[Serious] People who were at ground zero on 9/11, what's your experience?

I worked on Wall St and my subway train was probably at WTC station when the first plane hit. Obviously we didn’t hear anything underground. I got off at the next stop and walked out to see all this paper raining down from the sky. Keep in mind I couldn’t see the actual towers because there were so many tall buildings in the way but there was a group of people standing and looking/pointing in the direction of the WTC. My guess is they heard it or maybe saw part of the explosion. I didn’t know what was happening and wasn’t concerned although all the falling paper was really weird, so I just went to work.

I got there and everyone was talking about a plane hitting the WTC. Again, we couldn’t see anything being on a low floor in a a short building. Everyone assumed a small light plane had accidentally hit the tower which was crazy, but no cause for alarm. A few minutes later and we heard a massive explosion and the whole building shook and that’s when everyone started freaking out. Our control room had a tv on and everyone in there saw the second plane hit, but even then there was doubt about it being terrorists. People were suggesting that maybe one plane followed the other by accident. It soon became clear that they were passenger jets and it was an attack.

My husband was in midtown but local phones were all tied up and I couldn’t get through. Strangely enough, my mum in Australia was able to call us both and I used her to relay information to him. Our internet was also slow and she was watching it on tv so I got more information from her than anyone nearby.

We were stressed that the tower would fall sideways and land on our building but we were told to stay in the building and going outside seemed scarier so we stayed and then there was a massive roar and all the windows pushed inwards so much that I cannot believe they didn’t break. My mum actually told me that the tower fell although she said the top fell off so we still weren’t clear on what was happening. Then we all ran to the windows because a wall of smoke was rolling down the streets, probably 30 stories high and the people outside were running as fast as they could to get away. It was like a movie, that was all I could think at the time.

Our building had generators so we didn’t lose power and they switched the air to re-circulate so we didn’t get the smoke inside. The 2nd tower fell and at least we knew we weren’t getting crushed but of course most people knew someone who worked in the towers so everyone was devastated.

Eventually we had to decide how to leave. I waited until the afternoon and set off on foot to midtown. I was walking through the village when some fighter jets flew low overhead and a guy screamed “they’re back” and everyone started screaming and running for a few seconds then they passed by and we all composed ourselves and kept walking.

You could tell how close to the towers people had been by how much dust was on them.

I got near the Empire State Building and realised that was a bad idea so then I changed course but got too close to Madison square garden, then the post office. I avoided Times Square and finally got home. Basically we just had no idea if more attacks were coming and what, if anything, we should do.

We went out to eat for dinner and sat in a booth and drank beer and watched the big screens when this weird German family just sat down in the booth with us without asking and I just wanted them to fuck right off but I was pretty shell shocked. They seemed way too excited by what had happened. We left before ordering.

Then of course it all was shit for ages. A close colleague lost her fire fighter boyfriend. My husband’s colleague was 9 months pregnant and her husband died. We went to the memorial and my god was that awful. People would just randomly start crying on the subway. My train didn’t go to Wall St anymore because the subway was destroyed so I had to get off at a different stop and the first time I walked out of the station I realised I was looking directly at the pit which blew my mind. I had to walk past it for weeks. I hope I didn’t breathe in anything that’s going to kill me.

Anyway, it was fucked up but I was young and pretty resilient and almost everyone in NYC had a worse story or lost someone close so I just kind of brushed it off like, well that was horrible and tragic but I have no right to feel that upset and I never really dwelt on it. Each year I get more emotional on 9/11. I don’t live in the US anymore so I don’t have any colleagues or friends from that time to talk about it with. It’s just a terrible event I happened to be near but nowadays I can’t even read about it or look at facebook on 9/11.

/r/AskReddit Thread