Nilda Whitsitt's blog ::Thougts on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attacks
Around the world, people have their own thoughts and personal story of where they were on 911, what they were doing when they heard the news, and how they were told about the various occurrences on that day. I want to share with you my story about what happened to me that day as the seemingly endless events of that day unfolded. On September 11, 2001, I was not at the World Trade Center, Financial Center or anywhere in else New York City on that day. I was at work on a construction site at a medical facility in Ocean County, New Jersey doing my job as a construction project manager. This is my story of what happened on 911. My morning started at about 4:30am on a beautiful dawn that was about to start followed by what was to be a picture perfect late summer day. The stars were shining and dawn began as the sun rose. It started as a normal day for me preparing my paperwork for the day ahead and the construction tradesmen to start another workday. At 7:00am the workmen started and many came in earlier as the weather was perfect and there were many trades on the construction site that day as the phase was in full progress. There were carpenters, laborers, masons, ironworkers, electricians, plumbers, pipe fitters, and operating engineers on site. I started my morning visit around the jobsite as usual which takes about 1 1/2 hours. I do this religiously everyday to see all the men and activity on the job. I was nearing the end of my morning rounds and the last workers for me to visit, before coffee break, were the excavating crew. It was around 8:50am when I greeted the lead operating engineer (Bob) who was running a large track backhoe and excavating for concrete footings. I overheard the radio in his tractor cab and signaled him to turn it off, as radios are not allowed on our job sites because they distract the workers and pose a safety hazard. Bob made a hand motion for me to go over by him so I did. Bob lowered the throttle of the excavator and told me he just heard on the radio that some idiot just crashed a plane into one of the Twin Towers. I kind of snickered and shrugged my shoulders and said "whatever Bob" and I told him to turn off the radio and that it was probably some kind of a joke on the radio station he was listening to. I walked away and headed back to my office to have an apple turnover and a cup of coffee as usual. As I entered my office I said good morning to the secretary and staff on the way to my desk. I didn't mention a word to my staff about what I just heard from Bob, knowing they wouldn't believe it. After I had my coffee, about 9:10am, I headed back outside to the site to check on some building details. I also wanted to go back by Bob the operator to make sure he kept his radio off like I asked him to. As I approached the backhoe I could hear the radio was still on. I couldn't believe he not only had the radio on again, but had it much louder than before and other workers were crowded around the machine listening.. As Bob saw me rushing to approach him he started waving to me as he did before, but this time he stopped the excavator and turned the engine off. I was ready to start reprimanding him but he interrupted me and said "Jerry, another plane crashed into the other tower". Still not believing the story I quickly said, "Bob turn off the radio, I am sure the news is wrong and if anything, maybe a small private plane or helicopter could have possibly hit the tower, not 2 planes." I said, "look at the sky, it's a totally clear beautiful day, not a cloud to be seen, no one could have possibly hit the tower with a plane in this weather, let alone now their reporting two planes hit." I stood next to the excavator with the other men listening to the news on the radio and asked Bob to tune in to another news station. By this time I stopped smiling and was silently picturing in my mind what was happening. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, as all of the radio stations were confusingly reporting similar events happening. As I listened I felt a sudden chill flush through my whole body as I listened to the details as they were being reported live. It was true, two planes did hit the Twin Towers, and they weren't small planes, they were commercial airliners with people on board and they were hijacked. All the workers were very disturbed and concerned as they were learning that it might be terrorists. I left the site and went into the visitor waiting area of the medical center to see what was on the TV, as I entered the room everyone was standing in front of the TV monitor with their hands on their faces expressing disbelief of what they were seeing. I watched for a few minutes and went back outside to call my wife Karen at work. When I finally got thru she said she already knew of what happened and said that the office phone system and data lines were jammed. Around 9:45 am, I was still trying to comprehend the news stories, never imagining that anything else could happen, then reports started coming in that another commercial airplane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington DC. At this point I was convinced that something of a much larger scale