes crashing into the building. After a while of watch this unfold we headed to the auto shop. We then heard the explosion at the Pentagon, then we saw the smoke. We rushed to get our boys, whose school was a hop, skip and a jump away the Washington Mall. It took us two hours to make a 10 minute trip. The scary part was having military helicopters fly over us, I noticed everyone around us watching them afraid of another crash.

After we got home we we tried to reach my MIL who was working in the Smithsonian Museum. She got home safely a bit later.

I must say that this thread did bring tears to my eyes.

 

[flipflop]

subbing

 

[Liberty Belle]

Thank you for posting that. It really took me back to that horrible day. I think it would be something good for people to read in years to come to see how the horror unfolded.