My Sept. 11th. 2001
10 years…we all remember what we were doing that day. Everyone has a story. Here is mine. I was at 1.7 miles away from WTC.
The East Village, New York. 8:46am Tuesday September 11th 2001, someone’s scream from outside woke me up. I said “What was that?” My boyfriend at the time was at my place at the day. Around 9:15am, he got a phone call from his job. He worked near WTC, and was informed that two airplanes hit the twin towers. He turned on the TV, but all stations showed no image, except one. (I didn’t have Cable at the time. TV signals came from WTC.) I felt something bad happened.
We went to the corner of my block where more than half of both buildings could be seen. I saw massive smoke coming out from the buildings. Otherwise, there was the beautiful blue sky. My cell phone was not working at all. We and my neighbors just stood and wondered…terrorist attack? Then all of sudden, one building collapsed. Surreal…or more like a scene of disaster movie. I couldn’t believe what I just saw. And 30min later the other building was down. The twin towers I had been watching at the corner was just gone…poof! We’ve been just standing for 30 min or so. Many soot covered people came up to the Village. They looked like zombies.
We went to a diner where we could see the TV. We learned about the Pentagon and the crash in Pennsylvania. Some people were screaming and crying at the diner. Several cops from the precinct on the same block came to the diner and got huge buckets of ice. Emergency vehicles were furiously running down on 2nd Ave.
We went back to my place, just watching TV. The phone didn’t work. But the Internet was working. So I was able to get more information and communicate with my family and friends through email. I received so many emails from Japan. I couldn’t go to school and work that day.
Sept. 12th. One of my friends was missing. My area was restricted to “residents only”. No trains and buses were running in my area. No school, no work. No phone. We sat by the window of a restaurant on 1st Ave. and just watched street. No cars were running, only ambulances. No smiles on people’s faces. Everyone on the street was extremely alert. The East Village looked like a ghost town that night. No stores, restaurant and bars were open. Just emergency vehicles’ noise echoed on the streets.
Sept. 13th. I went to school. The class was just talking about the event. I went to work. I was a bartender/waitress at the time. The small restaurant in the midtown was packed. No one wanted to be alone. They needed to talk to people. They didn’t want to go home and watch TV anymore. I met some survivors from WTC. They were so lucky to get out from the buildings. But some of the restaurant’s regulars were missing. I left work late that night. When I got off a bus, I smelt an unfamiliar odor like a burning metallic smell. The smell continued until the end of the year.
10 years later, I’m still living in the same place. My friend’s name has been pronounced every September 11th at the memorial service.
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Circa 1996
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Sept. 11. 2011