is going on and this is an attack on America, fearing there is no limit now of what to expect. People in general were in shock or disoriented with the attacks and were trying to contact their family members to find out if they are o k, where they were, and advise them to return home to be with one another. As we all suspect we are under attack, and anything can happen now. The news of the minute now was the FAA had grounded all inbound & outbound flights stopping air traffic service in the U.S. and ordered every airborne flight to land so the FAA could take control of the airspace in America. Shortly after that it was announced that the White House was evacuated and our President, George Bush was taken to the air in Air Force 1 to an unknown destination. Coworkers had joined me in watching the television broadcast in the waiting area and around 10:05am it was reported that one of the Twin Towers had collapsed and fallen to the ground. Watching this tower perish as it happened on TV was very disturbing and left all of us helplessly watching as trying to imagine what was happening to the people in that building. Another report at 10:10am stated that a portion of the Pentagon had collapsed and no sooner than that happen it was being reported that another plane had crashed in a wooded area of Somerset County, Pennsylvania. With panic in their voices, newscasters, reporters and announcers alike were confused what to report next as the news, events and disasters unfolded in front of their eyes. As announcements were made there would be interruptions adding more information to the story. It appeared that more targets the U.S were going to be attacked at this point and I was thinking to myself where would an atomic bomb land? The FAA diverted all US inbound flights to Canada. At 10:28am we hear that the 2nd Twin Tower has fallen to the ground also. The amount of news reports coming in are almost unbearable to comprehend and America is in total shock. Panic is everywhere and New Yorkers can't escape the city fast enough. There were trails of people in the streets walking to the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge trying to leave the city any way possible. 11:00 am- At this point of the day most of the men on the job were ready to leave to go home. From my observation the reaction of the people in and around the hospital were similar to mine of total disbelief and an eerie feeling of what could possibly be next. I had already talked to my wife earlier and her company, which employed about 1000 people, was closing business for the day and letting everyone go home as they pleased. My wife Karen stopped by my jobsite about 11:30am on her way home, she looked very upset like the rest of us. I was getting ready to leave as soon as I met the surveyor who was scheduled to stop by the jobsite any minute. The surveyor showed up at my office about 11:45am. I have known him for years and when I greeted him I saw the distressed look on his face from the day's events at the World trade Center. After we shook hands he told me he just left a 40 story jobsite in Jersey City that is directly across the Hudson River from the Twin Towers. He told me he witnessed both planes hitting the towers that morning in total disbelief. He said it actually sickened him watching the 2nd plane hit the tower and seeing the smoke bellowing from the towers across town. He had to leave the jobsite. I arrived home about 12:30 pm. Karen was already home sitting outside near our pool. The weather for the day was clear, beautiful and serene with pure blue skies and not a cloud to be found. It was so peaceful outside we decided to sit around the pool together and not stay inside to watch the horrible events of the day on television. I think for Karen and I being outdoors was like an aphrodisiac to numb us from the events of the day. We could almost imagine that nothing had ever happened that day, except for one thing...the total silence in the skies above and absence of airplanes. We have never experienced this kind of silence outdoors as we did on this day, September 11, 2001 when all air traffic was halted. Karen went swimming and I just hung out around the pool thinking about our countries fresh wounds. We have a son and daughter who were both living on their own at the time. My son was living in Miami, and my daughter was living locally. Karen kept trying to get in contact with them to make sure they were fine, but she was having no luck. It seems that when a disaster strikes the most important thing is to be together with your family or know they are safe so you can have that sense of security and this we had as our family circle was all accounted for. We personally lost no family or friends in the attack. I couldn't stop thinking about the many families that lost loved ones and the grief they would suffer in the days ahead. There is no doubt the events of 911 changed the life of every American citizen in one way or another. So as I started with this story, everyone has their own memories of September11th and will never forget the details of that day. Americans were in shock that this happened here, and never thought they would witness a terrorist attack on our soil. |
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